Rootable Android Box Suggestions? (Primarily for Moonlight Game Streaming) - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm moving soon and I'm used to having an HTPC hooked up to my 60" TV but I've decided to go a different route this time around.
I'm planning on setting up a dedicated Android based box next to my TV to run Moonlight Game Streaming (similar to nvidia Game Stream) to mirror my desktop PC in my bedroom to take advantage of all of my HTPC functions as well as stream my gaming PC to my 60" TV.
I was thinking about picking up a Steam Link for $50 or nvidia shield for $200, but figured I should look at different options for a simple but fast Android based box that can be rooted and use Moonlight to essentially mirror my desktop for the most feature complete experience. I know you can use workarounds to get Steam Link to the windows desktop, but I rather not deal with clunky workarounds (adding notepad as a nonsteam game, etc.) if there is a better option out there. I also don't need the nvidia shield controller and the additional features the nvidia shield provides if I'm going to be using gamestream/moonlight to do everything off my mirrored desktop PC anyway.
This box needs to have the following features:
Ethernet port for solid connection
At least 1 USB port for a USB expansion dongle or multiple USB ports for wireless mouse/keyboard/headphone capability
Fast enough to decode Moonlight at 1080p/60fps without a hitch
HDMI connectivity for TV at 1080p/60fps (4K/60fps is not important at this point)
Rootable (Moonlight needs to run on root to have fluid mouse control)
Storage on this device does not need to be much, its essentially a mirror for my gaming PC.
What do you guys suggest?

Related

[Q] Remote Desktop, MHL HDMI and Bluetooth keyboard

Hi All,
My dream, one that I hope Android can help me fulfill is to hook my Galaxy S2 to a HDMI tv, fire up remote desktop and by using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, effectively have a full desktop available.
I am yet to try hooking up my phone to a tv as I am waiting for the MHL cable, but issues I envisage are the following:
1) When the screen is mirrored on the TV, the RDP program will not use the TVs display show 'full screen'. I have installed some RDP applications and they allow you to select the resolution so perhaps this will resolve the issue
2) Are there any RDP applications that allow bluetooth keyboard and mouse entry?
This is the hold grail for me!! Many a time I have stayed in a hotel for work or holiday and not had my laptop with me and wished for such a solution. Combine this with Wake On Lan and it's perfect!
I hope someone can help!
I can't believe i'm the only one that wants something like this to work!
RDP programs should just take any inputs from your phone and pass them onto the remote machine so BT kb/m should work ok IMO. Not sure about the mirroring but if it is fullscreen on the phone then maybe the MHL cable will upscale for the TV.
rob_h said:
RDP programs should just take any inputs from your phone and pass them onto the remote machine so BT kb/m should work ok IMO. Not sure about the mirroring but if it is fullscreen on the phone then maybe the MHL cable will upscale for the TV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm waiting for the cable before I can try. In fact I would have had it by now but my girlfriend wants to buy some stuff for me for my bday and I believe she's already ordered it!
I should get mine tomorrow and I'll try it out.
Thanks! I'll check back on thread!
I've been doing some reading around and have found that BT keyboards and a mouse will work no problem.
I tried my MHL cable with the Android VNC viewer app and allows you to fit to screen but does not output at the tv's native res.
I have had similar experience with Remote RDP, it just mirrors the phone's native resolution. Hopefully this kind of thing will be supported soon, including internet browsing at 1080p.
Thanks guys, that sux!
I still haven't received my cable so I can't try for myself, but have you managed to make it work to a workable output on the TV?
would be interesting if we could port some parts from the atrix (webtop) over to this phone. I actually enjoyed that feature.
blunted09 said:
would be interesting if we could port some parts from the atrix (webtop) over to this phone. I actually enjoyed that feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps, this kind of program may help to format the resolution?
Am I missing something? If you got a bt keyboard and bt mouse and the phone to tv hdmi, don't you have it all? Why would you need a remote desktop or vnc software?
Well, you'd have it all except for USB, which you might be able to live without.
ckinninger said:
Am I missing something? If you got a bt keyboard and bt mouse and the phone to tv hdmi, don't you have it all? Why would you need a remote desktop or vnc software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it could pump out the full Remote Desktop resolution then you will effectively have a full desktop through your phone rather than just have the phone's software capability.
Fair enough you can surf the web and play a video but what if I want to use full excel or Word, and multi-task like on a desktop.
I've still not received my cable so I don't know whether the browsing the net with the phone's browser is legible on a big screen.
In my earlier post I complete missed off the applications name - LCD Density - haven't tried and I don't know if it's compatible with the SGSII, but sounds like it changes the native resolution of the phone.
Try Splashtop as your vnc app it is the only one to my knowledge that can stream audio almost perfect and video pretty good over vnc and works like a charm on the atrix.
Did you find a good BT keyboard that works well with the Evo? I'd prefer one with a built in trackpad, as my goal is to use this on the road (ie, airports, trains, etc), and would like to have an all-in-one keyboard/mouse.
The one thing that I haven't had time to tinker with have been HDMI goggles that can give a virtual display. Has anyone tried these w/ the Evo's mini-HDMI output?

