[Q] How to play video and music on android from network share? - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

I can't find the answer and please believe me, I'VE SEARCHED.
I have 2 Android phones in my house (HTC Aria & Samsung Captivate)
I have an Ubuntu 10.10 desktop behind my TV with a 1TB external usb drive.
the drive has 3 shared folders (videos, music, pictures) and it's shared for everyone, full control (I know "full control" is windows talk but I'm a wintel sys admin so linux guys should know what I mean)
I have downloaded and install Astro on the phones with the SMB add on and browse to the shared folders successfully but I can't find any media apps that will let me watch, play or view any of the files across the wifi network.
It seems like for all of them (default video player and rockervideo, etc.) everything has to be on the local sd card for it to play on the phones.
Help! please?
I know Orb.com and I think it is a FANTASTIC solution (FOR WINDOWS DESKTOP PC's), but it will measure your network speed and lower the quality accordingly for slow connections. Oh yea.. and I'm using an Ubuntu desktop. So orb is out.
I just want to play the file straight from the network share.
I read someone used something called cifs to mount the network shared folder to a blank folder on the sd card. (that's a whole lot of linux talk to windows guy) Can someone explain that to me please? Is that like mapping a network drive in windows? Will that work for what I want to do?

Bump...
(any info gratefully received)

I have also been playing around with this. I attempted to utilize the DLNA technology but have yet to have any success. I also agree with what you said about Orb. It's decent for desktop streaming, but for our mobile devices, it just sucks.

SlyDogJeff77 said:
I read someone used something called cifs to mount the network shared folder to a blank folder on the sd card. (that's a whole lot of linux talk to windows guy) Can someone explain that to me please? Is that like mapping a network drive in windows? Will that work for what I want to do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup, is like mapping a network drive (i'm a windows guy)
you need a compatible cifs.ko module for your devices, im a galaxy s user
here
here
Cifs Manager

reverendkjr said:
I have also been playing around with this. I attempted to utilize the DLNA technology but have yet to have any success. I also agree with what you said about Orb. It's decent for desktop streaming, but for our mobile devices, it just sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've managed to get DLNA to stream MP3 via Wifi on my Milestone 2. I've installed TVersity on a server PC that's always on and pointed it at my MP3 collection (which happens to be on another PC), and the DLNA app supplied on my phone picks it up and plays the stuff just fine. Obviously, it's a bit more involved than just playing the files directly from a share, but it doesn't require any messing around with the phone.
Cheers,
Steve.

Hello guys,
I want the same thing as you, now I have 2 NAS devices in my house where I have the music and videos, but I intend to build one Low Power PC (~30W - 40W) and keep everything there and few other things too like a fax PCI card and some security camera capture card.
I was thinking on buying some cheap tablets with Android OS to be able to play the music wirelessly in any room (of course, with the help of some speakers, not the build in tablet speakers) but couldn't find until now a way to do this. Now as I found this post I installed 2Player Network Music on my wife Android Phone, to test it out. I will try to find a DLNA server, for now to install it on my Windows PC , but I want to put it in the new NAS PC I want to build, I will have a LINUX distribution installed, don't know yet which one.
For music only, did you had any problems on playing streamed music from LAN ?

Hi, ppl.
I steel haven't solution for video, but for audio I use DAAP-protocol.
For android I use http://www.appbrain.com/app/daap-media-player/org.mult.daap
A lot of DAAP solutions for windows and linux to stream audio on demand.

Hi guys again!
I have the greatest news!!!
I have found Buzz Player! It's payed app, but it works great!!!!
Moment ago I have checked it on my desire hd! It works!!!
I am going to install on galaxy tab of my wife
Good luck!

Don't know if this is much help, but there is an app called VLC direct which lets you stream from or to an android device. The video quality isn't brilliant but this could just be my rubbish router.

Noodled24 said:
Don't know if this is much help, but there is an app called VLC direct which lets you stream from or to an android device. The video quality isn't brilliant but this could just be my rubbish router.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But you need a VLC Server. Doesn't work with a NAS.

