Best way to stream files from Windows PC - TouchPad General

I have a fantastic Windows 7 x64 Media Center PC in my living room where all of my digital media is stored.
I installed Air Playit on my phone (Samsung Epic 4g) and the server on the PC, and everything is working smoothly.
However - tried installing 'er on the Touchpad and it just FCs every time I try to enter the local IP address. If it matters, I'm running the latest CherryKANG ROM.
I know a little, but probably not enough to get this to work right now.
Ideally - I want to stream this media anywhere in my house over WiFi as well as when I'm out of the house - which was the main reason Air Playit was a good choice for my phone. I use the tablet less outside of the house but that may change soon. Just looking for a good option to stream over SMB or whatever it may be.
Thanks for any help!
I've googled and found a few options but am wondering what the best one is according to XDA.

Plex is nice if you want a gui/jukebox style media center interface. ES File explorer and MX player work nice if you just want a free, simple solution.

Seconding Plex. I setup the server to work with my Roku, but it seems to work nicely with Android and iOS also. Both my TouchPad and phone work well with the plex server.

there is an app called Bubble Upnp that will stream media from your PC if it's running WMC or any other upnp/dlna server. While it may not be as fancy as Plex, it's free.

Great - thanks for the suggestions guys. Will try one or two in the next few days here and see how it works. Just realized I'm going out of town for a week next week so that'll be a good test to see if I can access everything.

Related

[Q] Streaming PCTV???

I was wondering, and yes, I have searched, but is it possible to stream pctv from your pc to Android, the easy way? There are guides telling how to use VLC to stream tv, guides that involves using windows media encoder, suggestions about using Orb live, wich just doesn't do it for me and even suggestions using the expensive slingbox.
I used to have mytinytv ( http://www.mytinytv.com/ ) on my PC wich did a really amazing job. The client, however, is only available for windows mobile, how ironic. I've changed the streaming profiles with windows media encoder 9 and achieved really high SD quality on my HD2 over 3g, yes, just 3g. The only downside with the client was that you could not easily zap trough the channels, as the tv server scanned all the channels but not letting you reorder it. Anyhow, it worked great, great quality and 30fps.
What is possible?
Mytinytv install file is still available on their site, however, the latest forum activity was about a year ago or so, so, hardly no progress anymore.
Is it possible to develop such a program for android? Or, is it just possible to create an android client for it? the client should be able to connect to the server using login credentials, give commands back to the tv server, i.e. changing channels and stream it using the built in streaming player of android.
Have a look at orb dot com (can't post link as I'm new, Hello all)
Basically, program runs on PC, connects you to a website, this then streams all your movies/songs to other devices.
I used to use it on my PS3 and iphone, fairly sure it will work on Android also.
Can also connect through the internet so can access it from work etc.
HTH
Stuart

