Plex working? - Galaxy Tab General

I finally decided installing Plex on my NAS (QNAP), and access videos on my tablet via Plex for android.
My objective was to stream my 720p MKV videos to the tab, without the need for transcoding on my NAS, but this doesn't seem to work. Instead it transcodes in a relatively low quality. So it seems a waste of time and effort.
Is anyone able to get Plex working to stream 720p mkv in un-transcoded quality to their tabs?

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[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.

Streaming Video to the GT....

I normally stream content to my PS3 via TVerstiy or WMP. If I want to send it to my phone, it's as simple as entering URL (http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952) on Vplayer. For some reason, it's just not working for me on the GT. Not sure why.
Who is streaming and what clients are you using on both ends? How are the results? Any cloud based solutions for video? It seems everything is all about music.... Meh, I prefer my Zune HD for music.
Edit* Actually, streaming works perfect going through the built in web browser. Files that my phone would stutter with, play perfectly with either the stock honeycomb player or Vplayer just by adding a /medialib/browse after the address and port. Nice!
I've been using Plex with great results.
I forgot about Plex. I may check that out. I used to use Orb and the quality sucked so bad that I was a little cautious about anything other than TVersity.
I wish Plex supported Hulu.
I've been using PS3 Media Server with uPnPlay (free from market) with decent results.
Its been working fine with avi and mpeg, but the tab has a lot of trouble playing back mkv files. I haven't tried adjusting the settings from what I normally use when streaming to my PS3, so it may be possible to get better results with some tweaking.

[Q] Any video (MKV with AC3/DTS) streamer better than Plex?

In terms of quality Plex can't be beaten for streaming video. I can play a 1080p MKV with DTS audio and have it reencoded on-the-fly from my PC to my TF at 5Mbit and it looks awesome (Sound is a bit iffy though). I tried a few other streamers like VLC, Androstream, Qloud etc and they all sucked.
I'm still looking for a player that supports embedded .ass subs. Playing the files directly off a Windows share is not very good either as none of the players can play AC3/DTS in MKV and 1080p is no go. Dice player sort of looked promising but all the videos I tested it with would freeze up after a few seconds.
Video playback is the TF's weakest point IMHO. It's OK if you want to stream stuff though which is why I am looking for something better than Plex.
How did you get Plex to work? I'm on Windows 7 64bit and the media server isn't working right. It sends me to the browser when I try to click on it and then has a connection error.

720p mkv hi10p playback with subtitles

Hi all,
I'm looking to play 720p mkv hi10p videos with embedded subtitles on my Nexus 7. I'll probably want to be doing this by streaming it off a computer or accessing a Samba share.
Does anyone know if this is possible?. Trying to toss up my purchase with the knowledge that its easy / do-able to watch tv shows, movies and things like anime.
Cheers!
I'm just downloading vPlayer to see how it works with my Serviio server. I'll let you know how it goes.
the latest beta VLC player worked for me, was having abit hit or miss with mxvideo player but VLC just played everything i threw at it off my western digital tv live hub.
I tested a 720p hi10p video yesterday using MX Player Pro, no streaming over air.
A couple of frame drops, cannot handle panning scenes very well.
Styled subtitles however look ace, I haven't bothered to check out advanced typesetting though.
Have been exploring the ability on my phone with ES explorer and different media players. 8 bit 720p mkvs work perfectly. 10 bit just falls about for me though on a GNEX with just about every player. Obviously there is a difference in processing power though.
Keen to know if anyone gets it working / how (even if its a solution like PLEX).

