Streaming via smb using cifsmanager works, but very laggy - Galaxy S II General

Hello
I've just got cifs mount work for my galaxy sii.
files can be seen in file expert and video can be played in moboplayer or rockpalyer
but the video performance is really poor. it's very laggy and sometimes freezing.
I am sure it's nothing to do with the players nor the video format since they play local same files very well.
I also found in some other threads complaining about the inefficiency of cifs mounting for streaming.
buzzplayer and xbmc on my ipad stream smb files very well for me, which also proves the problem in android is not due to my network or server.
Does anyone know any methods to improve the streaming performance in android?
Or recommend some player apps that natively support smb streaming like buzzplayer for ios?
Thx

Which kernel do you using?

Related

[Q] Video Streaming from CIFS/SMB Shares

Does anyone have this working on Honeycomb?
Not Me. I couldn't get that crap working on my phone. Why doesn't android support SMB by default. Sort of a glaring issue.
I am able to stream vids from my Win7 machine to Xoom through ES File Explorer without any issues once I set up the connection through the Lan settings in ES
I can see all my files through ES with no problem, but I can't get any video files to stream. I've tried lots of formats, and they all seem to need to transfer to the Xoom before they'll start playing.
I hope air video and stream to me come to honeycomb fast, these are the best streaming apps.

