Database Users

[Q] xoom videoplayback via smb

Im new to xoom guys. I used to play video files with opening them in astro file manager with smb. Seems smb is not working in astro, tried also on desire hd, but on my hd2 with core droid works fine. The other file managers are preferching the files to my tablet, so takes a long time to watch even a few hundred megs movie... how could i mount my network shares onto my xoom?
Another issue is with mkvs, no sound, onli the movie, moboplayer, factory video player either... any ideas for the above issues? Tks in advance guys.

Drop SMB and go with splashtop HD. Well worth the five dollars. Your desktop does the processing and streams the video and sound to the xoom.

LITHALE said:
Drop SMB and go with splashtop HD. Well worth the five dollars. Your desktop does the processing and streams the video and sound to the xoom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unf, i can only have SMB, no other options.......
Tks.

Ok, in th meantime i found the best video player, named dice player. 3 bucks, but this worths. No need to convert your hd movies anymore. Matroska + ac3 is working very well. Just tap on any mkv file and will pla it smooth. The video encoding is done by the hw and sound by pure cpu, but with dual core it's working fantastic.
Still no info on any smb program which wud work without prefetching... any ideas?

AndrewBoy said:
Ok, in th meantime i found the best video player, named dice player. 3 bucks, but this worths. No need to convert your hd movies anymore. Matroska + ac3 is working very well. Just tap on any mkv file and will pla it smooth. The video encoding is done by the hw and sound by pure cpu, but with dual core it's working fantastic.
Still no info on any smb program which wud work without prefetching... any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you paid for something which moboplayer/Mv player does for free...

Kippui said:
you paid for something which moboplayer/Mv player does for free...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he said that he couldn't get mobo to play MKV's over the network without either copying the whole file to the Xoom first, or not getting audio.
You can use cifsmanager to mount network shares. Also, Astro has a module to read SMB shares. It's a separate download in the market.

Cifs is the way to go. It'll treat the shares as local folders and open the files accordingly without buffering.
Do a search around here for the cifs.ko and instructions on how to use it.
Also, I'm going to check out Dice player to see if it'll play high profile mkv.

I tested Dice Player last night with some HP 720 mkvs. Some minor hiccups on a few files but it played great. I play all my media off of twonky server on a linux machine.
I'm definitely thinking of buying the full version. I wanted CorePlayer to come out, but seems like that isn't going to happen. Wasn't impressed with moboplayer or rockplayer, and mx player didn't even register to open mkv's for me.

Baka no Kami said:
I think he said that he couldn't get mobo to play MKV's over the network without either copying the whole file to the Xoom first, or not getting audio.
You can use cifsmanager to mount network shares. Also, Astro has a module to read SMB shares. It's a separate download in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Astro smb is working only on froyo, not on gingerbread or honeycomb.

Kippui said:
you paid for something which moboplayer/Mv player does for free...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mobo and others cannot handle ac3.... so now i dont have to convert my regular shows into mp4..

I checked these cif managers. I dont want to root my device..... i dont want to wipe my data and restore everything

AndrewBoy said:
I checked these cif managers. I dont want to root my device..... i dont want to wipe my data and restore everything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... I think you're out of luck then unfortunately. If you NEED this to be SMB and can't use a media server like Twonky or a streaming option like Splashtop then you'll need to root I think.

ES File Explorer recently added SMB streaming capability. Works fine on my Xoom, I can browse to a WHS network share via ES, and when I tap a video file, it asks me which video program I want to play it back through... Works great for AVI's for me, but I was having trouble getting MKV's to work right. I'll have to try this Dice player.

Tried es file explorer both on my xoom and sensation. On the phone es file exp offers the possibility to choose player or set one as default. On my xoom the factory player starts but nothing happens since cannot handle mkvs. I cannot chose dice, not even with open as video or other stuff. How can i delete default video player from my xoom? I cannot even find any factory playback **** in application manage(((

Maybe clear data for ES on the xoom or failing that uninstall and reinstall?
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

uninstalled astro, now working fine finally can watch mkvs from my server tks guys!

[APP] Best cifs/smb manager and player for streaming. ES File Explorer / Dice Player

I have been looking around for good file manager for a while to connect to my windows shares and be able to stream flawlessly my HD content. As well access all of my shared files like i could form another windows node. Thats right even though i am a unix admin i still enjoy using windows. Well ok I game some enough said .
I have tried cifs manager and being an admin i tweeked with the mount options directio,rsize,wsize not much helped to enjoy my windows sharing experiance. I tried many other apps to no avail until I found ES File Explorer.
Used with Dice Video Player, it's an experience I have not been able to beat for HD video playback.
I know there is probably alot of you that know about it but after scanning the TF101 forum I didnt see a thread so heres my first post in the EeePad thread.
Attached is the app, enjoy!

i have been using the same combination for few weeks now and its really great.

+2 I have been using Es explorer with mobo player to stream and it works well even for windows media center hd recordings.
Sent from samsung vibrant

My Diceplayer cant play 720p Mkv Videos, are there any configs to cange?
Edit: bad installation, how did you managed the 3 day limitation?

i used es file explorer-mx player, but it always try to download the file... anyone can share how to stream it ?
now i use bubblePNP/upnp but wanted to use other renderer for music files instead of the local renderer. Any recommendation / idea?

