[Q] Issues with recorded videos over DLNA/Allshare - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've searched thoroughly on this and no solutions, only a few other users reporting the same problem.
Got a TV, Blu-ray player, or network media player that supports DLNA? Can you record a video on your Vibrant, and successfully play it on your client device? I think I saw someone say they had success using a WD Live HD Plus...but I'd sure like to get confirmation before I go get one.
I picked up a Samsung BD-C6900 player that ought to do this. Getting the networking set up on both the phone and the blu-ray went extremely smoothly. The Avatar trailer plays over DLNA perfectly. But videos recorded with the phone's camera? No go. They play for a second or two, then freeze, then sometimes pick up again, much farther into the clip, then freeze again. Even on the smallest resolution.
The C6900 is going back, unless I get some satisfaction from level three support in the morning...by the time I got that far tonight, the department had closed for the day.
So maybe I try the WD, or wait until some future time when Samsung finally gets around to doing the engineering that should have been done before releasing product, and spreading hype about Allshare that crosses the fine line from fraud into marketing.
Any other experiences or ideas?
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Update 10/1/2010 5PM MT:
Amie at level 3 support did not have any solutions, but was conscientious in taking down the data to relay to development.
I discovered that turning off "record audio" results in videos that play through allshare correctly, excepting the highest resolution mode. Even though they play correctly, there is a notice at the beginning: "Audio codec not support". This notice also sometimes briefly appears at the start of the malfunctioning videos that do contain audio.
I've copied the videos over to Ubuntu and used mplayer -identify to start analyzing them. Nothing jumps out as suspicious. In both cases, the audio format ID is 255 and mplayer selects the FAAD AAC codec. Mplayer plays them all fine.
I tried Twonky Mobile Server in addition to allshare, and it behaved similarly to allshare. It produced a log file in which the most interesting difference between avatar_trailer and the recorded videos is that DLNA profiles were found for the malfunctioning videos, but no profile was found for the Avatar trailer.
I wonder if something is triggering on-the-fly transcoding to happen, even though it should not be needed? On-the-fly transcoding is something that can happen under DLNA, so that broader compatibility can be achieved. It's going to be slow, though, on these embedded processors. Slowness due to transcoding would be consistent with the symptoms. I don't know whether such transcoding would happen on the server end (phone in this case), or the client end. Anyone, anyone? Bueller?
My next experiment will be to burn the videos to disc and see what the C6900 does with them in that case.
Update 10/1/2010 10PM MT: All the videos play fine when burned to disc. So it's purely an allshare issue...but is it on the phone end, or the BD player end? I checked back and found the source of the report that the WD Live worked with DLNA from a Vibrant...but it was not claimed that videos recored using the Vibrant's camera worked. So I have never seen any report of anyone ever playing their Vibrant-recorded videos using DLNA/allshare. Seems like something amiss on the phone end, then...but why, if the video files themselves are OK, do two different DLNA server apps (allshare and Twonky) both fail in the same way?
Next experiment: stream to Windows 7 as the DLNA client.
I would like to capture the DLNA streams, but am not sure how to go about that.
Mods: I see you moved this to Q&A. I think perhaps it would be a better fit in Development, now?

Tried flashing a different ROM, Frankin-Twiz Final. It has allshare removed. TwonkyServer Mobile had Unrecoverable Error on startup. So I restored to stock.
(someone has since posted a dlna.apk in that thread that restores allshare)
I had to reinstall Twonky after flashing back to stock, and after that, it worked better! There must have been an update to it in the interim...
Still not perfect; there are pauses every few seconds, but it resumes from the right spot.
My best guess is that an on-the-fly transcode is happening due to the unusual 32k audio sample rate of the camcorder videos. The client device probably doesn't support that rate over dlna. I bet some client devices do, and would play the videos smoothly.
Hopefully a firmware update for the BD-C6900 player will come along that fixes it.

I acquired a Western Digital Live Plus HD player at Best Buy for $99. With the Vibrant running TwonkyServer Mobile, the WD plays all videos perfectly, even 720p!