BSPlayer Lite
I had the exact same problem. No decent player for SMB/network shares of video files. My home NAS (Synology) has no way of running the windows-only software that many of the video streaming software requires.
I recently discovered BSPlayer Lite (apparently a pro version is on the way), and it does exactly what we were looking for: plays media from a network share with no conversion or special server-side software required. It works amazingly great, and I was able to stream to my phone (HTC Thunderbolt) via my G wifi network. No stuttering or issues seen so far. It doesn't always read the subtitle information properly, but that could be my own fault somehow. I haven't tested it much, but I was able to watch several videos last night with no problems.
And the ads really aren't bad at all. I've only seen them when navigating a menu, but not while a video is playing.
Here is a link to the app, and a list of its features (I'm a new member, so excuse the funky link, as it won't let me post the full thing):
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bsplayer.bspandroid.free&hl=en
Main features:
- Hardware accelerated video playback - increases speed and reduces battery consumption*
- Support for almost all media files (video and audio player), such as: avi, divx, flv, mkv, mov, mpg, mts, mp4, m4v, rmvb, wmv, 3gp, mp3... and streaming content such as RTMP, RTSP, MMS (tcp, http), HTTP Live stream, HTTP.
- Multiple audio streams and subtitles.
- Playlist support and various playback modes.
- External and embedded subtitles ssa/ass, srt, sub...
- Find subtitles automatically (mobile data or wi-fi must be enabled to work)
- Playback media files such as videos and mp3's directly via Wi-Fi from your LAN shared drives/folders (such as external USB drives, SMB shares, PC shared folders, NAS servers (Synology and others)) - no need to convert video files and copy media files to SD card anymore!
- Playback files directly from uncompressed RAR files and much more!
This package includes support for ARMv7 with VFP and NEON. For other CPU types please download appropriate package. Application will notify you which package you need.
BSPlayer lite version is ad-supported application. Pro version without advertisements will be available soon.

works for me!
Es file explorer lets you view your lan and select servers, view files ect. play your videos and audio from there. save locations for frequent use. handy free tool
if you just want to play your video BSplayer lite will do just that, Set it lan mode and navigate through your net work.
both support user name and password protected storage
hope that helps

hi hi.. use phone can connect pc it's oke..

Thanks for your suggestions..
I will try out ES File Player and BSBPlayer
Any new programs which you can recommend?

There's an app on Google Play called Vidnal that streams audio and video from a network share - play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mu.vidnal

