(G2 w/Cyanogen 6.1.1)
I have spent hours trying about 25 different apps and I can not find anything that works properly.
Here is what I want to do.
I have Music (Mostly FLACs, some MP3s) and Videos (divx/xvid, wmv, h.264 mp4 etc) on a windows 7 computer on my local network. I have my phone connected via wifi to my local network. All the media files are shared with no password to make it easy.
All I want to do is play any of the media files from my computer on my phone.
I have tried DLNA, Twonky, using SMB file explorers on the phone to try and open the files, and I have tried all the free media players but they only look at local SD Card files. Now I can copy a media file over the network to the phone and play it just fine but thats unacceptable.
I should not have to transcode or install a special server app on my computer to allow this kind of thing to happen. The phone can play mp3s, flac, xvid etc. There should be no issue streaming those files just like my HTPC does. I click on my mapped drive, open file, boom VLC plays it, no problems. If I had a linux computer it would mostly be the same thing.
What is the issue with these android phones?
http://techsplurge.com/2456/6-top-applications-android-stream-music-videos-pc/
deviationer said:
What is the issue with these android phones?
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Nothing wrong with the phone, just a matter of knowing how to set it up correctly. And to be fair, I don't believe what you are asking for works out of the box on any mobile OS so this is not an Android issue (not sure about Windows 7 Phone, but I highly doubt it).
What you need to do is mount your network shares as a CIFS mount (so you're right, this is exactly like you would do in linux). You can either do this manually with Terminal or there are apps on the market to make it easier. I use CifsManager. There is also a new one that looked pretty nice in the main Android app forum called Mount Manager (haven't tried it).
You will also need a kernel compiled with CIFS support or a CIFS module compiled for your kernel (cifs.ko). I don't believe the CM6.1.1 kernel has CIFS built in. Might want to try searching if someone compiled a cifs.ko for it though. I use Pershoot's kernel and he provides a number of kernel modules on his website.
Once you have everything set up, just mount the share to your phone. Now you can browse the share as if it is a local directory (and if you select an audio or video file in a file manager, it will properly stream). Even better, if you set the mount point to a directory on your SD card, you can force a media scan and all of the files will show up in whatever media player you use (since as you said, media players tend to only look on the SD card).
Alternatively, if you use an SMB file explorer that allows you to choose what player to use when selecting a file (I think File Expert does this), RockPlayer should be able to play it (since I'm pretty sure it supports SMB streaming). I haven't done this, but in theory, it should have worked just fine for you...
Related
Hey guys,
tried to find some other thread about this topic but didn't find anything related. i have also googled it and nothing came up, or at least useful.
thing is: considering that today many computer media players such as itunes, winamp and even ms's windows media player itself have builtin media sharing capabilities for videogame consoles (wii, psp, ps3, xbox) and nokia mobile phones (NSeries)... is this really possible that there's no application for windows mobile capable of doing the same?
if so, please post their names, i'm sure some other folks might be after this too. otherwise, guys give me a hand with creativity to work around efficiently. to get that the user should be able to access library, play and skip tracks as long as they are in the same wi-fi network.
lol is it that too much?
Not too much to ask really, and it has been answered if you did a little search. Depends on what ROM you use, what file explorer you use etc .. but if you follow this post you should be fine. Works for me!
If ya use Resco Explorer as file manager, network shares can be viewed from WLAN.
gomax said:
If ya use Resco Explorer as file manager, network shares can be viewed from WLAN.
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Totally!! Same here man!!
Yep, you can also install the Network Plugin, map the drives and add the files into your media player.
You can also run videos from the network without problems, just make sure you have the codecs.
you see... that's what i'm talking about, accessing files on a shared folder is easy, i could even install IIS on my computer and then access files via HTTP on a home network but this is not worth.
media sharing is the answer cause the library updates itself automatically cause that's all it's need. on a tap you have all your songs, videos and pictures just as if they were there. and the best of all, just one single application.
working with shared folders is always a pain and you have to open various applications to get the things done...
a media player that would automatically scan shared folders could be an option...