I didn't try allshare--no reason to bother, and I like how Twonky stays running in the background and lets you do other things on the phone.
The C6900 is boxed up ready to go back to the store.

Related

[Solved][Q] Streaming AVI Divx/Xvid

First of all, I am grateful that the vibrant can play divx encoded video files; I don't think I could live without it. Unfortunately it cannot stream them.
A solution is to start downloading the Avi and then [while its downloading] switch over to the Files application, go to the ".downloadTemp" folder [you need to first enable "hidden files" in the options], and open the incomplete *.avi in the stock video player application. This works wonderfully and i can instantly start watching a video AS IT DOWNLOADS.
UNFORTUNATELY, the video player app will not let me fast forward. Sometimes it lets me rewind, but it mostly takes me back to the very beginning of the video if I even touch the trackbar. And yes, for those who are wondering, the Video WAS sufficiently done downloading to reach the part of the video i wanted to fast forward to. I obviously wasn't trying to forward to the end of the video with only 10% of it downloaded.
I looked in the android market for alternative video players, and the only one that REMOTELY worked was Rockplayer. It would let me fast forward and rewind, except it was really glitchy and full of ads. I prefer just watching it on the perfectly stable stock Player than to use a glitchy one.
So i come to you guys, hoping for a solution. Any Ideas? Are there any other Video Players that i missed that will let me fast forward and rewind incomplete video files as they download?
(Oh, and if you're wondering the source of the videos, i usually just watch divx movies and shows that have been uploaded to megaupload, such as: megaupload.com/?d=T5D3YV8R&w=719&h=349)
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Solved: VPlayer and Moboplayer support HTTP Streaming for DviX
I have read a few posts similar to yours, complaining about streaming divx avi files.
I myself do NOT have any issues with this and have tested a fair share of my 900gigs of divx avi's. I DO have issues stream MKV files while I have seen others report that they can stream MKVs.
What does this mean?
This means that AllShare is no different then any of the other DLNA based streaming software out there, there are compatibility problems that need to be worked out. Usually this is sorted out on the streaming server side and not the player.
I am saying that the software you are using to stream is more then likely causing the problem.
Give Twonky a try. Thats what I use and as I said I can stream divx/xvid avi's without issue. The downside is that Twonky is not free, the upside is that there is a 30 day trial to test and see if it resolves your issue. If it does, I dont think the price for Twonky is that bad, I paid $15. If you want a free one (they update compatibility less frequently) just google search DLNA or UPNP streamers and test a few out. XBMC is a good open source alternative, but is really not an option if you are using a windows box. XBMC is a program and not a service so you would be running a full media player at all times. XBMC can be setup as a standalone in linux though, if you have a spare PC to use.
Good luck.
When I say "stream," I don't mean from a home network source, I mean from an http source.
Therefore, I don't think the DLNA solution applies (Although i'm probably going to end up taking your advice for when i want to play videos from my computer, so thanks for the tip )
But that still leaves the current issue. Any Ideas?
tmpryid said:
When I say "stream," I don't mean from a home network source, I mean from an http source.
Therefore, I don't think the DLNA solution applies (Although i'm probably going to end up taking your advice for when i want to play videos from my computer, so thanks for the tip )
But that still leaves the current issue. Any Ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AHHHHH.... I have been looking for a way to do this as well. HTTP streaming should no longer be an issue when 2.2 drops as sites like quicksilverscreen and the like all work fine through Flash 10.1 in 2.2. I have tested this with a Nexus1 and it works beautifully even over 3g.
I still want to have access to my home server though as I have close to a terabyte of video and my system is setup to auto download shows as they come out.
I am hoping to get my hands on a deODEXed version of the AllShare app to see if I can remove the WIFI only restriction. After that it should just be a matter of setting up a VPN back to my server.
Right, megavideo should work fine once we get the 2.2 update (woot! cant wait till we get flash xD)
as for movies uploaded on megaupload, I guess i'll survive with the .downloadTemp folder trick for now. Thanks.
And if i may ask, what's the quality like on allshare and twonky? and how fast does it respond to fast forwarding/rewinding?