Related

video/audio streaming from media server

I've been toying with the idea of using my laptop as a DLNA / uPNP media server. I have most of my video/audio assets stored on an external USB memory drive (it's actually a MP3 player with custom RockBox firmware...but I digress), so I could also use my little NSLU2 Linux server, providing I install all the required software on it.
At the top of anyone's list there should be at least: AllShare, AndroMote, Twonky (and iMediaShare for those wanting to share media *from* the tablet device). I tried them all, with varying degrees of success due to the type of media server I was running on my Mac OS X laptop. Plex doesn't seem to provide this feature so I ended-up using TVMOBiLi instead, which provides a not-so-user-friendly web-based interface. There are other advanced servers, such as miniDLNA, uShare, FireFly or MediaTomb, but this was getting far too time-consuming so I stopped there.
In fact, I ended-up using VLC Player with its built-in "web interface" feature (essentially a streaming server that can be controlled remotely), and VLC Stream & Connect on the Android tablet. It works great, and the live transcoding of the video was pretty satisfying (only minor glitches due to re-synchronizing the A/V streams from time to time...probably some settings I can tweak in VLC-S&C). The nice thing about DLNA / uPNP is that it is a discoverable service, that clients normally automatically detect on a LAN. VLC offers the same level of "it just works", and allows me to browse my media files directly from the tablet. Nifty.
A more advanced method is to share a folder on the media server via Samba / SMB / CIFS (works on Windows, Linux and Mac), to mount the shared directory on the Android tablet via a custom-built CIFS kernel module. Then any basic file explorer will "see" the remote files as local files, which results in video/audio players being "tricked" into thinking they are working with local files, when opening media assets from the file explorer. Conversely, using Astro (with SMB support) or ES File Explorer we can access network files via the smb: protocol, but video/audio players are unlikely to support opening media via this kind of URL (most players only support local files). Also note that the transfer speed may be problematic depending on the required media bitrate...anyone to test full HD video streaming ?
Follow this link for more info:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9278963&postcount=7
Hi.
I use VLC Stream & Convert and it works nicely except audio-video delay.
For me is more important to understand how to stream my video in internet to watch them when I'm outside of my home network.
Previously I use HTTP protocol in Maemo OS , but in Android OS and RTSP things are different.
daniel.weck, do you have experience with this?
stefanopolis said:
Hi.
I use VLC Stream & Convert and it works nicely except audio-video delay.
For me is more important to understand how to stream my video in internet to watch them when I'm outside of my home network.
Previously I use HTTP protocol in Maemo OS , but in Android OS and RTSP things are different.
daniel.weck, do you have experience with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VLC Stream & Convert supports both HTTP and RTSP I think, there are many options in both the server (VLC Player) and the client (VLC S&C). Streaming content from a source within your LAN to an external destination on the internet requires a particular setup:
* fixed IP WAN address at your home broadband connection (or a dynamic one that is identifiable).
* router with NAT and firewall configured so that some ports are open to the local LAN IP address that serves content. See the VideoLan documentation for UDP/TCP protocol ports.
Vlc-based solutions are not really solutions. I for one have the vast majority of my media on a ion-based htpc which just doesn't do well converting on the fly. What we really need is a good dlna client for the tab, like allshare but better.
Have you tried Andromote and Twonky?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

[TIP] Stream video to your Galaxy Tab via AndroStream Pro

Dears,
I've been looking for solutions to stream video from my PC to the Galaxy Tab. I'm running out of space on the tab, and can't keep copying stuff. This is quite useful around the house. Thought I'd share.
I came across "AndroStream Pro":
http://www.appbrain.com/app/androstream-pro/fr.mydedibox.androstreampro
You have to install the service on the PC:
http://androstream.mydedibox.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=5
(It basically uses VLC to stream, but doing this is a lot easier than configuring an actual VLC install)
Then install AndroStream on the Tab, and put your PCs IP in the settings.
If you got Allshare app it does the same thing. I don't know if you got TMobile but it comes with that Tab.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab
Personally I think anything that 1) requires server software and 2) transcodes live is a waste of time. Allshare is superior because it uses DLNA to actually stream video in its original format. Sadly its not great either. Until we have cifs or a proper streaming apparently in the market ill stick to not actually watching much of anything (or using orb if I'm not at home).
What're people using as a DLNA/UPnP server to stream _to_ the Tab? I can get it to see media from XBMC but it says everything is in an unsupported format, even if I can copy it to the device and play it directly.
knightnz said:
What're people using as a DLNA/UPnP server to stream _to_ the Tab? I can get it to see media from XBMC but it says everything is in an unsupported format, even if I can copy it to the device and play it directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolute usless ...
Androstream is not working at all 8and from devressponse I'd like to say not developed anymore ...). VLC Stream and Convert is working and more or less stable - but - what I found also useless - as
When you get ES Explorer and browse directly to your networkshare you simply can play everything with the build in videoplayer ... even if it tells you that the format is not supported ...
Regards
I use Mezzo or just windows Media player.
kingskidd268 said:
If you got Allshare app it does the same thing. I don't know if you got TMobile but it comes with that Tab.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have all share but I don't have the slightest idea how to use it to stream videos from my pc to my tab..
Maybe you can enlighten me?
I've found that getting the CIFS module loaded is pretty straight forward via this thread, then you can just browse to your file share with whatever program you like.
I've found that the built-in player will play virtually anything but has buffering issues, RockPlayer and VPlayer buffer properly and play a similar range of formats.
Nothing I've tried coped very well with any of my video test files encoded at 1080p, or with embedded AC3, but I'm not a) surprised or b) worried about this.