[Q] Streaming video from home network

I just received my got tablet via the woot deal. Have installed vegan, and all is well. One thing I cannot figure out is, how can I stream videos stored on a shared network drive to my g tablet? I have windows 7 on the pc. I can see the files using File Expert, but they will not stream. It seems like this should be a pretty straight forward task, but so far I have not found the right app. 90% of the files I would like to play are in .avi format. I have tried several media players, and none I have tried give me an option to view files on my network. Thanks for any tips!
Try playon. Bonus is it would alllow you to stream them from anywhere.
Bad part is the quality won't be as good as natively playing the file..
-m
I like qloud. It's free and allows playing across the Internet as well as across a local network.
http://www.playon.tv/playon
Thanks for the suggestions.
I actually already have Playon, and use it to stream Hulu & Netflix content. I did not see an option to stream files I have stored locally on my network though. I'm at work, so cannot check it out now, but I will look for this option when I get home.
I will look into Qloud also.
I too would like to stream media from my network shares. Idc about HD content so much, but being able to watch stuff on the tab when I'm not at my desk would be nice.
Is there a way to do this without putting a media server program on the computer end of things?
Free version of TVersity Media Server (from tversity.com) along with free MoBo player from android market do the job well. For some reason, sound volume is low.
You can use network shares using CIFS. Look for CIFSManager in the market.
It's a little cumbersome to setup if you aren't very familiar with networking, but very doable.
You will need a kernel that supports CIFS (Vegan 5.11 might - can't remember). Latest TNTL (4.4) does, but will likely not in the future. The stock kernel does not.
You can look in the dev section for Clemsyns and Pershoot's kernels. Note that Pershoot uses a modular approach, so you have to follow the instructions on downloading and adding the CIFS module. Clemsyn's should 'Flash and Play'
As for media player, I had trouble playing mpg's. I used Rockplayer Lite from the market and it was able to play them
nxdelirium said:
I too would like to stream media from my network shares. Idc about HD content so much, but being able to watch stuff on the tab when I'm not at my desk would be nice.
Is there a way to do this without putting a media server program on the computer end of things?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than the CIFS route, I think every other solution requires something on the 'server' end. I have a Windows XP VM set up on my mythtv box for this purpose.
Here's a list of what I've tried:
Zumocast (works great on gf's iPhone, unfortunately no Android client yet, may work in a browser with flash, I couldn't get it with stock AOSP browser though)
Orb Live (couldn't get it to work)
AndrOrb (uses same Orb server, had mixed results)
PlayOn (works great for Amazon Prime, but had mixed results with local media. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't, although it is beta)
The following use VLC as a backend, so all have the same problem for me which is most of my mkv's are garbled (odd, since they play fine on the desktop):
VLC Direct
VLC Stream and Convert
Androstream (seems the best of the 3 as far as interface/reliability)
For this platform, I've been disappointed at android's ability (or inability) to reliably stream video (I wish audiogalaxy did video, that works PERFECTLY), yet the iOS platform has it working perfectly (even without RTSP support), not that I'm knocking Apple (not a fan either), it just seems their stuff "just works".
Sorry for the delay on the update. I first setup playon to steam from my local network, it worked well, but I hated the file navigation.
Next I tried qloud, installed the server on my pc and was up and running in minutes. It is extremely simple and works pretty well. I do get some occasional pixelation on sd video, but its not to bad, didn't even try hd because I'm sure the results wouldn't be good. Thanks for the tips.
Definitely QLOUD is the way to go.
setup is quick, and the video playback is good, everything is in sync.
i love the XDA community
Try plex, although it's not free and you need to set up a server
Sent from my PC36100
+1CIFS
