Database Users

Stream video from PC --> android

since i sold my iphone to buy a desire there has only been one thing that i have missed having. and that is being able to stream video content from my pc over my home wifi network onto my phone. i did this with an app called air video on the iphone. it converted all video while streaming it so i could play my divx videos from pc onto my phone anywhere in range of my wifi network without having to convert them first.
is there anything that lets me do this for android?

Gmote 2.0 will do this for you
Be warned need to have the right player for the file extension.
i.e. cant play .avi files as android doesnt have a good player etc..

I do this using stock apps on my phone, and a simple webserver on the other end.
I've done this with relative ease...
Any modern webserver with directory browsing enabled (IIS7/Apache)
Ability to modify/add content types within the webserver
Local cache of h264 or 3gp media (i.e. streamable)
Browse to movie using any browser on your Desire and stream over WiFi
** Addition **
IIS7 (possible with Apache as well)
ICYBOX IB-NAS4220B (Any SMB/NFS/CIFS NAS Box will work)
Directory browsing enabled
Symbolic Link (Virtual Directory) to NAS box share over LAN
Browse to movie using any browser on your Desire and stream over WiFi
If you need a hand attempting this, chuck me a PM...
p.s. If you're running a windoze box, then you have IIS already.

use TVersity on your computer..and then you can just point your phone to the given IP address..save it as a bookmark in your phones browser... or shortcut

Phil750123 said:
Gmote 2.0 will do this for you
Be warned need to have the right player for the file extension.
i.e. cant play .avi files as android doesnt have a good player etc..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rockplayer will play AVI

use androstream or vlc stream and convert

Well the best and easiest way i figured out, was making the movie folder accessible to the Network and connect to the folder through the Cifsmanager. As player I use pLayer, which is really the best player for Android.

You could always try VLC-Shares.
It does have a fair amount of setup though.
http://code.google.com/p/vlc-shares/

This might be dead already, but try Vplayer.

As affmalg, CifsPlayer, then browse your network files as if they were on your phone = so simple

Use Opera Unite with Stream Media add-on ... works on Windows and Linux and streams everything as flash ... work really good on my HTC Desire

http://www.plexapp.com/
I liked the look of this and downloaded the PC side of it to realise that all I wanted do was access my photos in a nice graphical interface. Upon setting up this is for movies only...
Unless someone can confirm otherwise, the android app side of it costs approx £2.99

thank you very much. i know im in the wrong place (same goal, gtab 10.1) but gmote worked beautifully. even loaded up the built in subtitles when i played with moboplayer.

TheRavenGod said:
Use Opera Unite with Stream Media add-on ... works on Windows and Linux and streams everything as flash ... work really good on my HTC Desire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds interesting. I'm going to test it soon.
Thanks for the hint..

http://www.appbrain.com/app/littleplayer/fr.mydedibox.littleplayerpro
works like a charm, it's awesome and simple.

Not sure if this has been recommended. I saw a gadget called Wireless Media Stick that can help you with this.
Go here hsti.com/stick/
The won recently in Electronics Expo and is now running a limited time $20 discount promo on their product. Check them out.

Hello,
Install a samba server on your pc.
On the mobile use cifs and local player like "arcmedia" or my favorite "moboplayer"
Simple and faster. I use it often
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA Premium App

I'm using VLC (H.264+MP4)+port forwarding+VPlayer for streaming analoge TV channels. Works fine

Gmote 2.0 and the arcMedia player works very well for me. It's a painless install and set up procedure too.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

This might be of interest to some of you. I use DLNA to stream to my phone from my PC and NAS and also to show photos and video from my phone on my TV!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1169349
I was hoping to update the guide a bit last weekend but didn't get the chance.

[Q] how do u stream movies wirelessly on a vista pc to your acer a500

hi,is it possible to stream movies wirelessly from a vista laptop onto the a500 through the home network? if yes,how do i set it up? cos i've tried everything

Well if you plan to use only on the home network their clear.fi app works. For remote access I have been using subsonic it does require a donation to allow video streaming
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

Do you know how to get other folders to show up from the clear.fi app? All I can see for video streaming from my PC, is a video/collections folder. I would like to be able to see my media folder that I have on my desktop.

