Develop Bugs

[GUIDE] How to use DLNA

OK Peeps,
Someone in Coolexe’s rom thread asked me what DLNA was and how to use it. As I couldn’t point them straight to a guide I thought I’d better write one. Plus I’m sure some of you don’t even know what it is!
From Wikipedia:
DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a standard used by manufacturers of consumer electronics to allow entertainment devices within the home to share their content with each other across a home network.
So what can I use my Desire for in the world of DLNA?
1. Stream movies you have stored on your phone wirelessly to a DLNA compatible TV/device
2. Stream music you have stored on your phone wirelessly to a DLNA compatible TV/device
3. Show pictures you’ve taken on your phone wirelessly to a DLNA compatible TV/device
4. Stream movies/music/pictures wirelessly from a DLNA compatible device to you phone
Before I go into details about using DLNA I’ll give you a quick overview of what kit I’ve got that makes it all possible. Firstly, I’ve got a Synology NAS which is DLNA compatible (other brands exist!) and stores all my media files. Secondly I’ve got a Windows Media Centre 7 PC hooked up to my main TV. And thirdly a HTC Desire, this must be running a Gingerbread rom with Sense. I mostly use Robo’s roms which have been working a treat but have been trying out some others recently but with mixed results, hopefully we can get these issues ironed out though.
So to be able to send media to my TV the first thing I need to do is turn on media streaming in Media Player. Hit the Stream button and choose Turn On Media Streaming. The default settings are fine so you can keep them. Next hit the Stream button again and choose Allow Remote Control Of My Player. Now you need to grab you Desire, make sure it’s connected to you WLAN and from the Apps menu click on Connected Media and choose the type of media you want to send. You should then be prompted to select the player, choose the player you’ve just setup in Windows. If you’re not prompted there’s a little button in the bottom right, just above the full volume icon, click it. Bingo, your chosen media will then be streamed to the computer and in my case the TV that’s connected to it.
Next up the more exciting bit, and the bit I use the most, streaming from my NAS to my Desire. Different NAS boxes will have different ways to enable DLNA but on my Synology it was just a matter of clicking on the box that turns that feature on and storing media in the shares it created. On your phone in the Apps menu choose the Video app. Click the button in the bottom left, the one with 3 parallel lines, you should end up at the Albums menu. Scroll along the strip at the bottom to Connected Media where it should search you network a DLAN devices. Select the device you want to stream from and you’ll be present with the DLNA folders on you NAS. Drill in through the folders to the movie or music you want played on your Desire, kick back and enjoy!
Over the weekend I’ll try and get some screen shots added, pictures say a millions words, and see if I can reword the guide to make it simpler to follow. Just wanted to get something up quick to help a fellow member out.

Reserved reserved

nicely explaned, thanks for the tuto,
i've just checked my tv, i think i might need an RS lead or something to connect it to my laptop, problem is tv is too far from where the lapy is, but i got another solution , my satellite box (spiderbox) can be setup as a home stream server,did it from this guide http://cccam-exchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=211&t=509 it has got that feature cos i've set it up and connected already to an external server to watch the europeen leagues footie it's plugged to BT Hub, i think all i need is a wifi bridge to the sat box to save me putting the laptop by the tv, as i'm using it,don't want a long lead,gets in the way , i'll do bit of reading on that, to set it up and see when get time.
however i did plug the phone to sat box via usb (mounted), (satbox is PVR ready) , accesed the whole sd card content.using the satbox remote ,never knew that before till when this DLNA subject popped up, opened up a new feature for me.
cheers.

What ROM are you using to do this? as the video's app is not on my MIUI version?

voodooboy3000 said:
What ROM are you using to do this? as the video's app is not on my MIUI version?
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Robos latest test rom. Its got to be running gingerbread and sense.
Sent from my HTC Desire

Video resolution is low. And i guess VLC stream & convert is more suited to me. So i'll mainly use this for audio. Thanks for the solution. Easiest method that I found to stream music from my computer to my phone.

GoFlex Satellite Wireless Hard Drive

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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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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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.
Click to expand...
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).

[Q] Media Server from Outside of Home Network

How simple is it to allow my phone to view media streamed around my home network, when I'm out and about?
I know how to port forward and I use Serviio. Are there apps better suited to this than others? Can I just use EStrong File Explorer to browse to my home IP and port forward to the drive of my media server?
Any tips welcomed

Have you tried iMediaShare from the Market?