It works perfect to mount all your network shares as local on your tab. The tab then treats all shared files as if they were on the tab. This includes streaming movies, audio, and ebooks, viewing pictures and editing docs. Apks stored on the network install as well. Works with VPN as well to have (slow) access from anywhere to home network.
Edit:sp
so I did a google search on cifs and got a lot of tech heavy results. Any chance threw is a setting up cifs for dummies web sure some one could share?
dlaciv12 said:
so I did a google search on cifs and got a lot of tech heavy results. Any chance threw is a setting up cifs for dummies web sure some one could share?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tech heavy?
What would you consider your tech-level?
Rom, kernal? Sorry if you already posted this info...
Edit: also, what kind of computer OS?
Check this link for any CIFS related questions.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=756158
*Remember to donate if you like a dev's work
(seriously this app is the shiz)
dlaciv12 said:
so I did a google search on cifs and got a lot of tech heavy results. Any chance threw is a setting up cifs for dummies web sure some one could share?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am fairly new to all this, and i got it working without any problems. I am running TNT Lite 4.4. I assume you know about windows sharing and how to enable it on your other computer. Also you need to be rooted on the gtab.
1. Install cifsmanager from market.
2. Bring up cifsmanager and Settings -> "Add New Share". You will have to have to give superuser permission to cifsmanager when it asks for it.
3. Fill in the new share details. The first entry should look like
192.168.1.160/Movies where 192.168.1.160 is the LAN ip of your windows computer, and Movies is the name of the windows file share on it. It will automatically fill up the mount point to be /mnt/cifs/Movies.
4. Fill in username password for the windows machine. Leave options empty.
5. Save share, and you will see an entry inside cifsmanager.
The above steps need to be done just once per share.
6. Click on the share entry and it will try to mount it. If it succeeds the button on the right turns green. Long press will bring up a menu with "Unmount" on it when u want to unmount.
Now you can access /mnt/cifs/Movies. I like ES File Explorer (free from the market) instead of iFileManager to browse files as it lets me play movie files on a player of my choice. I use RockPlayer Lite as a player.
Caveats: I read somewhere that with the stock launcher you have one shot of correctly entering the share details. If you use Launcher Pro this is not a problem. Note that there is not transcoding going on on the windows side. So if you are on slow wifi you might see stalls.
And you can get to any files, not just movies.
hope this helps
--
Most cifs programs require the gtab to buffer the entire video before it will play any large .avi files.
I have been using Gmote on my gtab with vegan 5.1.1 now for 2 months with no problems at all. It says it doesn't work with avi files but I've never had a problem with them.
cbay said:
4. Fill in username password for the windows machine. Leave options empty.
5. Save share, and you will see an entry inside cifsmanager.
--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Username and password for the admin account on the windows machine? I don't have a password set up as it is a HTPC with all of our moveis and recorded TV. I keep getting that the mount has failed due to I/O error.
Or is it looking for the password to enter the family group?
BTW, thanks for the walk through. I always hated dealing with this kind of Windows BS but glad Windows has this ability.
dlaciv12 said:
Username and password for the admin account on the windows machine? I don't have a password set up as it is a HTPC with all of our moveis and recorded TV. I keep getting that the mount has failed due to I/O error.
Or is it looking for the password to enter the family group?
BTW, thanks for the walk through. I always hated dealing with this kind of Windows BS but glad Windows has this ability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.. Of the user owning the share, in your case the admin account.
Check if it works if you set a admin password on your HTPC (and Cifsmanager). Maybe there is a CifsManager limitation on empty passwords.
There are ways I think to auto login into a machine with a password, in case you don't want to type a password out of sleep and/or reboot.
--