Yeah, it is possible.
If you run Network Plugin, find the shared folder with your music and map it.
You can go to (in my case, Pocket Music), go to options then Load, and there you can specify what folder(s) will be the ones that will come up as a playlist, in this case, your shared folder with music.
So everytime you open Pocket Music, the files that are stored on your pc's music folder, will display on your media player.
And you will play them without problem.
SlakerBoi said:
you see... that's what i'm talking about, accessing files on a shared folder is easy, i could even install IIS on my computer and then access files via HTTP on a home network but this is not worth.
media sharing is the answer cause the library updates itself automatically cause that's all it's need. on a tap you have all your songs, videos and pictures just as if they were there. and the best of all, just one single application.
working with shared folders is always a pain and you have to open various applications to get the things done...
a media player that would automatically scan shared folders could be an option...
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Click to collapse
I know what you mean about running a media server. I do this with media player 11, and access it from my xbox and roku soundbridge. I don't know of any ppc software which will access the media server though.
I should imagine that an audio player which scanned shared folders to build a library would take some time to scan my 18000 tracks on my pc.
jez83uk said:
I know what you mean about running a media server. I do this with media player 11, and access it from my xbox and roku soundbridge. I don't know of any ppc software which will access the media server though.
I should imagine that an audio player which scanned shared folders to build a library would take some time to scan my 18000 tracks on my pc.
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that's exactly what i think. i have an xbox original converted in media centre that takes ages to scan my entire library, i wonder what would be using a shared folder in my phone and i have just over 3000 tracks.
i'm waiting to get a wireless router to start playing with it, the tests i tried to run using an ad-hoc connection were all a pain in the butt...
well, let's see... still open for ideas.
I think this can't be done, but I have to ask...
What I would like to know is if I could watch a movie in the phone, but instead of it being in the phone, being in a server but attached to the same network.
So, for example, being connected to my WIFI, being able to access my NAS and play a video and watch it on the phone without having to download it before to the SD...
I tried with the Estrongs file explorer. Great app, but it first need it to be on the phone to play it...
Ok, seems that CIFS Manager is what I need
Yes, CIFS manager is what you need, but the next problem I found was finding a Media Player App that would browse to any directory other than /SDCARD. Can you mount network shares within a mount point? Sounds messy. :/
Hi,
One of the features i was looking forward to on the Defy was the built in DLNA functionality.
I am using a PC running XBMC that has my audio collection ripped mainly in FLAC with a little MP3 & OGG. Ideally i would like a way to transcode the FLAC to OGG when tranfering to the phone over DLNA but i will need to work on a solution for that (maybe Coherence? Hadn't heard of it but a little googling has sent me in that direction but will take a bit more homework). In the mean time i am happy to have FLAC on my phone despite the file size as i am expecting a 16GB card but given the weather i think it may take at least a few more days to arrive.
The problem is that when i transfer a FLAC file over DLNA it states that the file is not compatible* and asks me to confirm that i am happy transfer it it, i say yes it downloads the file. That's fine but it asks again with every single file so if you choose to download an album it asks every track so you can't even leave to run whilst you go do something else as it stops transferring at each prompt.
Any idea how to overcome this?
*i have PowerAmp installed which is compatible with FLAC.
i have solved my problem a different way. I just don't use DLNA.
Using Banshee music player i can connect the Defy via USB cable and transfer any audio file to it and Banshee trancodes on-the-fly into .ogg.
Solved.
ZootHornRollo said:
i have solved my problem a different way. I just don't use DLNA.
Using Banshee music player i can connect the Defy via USB cable and transfer any audio file to it and Banshee trancodes on-the-fly into .ogg.
Solved.
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Click to collapse
Yeah... I agree. But I am connecting to a couple of computers and a Buffalo Link Station over wireless. I can USB through my computer, but would love to find a way around confirming every download I want. I'll ask this question on the T-Mo and Motorola forums which are monitored by Motorola dudes. Really, the DLNA function is so damned convenient.
