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BBC iPlayer woes (Solved)

Hey everyone
I've been trying to get BBC iPlayer to work on my topaz today with little luck so far.
Initially I tried to access it through the browser and it tells me "Your phone is not supported" When I used my PC to get a list of supported devices, they say the Touch HD is supported, so I don't see why it shouldn't work on my Topaz.
So I followed some advice I found at a forum (this one), and set a Custom User-Agent to sgh-i900. Suddenly the website works and looks great, but when I try to play something, it opens the stream in HTC streaming media, and gives me a black screen within the player, shows the length of the show correctly and the track bar at sitting at the end of the program. When I pull the track bar back (rewind) it just shows a loading screen indefinitely. I get exactly the same result if I try to open it in CorePlayer 1.3
I notice somebody else with a Touch HD (in the link above) had the same problem.
So I try something else. I download myPlayer (found a link on these forums). The app works great (thankyou author!!!) But when it comes to opening the streams in CorePlayer, I get exactly the same problem.
I can download the streams using myPlayer and then watch them, but I really want to be able to stream catch up tv as well.
Do you think it's some sort of Codec I need?
The other thing. I can watch live tv off BBC, that works well. I just can't stream catch up TV.
Has anybody else with a Topaz or a Blackstone (with a standard ROM) been able to get this working?
Do you guys have any suggestions of what else I could try?
Thanks for your time.

Are you using myPlayer via 3G or wifi?
To stream the catch-up content via wifi you shouldn't need any additional codecs for CorePlayer. Your mobile should have the same connectivity as any PC on your network.
You could try loading this stream via a PC (using the VLC media player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html) to test the connectivity:
rtsp://3gp-acl.bbc.co.uk:554/3gpclip/iPlayer/wifi_5381424370952762694.3gp
If you are streaming via HSDPA/3G it may be your phone provider blocking the RTSP port (554).
-Fry

Well I got to the bottom of it. Thanks for your reply FryWalker.
Interestingly it just doesn't work over my office wifi network. BBC iPlayer works perfectly on my laptop when connected to my office network (via lan cable) but not on my Topaz over wifi.
It worked on my Topaz when I got home (over wifi), so I can only guess that my office wireless router is blocking the port.
Any other theories? Either way... I'm not that fussed, so long as I can watch iPlayer from bed, or whenever I'm out and can find a decent internet connection.

AceofSpades25 said:
It worked on my Topaz when I got home (over wifi), so I can only guess that my office wireless router is blocking the port.
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Click to collapse
Yes, it is likely that your office network / firewall is blocking access to port 554. You can try streaming through the myPlayer server as an alternative by selecting "Stream via myPlayer media server" on the Stream Settings screen - this will attempt to connect via a range of different ports.
Another thing you could do is download the iPlayer content for "offline" viewing via the episode info panel.
-Fry

Playing videos from phone

Is there a way to stream/play videos to my Nexus 7 from my phone(HTC Thunderbolt). Due to the storage limitation on the Nexus 7, I figured this might be a good solution to get around it. I want to be able to stream the media without connecting to a network/router because I spend a lot of time commuting.
I've successfully connected to my phone by FTPing using 3G/4G by tethering my phone to the tablet. I can stably transfer files at 2-2.5 MB/s which sure as hell beats Bluetooth and should be adequate to stream videos. Using ES File Explorer, I've connected to my phone using the same method and it lets me play files directly off my phone using the MX Player. Great.
Of course it's not that easy or else I wouldn't have my this thread. When I try to seek it gives me an error, "Sorry, video cannot be played". The message is persistent once it shows up and the only way to fix it is to reconnect to the network.
Any ideas on how I can get around this limitation? I can't imagine I'm the only one who's attempted to do something like this. Thanks.

I installed samba filesharing (in play store) onto my Galaxy S (CM9). This allows you to access your phone's storage while tethered by wifi to it. No router is required. For playing the video I use BS Player. Seeking works well and even 720p mkv runs without a problem.

Great! I'll give that a try and report back with the results. Thanks!
edit:
It works! I simply installed Samba Filesharing on my phone then with my tablet tethered scanned using the LAN settings on ES File Explorer. Works like a charm. Thank you so much!

Reliable video streaming to Samsung TV?

Has anyone managed to stream video properly from the S4 to a Samsung Smart TV? I can stream video to my UE55ES7000 using the Allshare option in the video app, but the video playback stops every 2-3 seconds and "Loading" appears on the TV screen. This is on short video clips of less than 15 seconds. As far as video streaming functionality goes this is pretty much a waste of time.
The TV is connected to my LAN via ethernet cable, and the S4 connected to a wifi access point which is plugged into the same switch as the TV.
Has anyone got this working acceptably?

same issue with s4 and ES6565, i believe it is because my connection are too slow.
fortunately i get a speed update tommorow, will report back if it solves the issue!