I would like to stream from a regular windows samba share over wireless. I can't even get that working properly. It appears to be a limitation with the player and not the OS.

[Q] Recommendations for Streaming/Transcoding video to the Nook Color?

I've been looking for the best way to transcode and stream video from my file server to my Nook Color. (using handbrake to encode video for local playback works great... but until they sell 5 TB sdhc cards that's not going to cut it )
VLC Stream and Convert works (for every kind of file I've thrown at it... which is no surprise, VLC can handle anything pretty much).. but I haven't been satisfied with the quality. (and I've played with the h265 settings quite a bit). Does anyone have recommended settings for this app?
Also, I have Tversity... but I can't get it to work for all my videos yet.... Has anyone successfully configured Tversity to work with their Nook Color?
Are there any other solutions for this that anyone might recommend?
Thanks
Ive gotten PS3 media server to work with the nook. Its pretty similar to Tvsertity. Install UPnPlay on your Nook and try to access your Tvsertity server. It'll forward the stream to your player of choice (Rock player, etc.)
Only issue I've noticed is with files > 1gb.
has anyone tried twonky? i use it on my epic to stream from my server to phone... it will browse shared files on network and playthem.. or vise versa it can stream from phone to network... next time i have a nook here i can try it myself, but it is a free app so might be worth a shot to see if it will install and run on nook.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.pv.twonkyremote
Subsonic is quite good. It allows you to stream music and videos, however it requires flash to stream videos so I'm not sure how well it works on CM7. It is also not free.
VLC Convert and Stream is the only program I've found that will stream all of the file types I have on my computer. Everything else you'll have to transcode non compatible files first, which may not actually be that bad if you have plenty of storage space and/or you only have a few files that need to be transcoded.
I have my convert and stream playback on phone settings set to 480 width with highest bitrate selected (I don't have pro version, I think you can get up to 640 width with that) and playback settings set to fit to screen so that the videos expand out. I get a few artifacts here and there but the quality is pretty good considering it's over wireless. Biggest problem I had was getting the sound sync'd up, that required some playing around with the delay settings as it was pretty far off at first. Do you have the pro version? That allows higher resolution and possibly higher bitrate (but I'm unsure on the bitrate). When I watched 720p source videos, it looked pretty good.
VLC
Thanks - downloading it from the app store now. I have 2.3.3 running (CM7). I will let you know how it goes. So far nothing else I've tried has worked ;(
I love this app. It works well over home WIFI, but for the life of me I cant get it to connect outside of my home network.
What port forwading settings would I add to get this to work? Wouldnt the rest be the same since at home I use internal IP, outside of home I use external IP? Then forward external IP to the internal one previously set up? Kind of new at this, I've set up live streams before, but cant remember and troubleshoot this properly.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Edit 2: I have followed the directions for VPN and 3G methods but for some reason it wont connect.
Edit 3: Got it working, was missing a single digit in one of my forwards.
I recently tried Plex. That is an exciting app. I love the interface.
The only issue is that even though the streaming works, when I used it over my wifi the playback was laggy (even with overclock). I tried changing the settings and lowering the quality, but it still lagged.
poofyhairguy said:
I recently tried Plex. That is an exciting app. I love the interface.
The only issue is that even though the streaming works, when I used it over my wifi the playback was laggy (even with overclock). I tried changing the settings and lowering the quality, but it still lagged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed this with Plex as well. I already use it on my Galaxy S and it plays beautifully, but the NC seems to lag no matter what.
HOWEVER, the same video played over subsonic at maximum quality (Transcoded as .flv and embedded in the browser as a flash video) plays surprisingly well.
Any more knowledgeable members know why that is? I can't seem to figure out why.
I watch 720p mkvs transcoded over 3g running cm7 on my nc with no problems using subsonic. Best option I have found. Server is on a ubuntu 10 machine.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
DLNA
I've been able to use Skifta with RockPlayer or Vplayer to stream from my Windows 7 box (since DLNA is built in). You need a separate video player app in CM7 currently since most codecs have been removed until they get DSP working.
dinobud said:
I've been able to use Skifta with RockPlayer or Vplayer to stream from my Windows 7 box (since DLNA is built in). You need a separate video player app in CM7 currently since most codecs have been removed until they get DSP working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Skifta worked for me first time!