This is something I need to look into.
A 500gb, battery powered, portable hdd with built in wifi. Plus it can also stream media.
Naturally I could choose to use my pc at home as a remote server, but it would have to remain powered on, takes time to setup ports, access rights & streaming can really lag.
Drawback for now at least, you can't reverse transfer files back to the hard drive via its built in wifi. Not a deal breaker if you ask me.
The GoFlex Satellite Wi-Fi connection can be protected with a password & WPA-level security.
It is capable of streaming in HD, up to 10Megabits per second data rate, but some devices may not support High Definition formatted videos.
And in case you're wondering:
Can I play files from my GoFlex Satellite to my Android phone or tablet?
Yes, files can be played back via the Wi-Fi capability. Videos in the formats that are compatible with the Android device can be played back using the default browser (Webkit). Unsupported video formats can be played back using third-party media players. If all your videos just download rather than play, try installing a more robust media player app. The Seagate app can be found on the Android Market.
A 500gb drive can be had on Amazon for about $173.
Any opinions or experiences with this device?
http://www.viddler.com/explore/GetConnectedTV/videos/297/
I have two that I mainly use with my iPad. The Seagate software isn't the best but they are working on it. I am a beta tester and they're starting to focus more on Android so that's good but if you're looking to stream video, there are a few DLNA players out there that are better at it. You can also hack the drives with custom firmware too.
Agreed about Seagate, and good to know that they are working on it.
If this is something you're interested in and you're ready to buy today there's a promo code available at Newegg that reduces this to $129.99 (code expires 1/8/12).
Newegg price: $173.99
promo code: -$44.00
Net price: $129.99
Promo code is STX44US and the direct link to Newegg is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148755
$129.99 is a good deal, I got mine at Best Buy for $180. They stream to anything that can access wifi. I used one of them to stream to my friends TV to watch a marathon of the old Twilight Zone episodes on New Years day. The drive lasted just under 6 hours before needing to be charged.
Magicspell said:
If this is something you're interested in and you're ready to buy today there's a promo code available at Newegg that reduces this to $129.99 (code expires 1/8/12).
Newegg price: $173.99
promo code: -$44.00
Net price: $129.99
Promo code is STX44US and the direct link to Newegg is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148755
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Click to collapse
Thank-you much. Just ordered one. I've been browsing several forums & by far the biggest complaint is the front end user UI. As long as I can get it to play vids out the box with no problems then I'll be okay.
A site you might want to check out when you get your drive:
http://www.hackseagatesatellite.com
It's not for everyone but it can be useful and the people there are pretty responsive.
I have tried the seagatein the past not the battery powered one but the regular NAS device. I found it to be very slow to upload or download form. I switched over to the WD mybook live. And I am not trying to flame or start some crap just giving my experience it did work but was slow. I also ran into issues with my Blueray not being able to read some content. This may have been the blue rays problem but I havn't seen as many issues with the WD. However all that having been said WD not have a bettery or wfi enabled device I am aware of it has an ethernet port that you connect straight to your router.
arsmithsr said:
I have tried the seagatein the past not the battery powered one but the regular NAS device. I found it to be very slow to upload or download form. I switched over to the WD mybook live. And I am not trying to flame or start some crap just giving my experience it did work but was slow. I also ran into issues with my Blueray not being able to read some content. This may have been the blue rays problem but I havn't seen as many issues with the WD. However all that having been said WD not have a bettery or wfi enabled device I am aware of it has an ethernet port that you connect straight to your router.
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Appreciate the input. The only other portable wifi drive out there that I know of is the Kingston Wi-Drive. From the plus side this device has an SSD & the UI is much better. The downside is that it only comes in 16gb & 32gb capacities.
I'll keep y'all (I'm from Texas ) posted on how it turns out.
Crap! Any chance of a new coupon? I would have bought it for that price !
