Database Users

Streaming Video to EVO

UPDATE: VLC Stream and Convert does everything for me now. I can browse the server directory and watch movies transcoded. There is still a tiny bit of audio lag, but no where near as bad as my methods below.
I am on CM6 nightly.
--- original post ---
Just wanted to share what I use to stream both pre-recorded and live video to the native video player on the EVO. I am using the latest Ubuntu 10.04 with VLC and a Video4Linux compatible BTTV card. The settings I have here are 320x180 res at a very low bitrate as I use this mostly over 3G. Adjust the 'width' 'height' 'vb' and 'ab' to your pleasure.
This is a work-in-progress and any other methods or contributions are greatly appreciated!
To play a movie:
Code:
# vlc -v video.avi -I dummy --sout "#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{no-cabac,level=12,vbv-maxrate=384,vbv-bufsize=1000,keyint=75,ref=3,bframes=0},width=320, height=180,acodec=mp4a,ab=64,vb=384}:rtp{dst=,port=4555,sdp=rtsp://server:4555/stream.sdp,mp4a-latm}"
To Watch my Dish Network feed (Composite):
Code:
vlc -v vlc -v v4l2:///dev/video0 :v4l2-standard=3:v4l2-standard=45056 :v4l2-chroma= :v4l2-input=1 :v4l2-audio-input=0 :v4l2-io=1 :v4l2-width=640 :v4l2-height=480 -I dummy --sout "#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{no-cabac,level=12,vbv-maxrate=384,vbv-bufsize=1000,keyint=75,ref=3,bframes=0},width=320, height=180,acodec=mp4a,ab=64,vb=384}:rtp{dst=,port=4555,sdp=rtsp://server:4555/stream.sdp,mp4a-latm}"
To Watch my home security cameras (ATSC US Cable #104):
Code:
vlc -v v4l2:///dev/video0 :v4l2-standard=3:v4l2-standard=45056 :v4l2-chroma= :v4l2-input=0 :v4l2-audio-input=0 :v4l2-io=1 :v4l2-width=640 :v4l2-height=480 :v4l2-tuner=0 :v4l2-tuner-frequency=673250 -I dummy --sout "#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{no-cabac,level=12,vbv-maxrate=384,vbv-bufsize=1000,keyint=75,ref=3,bframes=0},width=320, height=180,acodec=mp4a,ab=64,vb=384}:rtp{dst=,port=4555,sdp=rtsp://server:4555/stream.sdp,mp4a-latm}"
------
Start Movie Client Stream on Android:
- Open browser
- Browse to “rtsp://server:4555/stream.sdp”
- Watch stream!
** Also worth noting the VLC HTTP interface seems to be working partially and apparently you may be able to setup playlists and such within there. I mainly am using this method to view live content so I havent explored much of that yet.
** Someone with more time than I could theoretically whip up a simple PHP page that enumerates a directory and launches vlc for video library type of support.

Thanks OP.
Forgive my ignorace. But for stored content, this doesn't start the stream until the Android client opens it, right? Not sure since you say that you usually use it for live streams.
I've been looking for a way to stream movies from my 7MC box to the EVO. This might work if the windows version of VLC has the same function. What kind of quality can you get from a stream on the local network vs. WAN?

Well I've been trying this on the windows machine and I'm starting to think this is not a very polished solution. What I would like is to be able browse the media in folders and start a video stream all from android. I'm not sure how possible this is. I have found so far:
Gmote - can only stream one format I think. I don't feel like converting
Orb - closer, but I'd really like to do all this through the home wifi network, not involving an orb server at all. Plus the video quality is a bit less that what I was hoping for.
VLC - can supposedly transcode on the fly from nearly any format to mp4 to play on Android. But I don't see a way to start a stream from android. I can use the HTTP interface to start the player but I don't see how to start a stream or browse more than a playlist (can't create one).
Maybe I missed something.

I've been trying to get the VLC Stream and Convert app to work, I can control VLC player on my PC but I can't get the streaming to work.
Is our phone supposed to play the H.264 stream fine? It seems like zonyl got it working, I tried all different video sizes and I'm using the mp4 latm audio, but nothing shows up on screen when it's playing, no sound, nothing.
Anyone have any advice?

Search market for AndroStream... Supposedly an app that uses VLC for streaming AND lets you initiate streams from your phone. I tried it but couldn't get it to stream over WAN.

nhutpham said:
I've been trying to get the VLC Stream and Convert app to work, I can control VLC player on my PC but I can't get the streaming to work.
Is our phone supposed to play the H.264 stream fine? It seems like zonyl got it working, I tried all different video sizes and I'm using the mp4 latm audio, but nothing shows up on screen when it's playing, no sound, nothing.
Anyone have any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VLC Stream and Convert does everything for me now. I can browse the server directory and watch movies transcoded.
I am on CM6 nightly.

Any advice on settings and such?
I can browse and everything, but when it plays I get nothing except the moving bar and the timer starts running.
I'm on the rooted stock froyo rom.

I've been trying to get the VLC Stream and Convert app to work, I can control VLC player on my PC but I can't get the streaming to work.
Is our phone supposed to play the H.264 stream fine? It seems like zonyl got it working, I tried all different video sizes and I'm using the mp4 latm audio, but nothing shows up on screen when it's playing, no sound, nothing.
Anyone have any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VLC Stream and Convert does everything for me now. I can browse the server directory and watch movies transcoded.
I am on CM6 nightly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip. I'll try it out. Will this work on a sense Rom tho? Might have to flash cm6

nhutpham said:
Any advice on settings and such?
I can browse and everything, but when it plays I get nothing except the moving bar and the timer starts running.
I'm on the rooted stock froyo rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just running with the stock settings for the most part. Changed the resolution to whatever my bandwidth can tolerate at the time and make sure audio sync is turned on.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Got to try this app last night. Wow, very cool. Easy setup (visit the devs website), decent video quality, easily browse the pc for media. Dev has a donation version that i'll pick up for sure.

Another +1 for this app. Wish it did a better job with aspect ratios, but it still streams most of my media great.
Sent from my blah blah blah blah

hate to necro a thread but im trying to set this up for over 3g/4g. any luck? if so, what settings am I missing?