I am using plex and it works very well.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

lord_voldemort666 said:
Do you know how to get other folders to show up from the clear.fi app? All I can see for video streaming from my PC, is a video/collections folder. I would like to be able to see my media folder that I have on my desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is windows side setting.
but I have to say I cease use clear.fi because I was getting some unwanted folder.
I will try to set when I got time to set my windows...
I am going to install win7 64bits soon so...

crajoh said:
I am using plex and it works very well.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How in the heck did you get plex to work? Did you change the default player to something else? If so how?
I load a movie and it times out on every one. When I contacted the makers of plex they say that it is not working on the acer yet and offer a refund.

I use ps3 media server on the pc and upnplay which is free from the android market for the A500 , The ps3 media server trans-codes on the fly and I use mobo player from upn to play the content. easy as 123 setup and works perfectly and also means I can play any file type. 1080p is a bit jerky but 720p is as smooth as silk. Did I mention its all free

lord_voldemort666 said:
Do you know how to get other folders to show up from the clear.fi app? All I can see for video streaming from my PC, is a video/collections folder. I would like to be able to see my media folder that I have on my desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my videos pooped right up mine are also in the video folder in my documents

I have PlayOn running on a desktop machine and the PlayOn app on my A500 and Thunderbolt. Works very well over wifi.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

I think that the Acer app only shows/shares the stuff you have in my documents. So you can't watch movies through it if you have them on another HD (like I do sadly).

I am able to see all of my share's on any of my drives. But my home network is wide open on this side of the router.
Might check your sharing settings on you pc, and your firewall if applicable.

i do recomend subsonic wholely just a one time donation unoocks video streaming. you select the folders to share music and movies and the app is free on android and one port needed to be opened to view from anywhere tablet phone or say work computer. also to with the ability to download the content to

I have tried:
Plex: Works but slow as hell and it didn't let me skip a part of the movie so I had to watch every movie from the start.
Subsonic: IMHO a Plex clone so I didn't bother with it and I couldn't test it to see if it streams movies any better.
Upnplay: Ugly and clunky interface but it does stream movies from any UPNP server without installing any additional software and it's free. It uses your default browser and it can skip in a movie so I'm using that. It's not pretty but it does work well.

bpivk said:
I have tried:
Plex: Works but slow as hell and it didn't let me skip a part of the movie so I had to watch every movie from the start.
Subsonic: IMHO a Plex clone so I didn't bother with it and I couldn't test it to see if it streams movies any better.
Upnplay: Ugly and clunky interface but it does stream movies from any UPNP server without installing any additional software and it's free. It uses your default browser and it can skip in a movie so I'm using that. It's not pretty but it does work well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if u didn't try streaming with subsonic how do u have an opinion. Works great for me streams great except for blueray rips bit rate is a tab large most likely my mobile connection
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

BrianDigital said:
Well if u didn't try streaming with subsonic how do u have an opinion. Works great for me streams great except for blueray rips bit rate is a tab large most likely my mobile connection
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I won't donate just to test it but the web interface was worse than what Plex offers and I've tried Plex (was not impressed) so I've just skipped it.
As I've said. The best solution is the one that doesn't require any additional software on my PC. So even though Upnplay is ugly it gets the job done.
P.S.: I have my opinions you have yours so unless don't force your on me and I won't force mine on you. I've compiled a list that would be handy for me a few days ago when I was searching for the same thing and I hope that helps someone. Bickering over trivial stuff sure won't.

root your Iconia
setup nls_utf8 and cifs module
mount cifs share using mount manager
use moboplayer to play all the content
Never had a single problem!