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction
Qloud Media has worked well for me. It's extremely simple to set up.
https://market.android.com/details?id=mobi.qiss.vega.ad
For dlna streaming on my phone i use imediashare and it works perfectly so maybe give it a try on the nook color.

Running Vegan 5.1.1....need apps

So I finally learned how to use NVFlash to get my device back to stock. Then I learned how to install Clockworkmod. Then I installed Vegan, after coming from TNT Lite. And overall I'm pretty happy. Except for the fact that nothing really seems to work
So here is what I need right now for my GTab to be of use to me in order of importance:
1) Streaming Audio from Shoutcast and bluetooth pairing to bluetooth speakers. Yes, I want this tablet to be my "Patio Media Player" and I'd like to get sound out to my bluetooth speakers. Alternatively I'd settle for streaming MP3's from my own PC where the mp3's reside.
2) Streaming video from Netflix, which I understand is in its infancy.
3) Streaming video from my home LAN, so it works like Air Video player. I'd spend $5 bucks on the PLEX application if it actually worked......does anyone know if it does, or is there a free solution to stream video.
Using Vegan, I can't get any of this to work. Winamp wont stream shoutcast, another app I tried just kept telling me "Broken Pipes" and so forth, no music was the result.
I can convert videos in handbrake so they play but thats not my ultimate goal, I want this device to stream music and at some point video.......can anyone help?
#2 -- there's a hack to get this to work, but it's not perfect. There is color banding issues, and I've heard that the fix also breaks the YouTube app. So it's an optional install, if needed.
#3 -- you'd want CIFS support. I though VEGAn had that buillt-in, but it's been so long I honestly don't remember anymore. The last major VEGAn update was early January, so keep that in mind. And the three guys who worked on it no longer update it (myself included).
Sorry for the n00bishness, whats CIFS? (Yes, I will Google). *Googled*
Also, since you didn't comment on #1, and you are probably the GTab Guru of Guru's, does this mean I'm SOL for doing something as simple as streaming internet audio?
Nah, I'm not the guru of guru's -- I just know a few things so I wanted to pass on what I did know. I didn't respond on #1 because I don't have an answer for that ( I don't stream audio and I don't have a BT headset).
As for CIFS, it's SMB (Windows file sharing). If memory serves, VEGAn has that built in, you just need to get CIFSManager from the market and change the settings so that the support is loaded as a module. If you get this working, then you can mount a share onto the device as a mount point, and then run the content from there. There's probably quite a few threads on this, as CIFS was something that a lot of us wanted, early on.
Well in case you ever want to, I did find that the current version of DoubleTwist streams Shoutcast! streams just dandy and I now have a backyard streaming audio solution for my patio with some paired BT speakers
Now to find your hack on how to get netflix working on Vegan..
HeadRusch1 said:
Well in case you ever want to, I did find that the current version of DoubleTwist streams Shoutcast! streams just dandy and I now have a backyard streaming audio solution for my patio with some paired BT speakers
Now to find your hack on how to get netflix working on Vegan..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just in case you don't see my reply on the other thread:
Give TuneIn Radio a shot, I think you may prefer it. I have yet to have a problem with it. It gives me shoutcast along with Internet Radio and probably much more. I have it running almost 24X7. It has a great desktop widget too.
It has been downloaded twice as much as Doubletwist and can record for you too. The pro version is only .99 compared to DT's $3.74
DT has also had quite a few complaints lately since latest update.
Hey thanks, I did miss that thread, and I will give it a download.
Now, the 64 dollar question: Are you doing any video streaming to your Gtab? Air Video Player is probably the defacto standard on the Ipad side of things, just install its server on your pc and, assuming your box has the horsepower to transcode video on the fly, it will basically play any video from any source and stream directly to the ipad/pod device of your choosing.