OK, I just paid the premium and bought one at Best Buy when I was in the city today. I also paid for the hack posted above. It's charging tonight and I'm going to start messing with it tomorrow. I'll post updates as I go along.
Perfect: The Wi-Fi HDD + Seagate Media app. + MX Player works as expected on my E4GT.
However on my Win 7 tablet (ExoPc) I can only play videos within a browser (Opera) as no such Seagate Media UI app exists for Windows. The problem with watching a video within a web browser is lack of media controls (vol +/-, play, pause, stop etc. etc.)
If anyone with this device knows how to get it to open up within a 3rd party media player on Win 7 after selecting the video within the web UI can you please share how it's done.
subcypher said:
OK, I just paid the premium and bought one at Best Buy when I was in the city today. I also paid for the hack posted above. It's charging tonight and I'm going to start messing with it tomorrow. I'll post updates as I go along.
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Click to collapse
I thought about purchasing the hack myself, but wanted to test the device out first to see if I actually want to hold onto it or return it.
I can say that while watching a movie, its dropped its connection 3x & restarted the video accordingly from the beginning.
I had to fst fwd>> to the previous spot I left off at. No big deal as of yet, but if it keeps doing it then returning it will be more likely.
I'll stay updated with your replies & see if the hack omits some of the inherent problems I'm having. If so then I'll invest in the hack.
EL TEJANO said:
Perfect: The Wi-Fi HDD + Seagate Media app. + MX Player works as expected on my E4GT.
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I've had the same experience though I wish the Seagate app would allow you to choose which media player to use to play the media. I've actually found I prefer the media player used when using the phone's browser over the player invoked with the Seagate app...
EL TEJANO said:
However on my Win 7 tablet (ExoPc) I can only play videos within a browser (Opera) as no such Seagate Media UI app exists for Windows. The problem with watching a video within a web browser is lack of media controls (vol +/-, play, pause, stop etc. etc.)
If anyone with this device knows how to get it to open up within a 3rd party media player on Win 7 after selecting the video within the web UI can you please share how it's done.
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Click to collapse
I haven't tried with my tablet yet, but I did try with my Win 7 laptop. The experience was a bit more frustrating to start. When I accessed the Seagate Go Flex (via IE or Firefox) it appeared to only directly play certain media files (for example it played .mp4 files but wouldn't directly play .m2ts files). I tried associating .m2ts files with WMP as well as VLC but in either case when I selected that file rather than it starting to play it would start to download the file to my laptop.
I then simply renamed the .m2ts extension to .mp4 (didn't recode the contents) and then when I selected the file it played directly in WMP. If I tried to change the player associated with .mp4 files (to VLC, for example) then the file would not directly play but again began to download. Changing the .mp4 association back to WMP did allow the media to play directly when selected through the browser interface.
Overall, I think I can live with these limitations though maybe the hack noted earlier will allow me more flexibility. I'll have to research that part.
Well at first the MX Player was working fine on my phone, then I noticed that the streaming videos would stop & then start from the beginning in a continous loop. WTH!!!
I figured okay let me reinstall the latest firmware, defrag & do a system file check to see if that works. When I tried to play my streaming content once more within MX Player the same thing happened. I figured okay it must be the app then.
So I downloaded Buzz Player & to my surprise this app has the option to connect to Network Media; when selecting that option my stored audio & video files show up within the player. Which is nice because now I don't have to use the Seagate Media app. What's even better is no freezing or restarting.
All in all the Seagate Satellite is a nice device but Seagate really (& I mean really) needs to work on their UI as well as open up some features & options.
In regards to my Win 7 tablet: Are there any windows based media players that can detect the wifi signal off my Seagate Satellite & display the directory much like Buzz Player does in Android?
I purchased this drive and the hack. I actually did the work the other day to hack it. It's fairly simple.
First, they have you download an ISO. I'm not sure why they do that, as they use it as a ZIP or RAR file. It's an archive you open and load the two files inside onto the drive. I was able to do this in Linux very easily.