[Q] VNC like application to play pc games on phone?

Hi,
I recently bought Xperia S - that has separate HDMI and USB ports, so i was thinking if i could use the device to play pc games and stream video and sound via my phone to tv.
The phone can stream 1280x720 resolution to tv, so i was thinking i could create some kind of onlive-like experience, by plugging phone to tv and connecting keyboard/mouse to it via usb hub/bluetooth - and WIFI streaming output from pc to my phone then to tv.
Is there any app i could use to archieve my goal?
I am pretty sure OnLive is kind of what you are looking for! You can't run windows on your phone, so this is as close as it gets!
Hope this helps! Hitting the thank button if I helped it much appreciated
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
You misunderstood, i dont want to run windows on my phone, i want to stream video/audio/input between my pc and phone - yes, same thing that OnLive does but with my own games on pc. I just dont want to use onlive - i want my local pc in other room - so far the closest thing out there seems to be kainy...
I know, I was just saying, I have tried several things and there is not really pc streaming to your phone that is instance from pc to phone. It has some lag.
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
I don't think this is possible. Closest you'll get is Onlive as previously stated or using teamviewer.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Actually - ive figured out what i need to do - thankfully i can come by with 10 meter hdmi cable from pc to tv. So ill do this.
Bought "kainy" app from the market, bought samsung USB-otg adapter and a cheap usb hub. I will run kainy on minimal gfx and sound settings, plug keyboard and mouse to usb adapter so i will be able to stream input to pc via kainy.
HDMI output will its job for video and audio.
I've also tried super snes emulator with logitech rumble pad connected via usb to my phone - thos works awesomely well - a mobile console/emulator replacement, the only problem i experience now is that phone slows badly when i enable tv out via hdmi from my Xperia
ergo14 said:
Hi,
I recently bought Xperia S - that has separate HDMI and USB ports, so i was thinking if i could use the device to play pc games and stream video and sound via my phone to tv.
The phone can stream 1280x720 resolution to tv, so i was thinking i could create some kind of onlive-like experience, by plugging phone to tv and connecting keyboard/mouse to it via usb hub/bluetooth - and WIFI streaming output from pc to my phone then to tv.
Is there any app i could use to archieve my goal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing that could work is OnLive. VNC is too laggy for gaming. At least over my network.
Well i intend to use it only between 2 rooms, not over internet - if onlive works - local wifi should work better
chase2hoop said:
The only thing that could work is OnLive. VNC is too laggy for gaming. At least over my network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see this not being smooth/fast enough either, but who knows, maybe he will get it working.
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
well, i already got kainy working on my tv - but the compression is horrible, so i've decided instead to byu 8-10m HDMI cable and connect my pc -> tv directly , and just use phone as remote hub for keyboard, mouse - the lag for input should be minimal enough to play fps online - and probably way better option than onlive.