Plex
pzayx said:
same issue with s4 and ES6565, i believe it is because my connection are too slow.
fortunately i get a speed update tommorow, will report back if it solves the issue!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/).
You install Plex server on your desktop and the client as an app on your Samsung Smart TV and it works pretty well.

Twonky is worth looking at as well.

cadbusca said:
I use Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/).
You install Plex server on your desktop and the client as an app on your Samsung Smart TV and it works pretty well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will Plex allow me to stream content that's stored on the phone?

itm said:
Will Plex allow me to stream content that's stored on the phone?
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Click to collapse
It will, but you need to install install it on your phone first:
http://www.plexapp.com/mobile/

I use Imediashare to stream content to my Samsung tv (not a Smart Tv) using dlna. Does a better job compared to allshare/samumg link.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bianor.amspersonal
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Ok I just revisited the whole Plex thing (I remember trying it a couple of years ago). I remember uninstalling it last time because it couldn't handle my large music library (85,000 tracks) - whole chunks of the collection were missing after it had completed scanning.
Unfortunately my experience is no better this time. I set up the server, then installed the Plex client on the TV and connected it to the server. I could browse the video content on the server from the TV, but whenever I tried to play back anything it just threw up a blank screen that didn't go away (I waited 5 minutes, which I figured was long enough). Same thing on 2-3 different video files.
I also couldn't figure out any way to use Plex to play back video content from the phone to the TV (which was the whole point of this thread). Setting up the phone as a media server isn't a good solution, as it doesn't have a static IP address (it seems that the Samsung TV Plex client can only connect to servers using a hard-coded IP address). So it looks like I'll be un-installing Plex (again). I'm sure Plex works great in *pple setups but I have to say it's not ready for primetime with Android/Windows users.
So I tried installing iMediaShare, but it doesn't see the TV on the network at all.
I thought this would all be much easier, particularly as I have a Samsung phone as well as a Samsung TV :0(

I just tried the next potential solution, which was the upgraded Allcast app which was released today. This was able to stream a standard def video podcast uninterrupted for a minute (there's a 60 second limit on the trial version of Allcast), but when I tried to stream mp4 HD video which was shot on the phone I got the same problem with the video stopping every few seconds to buffer.
I'm pretty sure that I was able to stream HD videos from the S4 to the TV last summer, but can't remember what I used to do it. Now I'm wondering whether an Android update has introduced the problem - maybe Ice Cream Sandwich was better able to support HD video streaming than Jelly Bean? Any views?

Videos randomly stop playing in Kodi

Anybody had or having this issue? I am using TVMC, and I have my video library set up with an SMB share to the Nexus. I will start playing a TV episode and it will stop a few minutes in or halfway through and return back to the episode list. I don't think this has happened with a movie (yet).
I have tried messing with Hardware Acceleration vs Software (one actually works better for streaming sources from outside of my network). Tried clearing out the cache, purging packages. None of these have made any improvements. Thinking I may try to install a vanilla version of Kodi, and maybe also try Gotham.
Did a little searching and haven't found any solutions yet.
This is probably #3 in my disappointments with this device so far along with lack of apps, the Netflix bug, SlingTV's frame rate, and the Live Channels app. Starting to wish I opted for the Fire TV.

Yep Kodi runs like sh.. on my Nexus Player as well.
But on my Shield Tv it runs without any problems.

Video not playing on Kodi
Hi, I had the same problem. My video library is hosted on a Windows 7 PC and connecting over SMB to stream a film would work sometimes but not others. After much research I found the problem to be the network connection to the Windows PC. I found this out by installing ES File explorer on my Android TV and copying a large file to the local storage of the player. The copy would usually start then suddenly stop after a random length of time, additionally the bandwidth was very low. Try this to make sure you can copy a large file to the device without any problems.
I fixed the problem with a combination of solutions. I upgraded the network card drivers of the Windows 7 PC, I purchased an OTG LAN adapter for the Nexus Player and finally I used haneWIN to connect to my media library via NFS rather than SMB.
I now have a rock solid connection.
Hope this helps

Thanks for the responses. I have found that streaming the videos to Kodi via UPnP with Emby works fine. So I am thinking that is a network issue. I have DHCP set up, so I think what I will try is setting a static IP for the Windows PC
I also have one of these Ubee Modem/Router combos, but I have been using my own router. I didn't have the Ubee in bridge mode, which I changed last night. So I will get everything set again like I had it and see if it will play without stopping.

your problem is most likely trying to stream content over wifi. i dont care what anybody says, wifi + streaming media sucks. it can work fine 1 minute and then stop working another regardless of how good your connection may be.

