Database Users

Anyone interested in a home made VOD service?

As some of you asked me for the translation, I did it. I just put it here, so that you can all give a try if you want.
http://shaka-team.ch/kaliF.ProD/FuN_KeY/vod_eng.rar
A week ago I spent some time to build a home made Video On Demand system, and I was wondering if it could interest some of you. If you are interested I can translate it into english and write a little how-to.
My system is very simple; the computer with the data (films, divx, dvd, ...) will become a web server listing all available media and offering live streaming and transcoding to smartphones/pdas and/or other computers.
Usage:
I am far too lazy to convert my film/dvd to ppc format and to send it to the SD card; that's why I decided to stream the film I want to see directly over the wifi. I also use this when I am on the go with a computer/ppc and nothing to do, I can easily watch my films through the internet.
Requirement for the server:
-Win 2k/XP Pro/2k3 with IIS setuped
Requirement for the client (PDA):
-TCPMP installed
-A tytn (didn't tried with other device in fact, but it should work on most PDA/smartphone)
Requirement for the client PC:
-Divx codec or filter setuped
Limitation:
-If you plan to stream over the internet, keep in mind that the size of your upload will condition the quality of the video.
-Only one client can stream at the same time (in fact more clients can connect to the server, but they will all see the same film)
-No possibility to go forward/backward, you have to watch the entire film straith forward (you can pause as long as your device is able to hold the running film in the buffer)
SETUP
-On XP Pro, Win 2k, Win 2k3 go to control panel > add/remove software > integrated components
-Select and install IIS (www service is enough)
-Extract my app in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\vod
-Edit default.asp and replace "c:\film_path" by the path of your films (you can add many folders by copy-pasting this line)
-Edit the play.asp and replace "server_name" by the name or the IP of the computer
-Edit film.asx and replace "external_dns" by your external ip or DNS if you have one. You can also setup here the local name/ip of the computer (the same as in play.asp) but in this case you will not be able to stream your films from outside your home network
-If you are using the external IP/DNS, do not forget to configure your router/firewall to allow and to route the traffic from the socket 8080 to the computer hosting the app
-If you don't have a static IP, you can freely get a DNS that link to your dynamique IP; visit www.dyndns.org for more informations
-go at http://computer_name/vod and try to watch a film (There may be an issue with firefox; I may work on it a bit later)
SETUP, PPC Side
-Setup TCPMP 0.71RC1 or 0.72RC1; most of the versions available should be fine
-Go to setup menu and remove all the tick in directdraw page if you are experiencing strange behaviour with the picture
-Go to file association and tic at least Windows meta files (ASX, ...)
-Start pocket IE and go to http://server_name/vod; you should be able to watch your films by now
NOTES
-The app is able to handle DVD files, as long as it can detect the VIDEO_TS folders
-The app is limited to one user at the same time; I did this because my upload do not allow me to stream more
-There is still a slight syncro problem on PPC with the picture and the sound; sadly, I think that it is a TCPMP issue

I'd be VERY interested in trialling this service, as I installed Orb and, like many other people with the latest version (see the Orb support forums), it just doesn't work AT ALL.
So, I'm looking for a good replacement (which works!) - I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty and tweaking, bug testing, so yeah - send me the details ... Just a quick questing regarding the requirement for IIS; what technology does this use, .net/ASP? If so, I might have to install an ASP filter for Apache (as I don't use IIS), or I might have to set up that fileserver machine I've been preparing to build for a while

Yes, it uses a ASP. Most of the time I code in php, but as my file server was under win2k3 I decided to "learn" ASP. But my code is very simple; I am pretty sure that it can be translated in php in about 15 minutes, I don't believe in php on windows and asp on linux

Well mate, you know who to PM with the details & info

EDIT: DELETED by CyberTron

Main topic edited => UP !

Regarding ORB, I have it installed and it works flawlessly with my Tytn. I can select my home webcam to see how my puppy is doing while away from home. I can stream all my recorded TV shows and movies as well as watch live TV from anywhwere that has a decent Internet connection. I can also schedule TV shows to record, plus I have access to all my music and picture libraries. I love it - its simply the most amazing free software. I love that there is nothing required to install on my Tytn it just uses the web browser and WM10.