bpivk said:
I won't donate just to test it but the web interface was worse than what Plex offers and I've tried Plex (was not impressed) so I've just skipped it.
As I've said. The best solution is the one that doesn't require any additional software on my PC. So even though Upnplay is ugly it gets the job done.
P.S.: I have my opinions you have yours so unless don't force your on me and I won't force mine on you. I've compiled a list that would be handy for me a few days ago when I was searching for the same thing and I hope that helps someone. Bickering over trivial stuff sure won't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whoa buddy don't be so defensive, i was inquiring how you could make an opinion without trying it

bpivk said:
I won't donate just to test it but the web interface was worse than what Plex offers and I've tried Plex (was not impressed) so I've just skipped it.
As I've said. The best solution is the one that doesn't require any additional software on my PC. So even though Upnplay is ugly it gets the job done.
P.S.: I have my opinions you have yours so unless don't force your on me and I won't force mine on you. I've compiled a list that would be handy for me a few days ago when I was searching for the same thing and I hope that helps someone. Bickering over trivial stuff sure won't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Subsonic is free to try, the app is much more intuitive than the web interface when used on an Android device (the web interface of any program that also provides a native application will be much less intuitive on any platform). I'm not saying there is anything wrong with forming an opinion such as yours, but I will say Subsonic and Plex are two different products, trying one piece of one product and using that as a reason to dismiss another different (and competing) product is just being ignorant. If you want to be ignorant, run with it, but don't ask for peoples advice and opinions and simply dismiss them based on your own ignorance. Or, just don't ask for advice if you aren't willing to listen to it. Oh.. wait, that's right.. this isn't even your thread, troll.
Now, as for the OP, if this is simply to watch inside your own network, things like Subsonic, Plex, etc. are more than what you need. All you really need is what mrvanes outlined, or even just a file manager that supports network shares (like File Manager HD, File Expert, EStrongs, etc). Browse to your media and open it (a good file manager will not require to copy to local first) with the program of your choosing.

nasimdejai said:
hi,is it possible to stream movies wirelessly from a vista laptop onto the a500 through the home network? if yes,how do i set it up? cos i've tried everything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using Buzz Player that reads all shared folders (SAMBA), its not without its problems, but it works for me.

i have tried them all upnp streams every format avi mp4 mkv audio codecs like ac3 stream beautifully..its free and i acess from any network ...

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.

Note 2 and Plex: WOW !

I saw a colleague toying with Plex at home, showing off his collection of videos on an Ipad at work (with a few decent black zones... LOL) over the 100 Mbit link we have there...
Well, just installed Plex media server myself on my PC, the Plex client on the Note 2 and it ROCKS !
Yesterday I sat at a coffeecounter in our mall, browsing via 3G, opened my OpenVPN to home and took a moment to view my videos at home in exquisite quality on the Note 2. My wife couldn't help herself seeing the videos and pulled it out my claws to go and watch herself...
Big screen, 16:9, good resolution and speed: all you need... :laugh: :laugh:

Yrcimim said:
I saw a colleague toying with Plex at home, showing off his collection of videos on an Ipad at work (with a few decent black zones... LOL) over the 100 Mbit link we have there...
Well, just installed Plex media server myself on my PC, the Plex client on the Note 2 and it ROCKS !
Yesterday I sat at a coffeecounter in our mall, browsing via 3G, opened my OpenVPN to home and took a moment to view my videos at home in exquisite quality on the Note 2. My wife couldn't help herself seeing the videos and pulled it out my claws to go and watch herself...
Big screen, 16:9, good resolution and speed: all you need... :laugh: :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why did you have to VPN??? Does Plex not allow for outside access?

I never knew anything about Plex. What a very neat application to have at home and on mobile devices.
Thanks for sharing and I'll definitely be taking advantage of this once T-Mobile's note 2 is released. Thank God for unlmtd 4G data.