UpnPlay + XBMC + Moboplayer == :D :D

Hi All,
Had the tab for about 2 weeks now - have owned Android phones for 3 years.
I was looking for a good way to stream stuff from my media server (running Windows) but then remembered that XBMC can be a UPnP server - I also have a Linux XBMC box.
So - downloaded UpnPlay from the market and am using Moboplayer to view locally - and it works great!
But the real extra bonus is using the Tab as a remote control for XBMC! You can select whether your playlist runs on the Tablet or on the XBMC box - makes it really easy to build playlists and mess around with them.
Anyway - if you already have an XBMC box - definitely give it a try!
xnappo
You can also do this with GMote (search in Market; I'm not trustworthy enough to post links, apparently).
xnappo said:
Hi All,
Had the tab for about 2 weeks now - have owned Android phones for 3 years.
I was looking for a good way to stream stuff from my media server (running Windows) but then remembered that XBMC can be a UPnP server - I also have a Linux XBMC box.
So - downloaded UpnPlay from the market and am using Moboplayer to view locally - and it works great!
But the real extra bonus is using the Tab as a remote control for XBMC! You can select whether your playlist runs on the Tablet or on the XBMC box - makes it really easy to build playlists and mess around with them.
Anyway - if you already have an XBMC box - definitely give it a try!
xnappo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would you mind elaborating on what exactly you did to get it to work?
cnstarz said:
would you mind elaborating on what exactly you did to get it to work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is actually really simple. In XBMC, go to settings/network. Enable UPnP (I believe it is the first choice ) and that's it for the computer. Install upnplay and moboplayer in the tab and you're good to go. When you run upnplay, you should see your media server right away. Mind you, the interface is really clunky and I can't seem to pick the correct movie on the first try (it chooses one item below when you first choose, but then seems to work OK), but currently it is the best solution to streaming from XBMC.
How well does it stream MKV files to the tab?
I've been using PS3 Media Server and it works well with most file types, but struggles with MKV.
hoodoomagic said:
How well does it stream MKV files to the tab?
I've been using PS3 Media Server and it works well with most file types, but struggles with MKV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't really come into play i don't think. It is not doing any encoding or anything - just serving the file. So it will play as well as Moboplayer and your WiFi speed allow. No better, no worse.
xnappo
hey all, great to hear that you got it working through xbmc and ps3. I have a slightly different setup. I am using my PC. the upnplay program on my tab does detect my comp and the files but unfortunately unable to play them. Do you know what could be the problem? Funny is, when i transfer the same file onto my tab, i can play using mobo perfectly without any problems.
the only files that the upnplay detects without a problem are those i have recorded using my phone. It's quite weird though. Is it the program ( upnplay ) that is not working properly?