Second, you use your wireless connection to talk to the drive and then use Telnet to see the files in a command line. Then you use the command line to run a file. I did all this from my phone using Better Terminal Emulator Pro, but I'm guessing the regular Terminal Emulator will work.
After the script ran, the thing rebooted. I used their videos to clean up the drive (remove the Seagate stuff and clean up the directory structure), then set up the authentication, web service and Samba. Again, all this was done through the browser on my phone because I was watching the videos on my laptop.
I was able to connect to the drive from my phone and browse the file system. I was also able to stream a few songs (no movies on my drive yet) without issue. I also used ES Flie Explorer to browse the drive through Samba and that worked very well. I was also able to stream music through that file system using whatever program I wanted to use that was on my phone.
The only problem I have is that I can't see the file system and have a data connection to the world at the same time. Perhaps this drive might be better if the connection were Bluetooth, but I really don't see why I'd need both at the same time to be honest. It's more like a "could be better" kind of thing. That being said, with the hack you can have the drive connect to a wireless network and then connect to that wireless network yourself. Once that's done you can see both, I believe. I just have not tried it myself yet.
I would highly recommend this product. I'm kind of sad I didn't get it at the $130 price mentioned before, but even at the $240 I have in it, I'm very happy with my purchase.
So yeah after thinking about it & realizing how I'll be utilizing this device, I think I'll forego the hack. But only because I really don't see myself utilizing the features. As convenient as it is to watch movies on my phone, the experience of watching movies on such a small screen, is to say the least, not really much of an experience. Though occasionally when lying in bed I'll grab my phone to watch a flick as I have the Seagate drive on standby mode.
In regards to using this with my Win 7 ExoPc tablet: Windows Media Player was able to detect and display the files on this HDD via wifi, I just had to download the proper codecs to get it to recognize .flv, .avi & .mkv video extensions. The screen on this tablet is 11.6 inches so it makes the experience somewhat more enjoyable.
Having to switch wifi clients back & forth, though cumbersome, is not really much of a deal breaker either. Hopefully in the future Seagate will address such issues with whatever firmware update they push-out (if they push it out).
Hey guys, I finally switched my phone from an iPhone to an M8 because through my work I got one out of contract for $250 so I really couldn't pass the offer...
Anyways, I'm having trouble transferring my music from my iTunes (mac) to my new phone. Google music blows, it doesnt even get all the songs and playlist after trying 2950 times. So what else can I use that WILL get every single song and playlist CORRECTLY to my M8?
Thanks!
Also thinking about rooting it soon. Anyone have a link to how to do it on a Mac? I used to know how to root pretty well a couple years ago when I had my tablet but havent touched it in many years.
I had this issue too
I had the same problem - havent done it with masses of music yet, but in iTunes if you right click the song you want to copy, you can select to convert the song to an aac file - once youve done that open the memory card or internal storage and copy files to your music folder - simples
xploitUK said:
I had the same problem - havent done it with masses of music yet, but in iTunes if you right click the song you want to copy, you can select to convert the song to an aac file - once youve done that open the memory card or internal storage and copy files to your music folder - simples
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Thats the issue though. I cant connect it to my mac for some reason. Android Transfer wont find it and neither will like DoubleTwist
Mac does not play nice with MTP, which is the protocol used to transfer files back and forth between PC/Mac and Android.
If you are bone stock, just use HTC Sync and point it to your iTunes media folder in Finder.
If you are rooted and/or prefer ADB, download DriveDroid from the Play Store. Once downloaded, give it Super User permissions, then go to Settings > USB Settings > Manually Change Permanent USB Mode, then select Media Transfer Protocol. After that, go to your phone's Settings > Developer and enable USB Debugging.
Now, download Android File Transfer on your Mac. Plug your phone to your Mac and it'll load up and let you add/delete files at a whim.
With all that said... If you don't use ADB, HTC Sync will be the easiest and allow you to copy playlists from iTunes. With Android File Transfer, you can copy all the music, videos, whatever, but the actual playlists don't transfer over. If there is a way, I'd love to know.
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