Milkman00 said:
Why did you have to VPN??? Does Plex not allow for outside access?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plex allows everything. It's just that *I* don't allow much: I use my LAN also for home office and as a networkmanager I have too much sensitive client stuff there. But OpenVPN has no human-measurable impact on the speed and a.t.m. you don't even need to root anymore to use it.
A tip: in order to get subtitles working you need to set Direct Play on Disabled in the Advanced Settings of the Plex client on the phone...
Have fun.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

Eh, I'll stick with Splashtop. You can view all of your videos, including DVD's burned to your harddrive. With Plex, you cannot.

Just got it set up myself. I really like it plays every video on my computer.
Any idea if it'll be updated for multiwindow?

-BoneZ- said:
Eh, I'll stick with Splashtop. You can view all of your videos, including DVD's burned to your harddrive. With Plex, you cannot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh? Do you even know what is or what it's capable of? And I'd like to see you watch a 1080P video on your hard drive over HSPA using SplashTop. I have a terabyte of music, movies, and TV shows on my home server that I can access from anywhere. You can even share libraries with other people using Plex so they can access your stuff and vice versa. There are Plex clients for iOS (desktop and mobile), Windows (desktop and mobile), and Android. I have three Google TV's and stream audio and video from Plex anywhere in the house. It transcodes on slower connections so you can use it on as low as a 3-5MB connection. And as you can see its meta-tagging is unbelievable at indexing and organizing your media. Everyone I know that uses it swears buy it.
http://plexapp.com/

I'm using Plex for last 2 years and it's absolutely awesome and no comparison with any other similar media managers.
1. It's light
2. It's cross platform. You can have server in Mac, Windows, Linux whatever. You have clients in Android, iOS and most importantly and interestiny clients for devices, like Samsung TV, LG TV etc.
3. It's open source project
And so many other things. I have like 10TB of media and I use Plex with my Samsung LED TV, Note 2, Galaxy 10.1 Tab, MacBook Air and it is absolutely fabulous.
Please try it and I guarantee you'll love it.

i tried it and its crap . XBMC is 10 times better.

So this streams films from my PC to my phone?

I love Plex but for some weird reason I can't get stuff unless I am on the same Wifi connection, any idea what I need to change?

I used to use something very similar called Subsonic. Haven't ran it in a loooong time but it didn't support video nearly as well as Plex appears to.
Using a VPN is an easy way to setup a secure connection to your LAN while away from home without opening up ports etc. However not sure I want to jump through those hoops again with Plex and my Note 2. Wonder how hard it is to setup Plex to be open on the net? Hmm I'll look into it. Thanks for pointing out this app though OP. Looks 100x prettier than Subsonic ever was.
Aw lame, just tried installing the PC media server and it requires Bonjour. I hate Apple -_- refuse to install any of their stuff on my machine. Damn, that's a shame. The app looked really nice on Android.
Ok wow nevermind. I said screw it, installed Bonjour and setup the Plex media server. I then went into settings and disabled Bonjour discovery, then uninstalled it from my machine. I then setup Plex on Android and setup a myPlex account. Wow. On 4G right now testing at home, and man I can stream my movies in brilliant quality without any lag or buffer issues. AMAZING. This app owns Subsonic hands down.
Thanks OP!

djashjones said:
i tried it and its crap . XBMC is 10 times better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Care to elaborate? Maybe a few pros and cons? "It's crap" and "10 times better" aren't very descriptive to people interested in understanding the differences between the multiple approaches to storing, cataloging, and accessing their media.
AjunNg said:
So this streams films from my PC to my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IamPro said:
I love Plex but for some weird reason I can't get stuff unless I am on the same Wifi connection, any idea what I need to change?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll post some newbie tips later...