[Q] How to stream media from my pc to any android device I have?

Hi!
This question has mostly to do with laziness
I have my PC downloading all sorts of media during the day, music, videos, etc...
as far as this discussion goes, all of them are completely legal and DRM-free.
My PC is a Dell laptop (i7-2670QM) running legit Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
I have a Samsung i9000 running ICS, and a B&N Nook Color Running CM7,
I tried reading about RTSP and UPnP and other stuff, but couldn't get my head around it, I'm usually good with computers, except for this case.
What I want to do is to setup a media streaming from my PC to any of my devices.
I don't even want my computer to re-encode the media, just stream it as-is, given that
you can play almost any format on android these days.
Is it possible?
If so, what do I need? can I use VLC, or do I have to setup something more serious?
Thanks,
Eugene
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A
have you tried Remote Media Center?
links over 3g, 4g, or wifi. works with windows 7 media center and allows you to stream content from that media center to your phone.
I would suggest xbmc . It works both on windows and linux. It works as server as well as client. On phone side use "Home Dia" which also works as server as well as client.
minidlna is a very good , smal and handy dlna server for linux.
All these are free.
Is this what u need?
Eugene_N said:
Hi!
This question has mostly to do with laziness
I have my PC downloading all sorts of media during the day, music, videos, etc...
as far as this discussion goes, all of them are completely legal and DRM-free.
My PC is a Dell laptop (i7-2670QM) running legit Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
I have a Samsung i9000 running ICS, and a B&N Nook Color Running CM7,
I tried reading about RTSP and UPnP and other stuff, but couldn't get my head around it, I'm usually good with computers, except for this case.
What I want to do is to setup a media streaming from my PC to any of my devices.
I don't even want my computer to re-encode the media, just stream it as-is, given that
you can play almost any format on android these days.
Is it possible?
If so, what do I need? can I use VLC, or do I have to setup something more serious?
Thanks,
Eugene
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok So what you need to stream your music and all sound from your pc or laptop to your phone right? well if so just download the SoundWire on your Android phone, you can get free version and full version in my case i can get all paid apps for free and i can tell u how, but now download that app and then go to download the soundwire server at georgielabs.cjb.net/[/url] install it once installed open the Soundwire server then app the app and enter the server ip showed on ur Soundwire server on ur pc. Im using it with my wifi. so i hope is what u need! take care
Use vlc direct
Edward Cullen
You can simply go on play download free app called "mediahouse upnp" and it will find dlna servers or just use es file explorer which will find any device on your wifi network.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
Eugene_N said:
Hi!
This question has mostly to do with laziness
I have my PC downloading all sorts of media during the day, music, videos, etc...
as far as this discussion goes, all of them are completely legal and DRM-free.
My PC is a Dell laptop (i7-2670QM) running legit Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
I have a Samsung i9000 running ICS, and a B&N Nook Color Running CM7,
I tried reading about RTSP and UPnP and other stuff, but couldn't get my head around it, I'm usually good with computers, except for this case.
What I want to do is to setup a media streaming from my PC to any of my devices.
I don't even want my computer to re-encode the media, just stream it as-is, given that
you can play almost any format on android these days.
Is it possible?
If so, what do I need? can I use VLC, or do I have to setup something more serious?
Thanks,
Eugene
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use es file explorer. It detects network devices and let Yoy browse them (if You set everything properly). After that just open Your file
Sent from my X10i using xda app-developers app
I have tried streaming 720p movies and it is impossible.
Is DLNa/UPnP limited from WiFi/Internet bandwidth?
I calculated that with a speed of 7mpbs it would be easy to stream 720p content. Supposedly the android tv box I have with the router could easily reach more than 7mbps but.. it doesn't! Why??
try ArkMc app use, by DLNA supporting and connect PC as a server and stream to other devices what do you want, video, photos..
Eugene_N said:
Hi!
This question has mostly to do with laziness
I have my PC downloading all sorts of media during the day, music, videos, etc...
as far as this discussion goes, all of them are completely legal and DRM-free.
My PC is a Dell laptop (i7-2670QM) running legit Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
I have a Samsung i9000 running ICS, and a B&N Nook Color Running CM7,
I tried reading about RTSP and UPnP and other stuff, but couldn't get my head around it, I'm usually good with computers, except for this case.
What I want to do is to setup a media streaming from my PC to any of my devices.
I don't even want my computer to re-encode the media, just stream it as-is, given that
you can play almost any format on android these days.
Is it possible?
If so, what do I need? can I use VLC, or do I have to setup something more serious?
Thanks,
Eugene
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HomeDJ is best alternative to any Android streaming apps
Try it.
No firewalls, dynamic playlists, nice GUI, easy to setup.
HomeDJ forum is here:
http://www.homedj.net/forum
or summary here:
http://www.homedj.net
Kinda late to the party here.
But after several moths on trying out various services mentioned here on the thread i found them to be complicated or just to much work to it.
After searching here in XDA i FINALLY found it. It called Tonido. It can stream any file from your PC (also Linux, and Mac) with a secure connection. Trust me try it out your self and you wont be disappointed.
Hope my post can help some out who is looking for such solution...