[Q] video and DLNA/UPNP

Im kind of let down by the lack of video support. I have RockPlayer and MoboPlayer and Ive tried every UPNP app in the market. Music works great, no problems there, but video support is hit or miss (usually miss). I cant really put HD videos onto a 16GB ssd can I?
And whats the point of Flash if half the sites give me a "device not supported" warning? I may as well be browsing on my PS3.
Anyone have any suggestions? Ive used 2player, upnplayer, skifta, andromote and nothing works consistently
You can use the mynet application. It does upnp streaming.
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I still have no idea how to stream videos or ebooks on this thing. Can someone write a small dummy's guide please.
here it's also a conundrum
I've read on e few places they use the MyNet from asus to view the movies
but on my Tf it only shows the music found on my upNp device no Photo's or vids...(even on the photo tab it's showing my music)
It's running on a WD myBook and that is running TwonkyServer, if I browse to it via a file explorer the file gets copied/cached so no streaming ...
So is the twonky to blame or the TF....
moo99 said:
Im kind of let down by the lack of video support. I have RockPlayer and MoboPlayer and Ive tried every UPNP app in the market. Music works great, no problems there, but video support is hit or miss (usually miss). I cant really put HD videos onto a 16GB ssd can I?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I put my video on a 32GB microsd. If you are trying to watch HD content that has issues fitting in 16GB then the bitrate is going to be too high to play anyway. Please remember that not long ago a 3ghz Pentium4 was having issues playing h.264 high profile well, this is the order of magnitude of the work we're expecting the Tegra2 GPU to do.
Since 3.1 I grab HD content from iPlayer and it generally weighs in at 800mb per hour, at that rate I can fill my Transformer with ~30hrs of video and still have plenty of space for music. I leave all the internal storage for apps and cache.
moo99 said:
And whats the point of Flash if half the sites give me a "device not supported" warning? I may as well be browsing on my PS3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never seen such a warning, I assume you're trying to use the locked-down US video sites like Hulu? Blame them,, they are choosing to lock out your device.
SilentMobius said:
Since 3.1 I grab HD content from iPlayer and it generally weighs in at 800mb per hour, at that rate I can fill my Transformer with ~30hrs of video and still have plenty of space for music. I leave all the internal storage for apps and cache.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind sharing how you do this? Are you using the iPlayer desktop Windpows program and stripping out the DRM or are you using some other method to watch iPlayer downloads on your TF? The iPlayer Android App doesn't work well with Honeycomb and I'd love to be able to watch BBC programmes offline while I'm away from home.
Thanks!
watch videos : mobo/rockplayer + upnplay rocks.
For anyone struggling with the rubbish Mynet app and similar streaming solutions, I can recommend Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/)
The Media Server is free and built on XBMC tech, so managed media flawlessly, and the app allows you to stream video/ music from your home computer to anywhere you like. Even works without stutter with HD MKVs.
funkybudda said:
For anyone struggling with the rubbish Mynet app and similar streaming solutions, I can recommend Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/)
The Media Server is free and built on XBMC tech, so managed media flawlessly, and the app allows you to stream video/ music from your home computer to anywhere you like. Even works without stutter with HD MKVs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just want a good upnp client which allows streaming like upnplay. I don't want to install a new server on my nas.
funkybudda said:
For anyone struggling with the rubbish Mynet app and similar streaming solutions, I can recommend Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/)
The Media Server is free and built on XBMC tech, so managed media flawlessly, and the app allows you to stream video/ music from your home computer to anywhere you like. Even works without stutter with HD MKVs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
plex works very well...and it has impressed many of my friends.
I will check out Plex I guess. I know Im whining but Ive got a 2TB HDD that I keep my media on and transferring over every half gig HD video is foreign to me - my wifes windows laptop and my ps3 gladly stream it. Mynet works fine for music but doesnt work at all for most videos.
Yes, I was trying to get into NBc.com and hulu, but really, why do I have a different version of flash from windows and mac desktops? Not being able to alter my Browsers User agent string isnt helping either. I know Im just *****ing and I do appreciate al your comments. Youreright on every note, but honeycomb seems a step behind a ormal OS despite looking the same
There is a thread here on the requirements for encoding your videos for the TF. The TF cannot play RAW Bluray rips if that is what you are trying to do. Acutally no tablet will at the moment. You're only alternative is to get a transcoding streamer like VLC and VLC stream and convert, or tversity pro. I have not tried plex. The issue is that mp4 can only be streamed if the file is complete OR over RTSP/RTMP. I have used VLC but the video quality is pretty bad.
For mpeg-2(DVD) i use upnplay + Rockplayer and it works flawlessly.
I've tried the all (Plex included) and settled on upnplay + moboplayer
Based on advice in this thread, I tried Plex last night. The Plex app plays FLAC music just as well as the stock player, and the honeycomb presentation is good, they really enriched the content, although presentation is nowhere near the awesome stock music player UI feel. Video was good, although it was SD avi stuff on my network. No stuterring and no lag, very very responsive. Some odd behaviors at times, and the media scan has a couple of issues. They are supporting it though.
I uninstalled Mobo, Rock and UPnPlay, and shutdown Windows media connect service on my Atom-based W2K3 home server, and removed the Asus MyNet widget. UPNPlay and DLNA are great concepts, but the Asus implementation only supports what Mirosoft supports (meaning no FLAC). Google music will transcode my FLAC for storage. I got into android because of all these restrictions.
Plex did everything right, in one package, with honeycomb widescreen. Well worth my 5 bucks.