Major Video playback problems in S10+ and S9+

Hey guys! I am having this weird issue where any video I try watching over SMB from my NAS (WD Mycloud Home) crashes after 12~20 minutes and returns me to file directory. I'd normally pin it down on a device issue/network issue however it is occurring ONLY on newer Samsung devices (S9+, and S10+) because on my other myriad of devices like Samsung S6Edge Plus, S7Edge, LG V20, Samsung S5, and Blackberry Keyone the issue doesn't happen and every video plays back flawlessly.
This all started when I upgraded from my S7Edge to a S9+. Since then I changed the Router (Netgear R7000 to a Netgear 8500), bought a new Modem (Old Cable modem to a Fritzbox Cable modem) however it seems to have not changed anything regarding my issue on the Samsung devices. The routers are running DDWRT but I've also had this issue with another NAS as well as stock router firmware.
At first thought it was an issue with MXPlayer but after a lot of communication back and forth and showing the developers Logcat dumps from my phone, they narrowed it down to being caused by my Device. I tried hard resetting the S9+ a couple of times to see if that would help but it didn't change a thing. Also it's not an issue with the WiFi signal either as the videos playback just fine on other devices. I had hoped that getting the S10+ would fix this and that it was just an issue with the S9+ but it turns out the S10+ has it as well.
I have tried other video players like VLC and other file explorers like ES File Explorer, ASUS File explorer, and Total Commander on the S9+, while on the S10 I've tried ASUS File Explorer and EStrong coupled with MXPlayer and VLC.
In the S9Plus, even on fresh hard reset, the preinstalled apps updated and only ASUS File explorer and MXPlayer installed the videos would crash after ~15 Minutes. The default Samsung video player doesn't even play the videos back properly as it buffers and constantly lags.
On the S10Plus, a couple of things I noted was that in the beginning, when I got the phone, ASUS File Explorer used to be able to play back videos (>30 Minutes) but once I updated even the basic preinstalled apps it stopped loading videos, I can select files and MXplayer comes up but its stuck on loading ( I can still access the NAS and see the file structure etc). So I switched over to EStrong through which I can now load the videos and play them fine until they crash back to the file directory 10~15 Minutes in.
I am at my wits end with this, The S9Plus was RMA'ed 4 times till Samsung agreed to refund me and I bought the S10+ with the refunded money.
P.S I've also disabled battery/power saving for the file explorers and video players, as well as put the phone in performance mode. Without this, the videos would play back with a lot of buffering and choppiness (On the S9+ they'd sometimes load for 20 minutes only to playback for 5 and then load again)
All phones are EU Versions except the LG V20 which is American!
Can someone Please PLEASE kindly help me fix this issue as I've been constantly going nuts trying to make it better! Ask me any info you'd like and I am willing to try everything short of rooting the phone and voiding the warranty!

I could suggest you to use BubbleUpnp + MXPlayer, I'm using it without any problems with my S10+ and my tablet, you will do all using DLNA without issues.

citytrader said:
I could suggest you to use BubbleUpnp + MXPlayer, I'm using it without any problems with my S10+ and my tablet, you will do all using DLNA without issues.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried it out Estrong -> Bubbleupnp -> Mxplayer pro but it still crashes in 10 minutes!

citytrader said:
I could suggest you to use BubbleUpnp + MXPlayer, I'm using it without any problems with my S10+ and my tablet, you will do all using DLNA without issues.
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I don't know what you mean with " Estrong ", but I can watch a complete movie perfectly without issues, maybe you should do a factory reset

citytrader said:
I don't know what you mean with " Estrong ", but I can watch a complete movie perfectly without issues, maybe you should do a factory reset
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Estrong is a file explorer! How are you accessing your network files without it?

sephiroth_vg said:
Estrong is a file explorer! How are you accessing your network files without it?
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Click to collapse
You don't need anything but BubbleUpnp and Mxplayer, enable DLNA on your NAS and connect with Bubble (is like a file browser but for DLNA), double click on the movie and use MX as a player.

citytrader said:
You don't need anything but BubbleUpnp and Mxplayer, enable DLNA on your NAS and connect with Bubble (is like a file browser but for DLNA), double click on the movie and use MX as a player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey! I just switched on DLNA instead of using SMB and lo and behold! Everything works fine through BubbleUPnP and MXPlayer! Thank you so much! It seems like the issue is actually in the File Explorers and their network access ! Who'd have guessed?