I am desperately seeking that solution for my Gtab. The best I have been able to do is this:
1) I seem to be able to stream any xvid of DVD-ish resolution just fine.
2) I seem to be able to stream WMV files at 720p just fine
3) I don't seem to be able to stream anything else just fine...
I can re-encode using HANDBRAKE and transfer to the GTAB but that defeats the purpose of streaming media.
Any thoughts? I heard there was a new app out that does a similar style of streaming for both Ipad and Android, but no idea if it works with the Gtab or not. I'm currently running Vegan 5.1.1.
I have enjoyed using AudioGalaxy for streaming music from my home computer library to my tablet. Tons of music accessible with no tablet storage use.
I checked out TuneIn......its a very slick interface, with one problem: It doesn't appear to be giving me any Shoutcast stations. Its giving me some major stations, its giving me local radio....but I can't get, for example, some crazy German trance station.
When I search the list of stations that comes back appears to be quite limited, also there doesn't appear to be a way to limit the minimum bandwidth (I don't want to see 64kbps mp3 streams in my search results).....actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure i can search?
Anyhow, what am I missing....?

[GUIDE] 1080P WiFi Network Video Playback Without Root

{EDIT}
It appears there is an audio issue with RockPlayer and Hardware Decoding on our device. After contacting the developers, they will be releasing a version with SW audio support while using hardware for video to fix this. Expected within one month. Post will be updated once released.
DicePlayer has been recommended as an alternative as it has HW decode and native SAMBA support, however it does not appear to handle hardware decoding for as many formats as RockPlayer (watch for SW in the upper left).
{/EDIT}
Hi all,
While going through the Accessory Guide post (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1377669) I realized there was an odd recommendation on video playback using Emit Free. With our devices there is no need for transcoding like you would have to do on an iPad, but it's still not "easy" to get full 1080P playback over the network.
With root, you can install cifs drivers that are pretty efficient, but without it, many times video stutters. I tested a large combination of File Managers that mounted CIFS/SAMBA shares and Video Players to see which performed best.
From File Manager HD and Astro to MXPlayer and XYPlayer nearly all of them had stuttering issues with 1080P video, and lag when seeking in 720P video. Below is where I ended up, which entailed perfect 1080P playback, with zero lag when seeking (tested on high bitrate MKV and AVI w/ AC3 and DTS audio samples).
1. Install ES File Explorer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop
ES File Explorer is a file manager that supports CIFS/SAMBA mounts (these are the shared folders on your Windows, Mac, or Linux PC). Once open, swipe right to access the network shares. I recommend turning on "Detail" mode in the settings, so you can see file sizes and permissions, too. The advantage of ES File Explorer over other managers I tried is that the CIFS implementation has been optimized very well, and was the best at streaming the file data to the video player from a speed and bandwidth perspective.
2. Install RockPlayer Lite: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redirectin.rockplayer.android.unified.lite
RockPlayer is a great player that includes hardware acceleration, much like MXPlayer. The difference here is that like ES File Explorer, RockPlayer seems better optimized for network file handling. With other players in combination with ES File Explorer, there were still lag issues during seek. RockPlayer has none of these issues.
Be sure to enable HW acceleration in Rockplayer
Also ensure app mode is set to "stretched" instead of "zoomed"
Any questions, or other options, feel free to post below.
If this guide was helpful, please click Thanks below instead of replying to keep the thread clean.
Thanks!
Ben
i tried your suggestion.
yeah it gets rid of the lag but:
- there is no sound for most of my hd mkv videos
- subtitles dont show for mkv files
nice to see that the tfp actually does have the power to play these smoothly though!
I have been using ES File explorer and it does help with the streaming. However, I have not gotten a streaming video to play thru the whole movie/show. Seems every 10 or 30mins (differs), it will quit playing. I've tried the same setup on my Galaxy Nexus and don't have issues. I guess I can try Rock Player. I guess no one else has this issue? I've seen it mentioned once or twice while reading the boards but no answers. I thought maybe it was on my end and somehow the wifi was dropping, but if it is...its not displaying it.