XBMC on Touchpad via CM9

This is ace. Just downloaded the APK for XBMC and tried it on my other half's touchpad, running CM9.
Works amazingly. Haven't found any flaws at all yet, it's fast, fluid and made me grin a lot. Worth a try...
I used the first mirror from this page: http://techie-buzz.com/mobile-news/xbmc-apk-for-android-leaks.html.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIG73FRd8-4&feature=youtu.be for a demo...
Thanks mate, i'll definitely check it out. I heard about this but didn't see if the apk's were available!
Streaming latest scene standard mp4's over wifi using uPnP via TwonkyMediaServer on MacOSX and it stutters a little bit. Hella nice tho for the announcement build, I'm super excited that XBMC is now available on android... went ahead and bought a headrest mount by monoprice (via Amazon.com free shipping) to go with it. uNF uNF
Just installed the XBMC apk on my CM9 Touchpad 9-20120707-NIGHTLY-tenderloin and the SOUND DOES NOT WORK.
Apps/repositories run smooth though.
Can wait to have a fully functional XBMC on my TP!!
ZeekWorld said:
Just installed the XBMC apk on my CM9 Touchpad 9-20120707-NIGHTLY-tenderloin and the SOUND DOES NOT WORK.
Apps/repositories run smooth though.
Can wait to have a fully functional XBMC on my TP!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn up the volume before starting XBMC.Not too loud.
Start XBMC and turn up the volume all the way.
XBMC can't control the android system volume.
It worked
Thanks a lot!
Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk 2
Got it running, got sound, but 720p videos are very choppy, is HW Acceleration not enabled for TP yet?
nofences said:
Got it running, got sound, but 720p videos are very choppy, is HW Acceleration not enabled for TP yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not yet. Dev's say maybe by the end of the week.
I installed the XBMC apk listed in those linked threads, but I seem to get a black screen and my touchpad becomes quite unresponsive. Anyone else have a similar issue?
BuffMcBigHuge said:
I installed the XBMC apk listed in those linked threads, but I seem to get a black screen and my touchpad becomes quite unresponsive. Anyone else have a similar issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same thing happened to me the very first time I ran the app, got a blank screen for 6 or 10 seconds and then got the xbmc logo and the app loaded just fine.
I'm on the latest nightly build. Try a reboot after you install the app and maybe even a wipe cache/dalvik.
Other that that, XBMC runs great on my TP
Thanks Zeek, that fixed my problem!
using xbmc remote app works
it said error but if you configure it right ignore the error it works the xbmc remote works really good
Has anyone gotten this to work on aokp? For me it launches, then crashes after a few seconds every time. Just wondering if it is because I am on aokp or if something else could be wrong. I have installed twice and have rebooted numerous times. On top of that I have cleared data, pretty much all the standard fixes. Any thoughts are appreciated. I know this thread is xbmc on cm9 but it should work seeing as they really both also based. Thanks in advance.
Works a dream. Even got it to add directories from my 250GB external drive so I can have a bigger library on the go. Great stuff.
I tried this out yesterday and everything works great so far. I had some script errors with the 1channel addon but I'm still playing with stuff. So far this is pretty cool. I'm going to try out the XBMC remote app tonight.
EDIT: BTW, for anyone who hasnt seen this yet, here is a thread where someone has started doing nightlies of the app.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1813089
So just an update, the XBMC remote app used on a phone works really well with the TouchPad.
Does anyone here use Plex? I currently have Plex Server installed on my win7 HTPC and use the Plex andriod app to stream it to my phone or touchpad. I have a static IP to the house, so I can use this anywhere that I have an internet connection.
I never used XBMC but was always tempted to give it a shot. Does it allow for streaming out of the local network like Plex does, or only on direct wifi connections withing the same network?
Anyone here ever used both Plex and XBMC and can compare?
XBMC is complete stand alone, however as far as I know you have to be within the same network for it to work. Plex uses a server on the PC to be able to stream, weather it re-encodes or not I'm not familiar with. With XBMC you browse your network to find the files you want to play, you can then create shortcuts inside XBMC to those files permanently and just use that to find them the next time. XBMC has the ability to mount imagename.img or imagename.iso files and play them as a dvd without any further need for work or hassle, even if the dvd is still in the multiple .rar format, it will handle it. As far as I know XMBC has the ability to play the most types files of any other media handling software, plus it does smoothing and up-converting to make SD material look better on HDTV's.
Been using XBMC for years now, still have two original xbox's in the house wired up to stream from my network and they/it works great. Now with my TP i can do it from anywhere in the house seamlessly
plex vs xbmc
plex started life as the mac version of xbmc, then switched approach to a dedicated server application and a client that works on most devices. the plex server processes all the metadata and transcodes if needed for a slower connection or device. the plex client cant do much without a server accessable, and is completely useless offline.
xbmc started life as the XBox Media Player to be a standalone media center that could be configured to play back as many formats as possible internally. xbmc runs on most platforms now that android is covered and can play back most media formats given3nough cpu or hardware acceleration. xbmc does not have a server component like plex does. instead, it knows a bunch of different ways of accessing data (called sources in xbmc ) so it can decode and play your media. sources can be local directories, windows file shares, websites, ftp sites, webdav (like box.net), upnp, etc etc etc. additionally there are plugins which are little programs which can access a number of more specialised sites or systems. xbmc can play media remotely from your home server, but you will not have any automatic transcoding so it will be bandwidth intensive
boxee is also based on xbmc, with social networking crammed in

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