I know its 2 months old.
Anyone have any tips on setting up the VLC convert app to work with Mac. I am unable to find the file that the developer is suggesting I modify.
Thanks

engagedtosmile said:
hate to necro a thread but im trying to set this up for over 3g/4g. any luck? if so, what settings am I missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know if you've done it already but, turn on your wifi (no need to connect to a network, just turn on)
read this http://traveldevel.com/vlc-stream-convert/streaming-over-3g

Divx / MKV Playback streamed or AllShare?

Just picked up my Vibrant today (Bell Canada version). So far, I am very happy.
However, one thing I thought I would be able to do with this phone (since it is DivX HD certified), would be to stream DivX over the network to it - either via Astro / SMB, or via the AllShare UPNP it comes with - without having to convert them.
Alas, neither of these seem to work. All I ever get is "video format not supported" or some-such from the built-in video player.
In anyone able to STREAM DivX avi or mkv files to this phone? I know my UPNP setup works because my BluRay player (also a Samsung, with "AllShare", BTW) can play it fine.

Based on my testing, Allshare's media playback definitely does not support all of the media formats/codecs that the primary video player supports. So while DivX and MKV videos work fine copied to your SD card, the current version of Allshare may not stream them wirelessly. I simply get an error message stating "Sorry, this video cannot be played"
This could be a matter of Allshare simply not using the same codecs, pending a possible update. ::crossing fingers:: Since both MKV and DivX are open standards, I don't imagine it would be a licensing / copyright restriction. I've personally found that while most XviD videos stream fine, a few will not. I haven't yet narrowed down the specifics.
I connected to my laptop with Windows Media Player, XBMC, and Samsung PC Share Manager thus far. Some of what I've read about various DLNA media servers suggest that real-time conversion may be an option in cases. These UPnP Media Adaptors transcode the files as it comes across. I have yet to look into that as a work-around but remain hopeful. [Update: It sounds like Nero Media Home may handle this well]
Ultimately, I foresee the Galaxy S (Transdroid) and DD-WRT (Transmission, uShare, external HDD) routers becoming the nexus of many home entertainment centers.

Yeah... the device I use for my UPNP server is a router... so real-time conversion is for sure not an option.
Given that the player can play these files, it seems silly that AllShare can't read them. AllShare *is using* the native player. So it is somehow messing with the files, or making the wrong guesses as to what it can play.
I might contact Saumsung support about this, maybe if people raise a stink about it it will be fixed in the Sept. update?

I have a Captivate, but I'm running into exactly the same problem.
I've used every "DLNA" supporting media server out there, transcoding or not, AllShare on my Galaxy S will not play it. It browses just fine, pictures work fine too, but video is a no-go.
What's really weird, is even after I get the "Sorry, this video cannot be played" error, if I go to properties->details, it shows me the correct duration, but a file size of "256.00GB". And I know the file in question plays beautifully when loaded onto my SD card, or the phone's internal memory. So what the heck is going on? Getting this to work on the Galaxy S would be an absolutely killer feature and I really hope more people get involved with this.

Shammyh said:
I have a Captivate, but I'm running into exactly the same problem.
I've used every "DLNA" supporting media server out there, transcoding or not, AllShare on my Galaxy S will not play it. It browses just fine, pictures work fine too, but video is a no-go.
What's really weird, is even after I get the "Sorry, this video cannot be played" error, if I go to properties->details, it shows me the correct duration, but a file size of "256.00GB". And I know the file in question plays beautifully when loaded onto my SD card, or the phone's internal memory. So what the heck is going on? Getting this to work on the Galaxy S would be an absolutely killer feature and I really hope more people get involved with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already sent a question to Samsung support through their website about it... I suggest you do the same. If enough people ask about it maybe a fix will make it into the rom update... there is obviously something wrong with it.
Unfortunately most on this forum seem to be using AllShare to play media from the phone on the TV, not the other way around.

same problem but it wont play any thing, including MP3's. I have media tomb setup as a media server and I can browse it all day long but cant stream a single anything.....really annoying.

I have been able to stream mp4 videos from my NMT device (DragonTech ioBox, the A100-series of NMT hardware). That's it, though. No other formats will stream although I can browse for everything.
These are 720p mp4 files that I grabbed from YouTube.

i have the same problem too:/ dno wut to do!!!

MV10 said:
I have been able to stream mp4 videos from my NMT device (DragonTech ioBox, the A100-series of NMT hardware). That's it, though. No other formats will stream although I can browse for everything.
These are 720p mp4 files that I grabbed from YouTube.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So.... UPNP problems are usually due to the headers sent to the player. If we knew what headers were being sent to the phone that *worked*, we might be able to know how to fix it.
I don't suppose you know how to use Wireshark? You can use it to sniff your network and see the HTTP headers being sent from your DLNA server to the phone.

Not familiar with it, but I'm a developer In Real Life, I can figure it out. I'll have a look.

Samsung support == horrible
So this is the email i sent
AllShare Player, Supported Formats
I am wondering what media formats the AllShare DLNA client on the Galaxy S can play?
I have several Divx HD media files that play fine when copied directly to the phone, but when I try to play them using the AllShare DLNA client (streamed from a non-transcoding DLNA server), they do not play.
What are the formats supported by the AllShare client, and what mime types is it expecting for those formats?
Is there any planned update to allow the AllShare client to support the same formats the phone does from the filesystem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how they respond.
Thank you for submitting your inquiry to Samsung.
Please try MP4 format.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically, they totally ignored the question.
What's more, if i try to reply, the form is busted.
*Frustration*

the thing with allshare i think is that whatever youre playing it on, has to be compatible with the file type.
i have a samsung c6500 bluray player that i use for allshare through vibrant which plays basically all formats, and i have no issue streaming anything to it through the phone.

theking52 said:
the thing with allshare i think is that whatever youre playing it on, has to be compatible with the file type.
i have a samsung c6500 bluray player that i use for allshare through vibrant which plays basically all formats, and i have no issue streaming anything to it through the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thread is about doing the exact opposite.
The SGS/Vibrant can play Divx HD, heck it even has the Divx HD certified logo on the box. But if you try to stream it to the phone with AllShare, it does not work. If you copy it to the phone with USB, it works fine. So, AllShare is busted.
I don't want to play movies from my phone to my TV, I can't even think when I would ever want to do that. But playing movies or TV from my media server on my phone while lying in bed, that is something I may want to do occasionally.