I use dice player. It has native ability to open network shares and plays HD MKV files over wifi without lag or stutter.
r0ck0 said:
I use dice player. It has native ability to open network shares and plays HD MKV files over wifi without lag or stutter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can it transcode dts audio or any multichannel audio? any program i have tried plays fine but there is no audio
tried it , unfortunally no sound on most of my mkv's.
Dice player does a better job, way more codecs supported and equal network performance, rockplayer seems to build up a bigger buffer, at the beginning it may look like its more stable but after a while both are laging .. (high profile 1080)
what's up with all the lagging ? wifi performance not good enough or is the SOC not capable of streaming and decoding all at once? no problems from sdcard ..
knives of ice said:
can it transcode dts audio or any multichannel audio? any program i have tried plays fine but there is no audio
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dice player works great with mkv movies with DTS and AC3 audio on my TF201. Dice player is the best way to stream movie using a NAS Imo.
tested with dlink dns-323 and stock tf201.
Tempie007 said:
tried it , unfortunally no sound on most of my mkv's.
Dice player does a better job, way more codecs supported and equal network performance, rockplayer seems to build up a bigger buffer, at the beginning it may look like its more stable but after a while both are laging .. (high profile 1080)
what's up with all the lagging ? wifi performance not good enough or is the SOC not capable of streaming and decoding all at once? no problems from sdcard ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wifi performance is the issue for me. If i'm sitting next to the router 1080p plays fine. If I go to other rooms(even adjacent rooms) then it will stutter periodically. It really impairs one of the primary uses that I wanted the Transformer Prime for. As of now I use Plex to transcode to a smaller bitrate
Tempie007 said:
tried it , unfortunally no sound on most of my mkv's.
Dice player does a better job, way more codecs supported and equal network performance, rockplayer seems to build up a bigger buffer, at the beginning it may look like its more stable but after a while both are laging .. (high profile 1080)
what's up with all the lagging ? wifi performance not good enough or is the SOC not capable of streaming and decoding all at once? no problems from sdcard ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, I've had the exact opposite impressions with Rockplayer having more HW decoding support. In any event, I'm stupid for not testing audio.
I've updated the first post based on discussions with the developers of Rockplayer, and will do a re-work of this guide focusing on both solutions once it is released and we can test.
Thanks,
Ben
I haven't tried Rockplayer. However, I get excellent results with Diceplayer. I stream all 720p and most 1080p .mkv using estrongs file explorer. Some 1080p will get lag. Just depends on the bit rate your 1080p video is encoded at, and your WIFI connection speed.
I actually just run an entire home PC with Win 7 Ultimate on it for my movie collection. I just RJ45 it right to my Wireless router. That way I can stream all of my movies to any device in my home. I have quite a few WDTV lives hooked up to all my tv's in my house. So it works out great.
Plus once in awhile If a 1080p video isn't playing well on my prime. I convert it using airvideo. I have airvideo server running on the Win 7 server. (those that have an ipad 2 that is) Have this option. You simply load airvideo on your ipad 2. Select the .mkv you want to convert to .m4v and add it to quere. Airvideo has all the conversion and bitrate methods built in the program. So I don't have to mess with jumping on Win 7 machine. Loading a conversion program and blah blah. I have yet to find an Android program that compares to Airvideo. If someone has suggestion let me know. (Yes, I have tried PLEX). Just can't beat the Live Conversion and simple conversion in Airvideo.
lollee76 said:
I have been using ES File explorer and it does help with the streaming. However, I have not gotten a streaming video to play thru the whole movie/show. Seems every 10 or 30mins (differs), it will quit playing. I've tried the same setup on my Galaxy Nexus and don't have issues. I guess I can try Rock Player. I guess no one else has this issue? I've seen it mentioned once or twice while reading the boards but no answers. I thought maybe it was on my end and somehow the wifi was dropping, but if it is...its not displaying it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i get the same thing happening to me randomly.
Using mx player and es file explorer, maybe 15 or 20 mins into watching, the player will just quit by itself. Doesnt happen always though, maybe twice for every 5 vids i play.