A way to stream from PC to WP7 device?

Hi all
I'd like to be able to stream videos which are on my desktop PC to my phone possibly via some server/client set-up and the wireless network. To my surprise I haven't been able to find anything in the marketplace which advertises this ability. I'd very much like it if VLC could be used as the server but that's only incidental.
Thanks
try using ORB
orb doesn't support wp7, and on their forum they said maybe in the future...
If you serve up compatible (ie MP4 or WMV) files via http to the WP7 browser then these will apparently open the Zune player on the phone and the content will stream. I have not tried this yet myself however.
What I am planning on doing this weekend though is trying out TVersity (google is your friend). From what I can see, this software runs a server that allows you to access all your media (music, photos, video etc) from phones, other PCs, media players etc. It has the major advantage of optionally converting file formats on the go.
What I'm hoping to do with this is:
1. Set up TVersity server on my home HTPC
2. Browse my media collection using the TVersity server with IE on my WP7 (this tutorial suggests this should be possible)
3. Clicking on MP4 files should play them natively with the Zune software on the phone, and other formats should be converted to MP4 on the fly by TVersity (need to look into TVersity to make sure it can actually do this!)
4. Play files
5. ???
6. Profit!
I'm going to try this with the free version of TVersity first to make sure it works as I think it does. If it does, great. If not, I'm stuck converting my AVIs to MP4 and copying them to my phone. Also try out "Send to WP7"; the latest update allows you to right-click an MP4 on your desktop and send a local link to your phone so you can stream directly over Wifi.
But really somebody should make a server / app combo for WP7 that serves up media nice and easy.
EDIT: I've actually tried the above, and it works. You can access TVersity if you're connected by Wifi with your IP address (http://192.168.1.9:4321 or whatever) and you are provided a file browser to browse all your media. Selecting a video file automatically transcoded the AVI to WMV which looks pixel perfect and very good quality (widescreen and all) on my HD7. It opens in Zune player, so all you can really do is pause / play, fast forward and rewind. No scrubbing or anything.
Positives:
-Allows you to play any AVIs / divx videos in your library without converting beforehand
-Streaming quality is perfect and smooth
-Possible to stream over the internet (3G) if you want (you can set a username and password)
Negatives:
-TVersity menu looks poor on the phone and is difficult to navigate; some text is huge while other text is tiny
-Once you start streaming a TV show / Movie, there is no way of stopping the transcoding at the server side. ie If you start watching a 40 minute 350mb show but decide after a few seconds you want to watch another one, TVersity doesn't seem to have any way of telling that you've navigated away from the show. Which means that the server computer running TVersity and doing the transcoding (which is my case is an oldish laptop in a cupboard) will continue to transcode the entire episode for the duration of the show. This has the very unwelcome side effect of almost maxing out the CPU on the server for those 40 minutes. And if you start watching another episode, that starts transcoding too... server is crippled after a while. The only way to stop transcoding is by manually restarting the TVersity service on the server, which cannot be done remotely.
In fairness the issues here are not caused by WP7, they seem to be TVersity issues. I thnk they would be easily fixed with an official TVersity browser app that would solve the navigation issues and would tell the server to stop transcoding when you quit watching a video.
On the other hand, we wouldn't have these issues if WP7 would just support AVI / divx like they promised they would originally... ;-)
I was actually tinkering with this tonight.. I was about to hit the hay when I saw this thread.. so i will chime in..
I went as far as to install a WAMP setup on my Media PC / Server. Then in my doc root I would structure my videos, mp3's photos, etc..