Or Audiogalaxy, also from the market. Requires registration and an app to be installed on your PC, but easy to setup and works like a charm.

I use subsonic, works a dream and a doddle to setup. think there was a license fee (£13) and you can stream or download direct to the phone.
just my 2cents

iMediaShare looks to be sending media from my phone to a TV, which I can do already with Skifta.
AudioGalaxy looks to be music only and it's actually more about video for me.
Subsonic says it does most video formats are supported, so I'll give that a go.
Many thanks everyone

iMediaShare starts a DLNA host/server so it can stream and play media (audio/video) from your media server (via Wi-Fi locally or via 3G). It can also stream youtube and all other listed sources to your DLNA enabled devices.

Well Subsonic didn't seem to be able to play my videos, so I'll try iMediaShare then, thanks.
**EDIT** I've just realised Skifta has a remote access, so I'll give that a go first, as I'm signed up with them already.

[Q] App to remotely access my home server (media)

Hi, I have a Home Server setup that feeds all my media (.avi .mkv .mp3 etc) to all my enabled devices around my home. Now I have a shiny new HoX I am looking for an App that will allow me to remotely connect (while I am away from home) to my server and play what ever media I want. Is there an app that will do this, or a combination of apps ? Thanks in advance

For music subsonic is by far the best solution that I have found. I have heard people have had success with plex as well, so you might want to look into that as well because it supports both music AND videos. Subsonic claims to support movies but I as of yet have not been able to figure out how to get a video to play on the Android client.

Tw4T said:
Hi, I have a Home Server setup that feeds all my media (.avi .mkv .mp3 etc) to all my enabled devices around my home. Now I have a shiny new HoX I am looking for an App that will allow me to remotely connect (while I am away from home) to my server and play what ever media I want. Is there an app that will do this, or a combination of apps ? Thanks in advance
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Plex. It's the greatest app in the world. Not only can you stream via your home network it allows you to stream over a 2-3MB HSPA connection remotely. To get the most out of it you'll probably have to do some file renaming on the server but it's worth it once you see how your media displays with cover art and descriptions. I use it on my phone, tablet, and all my Google TV's. PlayOn also allows you to access your own media but it's not as sleek as Plex.

Thanks, Ill look into it. If i remember right, my old samsung bluray player had plex in it .....

Android Airplay alternatives

Not really a GPad specific question but i would like to try and use the GPad to stream mp3's from my computer to the TV.
I have had very limited success so far. Airstream gives me access to my computers files, twonky lets me beam my videos to my tv, but i cant seem to beam mp3's, they just play on the tablet. There is no option to send to the tv like with mp4's.
Also tried bubblepnp and air droid without success.
Anybody have it working, any better apps?

bry5o said:
Not really a GPad specific question but i would like to try and use the GPad to stream mp3's from my computer to the TV.
I have had very limited success so far. Airstream gives me access to my computers files, twonky lets me beam my videos to my tv, but i cant seem to beam mp3's, they just play on the tablet. There is no option to send to the tv like with mp4's.
Also tried bubblepnp and air droid without success.
Anybody have it working, any better apps?
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It might help if you told us what TV you have and what options it has. If you TV is DLNA then any of the upnp apps should let you play music to the TV. If your TV has Bluetooth you can send using that. If you have a chromecast you can cast from Google Play Music.

Sorry its a Panasonic and it has dlna but not bluetooth or miracast.
Like I first said suggested but did not perhaps make clear the problem is not so much sharing content, twonky gives me the option to beam videos but not mp3's. Its almost like the default player takes preference over all over software. I wonder if I can cancel any associations so that when I next select an mp3 I am asked which program to open it with and twonky will be in the list.

bry5o said:
Sorry its a Panasonic and it has dlna but not bluetooth or miracast.
Like I first said suggested but did not perhaps make clear the problem is not so much sharing content, twonky gives me the option to beam videos but not mp3's. Its almost like the default player takes preference over all over software. I wonder if I can cancel any associations so that when I next select an mp3 I am asked which program to open it with and twonky will be in the list.
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BubbleUpnp should do what you want. In the Devices section, select your TV as the renderer, and you should be able to stream content from your tablet or any DLNA server on your network to the TV.