Streaming 1080p videos from PC to Android device

Hello,
I've tried to search but didn't find an answer.
I'm looking for a way to stream 1080p videos from my PC to android device (Nexus 10 in my case), both on the same wifi lan using N-type router.
I have set a user and password on the PC windows 7, and I can connect to it with my tablet (ES/solid explorer) through the wifi, and stream videos. The problem is this connection type is not fast enough for streaming 1080p videos, so the videos on my tablet lag, shutter, etc.
Any ideas how to solve it? Can I setup a different type of connection/protocol, which will be fast enough for streaming 1080p vidoes?
Any help is appreciated!
Try Plex media server. The android app is $4 (I think) and the PC software is free. The beauty of it is that you can connect to your server from anywhere. I've watched episodes of modern family from the comfort of the bathroom at work without any issues. For high quality video you're going to need to be on Wi-Fi, but you can get great quality video through plex.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4
Thank you.
Meanwhile I have found another solution:
- Installing XMBC on my pc and enabling uPNP on it.
- Installing MediaHouse app on my tablet.
uPNP is much faster than the normal Windows SMB, so I can now stream high quality videos without any issue over my wifi.
The only problem is uPNP doesn't support streaming srt subtitles file along with the mkv movie. So I have to copy the srt it locally to the Tablet or embed it to the MKV.
My favorite streaming tool is Emit. www.emitapp.com
They have an Android client, iOS client, and web streamer, and it's a decent-quality transcoder. Totally free.
I have no problems transcribing on an i5-750 that is also a Hyper-V host for 3 VMs, and is running torrents 24/7. It's a dedicated box with a gig connection though, so I have tons of throughput. No problems streaming over LTE on my S4 or over my home connection (50MB comcast)
phishfi said:
Try Plex media server. The android app is $4 (I think) and the PC software is free. The beauty of it is that you can connect to your server from anywhere. I've watched episodes of modern family from the comfort of the bathroom at work without any issues. For high quality video you're going to need to be on Wi-Fi, but you can get great quality video through plex.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for this man..
TTT. Figured I'd rez this rather than starting a redundant thread.
I gave Plex a shot; I downloaded the Windows App, installed, opened it, but once I tried to navigate to the "Channel Directory" I got this prompt:
Plex Media Server
Waiting on Response...
It never connected to the PMS. I tried some Googles to figure out the problem, but couldn't find anything relevant. So screw Plex.
For now, what I've done is create a Homegroup, and I use ES File Explorer to navigate the Homegroup in the LAN tab. However, there are two things I don't like about this:
The speed is limited. I guess this is an SMB problem. Separately, as a test, I've connected an i5 laptop to this homegroup, and it won't play a 16GB mkv I have of The Avengers over the Homegroup. It's handled any video files I've thrown at it under 5GB, but past that, it appears that the data bandwidth becomes an issue because the video stutters. This couldn't be a shortcoming of the laptop because it could play the files from its native hard drive without issue. Thus, the problem must be the rate of data transferred wireless over the router. So I'm attracted to the uPNP servers.
On Android, it only works for yet smaller files. I'm only able to watch videos that MX Player can handle using SW decoding. This has limited me to low bitrate 480p video. My goal is to be able to watch all my videos and movies on my Xoom or my Droid X. Unfortunately, the Tegra 2 and the ARM V8 processors in these devices aren't very powerful, and the mkv's/mp4's I have aren't specifically encoded for their chipsets. Also, most of my movies are 1080p, and the Xoom is only 1280x800, and the Droid X is 854x480, so there is the additional workload of downscaling. One solution is that I can convert any video I have using a program called "DVD Catalyst", but the conversion rate is ~125% on a minute-per-minute basis, so this is very time consuming. I'd rather that I was able to use my PC's CPU/GPU to decode the video in real time as I watch the video, and stream this over the Homegroup to my phone/tablet. In other words, in principle, I want to use the PC's hardware to do the heavy lifting while the Android device displays the product of that work.
What's the best way to do this? The OP mentioned he uses XMBC and MediaHouse. Is this optimal, or is there a better method for my goal?
Of course SMB is slow, I wrote it on the first post - this was my main problem. It's ok for 720p but not for 1080p.
You can use XMBC and MediaHouse - it will work but will not stream the .srt subtitles. There are other free uPnP options I've found that work with external subtitles, if you're interested.
Anyway, if you have resolution scaling issues that your android device cannot handle on the fly, I suggest you to re-encode the video offline on your PC.
Animor said:
Of course SMB is slow, I wrote it on the first post - this was my main problem. It's ok for 720p but not for 1080p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose I didn't make it clear, but it's because of what you wrote that I was presuming that SMB was my issue. Still, I can play most 1080p content over the WLAN to the laptop; just not the 1080p content with a really high bitrate.
You can use XMBC and MediaHouse - it will work but will not stream the .srt subtitles. There are other free uPnP options I've found that work with external subtitles, if you're interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you found desktop server software and an Android app that you prefer to these? Please elaborate if you have.
Anyway, if you have resolution scaling issues that your android device cannot handle on the fly, I suggest you to re-encode the video offline on your PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In part #2 of my post I described why I already use this as an option, but I would prefer not having to do this. This gets to the heart of what I'm trying to learn. Is it possible to play the desktop files on the tablet/phone without offline conversion? I can conceptualize two theoretical ways, but I have no idea- assuming they are even possible- if there is software that would enable me to do this:
(1) Streaming conversion.
Without creating a new, converted file from the source 1080p video, I'm wondering if there is a program that will convert the desktop 1080p video in real time while streaming that over the network to the Android device. Perhaps it wasn't clear, but my PC is powerful enough that most video converts in the DVD Catalyst software at a minimum 1.25x rate (meaning that 5 minutes of video will convert in about 4 minutes). Thus, a real-time conversion stream seems possible since it would take less time to convert a movie than it would take to watch it. This kills the waiting period and also storage issues. Using offline conversion, I have to decide what I want to watch, convert it, then play the converted file (which takes up additional space on my hard drive). If I could convert-in-stream, then I could simply pick whatever video I wanted to watch, and play it without having to wait for it to convert, and I wouldn't have to worry about extra space being used.
(2) Display mirroring.
The PC plays the video as it would on itself in VLC, and somehow mirrors this image (like with NFC) over the network. No conversion; only downscaling, and this shouldn't be a problem because my PC can easily downscale 1080p to 720p on VLC without stutter. Ergo, in this scenario, the Android device becomes basically a computer monitor that is receiving the data stream over a network rather than from an HDMI/DVI/VGA cable. This seems like the simpler option. Anyone know if it's possible?
Hi,
As for your question, I have found a way to stream external srt subtitles along with the movie, using free uPnP.
Apparently, only some uPnP media servers and clients support it. In addition, only some movie players can extract this information when streamed through uPnP. I've found several such uPnP media servers, but most of them require payment after a trial period. However, I've managed to find one that doesn't
So, in order to stream videos with external srt, you need the following:
1. Serviio on you PC.
2. BubbleUPnP on your android device.
3. MX player on your android device.
4. The srt file should have the same name of the movie file, and they have to reside both at the same directory in your PC.
If you want to check your system under heavy or moderate bit rate, you can use this:
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/
"birds" is quite heavy. If you get it to work, you won't have any problem with 1080p movies.
Perhaps the term "1080p" movies is not accurate. What really matter is the bitrate. Naturally, 1080p movies requite higher bitrate. So even if you manage to play small-size 1080p movies through smb, I guess that as you wrote yourself, it's because of the lower bitrate.
If you want to make sure where is your bottleneck, copy the movie to your android device and run it locally. you can use "birds" or any other movie you want. If the movie stutter when run locally, then your bottleneck is your android hw. However, don't use SW decoder, use hw decoder. On MX player I use HW+, and on BS player I use the "experimental hw decoding" feature. On my Nexus 10, this is the only way I can handle high bitrate movies.
Regarding what you asked about: I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with a proper way to mirror a high quality video from the PC to the android device. You can try screen sharing/mirror softwares like VNC or TeamViewer, but I don't think they will work with adequate fps for displaying a video.
You're the man, Animor. This is exactly what I needed, and although Servio doesn't "mirror", it does do #1. The word I was searching for there was "transcoding", and their software does just that because I am able to stream all of these 1080p videos flawlessly on my tablet using the Servio + BubbleUPnP (which has a gorgeous UI, btw), and I know for a fact that MX Player-- even with ARMv7 codec support and running H/W+-- couldn't play these files without stutter even when I'd copied them to its local SD. So it's definitely using my PC's processing power.