This is strange as I am not having ANY problems with streaming divx Avi files and even 720p M4V files through AllShare to my phone. I am however not able to stream my MKV files.
The only thing I see different is that I use Twonky for my UPNP server running from a Nettop PC I have setup as a server. They do have a trial for Twonky for those that want to see if it works for them. http://www.twonky.com/
The biggest disappointment for me is that AllShare FORCES wifi. I was hoping I could hack that feature out of AllShare through the Vibrant dumps available here, but I cant seem to find what Im looking for. In truth Im kind of new to editing code, so Im really just taking guess most of the time.
The reason I want this to work over 3g is that a simple VPN should allow me access to my UPNP server from where ever I am. At present I have this setup using Hamachi VPN on several PCs that belong to friends and family. This allows them access to my Twonky UPNP server that they can browse with XBMC. My Fios 30Mb up/ 30Mb down connection will even allow them to stream 720p video from me. I dont even notice the hit to my bandwidth sense UPNP is pretty light in terms of bandwidth.
Anybody want to take a stab at getting the wifi only portion of AllShare removed?

Same here. I have Twonky running on my unRAID server and I'm able to stream MP3s, JPGs, and DivX AVI files without a problem. However, as soon as I touch an MKV file I get an error. I really don't see why as I can play them back locally on my phone. Has anyone gotten anywhere with this?
mac1978 over on Android Forums has tried renaming MKV files with AVI extensions and he says that works. Absolutely ridiculous. Does this mean that AllShare has blacklisted MKVs, or is there some sore of glitch in the supported file format list? Either way, it's clear this is a software issue on Samsung's part. Any idea how we can get it fixed?
http://androidforums.com/samsung-ca...re-streaming-samsung-bs-my-final-impasse.html
The AllShare player itself isn't that intuitive. Considering Samsung is launching a PMP based on our phones seems ridiculous considering it's shortcomings. Maybe it will spark more development in this area.
EDIT: This post suggests the feature was working post 2.2. Does anyone have a Galaxy S still on 2.1 that can test this out for us?
http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/sho...es-via-ALLSHARE-since-upgrading-to-Froyou-2.2
EDIT 2: There seems to be another thread on this in the i9000 forum. No one has anything really there either.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=801423&page=2

brunes said:
Basically, they totally ignored the question.
*Frustration*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, well, at least you could get an email address. It appears the Canadian website doesn't even HAVE email support. All they give you is a phone number (1-800-726-7864) which as of right now, redirects you to the American support line who are unable to even talk to you. I was able to get the correct number from them (1-905-542-3837) and told them about the redirection issue. Hopefully they will resolve that.
Anyway, the girl I spoke to was just as unhelpful. She was friendly about it, but after looking it up she said the reason was because of "codecs?" and that AllShare can't do MKV. It can only stream MP3s and AVIs, or some other nonsense. Clearly the case is not codecs because as some have observed if you change an MKV extension to AVI it plays. It is using the correct codecs on the phone just fine. AllShare is just rejecting the MKV container for some reason.
Because this is phone support there's no way to really escalate things, so I was hoping someone could get a hold of a Canadian Samsung Mobile Support email address? If not maybe a helpful American can contact the US support team and find out what is going on.

[TIP] Streaming video solutions for your home network

I have a gigantic media server, over 10TB, mostly video (my music collection, while huge, just doesn't take much space comparatively).
While there are a variety of approaches/solutions to distributing this media around the home via a network, I've found that the easiest means for me is to simply mount server share(s) on playback devices when possible, rather than using solutions like TVersity and ORB.
Windows shares (a.k.a. CIFS) are simple to set up, provide full-resolution / quality playback of the material, and for whatever reasons (there are many), is more broadly compatible as a means of streaming. I've run into too many files that AllShare balks at, yet will play just fine when the file is streamed directly.
So what's the point of this thread?
Two-fold. 1) stimulate discussion on technology and methods used for streaming video on a LAN to get the best results, and 2) share my own solutions.
Here's what I've found:
CifsManager is Da Bomb. It does a great job of adding a system-wide Windows Share mounting and access capability to an Android device. Once a share is mounted on your phone, it looks just like any other mounted filesystem to any app, so files can be access on the shares as if they were local.
x264 encoded video plays very nicely on the stock video player. It's obvious that it has been optimized to take maximum advantage of hardware acceleration. I use the stock player to play HD content from a share over my network, which almost always means something in a mkv or mp4 container.
HOWEVER: The stock player can't play AAC encoded audio. This is a problem for mp4 -- these days, many people encoding for mp4 use AAC, so I find I have to demux, transcode audio (usually to mp3), and then remux. This is a PITA, but I haven't found any other solution... None of the third-party alternatives I've tried (most of them) can play x264 HD content and keep up. None.
To make things worse, for some reason hardware acceleration doesn't seem to have been implement for the Divx/Xvid (h263) default codec, so xvid video (usually SD format in avi containers) plays haltingly, and locks up frequently when streaming over CIFS. Oddly, copying a file over to local storage makes this problem go away with the stock player. My theory is that the network processing load combined with the CPU effort necessary to decode h263 without hardware assist just overwhelms the processor. Regardless, the stock player is not an acceptable solution here.
After trying many different players, the one that works best for "avi" files (almost always xvid encoded) is arcMedia (market, free). Close to flawless playback of this type of media streamed via CIFS. Unfortunately, arcMedia is completely useless for h264 (mkv, mp4 containers).
Streaming the direct source media, rather than going through a streaming server that will transcode, gives you the best possible quality and experience. While the above may sound complicated and involved, it really isn't -- in fact, it's the simplest:
Share your media library files in the usual way using the "Sharing and Security..." context-menu item on your windows media server.
Install CifsManager from the market.
Install arcMedia player from the market.
Mount your media shares on your phone with CifsManager.
Using your favorite File Manager, browse your media shares the same way you would your local SD card filesystem. To play an HD media file encoded with h264, click on it and play it in the stock player the same way you would if it was on your SD card.
For h263 encoded media (divx/xvid, virtually always avi container), run arcMedia and use its built-in file browser to navigate to the media file, then play it.
There are many, many advantages of convenience and ease-of-use in this approach over streaming with servers like TVersity, ORB, etc. On a LAN, where bandwidth isn't an issue, this approach works really well!