I did some port forwarding on my router and poked some holes in my firewall so my Media Server could listen on port 80.. so my laptop pulled server good..
I also own the HD7, and what I also confirmed was that i could hit the server from IE on the phone..and stream .wmv's successfully.. kewl..
Now all I need to do is develop a better webpage to house the content and make it look good.. possible MetroUI look.. scroll to the right or left instead of up and down.. I am also trying to include ffmpeg so I can have the functionality of the website taking a thumnail of the video upon upload and using it as the img src for the link to the video in my WP7-web-app..
Makes it even better that PHP is compiled on the server so i can do some trick things for the website..
I miss TCPMP...
Try PS3 Media Server instead of TVersity. I've found PS3 Media Server to be more welcoming to various devices (as well as being more stable).
Audio said:
Try PS3 Media Server instead of TVersity. I've found PS3 Media Server to be more welcoming to various devices (as well as being more stable).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already use ps3 media server for my ps3, but how can I use it with my HD7?
You could try Smart Potato. It does interact with WMC.
As far as I can recall, TwonkyMediaServer supports a load of devices as well as streaming over the interweb.
VLC PLay is available on the zune marketplace and uses VLC on pc as a host.
welki1979 said:
VLC PLay is available on the zune marketplace and uses VLC on pc as a host.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It appears to only [optionally] stream audio. It's a controller, not an endpoint.
Why can't my Samsung Focus connect?
Hey, I just recently got TVersity and got it to work fine on my ps3...however, I am unable to connect on my wp7... I tried to go to the localhost url in IE but to no avail. Would creating a podcast of the info and adding that podcast to my Zune player work?
How did you get TVersity to output WMV??
wheresmybeaver said:
Selecting a video file automatically transcoded the AVI to WMV which looks pixel perfect and very good quality (widescreen and all) on my HD7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How the hell did you get the files to transcode into WMV??? I tried setting it up but it was only transcoding into MPG. What settings did you use in TVersity?
My transcoding settings are:
Only when needed
Video Resolution: 640 by 480
Image Resolution: 1280 by 1024
Use DirectShow: Windows Media Video 7
Quality
Wireless G - Connection Quality High
Decode media as fast as possible
I also set the Media Playback Device to Auto Detect. Should I change this to a different profile?
JukeFly is the best streaming app for music....
What would be nice is if they allowed VPN connections. Then i could vpn to my home network and browse to my server and use an app (yet to be created) to launch videos from my server. Did it on my android phone. Kind of miss it =(
While not an option yet, Microsofts next version of Windows Home server is going to have Windows Phone 7 integration. The next public release version that is suppose to support this functionality is rumored to come out some time in February. From using earlier builds of Vail (code-name for new version) it will do transcoding of media files and hopefully some of the issues that I experienced in the early beta versions will be resolved when the near final release is available.
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/...07/windows-home-server-goes-mobile-phone.aspx
I've had some success streaming to my phone using Tversity when transcoding to WMV8, it's worked pretty well.
I'm in the process of coding up a rudimentary UI for the phone instead of using the browser.
I would be interested in your progress... also.. can you share your setup using Tversity?
I am getting slow streaming using http over WLAN.. it works.. but is choppy at times..
I've got an app with full media streaming in the works also, just need to iron out some of the transcoding issues - but with the right settings I've had flawless video (more or less) even over a normal 3G connection.
Let me get this straight..
what you guys are doing is having the video transcoded on the server as the device requests it on the fly?