[Q] Open alternative to All Share Play hub?

I like the idea of the All Share Play hub, streaming movies direct to my tv this way via wifi would be worth doing (unlike MHL to HDMI which in addition to the tv and phone requires THREE additional components to be connected, including power adaptor).
What I don't like about it is the proprietory nature of it, and the fact that I have no guarantee it will be compatible with my next phone - especially if that phone isn't a Samsung.
This is a new area of interest for me, so excuse my ignorance, but is there not an open standards type of device that can do this, which will allow me to use any phone with it?
Bump.
While I doubt it's as easy to use (AllShare is specifically geared for sharing media AFAIK - I removed it from my phone so I don't really know what it's like), Samba Filesharing will turn your phone into a SMB server (possible alternative: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codesector.droidnas). Samba is GPLed, so on the openness front you're covered. I'm not sure what kind of speeds you would get, though, so try the app (it's free) and mount the share on a GNU/Linux computer and see if it works well for you if you're interested. There's a bit of a shift in the way it works: with AllShare, I believe, you initiate the streaming from your phone. With Samba, you share a folder but have to navigate to it from whatever device it is you're attempting to stream to.
Assuming that you are, if you have a hacked Samsung TV, you can then mount the Samba share from it and start browsing. If not, you can buy small Android devices that plug into your TV for cheap prices - and there are, of course, ways to mount a Samba share on an Android device (along with a WIP port of XBMC, which features SMB browsing anyway).
--
I was high on something. Look into DLNA and using your phone as UPnP Media Server.