Streamed MKV to Galaxy Tab via DNLA/AllShare

Just posting mainly to get this to the top of Google if anyone else ever does similar searches to me. The Galaxy Tab's AllShare app (so I assume this also holds for the Galaxy S, Vibrant, and all the other devices that are appearing in the "similar threads we found" prompt as I post this) expects MKVs to be supplied with a mimetype of mkv/x-msvideo. If not, whatever DNLA software you're using, you'll get the unsupported format error. I've just spent the day yesterday wading through every DNLA server known to man trying to get streamed MKVs working. The only combination I've found that works is Twonky plus editing its clients.db file to modify the mimetype of MKVs. Once done, streaming MKVs works a treat.
Hope this is useful to someone in the future (probably incoming people from Google!)
I've actually got .mkvs to stream via "VLC Direct", along with VLC open with a web interface. This works over 3g, but depends heavily on your upstream. You can use this program as a VLC remote for your PC too, as well as stream videos from your tab to your PC.
Loccy
you supposed right, I'm in the same situation with a Galaxy s..
I think this is one of the very few features i really miss right now, having Allshare (or similar) capable of streaming mkv's from a server to the phone
Later today i'll try stekum's solution, i will consider paying the pro version if it works just fine, even if it requires a server side software (that's why i still prefer "regular" pc's over nas).
I've also read about PlugPlayer app. I might give it a try, anyone already did?
I don't mind not having a fancy graphic interface, so i tried EsExplorer over LAN, but with no sucess.. anyone knows if there's a player/file browser wich could handle mkv over lan?
Cheers
I had xvid and mkv's streaming over wifi on my network via SMB shares before I wiped and installed my current rom. Now i've got xvid working, but no matter what combo i try mkv's will not stream.. Thinking about going back to stock to see if the same settings work again to stream mkv's. I'm using a combo of file expert + vplayer. rockplayer seems to try and play streaming mkv's.. but it fails at it (will play, but they are unwatchable)
The thing to remember is that the Tab stock ROM, or those based on stock (eg. Overcome) actually have support for hardware decoding of MKVs in the stock player. Anything that is seen as an MKV file is fine - I suspect the internal mimetype for MKVs is the same as AVIs, so that's why SMB works (although I was never able to get my wifi to push data fast enough to the tab to make that combo work). The internal player treats AVIs and MKVs on the local filesystem identically. SMB shares are mounted on the local filesystem, so when you open an MKV, the OS says "ooh, mkv/x-msvideo" and the player says "great, an AVI file, I can play that". Non stock ROMs don't have that MKV support - in fact most Android flavours don't, as I've found recently with a cheaply 10" tab I bought recently to take over the Galaxy as my video device.
When you get into DNLA it's the server that supplies the mimetype for the file. As most DNLA servers supply the "correct" mimetype for MKV AllShare doesn't know recognise the file type, and (incorrectly) reports that it can't play the file. So if you're using DNLA you MUST modify the mimetype the server sends for MKV.
The VLC solution is fine, but is transcoding, so what you're getting is not actually an MKV at all.
Twonky was the only DNLA server I managed to do this with without similarly resorting to transcoding.
Could you guide us please which section of the clients.db did you modify?
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a parse of your clients.db would be awesome, tried changing mimetype for Android and samsung TV (added a mkv line to Android and modded the other) No luck
I'm running twonky on my headless ubuntu server if that means anything
edit:
I changed the media reciever in the webinterface to Android and made the android settings in clients.db look like this:
NA:Android
HH:Android
DB:AUTO
WB:webbrowse-n95
TP:MP4,-relocate_moov
MT:mkv video/x-msvideo
after that i can play most of my mkv files, so i guess i got it working.
Ok, I've tried many solutions and combinations so far in my galaxy s .. nothing worked except for VLC DIRECT, as steckums suggested.
I haven't tried twonky yet though..from what loccy explained i can see it still needs an application running server side... i was hoping for something like allshare..but hey we can't have it all
Thanks Loccy and Psymon for the hint, i'll install twonky on the server and see if it works for me..
p.s. with such a little screen i couldn't notice a big loss of quality when VLC streamed, transcoding, my test movie. Maybe with tabs it is different
braz+ said:
Ok, I've tried many solutions and combinations so far in my galaxy s .. nothing worked except for VLC DIRECT, as steckums suggested.
I haven't tried twonky yet though..from what loccy explained i can see it still needs an application running server side... i was hoping for something like allshare..but hey we can't have it all
Thanks Loccy and Psymon for the hint, i'll install twonky on the server and see if it works for me..
p.s. with such a little screen i couldn't notice a big loss of quality when VLC streamed, transcoding, my test movie. Maybe with tabs it is different