Too bad ORB does not support DVB-S cards.
BTW, I'm converting mpegs from my webcam into 3gp H.263 using ffmpeg, it
shrinks files about 1/100 (w/ 176x144 resolution 5fps only, which is ok for this
purpose).

Downloaded just now, but I'm going to bed (have you seen the time! 6am UK time ) so I'll give it a try either tomorrow or beginning of next week.

I know orb, and it is a service that work great. But in my case I dont like the use of external server that I cannot control; that's why I prefere doing it my way. My app is not here to replace orb, it is just a small alternative that do the thing a bit different.

[Q] Media Streaming

Hi All,
I'm wondering if anyone has had any success streaming media to their A7. I currently have a NAS drive on my network and stream media to all my other devices (Archos 70, Archos 5 Android, EVO, etc.) but for some reason I cannot get the A7 to actually play anything from this network location.
I have been able to navigate to the files themselves, but playing them has not worked out so well. I've tried a variety of Apps and different file formats, but none seem to work. I can attempt to open files, and even get prompted to use various Apps, but nothing seems to work after that, it just fails. Anyone have any ideas or success with this effort please let me know as this is a biggie for me.
Sorry if this is a dup question, as I could not find anything about this for this device in particular.
And many thanks to Dexter, you've made this device surpass it's otherwise limited capabilities. Seems silly such a quality product is being left behind by the Stream, but this seems to be the model of all tablet makers these days. Pump them out as fast as possible regardless of full functionality and forget about them a month later!

The only way I've gotten streaming to work is by using PlayOn.

hi I can access all my movies on my hard drives and play on my a7 this way
download TVersity media server from tveristy.com. I just use the free version. It will change your home page when you install it so you will need to change it back. Install that on your pc and then add your movie files to the library.
On your a7 download a app called skifta from the market and install that. when you run this choose a media source choose TVeristy media server. Under player choose your a7.
then choose browse and play media you will see your library files you added in tversity and some other stuff. You will need a video player installed on your a7. I have act 1 video player and also rockplayer. It will let you choose which to use when you select movie.
select one and your movie should start. Your movies have to be in a compatable format.
it also will let you play music and view photos
I also have a wd live movie box on my tv. With this same setup I can redirect the movie to wdlive box by choosing it as player and the it will playback the movie on my tv.

Thanks for the advice (both of you). I was really hoping for a more direct approach though. I've used apps like Orb that require you to run a host computer, and my NAS drive (Buffalo Linkstation) has a web app built in, but both these methods have proven very slow and often frustrating when trying to access via mobile networks. It just seems odd to me that the A7 doesn't do this while most other Android hardware does. Granted I'm more familiar with Archos products and they specialize in media players. Will keep trying though, Thanks!

DANOinSD said:
Granted I'm more familiar with Archos products and they specialize in media players. Will keep trying though, Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the platform you refer to is different from Tegra2/Nvidia, and you can blame Nvidia for the stock codecs they support.. they partly added mkv's now in latest update.. but 1080p mkv's still stutter on a7 and other tegra2 devices..
LG with their Optimus 2X added their own custom player, and since its incorporated into the framework, its hard to make it run on other devices for now.. but nvidia is primary source for what we can use it for now..
archos is a different story and they havent got what tegra2 can offer for the future, so it might play alot of media's but not perfect for android at all.

Thanks for the info Dex!
Think I'm gonna get a XOOM (been drooling over some honey), then I can officially make my A7 a tinker toy!
by the way, the new 1.41 rom kicks ass, the motoblur keyboard is soo much better!

Question regarding Clear Fi and Media Server

I wondering what does Clear fi and Media Server apps does and how can i best use them ?
Update - I was able to figure out what clear fi app is all about but now that brings me to my next question. how come i am not seeing any computers on the same network in clear fi app. i have Windows and Mac computers connected to the same wifi network

Well, clear.fi doesn't really work too well unless your media servers are other Acer products, it seems. It saw my servers once, the first time I opened it, and never again -- and that time it wouldn't show any files anyway.
You're better off just getting Skifta or uPnPlay from the market for media server browsing; they have the additional advantage that they'll open your videos in an external player of your choice, so you can play a wider range of formats. (I personally like MoboPlayer; make sure you get the Tegra 2 codec pack for it.)