[Q] Android as a desktop operating system

I was thinking of the coolness factor of just having one device, a phone, to which you could connect an external display and have an extended desktop. I am not finding any reference to this on Android (only the MS Surface). From what I have been reading, and remember/understand (may be confused), Jelly Bean brought the ability for windowing apps. However, the apps have to be coded for the capability, unless you root your phone and installed an app that provided windowing for all apps. Also, I have not heard of the possibility of having an extended desktop in Android.
I would like to ask WHY? Why not have windowing and the ability for an extended desktop, on an external display? A bluetooth keyboard and mouse just follows. Does google have to play nice with the manufacturers that stand to loose from people only needing one device? Is there a reason I'm not thinking of? Most phones are fast enough for this these days.
At the turn of the century, I was running GPS software Deluo Routis on a Sony Vaio 505 Pentium 200Mhz laptop running Win98. The 2-D graphics were smooth even while playing mp3's through the car speakers. The mapping software showed the map clearly, and effectively gave me navigation. People have lost sight of how much you can do if you give up the bloat and bling.
Also, I am pretty confused with the merging of Android and Chrome. I never liked Java to begin with; my experience with it is in MS Windows, and it runs slow as molasses. I believe my phone would run much faster if they had not chosen Java. I understand this to be because you have an operating system running on top of another operating system. It just makes more sense to me to have less layers and run apps natively, for better performance. I thought maybe they chose Java for its level of security. Is the screening process for Google Play not foolproof enough?
I like the philosophy of Google better than Microsoft**, so if one of them is going to win, I hope it's Google. I'm hoping Google won't end up with a convoluted Android/Chrome operating system because Lawyers forced them to (the idea I get based on the latest news). I don't understand: do they want to keep their OS architecture simple, but are being forced to make the OS complex for different reasons?
**Apple doesn't even want to compete. They have never wanted to dominate, just make huge profits. Unless they break up the marriage of hardware and software, they won't win. Then again, if Samsung keeps dominating, there may not be much hardware diversity?
Oh, and my main question was: "Why not have windowing and the ability for an extended desktop?". Wouldn't that be a big deciding factor for anyone that wanted to simplify and just have one device?
Anybody? Tell me I'm crazy at least. There has to be a strategic reason, that Google does not introduce full windowing and extended desktop support.
Its coming eventually. though you could do it right now. Motorola tried something like this with their atrix lapdocks.
Sent from my Samsung i437p using Tapatalk and CM 10.2
E_Phather said:
Its coming eventually. though you could do it right now. Motorola tried something like this with their atrix lapdocks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you do it right now with any android device having a video port?
Well lets look at how we could achieve this with todays technology.
Input:
Bluetooth Mouse & keyboard.
Output:
Wireless display with support for older displays using something like Chromecast.
Graphical User Interface:
A secondary Launcher/Application (Which could potentially see companies like MS & Canonical developing their own UI's and Charging for them if required).
Home & Office use with one device:
Home would be the default UI, but when your device has used NFC to log into the office it would automatically enable your Office profile/UI for a certain length of time (requiring you to log back in after a set time or manual log out via another NFC tap).
This would be very useful as it would enable you to take your "desktop" environment anywhere with you and connect to any HDTV with Wireless display/Chromecast support.
Applications:
So if like me you are finding your phone to become ever more a better solution to your digital needs and you only require your desktop for apps which work better with larger displays (Videos & certain games) you will find this very useful.
Games:
Now games could become ever more better as they could be controlled using standardised control inputs (game controllers could use standardised input methods allowing you to select any compatible controller to best suit your needs) or even a driving game could allow you to see the game on a HDTV yet be controlled with the accelerometer for steering and the right of the devices touch display would be the accelerator and the left of the display would be the brakes for example.
More Business Solutions:
If you could wirelessly connect to the office display then show a powerpoint style presentation that would be great because the very device which stores the file would also be your controller to move to the next/pevious slides.
Media:
Music could possibly be stored in the cloud so when your on the move you can listen to your music as many of us do now, but when connected to a large display it could utilise the large display and speakers to show a music video too!.
Photos could be viewed on the large screen and the next one to be displayed could be select on the device (allowing the use to avoid showing anyone pictures which they don't want other to see - ie: pitcures of you and your friends whilst your parents/grandparents are in the room...).
The TV Guide:
The TV Guide would become a very interactive thing which allows you to see what is available on other TV channels without other people in the room being limited to viewing the content they are trying to watch in a small box in the corner of the display...
These are just some ideas of what is possible, but I know that you could do so much more with this and with 64-bit technology coming to many mobile devices soon that will make it so much easier for devices to process all of this data at once without any serious lag!.
I would love to see a group of developers on XDA team up on an open desktop (secondary) launcher to run alongside the users primary (phone) launcher. if there was a project like this with an open framework to develop apps for I'd be happy to start developing apps for that or separate UI's to run alongside my current (Phone/Android) apps UI's.