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your in for treat if you can get it working. Simply play the same file one after the other in the respective format and you instantly appreciate that the higher the resolution the crisper and more vibrant the video quality and watchability (not real work I know) regardless off screen size. The only caveat being the original capture equipment used and post production ect.
My question for this in the know is this; my understanding (basic as it may well be) is that mkv can also handle more colours simultaneously and has the ability to display a much larger range overall. Firstly is this correct? Or reserved for vc1 or blueray and the upper echelon of displays? If correct by changing the mime does this, as would be logical, mean the extra bits are ignored as it believes its a simple avi. Also I find 720p HD avi is the happy middle for me and it can be as complicated to achieve good playback and battery life even using these. I think I may just do some research re the mime difference between regular and HD avi... thank you for the tips... most timely considering the impending awesomeness of BOCA v2.0 . Cheers guys..
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Loccy said:
The thing to remember is that the Tab stock ROM, or those based on stock (eg. Overcome) actually have support for hardware decoding of MKVs in the stock player. Anything that is seen as an MKV file is fine - I suspect the internal mimetype for MKVs is the same as AVIs, so that's why SMB works (although I was never able to get my wifi to push data fast enough to the tab to make that combo work). The internal player treats AVIs and MKVs on the local filesystem identically. SMB shares are mounted on the local filesystem, so when you open an MKV, the OS says "ooh, mkv/x-msvideo" and the player says "great, an AVI file, I can play that". Non stock ROMs don't have that MKV support - in fact most Android flavours don't, as I've found recently with a cheaply 10" tab I bought recently to take over the Galaxy as my video device.
When you get into DNLA it's the server that supplies the mimetype for the file. As most DNLA servers supply the "correct" mimetype for MKV AllShare doesn't know recognise the file type, and (incorrectly) reports that it can't play the file. So if you're using DNLA you MUST modify the mimetype the server sends for MKV.
The VLC solution is fine, but is transcoding, so what you're getting is not actually an MKV at all.
Twonky was the only DNLA server I managed to do this with without similarly resorting to transcoding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd still be inclined to suggest perhaps its a little more involved than a simple trick like that. To achieve real hardware acceleration you would need to split the streams to be piped to respective chips. 5.1 faux surround soumd and a distinct, noticeable difference in the mkv picture quality being played via CPU vs true gpu and sound card decoding with the rather large differences in battery drain and the sharpness and vivid colours the rest make me really think there is a little sophisticated trickery going on here than meets the eye.
A haalil media splitting like service would also need to know to hand then differently. I think it just plays xvid but like xdva or whatever its obliged to to split the streams for their respective processing chips/centres avoiding CPU usage as an extremely important requirement. Simply the CPU would be more involved in the distribution side in regular stuff than the files like x264 and vc1 which are the gpu/hardware accelerated/decoded files.
Could be wrong here honestly not an expert but that's how I have always broken it down when try to wrap my head around it all.
So sleepy.. prolly oodles of sleeping (heh or even spelling) mistakes but they will have wait to be dealt with at a later date. Any resources that you may know of I'd be interested in learning more too. :-D
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joshuaauger said:
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/issues/detail?id=486
Comment #4:
MimeTypesChanges=audio/wav=audio/L16|video/x-matroska=video/avi
Added that to my android.conf on ps3mediaserver. Works for mkv!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Grand will try that, just used mono or vlc for this though and had no issues but always nice to have alternative.
But I end up downloading the file as get great wifi in the house it serves me the best but will definitely try this out next weekend.
Was looking at upgrading the media server in here and transcocing is fine most of the time but.....
HELP!?!?!
Can you put this in stupid plain English??? I'm having the same problem but don't understand how or what to download/change/update... Tx
I know this is old, but as this is the first google result, a hint from the Playback creators, "Samsung TV users have reported mkv streaming working... If you just rename the file .avi instead of .mkv". It's a mime type issue, so just get around it by lying
I worked for me. File didn't play as .mkv, just renamed it. I bet the allshare app can be hacked to fix the mimetype issue, assuming it's in plaintext string, but why bother.
Same for flv videos.

[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
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Does anyone know how to play mediacenter tv recordings in my htpc on epic?
Tried orb but didn't like the quality.
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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.

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