By the stock Video Player, did you mean on Android? Or Windows?
If Android:
Vital Player
If Windows:
Media Player Classic.

always looking for good info, and this is good stuff. Going to try it out when i get home and see if i have better luck than i've been having getting xvid and mkv's to stream from my network shares...

If you use GB rom, try diceplayer.
diceplayer can play 720p MKV+DTS with full HW acceleration.

I wish we had a thread like this for over the net streaming. If I'm at home I just use upnplay with rockplayer from my mediatomb box which is set to transcode anything ps3 can't play natively.. Haven't had any problems yet.
Cd's or tapes?

I use this:
http://www.serverelements.com/?target=NASLite-M2_x64
I have a dual core tower with 2 250 gig drives but want to add 5 1 tb drives with 8 gig of ram. This OS runs off a 8 gig jump drive with NO issues. I use UPNP to my Xbox and laptops. I haven't tried on my phone yet but I don't see why this wouldn't work.

schnowdapowda said:
I wish we had a thread like this for over the net streaming. If I'm at home I just use upnplay with rockplayer from my mediatomb box which is set to transcode anything ps3 can't play natively.. Haven't had any problems yet.
Cd's or tapes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check or something called Plex its great, I used orb for years and was never happy with playback...Plex is amazing and the android app is awesome.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

see, my whole thing is I don't want to run some extra server software just to have this work. I've got a networked media box (Patriot Box Office) and it plays everything over my network flawlessly from my NFS and SMB shares, and I want to be able to do the same thing from my Epic and Tab (mostly Tab with the bigger screen.) Working on some dev stuff with my Tab so it's not fully setup, but once i've got it back to normal I'm going to test Cifsmanager and see if it's the missing link to the issues I've had with getting mkv's to stream.

pvtjoker42 said:
see, my whole thing is I don't want to run some extra server software just to have this work. I've got a networked media box (Patriot Box Office) and it plays everything over my network flawlessly from my NFS and SMB shares, and I want to be able to do the same thing from my Epic and Tab (mostly Tab with the bigger screen.) Working on some dev stuff with my Tab so it's not fully setup, but once i've got it back to normal I'm going to test Cifsmanager and see if it's the missing link to the issues I've had with getting mkv's to stream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cifs works with samba. Don't know if you knew that or not.
Cd's or tapes?

pvtjoker42 said:
see, my whole thing is I don't want to run some extra server software just to have this work. I've got a networked media box (Patriot Box Office) and it plays everything over my network flawlessly from my NFS and SMB shares, and I want to be able to do the same thing from my Epic and Tab (mostly Tab with the bigger screen.) Working on some dev stuff with my Tab so it's not fully setup, but once i've got it back to normal I'm going to test Cifsmanager and see if it's the missing link to the issues I've had with getting mkv's to stream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
schnowdapowda said:
Cifs works with samba. Don't know if you knew that or not.
Cd's or tapes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and with ordinary Windows shares.
CifsManager is one of the best pieces of software I've put on my Epic. And I have A LOT of stuff...

Shinydude100 said:
By the stock Video Player, did you mean on Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android, Samsung player that comes with the Epic.
For windows, I swear by CorePlayer. I'd buy it all over again full price if they'd add Android to their platforms (with HW acceleration, of course).

formula84 said:
Check or something called Plex its great, I used orb for years and was never happy with playback...Plex is amazing and the android app is awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to find it and try it out right after I finish posting this.
I've been using Orb for years, and it has always had its issues. With Android, it became a major PITA because they only transcode to WM9 as of 6 months or so ago -- and WM codec support on Android is scant.

Great thread. Love this type of info. I've been messing with streamin off and on to my epic and this just pretty much sums up what I've been trying to do. Gonna go try that now...
Thanks!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Do I need to be rooted to mount my shares with cifs?
Also, can you recommend a tutorial or software for ripping my dvd collection to my storage server?
As a side note I am pretty happy with twonky for music dlna solution.
Thanks
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

Does anyone know how to play mediacenter tv recordings in my htpc on epic?
Tried orb but didn't like the quality.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

PlayOn is amaaaazing. But it's 70 bucks to get it forever. You can stream out of your network over 3g/wifi to your Android and it look great! Even does subtitles. For my PC or PS3 I love PS3 Media Server. It's pretty much perfect and streams HD over WIFI G even.

sethlo said:
Do I need to be rooted to mount my shares with cifs?
Also, can you recommend a tutorial or software for ripping my dvd collection to my storage server?
As a side note I am pretty happy with twonky for music dlna solution.
Thanks
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Cifsmanager requires root AND a cifs compatible kernel

I run Windows Home Server .v1 and have tried multiple combinations of players/clients without a whole lot of success.. until recently. Movies are in .mp4 and .mkv format. I use UPnPlay for access and MoboPlayer for streaming playback; the combination works great! I have tested on a rooted Nook, rooted Hauwei Ideos S7, Evo Shift (Not rooted.. Darn 2.3.3!), and my rooted Epic.

[Q] Are you able to watch 1080p movies with Nexus 10?