ok, i tried with my movie/tv/music collection as there is an app on my NAS for it. The scrapping i found was poor compared to xbmc. playback was abit poor on 1080p and the deal breaker was my music. i have loads of compilation albums and it showed up as seperate disks.
tried to find a way of installing a player on my win7 laptop but it seems only the server got installed.
I spent 4 hours playing around with and that was enough for me

djashjones said:
ok, i tried with my movie/tv/music collection as there is an app on my NAS for it. The scrapping i found was poor compared to xbmc. playback was abit poor on 1080p and the deal breaker was my music. i have loads of compilation albums and it showed up as seperate disks.
tried to find a way of installing a player on my win7 laptop but it seems only the server got installed.
I spent 4 hours playing around with and that was enough for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These type of programs try to be easy for an end user to understand, but at the end of the day you really are setting up a streaming server that has a database of files and has to transcode them on the fly. Unless you are very familiar with how these things work, you probably shouldn't be the one to set it up.
Granted once someone who knows what they're doing gets it setup, its easy for an end user to connect and enjoy their files in great quality all over the air. I myself streamed Star Wars in 720p with really high bitrate over 4G yesterday and had no hiccups. And that's not even on my Note 2, it was on my Thunderbolt that struggles to play 360p videos on Youtube. So the program and buffering IS efficient and quality, it just requires the proper setup.
As for music goes, I am a little concerned. My Thunderbolt apparently doesn't support WMA music files, and since most of my audio collection is just that, I am sorta screwed. Hoping my Note 2 which is out for delivery as we speak, has some form of WMA reading capability or else that's that

DaRkL3AD3R said:
These type of programs try to be easy for an end user to understand, but at the end of the day you really are setting up a streaming server that has a database of files and has to transcode them on the fly. Unless you are very familiar with how these things work, you probably shouldn't be the one to set it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^^^^
This.
For Plex to metatag and display everything correctly your files and folders have to be organized and structured a certain way. It was a huge pain in the ass and took me several days to rename and reorganize my media initially so Plex could tag it. I didn't have to, but I wanted the UI to look pretty, clean, and professional so I made the commitment. Anything I added after the one-time organization was easy because I new the naming convention and structure to use. In a way, Plex made me more disciplined about how I stored my media which wasn't a bad thing.
djashjones said:
The scrapping i found was poor compared to xbmc.
i have loads of compilation albums and it showed up as seperate disks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can manually tag stuff that wasn't found properly via Media Manager on the server side. It's not perfect but it's no less perfect than other PC and Android taggers I've used.
playback was abit poor on 1080p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odd. It shouldn't be over a fast connection if Direct Play's enabled. It only transcodes when it detects buffering and even then adjusts up if the signal improves.
and the deal breaker was my music.. tried to find a way of installing a player on my win7 laptop but it seems only the server got installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Their website's not the most intuitive. A lot of people mistake the Media Server for Media Center which is the client. Here's the link to the client if you ever want to try again.
http://plex.r.worldssl.net/plex-laika/0.9.5.4/Plex-Media-Center-v3213059-en-US.exe
People should use what works best for them and for you that seems like XBMC. Like DaRkL3AD3R said, getting Plex and your media files set up initially is a chore. Friends ooh and ah when the see Plex on my devices and want it too. When I tell them what's entailed they get less enthusiastic. That's why it's great to have so many different choices.

Would love to get this to work....be VERY nice to stream my vast move collection right to my note 2. I played with it a few hours with different settings and it still stutters the playback every few seconds. My wi-fi streams netflix fine...(scratch head).

Well good news. Got my Note 2 today and setup Plex on it, and success: I was able to stream WMA music files without error.
Back on my Thunderbolt I would get an invalid file type error. It just couldn't play them.

DaRkL3AD3R said:
Back on my Thunderbolt I would get an invalid file type error. It just couldn't play them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC does funky things to their video and audio players that deviate from stock and Plex craps out because the files it's looking for aren't in the correct system directory. I briefly had a Jetstream and couldn't get it to work and Plex support was kind of baffled by what HTC was doing based on the logcat I sent them. Plex worked great on my One X so I'm guessing their newer devices are following standards.

I tried plex on my ipad and it worked great with my htpc. However, now that xbmc has come for Android, I doubt I'll use plex again, simply because of how efficient networking, scraping and syncing between platforms work in xbmc. And of course because the rest of my million boxes all run xbmc
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2