Develop Bugs

Best App for Streaming Video?

I have a collection of video files on my Windows XP PC that I would like to view on my A100 without downloading the multi-GB files to the Tablet.
What combination of PC server/Android player does the best job in terms of picture quality, user interface, file/format compatibility, etc.?

I use Gmote,it works great.you have the option to control the pc like a remote,or you can set it to stream from pc.uses wifi to connect.for my player i use Vplayer.
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Hooride707 said:
I use Gmote,it works great.you have the option to control the pc like a remote,or you can set it to stream from pc.uses wifi to connect.for my player i use Vplayer.
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Thanks for the reply!
I don't understand how you use Gmote - what do you run on the PC?
I will give it a try and report back..

I have been using Playon for a few years now. there are some open source variations, I'll see if I can find some links for you later today.

Update on Gmote:
You install a small Gmote server program on your PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) and the Gmote client on your tablet. You then browse the media paths you have configured on the server. You select whether to play the file on the PC or on the Android device. If you select to play on the "phone", you have to select which player app to use. I had installed Vplayer, and selected it.
Update on Vplayer:
It works, but just barely. Lots of pixellation on my A100. It seems to be designed only for playing local files from /mnt/sdcard, doesn't even "see" /mnt/ext_card.

dharr18 said:
I have been using Playon for a few years now.
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Me, too. I have the Playon server running on my Windows PC, and the free Playon for Android player "sees" the server OK. But I can't get the channels/plugins/files to play - there is no "Play" button on the Honeycomb screen!

Update:
I am having excellent results with:
- ES File Explorer to browse the media files on my PC. Once a film is selected, the File Explorer asks you which player to use.
- MX Player is the best option I have found so far. Very fast seeking, no pixellation.
Does anybody have good results with another program or programs?

Icestream is a great app to use to stream TV shows or movies. Works best with mx player or mobo player.
Sent from meXdroid Acer Iconia A100

I also have used vital player for the device,but i dont have any problems with the Vplayer.im using the full version,idk if that makes a diff how the player is.
Sent from my HD2 Gingerbread using XDA App

kascend video play not for tablet but it works great
even plays 1080p and mkv files

I am also having good results with Skifta (free on the Market). (www.skifta.com/)
The advantage with Skifta is it sees all of the media servers that are running on my PC (tVersity, Playon, Serviio) and lets me browse them for files and channels. For playback, I am still happy with MXplayer.

I use BS player. I can browse straight to my nas thru a file share and play a movie. No need to stream anything from a pc or upnp. Lite version is free and works great.
Sent from my I9000 using Tapatalk

+1 for BSplayer. It includes hardware acceleration for Arm v7. It has gesture control for volume, brightness, zoom.

Nice
Sent from my HD2 Gingerbread using XDA App

Streaming media

I don't use Netflix which I know is good. What streaming media (apps or browser links) look good on the N7? A few that I like that seem to work well (and look good):
syfy.com/rewind
usanetwork.com/videos (must subscribe to cable or Sat service)
dish.epixhd.com (must subscribe to cable or Sat service)
dish remote access (app)
crackle (app)
tv.com (app)
None are perfect, but I would rate all a "4"; they look very good full screen. I tried TNT, it kind of sucks.

tcat007 said:
I don't use Netflix which I know is good. What streaming media (apps or browser links) look good on the N7? A few that I like that seem to work well (and look good):
syfy.com/rewind
usanetwork.com/videos (must subscribe to cable or Sat service)
dish.epixhd.com (must subscribe to cable or Sat service)
dish remote access (app)
crackle (app)
tv.com (app)
None are perfect, but I would rate all a "4"; they look very good full screen. I tried TNT, it kind of sucks.
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If you had comcast I would highly recommend the xfinity app, its perfect and they have refined the app for 7" screens
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Crunchyroll works great. Shame they dumped the tablet interface in the redesign though...

What about streaming from a Home NAS? I use FreeNAS and have like, 8TB of movies, in storage, that I stream to my PS3 using PS3 Media Server, but want to do the same with my tablet....

I use bsplayer to stream video from nas which I think is very easy setup

Plex is a really good answer for streaming from a pc to the nexus if you have lots of movies,
it automatically gets all the tag info from the web, like cover art etc.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5wbGV4YXBwLmFuZHJvaWQiXQ..

I use MovieBrowser UPnP to browse my nas and dice to play the videos. Best solution for me so far, but I'm going to check out some of the other options mentioned in this thread.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

I can't add to the OP's list, but for streaming movies on my home network, I use TVersity on a Windows PC because it's compatible with a gazillion devices, particularly my Xbox 360. I have MediaHouse on the Nexus and I watch the movies with MX Player. TVersity does take a little bit of configuring. MediaHouse discovers it within a second or so and its integration with MX Player is seamless.

XBMC?