Best App (Currently) for streaming locally stored pc videos to android devices

Hey everyone-
I've been doing a bunch of searching lately for an easy-to-use and convenient application for streaming videos from my pc to android device (like airplay for the iphone). And I can't seem to find one specific app that makes it simple and easy, they all seem to be a pain in the ass. I know this question has been asked before, but not for a couple months, so what in your opinion is the best application and/or method for streaming content from a pc to an android device? Thanks in advance for any help.
-bobofosho123
bobofosho123 said:
Hey everyone-
I've been doing a bunch of searching lately for an easy-to-use and convenient application for streaming videos from my pc to android device (like airplay for the iphone). And I can't seem to find one specific app that makes it simple and easy, they all seem to be a pain in the ass. I know this question has been asked before, but not for a couple months, so what in your opinion is the best application and/or method for streaming content from a pc to an android device? Thanks in advance for any help.
-bobofosho123
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have your PC setup with the dnla server software, this place has a beta dnla client for Andoid. I saw the write up on EuroDroid.com.
http://www.skifta.com/
I tried using the Playon streaming with the mobile link. It worked ok...but I do want a nice streaming option.
VLC Remote
Doesn't VLC Remote just control whats playing on your desktop? I think the OP is looking for something to stream movies to his handset.
That aside, I love VLC Remote.
Yes, I'm looking to stream videos from my pc's hdd to my phone, in an easy way (i.e. in the same way that airvideo for the iphone does).
flinkisme said:
If you have your PC setup with the dnla server software, this place has a beta dnla client for Andoid. I saw the write up on EuroDroid.com.
http://www.skifta.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And i don't have a dlna server on my pc, it's just an external hdd connected to my pc.
I use File Expert as a file manager/explorer and I mapped my computer under it's network tab, then when I select a video I use VPlayer to play it in. Works perfectly!
Every other way I tried before this required the video to download before watching, but this way I can stream any video directly.
You will need to setup your video/movies/etc folders on PC to be shared with proper permissions. Easiest to just share the whole external HDD.
ErOR22 said:
I use File Expert as a file manager/explorer and I mapped my computer under it's network tab, then when I select a video I use VPlayer to play it in. Works perfectly!
Every other way I tried before this required the video to download before watching, but this way I can stream any video directly.
You will need to setup your video/movies/etc folders on PC to be shared with proper permissions. Easiest to just share the whole external HDD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it.
Let me put it this way, is there anything as stupid simple as audiogalaxy for android that will do the same thing for music?
I'd definitely give RockPlayer a go. It has both hardware and software decoding and it works with TVersity!
Same way, through the file explorer. You just need to share your music on pc and connect to it.
My Desire HD came with DNLA client software and when I go into the music program I can stream in there directly from my WMP library, that's probably the easiest way but that would vary with different phones.
I use VLC Stream & Convert, though it is somewhat cumbersome to set up...
I ended up using windows task scheduler and a lot of program commands to start it with my computer all stealthy
Yeah, I've got windows media player set-up correctly with all the proper permissions and such. All of my media files are showing up, i.e. music, videos, etc, and all of my music plays fine as well. But, the one thing that won't play are ANY of my videos, which are mostly xvid-encoded .avi files, which I'm not sure skifta supports (as it uses the dlna classification). Any suggestions?
If you have a windows PC you can easily setup windows media player to stream via dlna. Just google "windows media player dlna". If you are on mac or linux, just substitute for OSX or your linux distro and the word dlna for a bunch of options. Once it's up and going you can use the dlna app mentioned earlier or if you are lucky enough to have a SGS like me, you can use Samsung All Share to stream. I have used this since I got my phone and it's working like a charm!
bobofosho123 said:
Let me put it this way, is there anything as stupid simple as audiogalaxy for android that will do the same thing for music?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume you mean video since audiogalaxy is for music? And to put it bluntly, no there isn't anything as simple as that for video yet.

stream media (movies) to phone?

Alright so I am looking for a way to stream media from my Windows7 machine to my phone in a nice easy way if possible over my local wifi network for now, over the internet would be a plus... I am running a 2.3.3 rom but my biggest problem I think is getting software to turn my computer into a media server that my phone can recognize and then start streaming media from my media hard drive...
Any ideas or suggestions... would love to know what you guys are using!
Thanks!
I use serviio to stream all my movies and shows to all devices in the house, for the phone to see all shares I use upnplay and mobo player for unsupported formats. Also if you have smart share on stock builds that works really good.
Plex works best, I've tried many alternatives.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
Ya Plex is awesome, I completely forgot about it. Plex shows you artwork for all your media, very clean look. You can also set it so you can access it over WiFi or 3g from anywhere. As long as you have a decent upload.
ES File Explorer
allows you to view shared files over LAN. just share the folder you want to view (or put it in the "Public" user folder). Built in video player and image viewer.
VLC does this as well.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.vlcdirect.vlcdirect&feature=search_result
Just open up a share to the folder, and provided your rom (well, more specifically, kernel) has cifs support, it's easy. If you don't want to mount shares manually there is an app in the market that does it. (I think it's cifs manager, if memory serves.)

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