Streaming home videos wirelessly over network to SGT 10.1

Objective:A consolidated post listing multiple ways to stream videos from desktop to SGT 10.1. Contains answers to 4 questions
1) Best DLNA App?
2) Best Video Player that can play files over the network or one AllShare or DLNA app can use?
3) How to encode files to view them over SGT?
4) DLNA Server serving video files from desktop
Solution1 (cnewsgrp)
3) This thread says that SGT with 3.1 can play high profile natively. The encoding instructions are great
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060825
4) I use Tversity and it works well. Any other suggestions are welcome.
Solution2: paua__
1) :get UPnPlay, which you use to browse the videos you want to stream
2) paua__ : DICE Player is (AFAIK) the only mediaplayer which utilizes Hardware Acceleration to process those heavy HD files. It eats .mkv for breakfast.
Solution3: oreo
1) 2) 4) VLC Direct.
it streams everything from your PC via VLC's built in web interface, and you can browse through all your files in your computer all with just 1 app. As an added bonus, it can REVERSE stream FROM my TAB to the PC (which is hooked up to my HDTV), I find this very useful when I want to show something quick on my big screen to my guests (like photos and vidoes that i JUST took). and you can fine tune the stream quality with settings in the app. oh and there's also virtually no limit on the number of formats/codecs it can handle, if your VLC player on the PC can play it, everything can be streamed to the Tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Solution4: jastop
Still tweaking this setup, but it works well for the SGT, Xoom, HTC phones (and the i*'s also)
* Windows Media Center 7 Host
* 2 WD TB hard drives
* Ceton InfiniTv 4 channel digital cable card tuner
* Verizon FIOS (all shows set to copy freely!)
* Remote Potato (Provides Windows Media Center Interface on Mobile and Desktops)
* MCBUDDY (Beta 18) - Transcodes recorded shows to smaller file, more mobile friendly format
* ES File Explorer - Can browse the Media Center hard disk wireless, and launch recorded TV, Movies and home videos in the player of choice. Also can use to copy a video to the device for offline watching
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My goal is the opposite of cluttering XDA with another video thread. I will take time to compose good information in my first post. for that to succeed you experts must provide me good usable information in replies .
Solution4: BarryH_GEG: Plex
1) DLNA App: Plex for Android, AllShare
3) How to encode files to view them over SGT?DVDFab, CoreAVC
4) DLNA Server: Plex Media Server

First off, get UPnPlay, which you use to browse the videos you want to stream.
Then BUY the DICE Player, which then will play the file tou select with UPnPlay.
DICE Player is (AFAIK) the only mediaplayer which utilizes Hardware Acceleration to process those heavy HD files. It eats .mkv for breakfast.
I assume you have already activated file sharing on your computer for your media files?

paua__ said:
First off, get UPnPlay, which you use to browse the videos you want to stream.
Then BUY the DICE Player, which then will play the file tou select with UPnPlay.
DICE Player is (AFAIK) the only mediaplayer which utilizes Hardware Acceleration to process those heavy HD files. It eats .mkv for breakfast.
I assume you have already activated file sharing on your computer for your media files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Comments added to first post. I will test this in about a week after I get my SGT.

After using tversity, now I use ps3 media server to share everything on my xbox360 ( for watching movies on the TV ) and on my GT10.1. You don't need to build a library and it can handle mkv ( It was not possible with Tversity in the past, I don't know now. ?)

I use an alternate method, VLC Direct. it streams everything from your PC via VLC's built in web interface, and you can browse through all your files in your computer all with just 1 app. As an added bonus, it can REVERSE stream FROM my TAB to the PC (which is hooked up to my HDTV), I find this very useful when I want to show something quick on my big screen to my guests (like photos and vidoes that i JUST took). and you can fine tune the stream quality with settings in the app. oh and there's also virtually no limit on the number of formats/codecs it can handle, if your VLC player on the PC can play it, everything can be streamed to the Tab.

Works in the house and on the road
Still tweaking this setup, but it works well for the SGT, Xoom, HTC phones (and the i*'s also)
Windows Media Center 7 Host
2 WD TB hard drives
Ceton InfiniTv 4 channel digital cable card tuner
Verizon FIOS (all shows set to copy freely!)
Remote Potato (Provides Windows Media Center Interface on Mobile and Desktops)
MCBUDDY (Beta 18) - Transcodes recorded shows to smaller file, more mobile friendly format
ES File Explorer - Can browse the Media Center hard disk wireless, and launch recorded TV, Movies and home videos in the player of choice. Also can use to copy a video to the device for offline watching
Before Google acquired SageTV I was looking at using it as the media center component, but for now it seems to be lost in acquisition limbo. The advantage it had was it didn't record in Microsoft's WMV format, it maintained the native MPEG2 encoding used by FIOS. Transcoding was much easier, and mostly unnecessary.

I use qloud media. If you beef up the bandwidth settings, it gives you good viewing experience. You have to run a separate server app on your desktop. Also both the client and the srvr versions are under constant development. I used to use air video on my ipod touch, and always felt tailored app just for the device always gives the perfect experience.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Streaming 1080p videos from PC to Android device

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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