I just looked at xbmc. Looks interesting. Does it find shows on a dvr? I see the screen examples of like 1000 movies and 8 seasons of 24... do people actually have that much stored on a pc, or does this find stuff on your dvr or on line? No way all that can be stored on an n7.
ksimilie said:
XBMC?
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I have to put a plug in for MediaHouse combined with Mx. Seamless streaming from a new DLNA drive on my Netgear router.
I have 40GB of movies (that I purchased) and a few GB of music on it.
The moves are as ripped, .avi, and they look great. I like not having to convert.

CarsnGadgets said:
Plex is a really good answer for streaming from a pc to the nexus if you have lots of movies,
it automatically gets all the tag info from the web, like cover art etc.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5wbGV4YXBwLmFuZHJvaWQiXQ..
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Another vote for Plex...I use it and love it

derek1387 said:
What about streaming from a Home NAS? I use FreeNAS and have like, 8TB of movies, in storage, that I stream to my PS3 using PS3 Media Server, but want to do the same with my tablet....
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I use ampdroid app with MediaPortal on PC. I can browse my various collections and stream 15GB bluray rips to the N7. I was surprised it worked with the large file size and type.

using dice player with plugin...streaming from pogoplug NAS running archlinux
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Another vote for Plex here, I love the way it catalogues and finds all the cover artwork for my library. The remote is a very nice touch too!

I just use ES File Explorer to browse my server's Samba share and have it open to MX Media Player. Most media is encoded to 720p mkv and using software decoding it plays back fine.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Found the best streaming media for n7, mediahouse-pro with MX player-pro video player. I wasted a couple bucks on other apps including plex and it was kind of frustrating at first. But I got it now and thought I would share.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Mannn121 said:
Found the best streaming media for n7, mediahouse-pro with MX player-pro video player. I wasted a couple bucks on other apps including plex and it was kind of frustrating at first. But I got it now and thought I would share.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
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Not sure if this was mentioned but Network Places (Innocomm) GVNDroid works very well on my Nexus 7 I was fustrated at first that iMedia sucked the way that it did but now that I've found this - Give it a try
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.innocomm.SambaExplorer

stompysan said:
I just use ES File Explorer to browse my server's Samba share and have it open to MX Media Player. Most media is encoded to 720p mkv and using software decoding it plays back fine.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
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Exactly what I do! ES File Explorer is extremely user friendly and it's just a matter of marking folders as shared and they pop up on my N7. Couple that with MX Player and it's a home run

matius44 said:
Exactly what I do! ES File Explorer is extremely user friendly and it's just a matter of marking folders as shared and they pop up on my N7. Couple that with MX Player and it's a home run
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stompysan said:
I just use ES File Explorer to browse my server's Samba share and have it open to MX Media Player. Most media is encoded to 720p mkv and using software decoding it plays back fine.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
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could you guys show me how to set up es file explorer with my windows 7 to share movies.
i have been trying to set it up. i cant figure it out.

Playing music over network

When at home I'd like my nexus 7 to be able to access & play music files which are stored on our NAS.
Original plan was to mount relevant folder on NAS as smb share & then use any music player of choice. However I've had no luck getting cifs mgr (or similar) to do this (mount folder on NAS) so am exploring alternatives.
I have enabled UPnP server on the NAS and can use BubbleUPnP to play music. However I'd like a player with a few more options (equalizer being the main one).
Does anyone have any suggestions for music players with playback over UPnP capability? Or an alternative way of doing this?
Nexus 7 rooted but running standard launcher and jellybean.
Thanks in advance....

Try Upnplay, not sure if it has the equalizer but it is very good at playing music over the network
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks - not sure how I hadn't found it before. Unfortunately it doesn't have equalizer in it but good to try different options even so.

Gets a CIFS manager and mount the share. Use any player you want after that. Its music and not video so it won't saturate your connection.
DLNA is great but unless your gonna do full blown media station its unneeded in your situation.
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Videp Player with SMB

Hi all!
Very new here, and to Android! I've just purchased a Tab S 10.5 and it's my first try away from Apple products. So far definitely enjoying the freedom
I notice on the Samsung video app that you can click 'nearby devices' and browse through my SMB file share on my network, however it's not in folders and you can't search! I've been using VLC Beta for 'on device' media but are there any good video players that have better SMB browsing?
Thanks!

A very good free SMB capable file manager is ES File Manager on the playstore. It definitely shows the network share in a folder hierarchy but to the best of my knowledge does not have a search feature. If you tap on a specific file you can associate the file type with a specific app. For example a mpg video with a media player app. On Android I would recommend MX Player as the best all around video player app handling the widest range of video formats plus hardware acceleration. There is a free version you can try.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app

3DSammy said:
A very good free SMB capable file manager is ES File Manager on the playstore. It definitely shows the network share in a folder hierarchy but to the best of my knowledge does not have a search feature. If you tap on a specific file you can associate the file type with a specific app. For example a mpg video with a media player app. On Android I would recommend MX Player as the best all around video player app handling the widest range of video formats plus hardware acceleration. There is a free version you can try.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
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Thank-you! I will check it out. Sounds like it'll be exactly what I need Cheers!