n9mtb said:
Well, clear.fi doesn't really work too well unless your media servers are other Acer products, it seems. It saw my servers once, the first time I opened it, and never again -- and that time it wouldn't show any files anyway.
You're better off just getting Skifta or uPnPlay from the market for media server browsing; they have the additional advantage that they'll open your videos in an external player of your choice, so you can play a wider range of formats. (I personally like MoboPlayer; make sure you get the Tegra 2 codec pack for it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply and since i dont have acer laptops that means clear fi is done lol and will i be able to find the mobo player codec in the market as well ?

vikramdhani said:
will i be able to find the mobo player codec in the market as well ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. The player should give you the option to grab the codec pack after install.
My ClearFi app see my pcs just fine. Not sure if it matters but my network is only firewalled at the poe (point of entry, e.g. router). I didn't have to alter or make changes to anything.
For those stubborn video files that won't play over the network using ClearFi I simply browse the network using ES File Explorer then open with my favorite player. If you don't already have ES, please consider grabbing it from the market. It is absolutely one of my most used apps.

samsung official update released today your thoughts

Sorry if this was posted up already but I got an email for the Samsung update but would like to know how big of a difference it makes

+ Most actions feel smoother
+ Browser is much more stable
+ Lag and wonky cursor fixed when typing in web forms
+ Numerous small fixes and improvements throughout
- 720p high profile playback is broken
- New color scheme takes awhile to get used to
The pros outweigh the cons for me, unless a clever developer manages to get 3.2 running on the tab I don't think I'll be going back to stock HC.

I was at my local mall yesterday and saw the touch screen buttons look uglier to me I didn't get to play with there was a long line but everything looks ok but if you say its more stable ill take it I'm getting tired of how it runs slow at certain points

My thoughts: This isn't your Granny's Android tablet any more!
- Printing (but only to Samsung printers )
- Screen Capture button.
- Tilt the tablet to zoom in and out in gallery and browser.
- New notification sound.
- New graphic aesthetics in major system apps, including Settings.
- Hardware shortcut ribbon in bottom-corner pop-up. Wi-Fi, Notifications, GPS, Sound, Auto-rotate, Bluetooth, and Flight Mode.
- Graphic current screen indicator on home pages. Tap on dots to go directly to any page.
- Bottom dock bar, pops up with Task manager, Calendar, World clock, Pen memo, Calculator, and Music Player shortcuts on any screen.
- Connect to Kies via WiFi. (Kies update available)
- Move icons to other pages by tilting the tablet to pan while holding an icon.
- Videos app, Movies in Market, Samsung Apps app, Photo editor, Alarm app, and probably a few more.
Liking it so far

+System video player properly recognizes orientation! This was such an annoyance when using Samsung book cover with tilt!
+Browser annoyances fixed
+Finally an easy to access calculator
-H264 720p high profile broken. Verified in system video player as well as mobo player
-Youtube still does not recognize orientation in full screen playback.

1. More video formats now play in the video player.
2. Good news abou the UI: The GUI is more "fat finger" friendly. Bad News: As a result it's not very pretty. However, I prefer function over form so that's OK.
3. There's a pop-up app button in the bottom ribbon. Unfortunately, the only app there that I find useful is Task Manager. Too bad we can't change the apps to make it more useful.
4. Screen shot is nice. But, really, how often does one need a screen shot?
5. They changed the appearance of the buttons on the bottom left corner of the screen. The back arrow is now an arrow. However, the home button still looks like an upward pointing arrow. Too bad they didn't make that better.
6. The browser does seem snappier.
7. The market now includes Movies. Although I haven't seen anything under $3.99. I'm not going to pay $3.99 to watch something on a 10.1" screen. I'm guessing they're aiming at those who have purchased the HDMI adapter.
8. The "busy" icon is no longer two circles spinning in opposite directions. It's more like an analog clock with a spinning hour hand.
9. There's a File Manager. It's called "My Files." Took me a while to figure that out. It has a polished look. Not sure of all its capabilities yet.
10. I really like the buttons at the top of the UI to get to any 5 screens quickly. However, 5 seems to still be the limit. With direct navigation it would have been nice to have the ability to create more screens ala GO Launcer EX.
11. Calender. They did some horrible things to the calendar. I'm a graphical person. I need to see appointments in a graphical way where a longer appointment takes up more space on a calendar. I detest the Agenda style. They took that away in the week view. Agenda style only there. Daily view shows appointments graphically, but not weekly.
Additionally, the color scheme is abysmal. Violet and white. Who in their right mind chooses such a hideous color scheme without giving us the ability to change it? This just solidifies my choice of using Touchdown instead. So long Calendar.
11. When looking at the Apps screen they've taken away the "ghosted" outline of apps on the right column. That was a cool visual cue that there were more apps on the right. I liked it and could see that it was useful when new users used the Tab.
12. Live wallpapers are still as useless as they were before. It grinds the home pages to a halt. No improvement there.
13. There are more "settings" including a Power Saving panel, a Motion Settings panel, and more details about the Tab.