Erusman said:
I haven't tried Rockplayer. However, I get excellent results with Diceplayer. I stream all 720p and most 1080p .mkv using estrongs file explorer. Some 1080p will get lag. Just depends on the bit rate your 1080p video is encoded at, and your WIFI connection speed.
I actually just run an entire home PC with Win 7 Ultimate on it for my movie collection. I just RJ45 it right to my Wireless router. That way I can stream all of my movies to any device in my home. I have quite a few WDTV lives hooked up to all my tv's in my house. So it works out great.
Plus once in awhile If a 1080p video isn't playing well on my prime. I convert it using airvideo. I have airvideo server running on the Win 7 server. (those that have an ipad 2 that is) Have this option. You simply load airvideo on your ipad 2. Select the .mkv you want to convert to .m4v and add it to quere. Airvideo has all the conversion and bitrate methods built in the program. So I don't have to mess with jumping on Win 7 machine. Loading a conversion program and blah blah. I have yet to find an Android program that compares to Airvideo. If someone has suggestion let me know. (Yes, I have tried PLEX). Just can't beat the Live Conversion and simple conversion in Airvideo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm amazed you think going through all that is better than PLEX. With PLEX you just load the app and select the movie... Done. For bonus it also works when you're away from home and want to watch a movie even tethered through 3G
dalingrin said:
I'm amazed you think going through all that is better than PLEX. With PLEX you just load the app and select the movie... Done. For bonus it also works when you're away from home and want to watch a movie even tethered through 3G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I will try Plex again. I haven't tried it in awhile. Alot of movies I don't have any problem with. Its only the high bit rate 1080p mkv's. I know Plex does Live conversion as well. Perhaps they have improved it since I last used it. One feature i did think was cool with plex was how it catagorized your movie collection for you.
Erusman said:
Well, I will try Plex again. I haven't tried it in awhile. Alot of movies I don't have any problem with. Its only the high bit rate 1080p mkv's. I know Plex does Live conversion as well. Perhaps they have improved it since I last used it. One feature i did think was cool with plex was how it catagorized your movie collection for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another nice thing about Plex is that you can choose not to do live transcoding and just stream the original video(silly wifi bandwidth allowing). But, that does bring me to my one complaint about Plex. You cannot directly stream the original video if it is mkv, it will always transcode.
In my experience:
If you want to avoid transcoding, then rooting + CIFS support really is the best, most efficient way, imho...plus, you're killing multiple birds with one stone, as file types not recognized by ES or other file explorers that support SAMBA, but which are supported by various apps on your tablet, will still work with whatever app you're using to interact with them.
Otherwise, this guide is good for playback without transcoding for some files. I'm able to stream some of my bluray and HD DVD rips (full bitrate mkv's with no down-sampling, de-rezzing, additional compression or detail removal) without transcoding, but high-bitrate titles such as The Empire Strikes Back hitch frequently. Don't know if that's a limitation of my wireless setup, tho).
On the transcoding side:
Emit free works fine. It's a little easier, imho, to set up remote file sharing that even Plex is, if you have to set up port forwarding manually on your router, as the instructions are pretty explicit about which ports it's using and how to get it set up. And, it's free.
Plex works fine, and cross-compatibility between Ipad and Android on the Plex server side, along with the cataloging, support for file types such as .wtv, and the channels concept, is pretty damn cool imho. You have to look around if your setup falls outside the norm as far as port forwarding manually is concerned, but if you don't experience issues, getting set up with a myPlex account for remote streaming is pretty straightforward. Transcoding looks pretty stellar if you can support anything above 4 mbps on your wireless, and it doesn't take a lot of CPU horsepower to do live streaming, either. I have an older AMD processor in my HTPC, and I stream 1080i .wtv files all day long to both my Prime and my wife's Ipad with no or extremely little stutter, and all my bluray rips play without issue. .WTV files can be played back while they're being recorded, and while watching something else on the HTPC, too...oh, and combine this with a Windows Media Center control app, and you can basically watch live tv on the Prime...just browse the guide, set a show to record, and you can watch it almost immediately in Plex, while it's recording.