Hi,
When I bought the Nexus 10, my original thought was to use it to watch movies. Meaning, stream video from my pc using the wifi LAN (I also thought to use it as a streamer by connecting it to my TV via HDMI, but that's another story).
However, this doesn't work right. There are many movies that appear laggy/jumpy/buggy on the Nexus 10 itself (even without connecting it to a TV via HDMI).
Especially when I try to play high quality 1080p mkv files (about 10GB-15GB per movie). I don't have issues with lower quality 720p movies/series, but half the 1080p movies I just can't play right.
I have tried the following players: MX player, BS player, VLC beta, XMBC for android.
My benchmark is Avatar (exteneded) mkv 1080p, a 15GB size file. The only player that was able to play it is BS player, and only when I set it to use the "experimental HW decoding". But even that way, the fps seems to be a bit low. All other players play this movie like a powerpoint presentation, slide by slide...
I thought that the Nexus 10 hardware is strong enough to play 1080p movies. But now I'm not sure. Is it hardware limitation? is it the players fault that doesn't use properly the N10 hardware?
I a bit frustrated here, any help is appreciated!

did you try to put the file on your N10 instead of streaming it? That will rule out any potential WIFI bottleneck which may occur with files that size. Just to be sure. I cannot offer any other advice unfortunately.

Animor said:
Hi,
When I bought the Nexus 10, my original thought was to use it to watch movies. Meaning, stream video from my pc using the wifi LAN (I also thought to use it as a streamer by connecting it to my TV via HDMI, but that's another story).
However, this doesn't work right. There are many movies that appear laggy/jumpy/buggy on the Nexus 10 itself (even without connecting it to a TV via HDMI).
Especially when I try to play high quality 1080p mkv files (about 10GB-15GB per movie). I don't have issues with lower quality 720p movies/series, but half the 1080p movies I just can't play right.
I have tried the following players: MX player, BS player, VLC beta, XMBC for android.
My benchmark is Avatar (exteneded) mkv 1080p, a 15GB size file. The only player that was able to play it is BS player, and only when I set it to use the "experimental HW decoding". But even that way, the fps seems to be a bit low. All other players play this movie like a powerpoint presentation, slide by slide...
I thought that the Nexus 10 hardware is strong enough to play 1080p movies. But now I'm not sure. Is it hardware limitation? is it the players fault that doesn't use properly the N10 hardware?
I a bit frustrated here, any help is appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried MX player's hw+ mode? Also try dice player. I have tried a higher resolution than 1080 and it worked fine in MX but it was mp4!

As I have no bluray remuxes or space on my tablet to try them, I have downloaded the test video called "Birds" from here, 40 mbps bluray remux and with MX player I can play it using HW codec with no stutter or lag. With SW Codec it has stutter and through network stream from PC with SW codec it stutters as well, and HW codec doesn't seem to work at all through network stream
I hope this helps.

Thank you all for your help!
I have made several trials according to your advices. The problem is indeed the wifi.
I have copied a movie that didn't run well through wifi to my N10 ("The Host" - 12GB), and it ran just fine with both BS and MX!
I have also tried "birds" from the post above me. When I tried to run it through wifi:
- MX player with hw+ was completely stuck on the first picture.
- BS player with experimental decoding was very bad, but a bit better than MX.
I have tried it with the N10 very close to the router, so it's not bad wifi reception.
When I copied "birds" file to my N10, it ran just fine with both MX and BS. Since it's 40mps bluray, it's much heavier than any of my 10-15GB movies in terms of mpbs.
Anyway, the problem is indeed caused by the wifi, which is a major bottleneck. Now the question is where is exactly the problem: the router (I have N type router)? N10 wifi? my computer wired Ethernet connection to the router?
How do regular streamers work with 1080p content?
Can I do anything to fix this bottleneck? Perhaps a better router?
What if I use usb OTG and connect USB DOK directly to the N10, do you think it may work?
Thanks again for your help!

Ah glad you got it to work finally. Yes the router can play a part in it, however if you are happy with your wifi setup otherwise (stability, range etc) I would not change the router just for this. There is no guarantee that a different router may indeed play your file without hiccups. It may also be that the tablet wifi is not up to the task of streaming the movies, but this is just an assumption on my part.
The cheapest solution, while not the most comfortable one, would be to use an OTG cable and a nice 64GB USB stick and just fill that with movies when you want to watch them. Maybe you can find more info on the net regarding streaming and wifi issues and solutions, but be ready to drop some cash for those routers.
EDIT: there is some good info in this thread http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7761
EDIT2: and here http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=2755

I have the same router type N, cheap one that came free from my ISP, talktalk, and exactly the same issues when trying to play through network. I know that when trying to copy something through LAN from my PC to my tablet via ES File Explorer, it only downloads at 300KB/s, which is slower then when I download something off the internet at 1.8MB/s (which is the maximum I get from my ISP) so this leads me to believe that the problem isn't the router, because it can download fast enough for 1080p (maybe not fast enough for that "birds" test at 40mbps, though) this leaves the protocol that android uses to talk to windows PC, the Samba share or something like that.
Do you use windows as well? I'm thinking of trying to stream through a linux share, see how that goes.

I also use Windows - I've defined a user with password on windows and I connect to the workgroup on my pc with it. Perhaps you are right and this is the issue. Please update if you find a faster way to stream.
What if we use an external hdd which will connect to the router? You think it might help?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

Animor said:
I also use Windows - I've defined a user with password on windows and I connect to the workgroup on my pc with it. Perhaps you are right and this is the issue. Please update if you find a faster way to stream.
What if we use an external hdd which will connect to the router? You think it might help?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, I've made some good progress.
I downloaded an app called MediaHouse UPnP / DLNA Browser from app store and a uPnP server (I used XBMC - all I had to do to set it up after installing it was to add my movies folder under videos and then go into system>settings>services>uPnP and select share video and libraries trough UPnP) and that's it. Then I just open MediaHouse on my Nexus 10 (leave xbmc in background on pc) and browse my files... It works much better then the normal share: I can play movies that I couldn't play before with MX Player and play them using HW+ decoder. The "Birds" demo isn't great but it's much better, I had the best results using bs player, but still a bit laggy, but since you say your videos aren't quite that high in bitrate, maybe you'll get lucky.
I hope this helps. Bye

bv90andy said:
Hey, I've made some good progress.
I downloaded an app called MediaHouse UPnP / DLNA Browser from app store and a uPnP server (I used XBMC - all I had to do to set it up after installing it was to add my movies folder under videos and then go into system>settings>services>uPnP and select share video and libraries trough UPnP) and that's it. Then I just open MediaHouse on my Nexus 10 (leave xbmc in background on pc) and browse my files... It works much better then the normal share: I can play movies that I couldn't play before with MX Player and play them using HW+ decoder. The "Birds" demo isn't great but it's much better, I had the best results using bs player, but still a bit laggy, but since you say your videos aren't quite that high in bitrate, maybe you'll get lucky.
I hope this helps. Bye
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, this is indeed a very good progress. I was able to play 1080p movies!
Only problem is I can't stream .srt subtitles files along with the movie. The srt file is at the same directory of the movie. XMBC on my pc plays the subtitles, but on my N10 using MediaHouse, it's just being ignored.
Any advice?