Anyone know if you can change out the icons/apps on the pop-up dock? There is a better calculator available for example, and I'd prefer to use the Google Music beta app instead of the default one Samsung provided.

So far, in my 10 minutes of using this update, I'm not too happy. More apps I don't use were installed and cannot be removed without rooting (My Files, Pen memo, Memo, Amazon Kindle/MP3, Words, Video). The pop-up task bar has changed. The new buttons to run wifi/gps/etc on and off is neat, but it's ugly and some functionality has been lost from that pop up like clicking on wifi no longer brings you right into wifi settings, which I find extremely annoying. The new calendar app is not as good as the old one, which is important for me. I want the old color scheme back. So far, I'd actually like to roll back. None of these quirks were reported in any reviews of the new TW update I read.

Graphics performance has been improved quite a bit as evidenced in Quadrant and a few games I've tested. The annoying gyro drift I was experiencing in NOVA 2 has also been fixed. The game actually plays quite well now, not as good as ipad2 though
Hoping we'll see an OC Kernel soon, should boost performance a bit more.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

I gotta say that Swype is fantastic. I've tried to use Swype on my phone several times over the last year or so but never could get used to it. Somehow, on the Tab, it's a much better experience. Also, it's nice to be able to move the Swype keyboard to a different position making it easy for both leftys and rightys.

+ MTP protocol improved: you can use the tablet while is connected to the PC
- I'm really dissapointed by the 720p HP ommition

Gix said:
I'm really dissapointed by the 720p HP ommition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried Dice Player? 720p MKVs work well with it.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.inisoft.mediaplayer.trial&feature=search_result
Topic here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1181938

The rep at the mall told me that there's this new feature that if you have an HDTV connected to the same WiFi as the tab you can watch whatever is on Tue tv on the tab so in case you have to go to the bathrrom or kitchen you can continue watching the movie or tv. I don't know useful that is but if you can watch what's on Tue tab on the tv wirelessly that would he epic

ganiman said:
Have you tried Dice Player? 720p MKVs work well with it.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.inisoft.mediaplayer.trial&feature=search_result
Topic here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1181938
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
720p High Profile H264 is broken. There are many variations of H264:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
MKV is a container that can contain numerous formats of video and audio.
Yes, depending on the 720p H264 file you get, it may work as long as was encoded less then High Profile.
Why would anyone want high profile? It gives the greatest quality per bit of data at the expense of crunching power, which the tegra2 has. Somehow this update disabled high profile recognition for hw decode, no 3rd party player can fix this.

ariel123 said:
The rep at the mall told me that there's this new feature that if you have an HDTV connected to the same WiFi as the tab you can watch whatever is on Tue tv on the tab so in case you have to go to the bathrrom or kitchen you can continue watching the movie or tv. I don't know useful that is but if you can watch what's on Tue tab on the tv wirelessly that would he epic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whatttttttt

ariel123 said:
The rep at the mall told me that there's this new feature that if you have an HDTV connected to the same WiFi as the tab you can watch whatever is on Tue tv on the tab so in case you have to go to the bathrrom or kitchen you can continue watching the movie or tv. I don't know useful that is but if you can watch what's on Tue tab on the tv wirelessly that would he epic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got a TV that is on my network. Curious how that would work. I could see it working if it was running Google TV, but mine is an LG "Smart" tv. It plays videos off my shared network drive, but watching content from the TV on another device isn't something I've ever seen done. Certainly going to mess with it. Will report If I have any success.

ariel123 said:
The rep at the mall told me that there's this new feature that if you have an HDTV connected to the same WiFi as the tab you can watch whatever is on Tue tv on the tab so in case you have to go to the bathrrom or kitchen you can continue watching the movie or tv. I don't know useful that is but if you can watch what's on Tue tab on the tv wirelessly that would he epic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wut!!!
10char