Last, but not least, Splashtop THD or whatever the newer version is, actually works pretty damn well on my office rig, which is nvidia-equipped. .wtv files work as well, but you have to set your machine to open them by default in WMP instead of Windows Media Center.

'HomeRun' App with SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime

LG L9 P769 with stock Jellybean
In brief: I was able to stream live TV from the 'HDHomeRun Prime' to my phone using the app 'HomeRunTV'.
I recently purchased a network cable card tuner: a tuner that will stream to my home network so I can watch cable on computers/phones/etc, a 'HDHomeRun Prime' by Silicon Dust.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HKIB6E/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I did NOT purchase this tuner (actually, it has three tuners) to stream to my phone; that's just a side benefit. There are a couple of apps that will allow an Android phone to stream from this tuner.
-The first is InstaTV, which offers a free and a pro version. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keyitech.instatv.pro
-The second is HomeRunTV, which is pay only. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zaren.HomeRunTV
Neither of these apps have a 'guide', they only list channels. With either of these apps, the tuner can stream to the phone one of two ways:
1) you can stream native H.264 video from the tuner to the phone.
2) you can install a (free) program on a computer to decode the video and stream a lower-bandwidth signal to your phone.
I was unable to get InstaTV's program to install on my dinosaur PC, but I could install HomeRunTVs program to install (it also requires VLC, also free, but I haven't finished setting VLC up yet), so I chose to just purchase HomeRunTV app 'HomeRunTV' ($2.99) for my phone
Along with HomeRunTV I also needed to install a video player because the ones I have are not supported. I installed MX Player (Free) on my phone. MX Player does NOT appear to have have hardware acceleration on my phone; it has hardware accelerator plugins and I have not checked to see if there is one that supports the L9.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mxtech.videoplayer.ad
The app's developer recommends a different video player, VPlayer; that player is by the same developer and is either paid or has a 7-day free trial. I may try it later.
I am typing this while watching "We Are Marshall" on AMC's SD channel and sitting close to my wireless N wireless router. The movie has a lot of action and there are a few times where there is pixelation or artifacts (i.e. when everyone is cheering and jumping around after the game, or when someone is being tackled) but overall I'm happy with the quality considering that I did not buy the tuner for this purpose. If I go downstairs or to the bedroom (through two walls) I see more artifacts. If I watch the same show on AMC's HD channel in the basement there are frequent artifacts - but keep in mind it's a hollywood football movie; in the more static scenes, the image is fine.
When watching a SD channel with less motion there appears to be some 'deinterlacing' effects but the picture is crisp when watching a HD channel.
I have NOT set up VLC on my computer yet, so I can't test the feature where my computer streams to the phone. This should improve quality and range. If I ever get around to doing so, I will post an update. As I mentioned before, I did NOT purchase the tuner to stream to my phone but I figured I might as well get the ability, especially if it only costs $2.99.
edit:
Tuning into a station takes between 10 and 20 seconds depending on if it is SD or HD and if I am near the router or in the basement, I believe this is a buffering issue but I do not know for sure. Between the time it takes to tune in a channel, and the lack of a guide, you better know what you want to watch because channel surfing would take forever.
So wait, what does this do? Does it let you watch TV on your phone or what?
Ilxaot said:
So wait, what does this do? Does it let you watch TV on your phone or what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. It's sort of like putting a cable card in a computer so you can watch TV on that computer, except it puts the cable card on the network so multiple devices can share it. DLNA-enabled blu-ray players and TVs can stream from it, and PS3 and XBox.
It will allow me to use a PC as a DVR, and my daughter will be able to use her laptop as a DVR, and we can all watch TV on our phones/tablets.
I believe that with DLNA-enabled devices you can get 'premium' content like HBO. The L9 has DLNA but the app I'm using does not, so I can't watch HBO on the L9 with this app.
That's pretty cool dude! Nice find! I'd recommend a better thread title though. When I saw "HomeRun" I was reluctant to come here since it came off as a Pitch-by-Pitch MLB app lol.

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