This is just so amazingly *****ing. I feel like Doc Oc in Spider-Man 2:
"The power of my PC...in the palm of my hand."
I'm glad I could help you
Please note that transcoding on Serviio doesn't run on Generic DLNA profile. So if you are using the generic profile, that's not the explanation for your device able to play the vidoes.
Animor said:
I'm glad I could help you
Please note that transcoding on Serviio doesn't run on Generic DLNA profile. So if you are using the generic profile, that's not the explanation for your device able to play the vidoes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. I spoke too soon forgetting that my "Android Optimized" folder with the movies I'd converted specifically for the Tegra 2 chipset was a subfolder of my greater folder. I tested four movies, and by sheer serendipity, they were all from that subfolder. So I tested the unconverted movies, and, yeah, same problem. MX can't play them using HW/HW+; it's forced to use SW decoding for playback, and it's just too much for the Tegra 2 to handle.
How do I enable a profile that will allow the transcoding that I'm after?
You can choose a profile on one of the tabs on serviio settings. I think it was library.
However I'm not sure you'll find a suitable profile for your device.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
I have used many applications for streaming. 1080p is dream.I even bought a new wifi router for stream. Now i have 1Gbit lan an 300Mbit wifi speed at home.The best result was obtained using Bsplayer and EsExplorer on android and standart network folder in Win7(Ubuntu - better) .
Max play 720p in hw decoding mode.
I suggest to those facing various issues to try out the app ''Emit''. For me, on the same wireless network, it functions well, playing external subtitles just fine.
OK so I've been going down this road on an Android tablet & this seems to work well.
1) BubbleUPNP - connects to my Samsung's AllShare server for my TV on mypc wired into the network.
2) KMPlayer - backwards compatible & it just works with all my files when selecting in bubbleUPNP.
The other way to approach this is IMO using FX File Explorer Pro (local p2p site for unlocked apk) & this enables network support? Again, the media player was what really gave me issues, KWPlayer worked best for me.
Animor said:
Hi,
As for your question, I have found a way to stream external srt subtitles along with the movie, using free uPnP.
Apparently, only some uPnP media servers and clients support it. In addition, only some movie players can extract this information when streamed through uPnP. I've found several such uPnP media servers, but most of them require payment after a trial period. However, I've managed to find one that doesn't
So, in order to stream videos with external srt, you need the following:
1. Serviio on you PC.
2. BubbleUPnP on your android device.
3. MX player on your android device.
4. The srt file should have the same name of the movie file, and they have to reside both at the same directory in your PC.
If you want to check your system under heavy or moderate bit rate, you can use this:
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/
"birds" is quite heavy. If you get it to work, you won't have any problem with 1080p movies.
Perhaps the term "1080p" movies is not accurate. What really matter is the bitrate. Naturally, 1080p movies requite higher bitrate. So even if you manage to play small-size 1080p movies through smb, I guess that as you wrote yourself, it's because of the lower bitrate.
If you want to make sure where is your bottleneck, copy the movie to your android device and run it locally. you can use "birds" or any other movie you want. If the movie stutter when run locally, then your bottleneck is your android hw. However, don't use SW decoder, use hw decoder. On MX player I use HW+, and on BS player I use the "experimental hw decoding" feature. On my Nexus 10, this is the only way I can handle high bitrate movies.
Regarding what you asked about: I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with a proper way to mirror a high quality video from the PC to the android device. You can try screen sharing/mirror softwares like VNC or TeamViewer, but I don't think they will work with adequate fps for displaying a video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, works now for me!
MarkusOSx said:
thanks, works now for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like folder music player.
I know I'm resurrecting a long dead thread but I figured everyone here is/was interested in about the same thing, so you may already have found a solution.
Basically it had already been asked earlier as one of two options, but was passed over for the other. Did anyone ever get mirroring the video to work? There's lot of mirror apps out there but I'm looking for a way that will let me play a video on my PC and mirror it directly as is on my phone, while still having full control over the video on my PC. This also let's me further control DTS tracks which gets decoded by my AV receiver instead of my phone, therefore audio isn't an issue, I just need video. Any ideas?

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