Gix said:
+ MTP protocol improved: you can use the tablet while is connected to the PC
- I'm really dissapointed by the 720p HP ommition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should we have debugging check or not for connecting via USB to transfer files? I had a problem initially connecting, I had Kies open and it said that it is not supported or cant connect. I then closed Kies, unchecked debugging, then it connected and an expolorer window opened to view files.
I tried connecting again and my tab did not show up in my computer as a drive. Rebooted tab, checked and unchecked debugging and then it worked.
Very strange, so I am not sure what I did wrong or if Kies was the problem.

Lol 4th thoughts on the update thread....
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App

4dthinker said:
I've got a TV that is on my network. Curious how that would work. I could see it working if it was running Google TV, but mine is an LG "Smart" tv. It plays videos off my shared network drive, but watching content from the TV on another device isn't something I've ever seen done. Certainly going to mess with it. Will report If I have any success.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very easily done using DLNA. The Galaxy S 1/2 devices have an app called AllShare that enables this functionality. It allows you to watch content on DLNA devices. For example, I can watch video captures on my phone on my DLNA enabled TV and vice versa.
We are still waiting on Samsung to release an AllShare app for the Tab though.

Couple of Queries ... Controller and Different VLC Question

Rather than 2 threads thought I'd just put them in both.
If I'm using a different remote (mini keyboard) the ESC works as a back button works with most things but not Chrome or BBC iPlayer ... the right mouse click doesn't work at all bu does with the supplied remote.
Also things like skipping forward or back video 10s ... works in VLC but not iPlayer ... there's no way to do it with the supplied remote either ... can I change any settings so they do??
Totally different query re VLC player as well .... It lists every single video I have ... so many you can't see th wood for the trees, the other Android Box I had used to list the folders instead .... is there any way I can change the view on this.

Not exactly the answer you're looking for , but if you use External Keyboard Helper , and probably other apps , you can easily remap your keyboard to get the missing keys you need.
Any reason to use VLC in particular ? Not sure what you mean by " so many you can't see th wood for the trees". I would suggest Kodi instead, it has many more features and much more support than VLC on android. Kodi for instance will allow you to have the refresh rate of your tv , if it supports it, to match the video's refresh rate (most of the time 24hz for mainstream movies, 30 and 60 for a lot of other video types). It is possible to remap any keys within kodi as well. There are a lot of different skins for Kodi which will help you set that perfect video player to your taste. The library layout is very nice. It will easily let you browse files on your network, easiest way is to mount you network shares in the shield's settings, but you can also go through kodi to find your network shares. I prefer through the shield itself , since I use my shares outside of Kodi (like emulator ROMs). Kodi also support a huge collection of plugins, so many you might never even have to exit Kodi at all.. Kodi also easily supports bitstreaming. I haven't come across a video or audio format that didn't work flawlessly on my shield / receiver setup.
Sorry I couldn't help with your specific questions.

Roamin64 said:
Not exactly the answer you're looking for , but if you use External Keyboard Helper , and probably other apps , you can easily remap your keyboard to get the missing keys you need.
Any reason to use VLC in particular ? Not sure what you mean by " so many you can't see th wood for the trees". I would suggest Kodi instead, it has many more features and much more support than VLC on android. Kodi for instance will allow you to have the refresh rate of your tv , if it supports it, to match the video's refresh rate (most of the time 24hz for mainstream movies, 30 and 60 for a lot of other video types). It is possible to remap any keys within kodi as well. .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll take a look at that .... I guess External keyboard Helper is an APP?????
Sorry I wasn't clear, I used to put series onto one folder which may be a few seasons, older films in another ... basically just breaking them down to make them easier to find by category where as this version of VLC just puts everything into the top folder so it's hundreds of titles to go through unless you scroll down and drill into several different folders which again is a bit of a pain.
I did try Kodi on another box but it didn't have smb2 ?????? apparently ........ (not very techie) which made it complicated to access folders across the network (VLC does it very easily) ... that said with this box I'll probably be using it as the media server and since posting the initial query have just set up and found out how to use Plex and added the different folders to it so may try that for a while and see how I get on with it as an alternative