Animor said:
Thank you, this is indeed a very good progress. I was able to play 1080p movies!
Only problem is I can't stream .srt subtitles files along with the movie. The srt file is at the same directory of the movie. XMBC on my pc plays the subtitles, but on my N10 using MediaHouse, it's just being ignored.
Any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, apparently uPnP doesn't support subtitles, but I have been able to copy the sub file over, normally, using ES file explorer and then, after you load the movie via mediahouse, in mx player you can click on menu>subtitles>open and select the file from your local storage where you saved it.
I hope this works.
Don't forget to click the thanks button

Thank you. This is not so comfortable, but I guess it should work.
I have posted a question to the author of mediaHouse, perhaps there is a more elegant solution...

Animor said:
Thank you all for your help!
I have made several trials according to your advices. The problem is indeed the wifi.
I have copied a movie that didn't run well through wifi to my N10 ("The Host" - 12GB), and it ran just fine with both BS and MX!
I have also tried "birds" from the post above me. When I tried to run it through wifi:
- MX player with hw+ was completely stuck on the first picture.
- BS player with experimental decoding was very bad, but a bit better than MX.
I have tried it with the N10 very close to the router, so it's not bad wifi reception.
When I copied "birds" file to my N10, it ran just fine with both MX and BS. Since it's 40mps bluray, it's much heavier than any of my 10-15GB movies in terms of mpbs.
Anyway, the problem is indeed caused by the wifi, which is a major bottleneck. Now the question is where is exactly the problem: the router (I have N type router)? N10 wifi? my computer wired Ethernet connection to the router?
How do regular streamers work with 1080p content?
Can I do anything to fix this bottleneck? Perhaps a better router?
What if I use usb OTG and connect USB DOK directly to the N10, do you think it may work?
Thanks again for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is an alternate OTG solution that I use for HD content of all types.(OTG USB Gigabit Ethernet adapter). Just a thought. Note that the drivers for this adapter are in the stock ROM.
http://goo.gl/v2nwLa

I've found another solution:
Using MKVmerge, you can easily merge mkv and srt file. It takes only 2-3 minutes for a movie. Output file is mkv file with embedded subtitles. I've checked it and MX player shows the subtitles just fine via MediaHouse.
Download from here.

Hi!
It took a while but I read the whole thread! I'm happy that you mostly solved your issue, about the Wi-Fi issue it's caused by your LAN speed, I use my old Xoom as media server here, sometimes it becomes really laggy, I solved this problem connecting both the devices (Nexus 10 and Xoom) on my S4 hotspot, believe this is FAST! Using SuperBeam app I usually get from 35-40Mbps. I think most of the android phones with hotspot functionality may have good speeds.
I use Bubble UPnP BTW! Also, if you think too uncomfortable having to manually select your subtitle, I believe BS Player still downloads it automatically and put on auto too. It used to do this with me, I don't know if it still downloads .
Well, those are just some more alternatives you may want to try . As there are some good solutions over there!
All the best,
~Lord

Great news, people!
 @bv90andy
I have found a way to stream external srt subtitles along with the movie, using uPnP.
Apparently, only some uPnP media servers and clients support it. In addition, only some movie players can extract this information when streamed through uPnP. I've found several such uPnP media servers, but most of them require payment after a trial period. However, I've managed to find one that doesn't!
So, in order to stream videos with external srt, you need the following:
1. Serviio on you PC.
2. BubbleUPnP on your android device.
3. MX player on your android device.
4. The srt file should have the same name of the movie file, and they have to reside both at the same directory in your PC.
Enjoy!
ps:
XxLordxX said:
about the Wi-Fi issue it's caused by your LAN speed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are mistaken - read again the thread. The bottleneck is not the LAN speed or the router, it's smb/cisf protocol, which is too slow to stream 1080p videos. Using uPnP protocol instead of smb/cisf, over the same LAN and with the same router, we have managed to solves the issue.

Animor said:
Great news, people!
@bv90andy
I have found a way to stream external srt subtitles along with the movie, using uPnP.
Apparently, only some uPnP media servers and clients support it. In addition, only some movie players can extract this information when streamed through uPnP. I've found several such uPnP media servers, but most of them require payment after a trial period. However, I've managed to find one that doesn't!
So, in order to stream videos with external srt, you need the following:
1. Serviio on you PC.
2. BubbleUPnP on your android device.
3. MX player on your android device.
4. The srt file should have the same name of the movie file, and they have to reside both at the same directory in your PC.
Enjoy!
ps:You are mistaken - read again the thread. The bottleneck is not the LAN speed or the router, it's smb/cisf protocol, which is too slow to stream 1080p videos. Using uPnP protocol instead of smb/cisf, over the same LAN and with the same router, we have managed to solves the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing that.

Streaming 1080p videos from PC to Android device

Hello,
I've tried to search but didn't find an answer.
I'm looking for a way to stream 1080p videos from my PC to android device (Nexus 10 in my case), both on the same wifi lan using N-type router.
I have set a user and password on the PC windows 7, and I can connect to it with my tablet (ES/solid explorer) through the wifi, and stream videos. The problem is this connection type is not fast enough for streaming 1080p videos, so the videos on my tablet lag, shutter, etc.
Any ideas how to solve it? Can I setup a different type of connection/protocol, which will be fast enough for streaming 1080p vidoes?
Any help is appreciated!