Edit:
Also remember that this could be utilised in other ways too eg:: connecting your device to your car and your device could deliver your navigation & music to your vehicles display whilst getting important traffic/weather news using your devices network connection!.
Isn't this exactly what the Ubuntu phone intends to do or have I got the wrong idea?
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Yes, but with Android already having a large ecosystem it would make a lot of sense to build upon that.
Chromecast is not "open" to third party apps. http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/...eeds-to-Tread-Lightly-With/8/28/2013/id/51502
Do they have a displayport version of Chromecast? *cough*
quote from: http://www.tested.com/tech/set-top-boxes/457036-testing-google-chromecast/
"Chromecast is also not a particularly good desktop mirroring option, either. It actually can't do full desktop mirroring, and instead works solely with the Chrome browser. In beta right now is Chrome tab streaming, which sends to Chromecast everything that can be rendered in a single Chrome tab, including web pages, flash embeds, and even full-screen MKV video files if you have VLC installed. I like that Chrome tab streaming works independently of what's showing on your laptop or desktop's screen--like with YouTube and Netflix, you can multi-task and switch to other tabs or windows while one tab is being streamed. The only thing that matters is the window size and screen resolution. Chromecast will automatically scale the aspect ratio of your window to fill up your TV screen, adding black bars on the sides to avoid stretching. A full-screen resolution of 1440x900 looked good on a large 1080p TV, but streaming from a 2560x1600 monitor at full-screen made the text unreadable on my 70" TV."
Wow... I thought only displayport was capable of 2560x1600 (edit: hdmi v1.3 brought this). Even if I hook it up to my 2560x1600 monitor, it won't really display anything but entertainment. Chromecast doesn't seem to be a way to have a monitor, to use your Android phone as a PC replacement.
AllCast !!!
http://www.geek.com/android/chromecast-reject-becomes-allcast-public-beta-now-available-1578674/
However, I still need to add some kind of wifi enabled device to my 30" lcd monitor (like with chromecast). Really, I don't mind a cable connection from my phone to my monitor, if that was an option. If Google continues to be closed like this, then I would go for Ubuntu phone.
Displayport:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyDP#SlimPort
Any phones have this besides the Google Nexus 4? Actually, I'm not getting a new phone until I know what the hell will happen with Android / Chrome OS
Quote from: http://www.tested.com/tech/android/457205-mhl-vs-slimport/
"SlimPort's support for the DisplayPort standard--specifically Mobility DisplayPort--means it can output video at the same 4K resolution as MHL, though not via HDMI (yet, anyway). And here SlimPort hasn't really made good on its potential, yet; though it's based on the flexible DisplayPort standard, the only SlimPort adapters currently available are for VGA and HDMI connectors. The upshot is that you won't be plugging a Nexus 7 into a 1440p DisplayPort computer monitor anytime soon." http://www.slimportconnect.com/
Chromecast May Get Screen Mirroring With Android 4.4.1
Evidence in Android 4.4.1 indicates that screen mirroring is coming to Chromecast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/chromecast-google-screen-mirroring-kitkat-android,25345.html
It could start with mirroring a primary display, but gradually result in mirroring something that a GPU has rendered for a secondary display.
A dock from Samsung Galaxy phones. Has USB ports, HDMI, and audio.
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EDD-S20JWEGSTA
mraeryceos said:
A dock from Samsung Galaxy phones. Has USB ports, HDMI, and audio.
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EDD-S20JWEGSTA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that myself with my previous Galaxy S4 (i9500), It was a great dock and when I connected my wireless KB & Mouse USB dongle & connected the HDMI to my PC monitor it was a good experience when doing things like playing GTA3 on the bigger screen (it was better than the windows version in some ways).
But the device just needed a separate home screen UI to be output to the PC screen to look perfect and to work better with the KB & Mouse input type.
It shouldn't be too difficult to make a UI that simply changes the size of some buttons to a smaller size, enabling more widgets to fit on the home screen and if they could simply force the apps to run in either windowed or full screen that would enable better multi-tasking, then the browsers would just need a small update to detect if the device is running in Desktop Mode if so, then simply zoom out of the page a little to emulate the desktop browser experience.
Just a few ideas... If Google's Android team are reading this, I would recommend that you get that dock to experiment with for future Android builds.
Especially now that OS' like Ubuntu Phone are looking at going down this road of the one device fits all computational needs.
Rather than creating a new thread I thought that it would appropriate to bring this topic back up after the recent announcements that several OEM's have made, that they will be releasing desktops with Android as their Primary/Secondary OS.
I hope that this pushes Google into creating a dedicated desktop UI in the future.

Can't connect Remix OS to TV

I have a TV that has VGA support and HDMI. The only way that Remix OS is even going to be useful for me is if I can plug it up to the TV.
Nothing is working. No VGA, no HDMI, even ChromeCast doesn't work.
I am using a Samsung NP300E5C laptop. The PC has 8gb Ram and an i5.
These ports definitely work on my other OS's.
Is there any way to enable VGA/HDMI ?? This is really frustrating. I went out and bought a chromecast and wasted money on that, after no HDMI/VGA support. This seems like an issue that must be affecting a lot of people. Why would you make an OS that isn't supporting these features? Let's face it--the biggest appeal of this OS is playing Android games and emulators. HDMI and VGA support should definitely be a feature.
Chromecast shows up in youtube for me but thats the only app...
Settings --> Miracast --> Chromecast works for me

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