Database Users

[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.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

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.

I'd like to buy a NAS Server for my transformer to use the DLNA capability, any idea

I'd like to stream all my content to my tablet/pc's/phones, I was going to buy a QNAP TS-110 but first I wanted to make sure it's compatible.
I don't care a bout a specific model if you have any hints let me know (about 100/150€), 2TB should be enough for me (mainly streaming music and tv series)

chtamina said:
I'd like to stream all my content to my tablet/pc's/phones, I was going to buy a QNAP TS-110 but first I wanted to make sure it's compatible.
I don't care a bout a specific model if you have any hints let me know (about 100/150€), 2TB should be enough for me (mainly streaming music and tv series)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any DLNA server should work
I use a buffalo NAS with UPnPlay + Moboplayer

HD Streaming works like crap over DLNA on this device for whatever reason.
If the device supports HTTP server, use that for HD streaming.
sassafras

liput_81 said:
Any DLNA server should work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unfortunately this does not work properly (upnplay won't stream its content) that's why I was asking

I use mindlna with IMS from the market works great
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

I am using LaCie Network Space MAX with UPnPlay + rockplayer and got no problems

sassafras_ said:
HD Streaming works like crap over DLNA on this device for whatever reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I strongly disagree.
The stock DLNA client/renderer, MyNet, works very well for all the audio/video formats that the Android platform supports.

Transformer with UPnPlay + Moboplayer works great with my Synology NAS. But if you only use it to stream videos, this is a bit of an overkill.
As a great home NAS with DLNA bonus video streaming it works great
http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=DS411slim

chtamina said:
unfortunately this does not work properly (upnplay won't stream its content) that's why I was asking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one thing to consider with DLNA is which formats are configured on the host and which are allowed on the client.
My personal DLNA is my Win7 PC with an attached USB HDD. I can use this to stream any file to my TV or my TF. I have noticed some of the video titles not appearing on one or other device but this changes when using something like uPnPlay as the client.

Whatever DLNA NAS you get try the Skifta app, it seems to work well and lets you choose the video player on the Transformer. I have Moboplayer and Vplayer, sometimes one plays better than the other.
UPnPlay looks interesting, I'm going to give it a try. I fear that Skifta may charge once it's out of beta.

I am very interested in this subject and want to report my results, but do not know how to get DLNA working. Can someone describe how I can test my NAS's (ReadyNAS Pro) DLNA capabilities from my TF? What do I have to configure and what app(s) should I run.

I love my ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (upgraded from an older NV+). It will stream 720p just fine to my Samsung TV, 1080p is too choppy though. Pretty sure that's an issue with the TV, not the NAS.
I could have sworn I fiddled with streaming from the NAS to my Transformer using DLNA, but don't remember any of the details offhand.

If you get a new router that supports TOMATO with USB ports, you can attach a hard drive and stream movies directly from it using UPNPPLAy and MOBOplayer...
I'm running Tomato on the ASUS RT-16N router with a 500GB USB2.0 hard drive attached. It work great, I stream all my movies from there.
Best part: Low Power Consumption!

This one is compatible, and you can see HD content too
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=280

I use WD MYBOOKLIVE 1T. No problem there.
I can access all my media files even by just using the File Expert.

PandaVoyageur said:
Transformer with UPnPlay + Moboplayer works great with my Synology NAS. But if you only use it to stream videos, this is a bit of an overkill.
As a great home NAS with DLNA bonus video streaming it works great
http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=DS411slim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had a synology Nas for a few years, they are hands down by far the best nas for home use on the market!!
Also if you use ES file explorer you dont need DLNA, you can stream media files directly from a file share!! The latest version was updated two days ago and it works great on both my phone and my tablet!
Brandon

[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.

Video Streaming

Hey. I am about the buy the G Tab 10.1. As my DVD is died I want to use the Tab for streaming videos to my HDTV. How it handles it? The videos are running smoothly?

I've streamed a few to my ps3 and worked great no issues

Careful!
When it comes to video FAR TOO MANY people talk about successes with the tab in generalities. If you want a specific answer then ask a specific question, as in describe specifically what video formats you want to play, where they are to be played from and what they are to be sent to.
Tegra 2 chipset tabs have limited hardware decoding support so don't expect any tablet to be able to play every file you throw at it that you download from the internet.
The way you formulated your question so far its unclear which online services you want to stream or if your source is a shared network drive. Either wary it is unknown what formats you want to play. My first reaction is buy a Roku or something for your TV media needs and only get a tab for what its truly designed for.

muzzy996 said:
Careful!
When it comes to video FAR TOO MANY people talk about successes with the tab in generalities. If you want a specific answer then ask a specific question, as in describe specifically what video formats you want to play, where they are to be played from and what they are to be sent to.
Tegra 2 chipset tabs have limited hardware decoding support so don't expect any tablet to be able to play every file you throw at it that you download from the internet.
The way you formulated your question so far its unclear which online services you want to stream or if your source is a shared network drive. Either wary it is unknown what formats you want to play. My first reaction is buy a Roku or something for your TV media needs and only get a tab for what its truly designed for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
excellent answer. The tab is not an all purpose device. You are better off with Roku for streaming to tv
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

I would like to stream HD MKV format movies, but I will use ordinary low resolution AVI files.

Still only part of the information needed but enough to say you should tread carefully.
To relieve you from having to confess where they're from (LOL) I will say this; if you're encoding your own specifically for this device to play you can adjust your encoding settings to target a specific supported setup for things to play beautifully. It's not hard to do (stick with 720p format, H.264 high profile with B-Frames, CABAC, 8x8 transform and P-frames turned OFF).
If on the other hand you're downloading video randomly off of the internet in MKV format then you will hit some that works and some that doesn't. 1080p stuff that's freely available on torrent sites? Forget it.
TV shows off of EZTV in AVI format (xvid/divx) play wonderfully in Dice Player on the tablet.
Bottom line? You're better off with something like a Roku, Boxee Box or WD Live Streaming Media Player. By the way, each seems to have some support for applications on phone/tablet to control them remotely.
For those with the budget, it's nice to have a dedicated HTPC that also serves as a media server. I'm running Plex on mine to stream movies/shows from it's HDD to my tablet. I run Boxee on it but haven't experimented much with remote control of Boxee using a mobile device yet. My other TV in my apartment has a WD Live on it that pulls the media off of the HTPC so the HTPC serves not only as my playback device for my main TV but as a media server for all my mobile devices and TVs.
Don't get me wrong, these things can play media well, but I'm not going to haphazardly guide you into the belief that they'll play anything you throw at them with simple answers. Those of us who understand what they can do simply adjusted how we do things quickly to meet the specs of the devices and never looked back. I love my tab for media playback on the go.

I'd get a PS3 for your media streaming needs, it plays pretty much any file (MKV's can be handled with PS3Media Server or MKV2VOB) and you also get an awesome games console and Blu-Ray player.

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.
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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.
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Click to collapse
thanks, works now for me!

MarkusOSx said:
thanks, works now for me!
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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?