Try Plex media server. The android app is $4 (I think) and the PC software is free. The beauty of it is that you can connect to your server from anywhere. I've watched episodes of modern family from the comfort of the bathroom at work without any issues. For high quality video you're going to need to be on Wi-Fi, but you can get great quality video through plex.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4

Thank you.
Meanwhile I have found another solution:
- Installing XMBC on my pc and enabling uPNP on it.
- Installing MediaHouse app on my tablet.
uPNP is much faster than the normal Windows SMB, so I can now stream high quality videos without any issue over my wifi.
The only problem is uPNP doesn't support streaming srt subtitles file along with the mkv movie. So I have to copy the srt it locally to the Tablet or embed it to the MKV.

My favorite streaming tool is Emit. www.emitapp.com
They have an Android client, iOS client, and web streamer, and it's a decent-quality transcoder. Totally free.
I have no problems transcribing on an i5-750 that is also a Hyper-V host for 3 VMs, and is running torrents 24/7. It's a dedicated box with a gig connection though, so I have tons of throughput. No problems streaming over LTE on my S4 or over my home connection (50MB comcast)

phishfi said:
Try Plex media server. The android app is $4 (I think) and the PC software is free. The beauty of it is that you can connect to your server from anywhere. I've watched episodes of modern family from the comfort of the bathroom at work without any issues. For high quality video you're going to need to be on Wi-Fi, but you can get great quality video through plex.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for this man..

TTT. Figured I'd rez this rather than starting a redundant thread.
I gave Plex a shot; I downloaded the Windows App, installed, opened it, but once I tried to navigate to the "Channel Directory" I got this prompt:
Plex Media Server
Waiting on Response...
It never connected to the PMS. I tried some Googles to figure out the problem, but couldn't find anything relevant. So screw Plex.
For now, what I've done is create a Homegroup, and I use ES File Explorer to navigate the Homegroup in the LAN tab. However, there are two things I don't like about this:
The speed is limited. I guess this is an SMB problem. Separately, as a test, I've connected an i5 laptop to this homegroup, and it won't play a 16GB mkv I have of The Avengers over the Homegroup. It's handled any video files I've thrown at it under 5GB, but past that, it appears that the data bandwidth becomes an issue because the video stutters. This couldn't be a shortcoming of the laptop because it could play the files from its native hard drive without issue. Thus, the problem must be the rate of data transferred wireless over the router. So I'm attracted to the uPNP servers.
On Android, it only works for yet smaller files. I'm only able to watch videos that MX Player can handle using SW decoding. This has limited me to low bitrate 480p video. My goal is to be able to watch all my videos and movies on my Xoom or my Droid X. Unfortunately, the Tegra 2 and the ARM V8 processors in these devices aren't very powerful, and the mkv's/mp4's I have aren't specifically encoded for their chipsets. Also, most of my movies are 1080p, and the Xoom is only 1280x800, and the Droid X is 854x480, so there is the additional workload of downscaling. One solution is that I can convert any video I have using a program called "DVD Catalyst", but the conversion rate is ~125% on a minute-per-minute basis, so this is very time consuming. I'd rather that I was able to use my PC's CPU/GPU to decode the video in real time as I watch the video, and stream this over the Homegroup to my phone/tablet. In other words, in principle, I want to use the PC's hardware to do the heavy lifting while the Android device displays the product of that work.
What's the best way to do this? The OP mentioned he uses XMBC and MediaHouse. Is this optimal, or is there a better method for my goal?

Of course SMB is slow, I wrote it on the first post - this was my main problem. It's ok for 720p but not for 1080p.
You can use XMBC and MediaHouse - it will work but will not stream the .srt subtitles. There are other free uPnP options I've found that work with external subtitles, if you're interested.
Anyway, if you have resolution scaling issues that your android device cannot handle on the fly, I suggest you to re-encode the video offline on your PC.

Animor said:
Of course SMB is slow, I wrote it on the first post - this was my main problem. It's ok for 720p but not for 1080p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose I didn't make it clear, but it's because of what you wrote that I was presuming that SMB was my issue. Still, I can play most 1080p content over the WLAN to the laptop; just not the 1080p content with a really high bitrate.
You can use XMBC and MediaHouse - it will work but will not stream the .srt subtitles. There are other free uPnP options I've found that work with external subtitles, if you're interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you found desktop server software and an Android app that you prefer to these? Please elaborate if you have.
Anyway, if you have resolution scaling issues that your android device cannot handle on the fly, I suggest you to re-encode the video offline on your PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In part #2 of my post I described why I already use this as an option, but I would prefer not having to do this. This gets to the heart of what I'm trying to learn. Is it possible to play the desktop files on the tablet/phone without offline conversion? I can conceptualize two theoretical ways, but I have no idea- assuming they are even possible- if there is software that would enable me to do this:
(1) Streaming conversion.
Without creating a new, converted file from the source 1080p video, I'm wondering if there is a program that will convert the desktop 1080p video in real time while streaming that over the network to the Android device. Perhaps it wasn't clear, but my PC is powerful enough that most video converts in the DVD Catalyst software at a minimum 1.25x rate (meaning that 5 minutes of video will convert in about 4 minutes). Thus, a real-time conversion stream seems possible since it would take less time to convert a movie than it would take to watch it. This kills the waiting period and also storage issues. Using offline conversion, I have to decide what I want to watch, convert it, then play the converted file (which takes up additional space on my hard drive). If I could convert-in-stream, then I could simply pick whatever video I wanted to watch, and play it without having to wait for it to convert, and I wouldn't have to worry about extra space being used.
(2) Display mirroring.
The PC plays the video as it would on itself in VLC, and somehow mirrors this image (like with NFC) over the network. No conversion; only downscaling, and this shouldn't be a problem because my PC can easily downscale 1080p to 720p on VLC without stutter. Ergo, in this scenario, the Android device becomes basically a computer monitor that is receiving the data stream over a network rather than from an HDMI/DVI/VGA cable. This seems like the simpler option. Anyone know if it's possible?