Just a word of advice. SMB is a terrible profile and you will get much better video playback over dlna or plex than SMB, assuming you have at least a cheap PC capable of running a DLNA server(several free).

You can also use BS Player to play your videos over SMB and support many codecs

leojab said:
You can also use BS Player to play your videos over SMB and support many codecs
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+1 for BS Player. It can also find subtitles online for the videos if needed.

gottahavit said:
Just a word of advice. SMB is a terrible profile and you will get much better video playback over dlna or plex than SMB, assuming you have at least a cheap PC capable of running a DLNA server(several free).
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I dunno.....I run all my videos over smb to my Android box, don't require an extra PC, external subs works fine, and all my other PCs can access those files just fine.
Fiddling with DLNA just introduces more overheads....no thanks.

kenkiller said:
I dunno.....I run all my videos over smb to my Android box, don't require an extra PC, external subs works fine, and all my other PCs can access those files just fine.
Fiddling with DLNA just introduces more overheads....no thanks.
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Are you running 1080p full blu ray streams? I didn't say it wasn't a little setup, just much better throughput. Either way whatever works for you.
BTW why do you need another pc? Are you running your drives right off you router?

The SMB player I'm using is Archos Video Player. Played everything I threw at it.

I love plex for all my devices. If only they didn't remove the RAR support...
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[q] Network audio player?

Hello there, besides Neutron, is there any other player that supports playing folders from local network. I mean I've shared a few folders over the network with mp3 and flacs and I want to play them with an player from my Tab S. I've found only neutron who does the job. Other players they don't even have the function to play files from the local network. Any suggestions ? Thanks

Why not just use something like bubble upnp?

I will try it when I get home. Thank you!

ashyx said:
Why not just use something like bubble upnp?
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Ok, so I've installed the app but it doesn't play my mp3/flac files from an shared folder trough my network. From what I see , I have to install an Bubble upnp server on my laptop then the Bubble upnp app would acces that server and play the files.
I'm not looking for that. I just want a player that can play files in shared folders on my network, no additional servers or stuff like that. Only Neutron can do that?!?! In Android OS , I'm kinda shocked, because when I had the IPAD I've had like 3-4 apps that can do that.

vibecatalin said:
Hello there, besides Neutron, is there any other player that supports playing folders from local network. I mean I've shared a few folders over the network with mp3 and flacs and I want to play them with an player from my Tab S. I've found only neutron who does the job. Other players they don't even have the function to play files from the local network. Any suggestions ? Thanks
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Out of curiosity if you have Neutron why are you looking for something else? A while ago I ran onto this hassle and ended up buying Neutron because it can play from multiple sources (network shares, streamed URL and mSD storage) it also has superior audio compared to Power Amp. Neutron's UI needs a modern refresh but functionality is good. I have also purchased and set up Plex app including its server. It's app is beautiful but it's lack of Playlist ability and how it groups audio files makes it a video server choice rather than audio. I do not use Plex anymore as I ended up implementing my own solution.
In the end I wrote a python script that takes my m3u playlists from my desktop/server and converts them to urls listed in a rss file and make the music directory and modified m3u rss file accessible from my local lan's web server. I'll usually use Server Steam (playstore) to stream the m3u file launched through Simple RSS widget (playstore) which shows a scrollable list of m3u urls.
Sometimes to get exactly what you want you need to roll your own.
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Is the Neutron UI that is holding me down and the fact that on a open source OS like Android I don't have at lest 3 applications to choose from, I think that is what is bothering me ). Thank you all for your answers!
Until I will find something new I will stick with Neutron.

Windows has its own upnp server built in. No need to install anything. Just open media player then add whatever you want to share to the library, be that a single file or a whole folder or drive.
It will then be available on the network for any upnp or dlna device or software.

Most file managers will let you play music files. ES File Explorer has its own media player built in.

flhthemi said:
Most file managers will let you play music files. ES File Explorer has its own media player built in.
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Network player.

ashyx said:
Network player.
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Maybe I'm ignorant of the term "Network Player". I know if I use ES go to Network then access my NAS's music folder I can play my MP3s. I have the option when I tap one to use any of the installed apps to play it. That's not a network player?
Also Dice Player has the option to setup network access and play media...

flhthemi said:
Maybe I'm ignorant of the term "Network Player". I know if I use ES go to Network then access my NAS's music folder I can play my MP3s. I have the option when I tap one to use any of the installed apps to play it. That's not a network player?
Also Dice Player has the option to setup network access and play media...
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No you're correct, I stand corrected. Don't really use es explorer, so wasn't aware of it.

I use ArmAmp (for local & network). It has way better UI than Neutron, and more features / customizability than ES File Explorer's player.