Hi,
As for your question, I have found a way to stream external srt subtitles along with the movie, using free uPnP.
Apparently, only some uPnP media servers and clients support it. In addition, only some movie players can extract this information when streamed through uPnP. I've found several such uPnP media servers, but most of them require payment after a trial period. However, I've managed to find one that doesn't
So, in order to stream videos with external srt, you need the following:
1. Serviio on you PC.
2. BubbleUPnP on your android device.
3. MX player on your android device.
4. The srt file should have the same name of the movie file, and they have to reside both at the same directory in your PC.
If you want to check your system under heavy or moderate bit rate, you can use this:
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/
"birds" is quite heavy. If you get it to work, you won't have any problem with 1080p movies.
Perhaps the term "1080p" movies is not accurate. What really matter is the bitrate. Naturally, 1080p movies requite higher bitrate. So even if you manage to play small-size 1080p movies through smb, I guess that as you wrote yourself, it's because of the lower bitrate.
If you want to make sure where is your bottleneck, copy the movie to your android device and run it locally. you can use "birds" or any other movie you want. If the movie stutter when run locally, then your bottleneck is your android hw. However, don't use SW decoder, use hw decoder. On MX player I use HW+, and on BS player I use the "experimental hw decoding" feature. On my Nexus 10, this is the only way I can handle high bitrate movies.
Regarding what you asked about: I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with a proper way to mirror a high quality video from the PC to the android device. You can try screen sharing/mirror softwares like VNC or TeamViewer, but I don't think they will work with adequate fps for displaying a video.

You're the man, Animor. This is exactly what I needed, and although Servio doesn't "mirror", it does do #1. The word I was searching for there was "transcoding", and their software does just that because I am able to stream all of these 1080p videos flawlessly on my tablet using the Servio + BubbleUPnP (which has a gorgeous UI, btw), and I know for a fact that MX Player-- even with ARMv7 codec support and running H/W+-- couldn't play these files without stutter even when I'd copied them to its local SD. So it's definitely using my PC's processing power.
This is just so amazingly *****ing. I feel like Doc Oc in Spider-Man 2:
"The power of my PC...in the palm of my hand."

I'm glad I could help you
Please note that transcoding on Serviio doesn't run on Generic DLNA profile. So if you are using the generic profile, that's not the explanation for your device able to play the vidoes.

Animor said:
I'm glad I could help you
Please note that transcoding on Serviio doesn't run on Generic DLNA profile. So if you are using the generic profile, that's not the explanation for your device able to play the vidoes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. I spoke too soon forgetting that my "Android Optimized" folder with the movies I'd converted specifically for the Tegra 2 chipset was a subfolder of my greater folder. I tested four movies, and by sheer serendipity, they were all from that subfolder. So I tested the unconverted movies, and, yeah, same problem. MX can't play them using HW/HW+; it's forced to use SW decoding for playback, and it's just too much for the Tegra 2 to handle.
How do I enable a profile that will allow the transcoding that I'm after?

You can choose a profile on one of the tabs on serviio settings. I think it was library.
However I'm not sure you'll find a suitable profile for your device.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

I have used many applications for streaming. 1080p is dream.I even bought a new wifi router for stream. Now i have 1Gbit lan an 300Mbit wifi speed at home.The best result was obtained using Bsplayer and EsExplorer on android and standart network folder in Win7(Ubuntu - better) .
Max play 720p in hw decoding mode.

I suggest to those facing various issues to try out the app ''Emit''. For me, on the same wireless network, it functions well, playing external subtitles just fine.

OK so I've been going down this road on an Android tablet & this seems to work well.
1) BubbleUPNP - connects to my Samsung's AllShare server for my TV on mypc wired into the network.
2) KMPlayer - backwards compatible & it just works with all my files when selecting in bubbleUPNP.
The other way to approach this is IMO using FX File Explorer Pro (local p2p site for unlocked apk) & this enables network support? Again, the media player was what really gave me issues, KWPlayer worked best for me.

Animor said:
Hi,
As for your question, I have found a way to stream external srt subtitles along with the movie, using free uPnP.
Apparently, only some uPnP media servers and clients support it. In addition, only some movie players can extract this information when streamed through uPnP. I've found several such uPnP media servers, but most of them require payment after a trial period. However, I've managed to find one that doesn't
So, in order to stream videos with external srt, you need the following:
1. Serviio on you PC.
2. BubbleUPnP on your android device.
3. MX player on your android device.
4. The srt file should have the same name of the movie file, and they have to reside both at the same directory in your PC.
If you want to check your system under heavy or moderate bit rate, you can use this:
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/
"birds" is quite heavy. If you get it to work, you won't have any problem with 1080p movies.
Perhaps the term "1080p" movies is not accurate. What really matter is the bitrate. Naturally, 1080p movies requite higher bitrate. So even if you manage to play small-size 1080p movies through smb, I guess that as you wrote yourself, it's because of the lower bitrate.
If you want to make sure where is your bottleneck, copy the movie to your android device and run it locally. you can use "birds" or any other movie you want. If the movie stutter when run locally, then your bottleneck is your android hw. However, don't use SW decoder, use hw decoder. On MX player I use HW+, and on BS player I use the "experimental hw decoding" feature. On my Nexus 10, this is the only way I can handle high bitrate movies.
Regarding what you asked about: I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with a proper way to mirror a high quality video from the PC to the android device. You can try screen sharing/mirror softwares like VNC or TeamViewer, but I don't think they will work with adequate fps for displaying a video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, works now for me!

MarkusOSx said:
thanks, works now for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like folder music player.

I know I'm resurrecting a long dead thread but I figured everyone here is/was interested in about the same thing, so you may already have found a solution.
Basically it had already been asked earlier as one of two options, but was passed over for the other. Did anyone ever get mirroring the video to work? There's lot of mirror apps out there but I'm looking for a way that will let me play a video on my PC and mirror it directly as is on my phone, while still having full control over the video on my PC. This also let's me further control DTS tracks which gets decoded by my AV receiver instead of my phone, therefore audio isn't an issue, I just need video. Any ideas?