One of the reasons I got a 10.1 was to hopefully watch movies/TV on it rather than my desktop. The particular site I go to offers streaming videos via Putlocker files, which obviously works great on my desktop but is rather problematic on the Tab. When I switch over to "desktop" website viewing in the default browser or Dolphin HD and navigate to a show I want to watch and start streaming the video, it functions like on my computer. If I pause to let the buffer build up, go full screen and back to normal viewing, or pause for a while during the show, the tab either plays for about 6 minutes and then stops the video or shows the video buffer fully loaded (even though it wasn't before any of the mentioned actions) and then stops playing. The only thing that seems to work is watching the stream start to finish with no or very short pauses.
I don't know how to stop this from happening. Maybe I am misunderstanding something basic here and correct me if I'm wrong in my logic - Putlocker is actually streaming the video, which is loaded into the RAM and not using any hard drive space, and, since almost half of the memory is used for the OS/GUI, it can only display about 6 minutes of video because of the RAM limitation and anything that goes over that limitation (e.g. building up the buffer) causes the video to "crash". If I'm correct, I doubt I have any options to solve this problem since adding RAM isn't viable. Hopefully, I'm wrong here or there's a work-around to fix this handicap. The odd thing that makes me think I'm wrong is that the amount of RAM my desktop uses for Chrome to play Putlocker files is low enough that the Tab shouldn't have any problems fully buffering the stream. Most of the shows are 30 minutes and only are around 130 Mb if downloaded as an AVI file. Even now as I type this, I have a full movie loaded up and Chrome is only using around 230 Mb of RAM between that video and the two other tabs I have open. Any suggestions or help? (I've asked this @ another forum and the response I got was to use Splashtop to transfer a live stream from my computer to the tab - a helpful suggestion, but I want the Tab to do all the work and have the desktop off.)
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First of all, I am grateful that the vibrant can play divx encoded video files; I don't think I could live without it. Unfortunately it cannot stream them.
A solution is to start downloading the Avi and then [while its downloading] switch over to the Files application, go to the ".downloadTemp" folder [you need to first enable "hidden files" in the options], and open the incomplete *.avi in the stock video player application. This works wonderfully and i can instantly start watching a video AS IT DOWNLOADS.
UNFORTUNATELY, the video player app will not let me fast forward. Sometimes it lets me rewind, but it mostly takes me back to the very beginning of the video if I even touch the trackbar. And yes, for those who are wondering, the Video WAS sufficiently done downloading to reach the part of the video i wanted to fast forward to. I obviously wasn't trying to forward to the end of the video with only 10% of it downloaded.
I looked in the android market for alternative video players, and the only one that REMOTELY worked was Rockplayer. It would let me fast forward and rewind, except it was really glitchy and full of ads. I prefer just watching it on the perfectly stable stock Player than to use a glitchy one.
So i come to you guys, hoping for a solution. Any Ideas? Are there any other Video Players that i missed that will let me fast forward and rewind incomplete video files as they download?
(Oh, and if you're wondering the source of the videos, i usually just watch divx movies and shows that have been uploaded to megaupload, such as: megaupload.com/?d=T5D3YV8R&w=719&h=349)
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Solved: VPlayer and Moboplayer support HTTP Streaming for DviX
I have read a few posts similar to yours, complaining about streaming divx avi files.
I myself do NOT have any issues with this and have tested a fair share of my 900gigs of divx avi's. I DO have issues stream MKV files while I have seen others report that they can stream MKVs.
What does this mean?
This means that AllShare is no different then any of the other DLNA based streaming software out there, there are compatibility problems that need to be worked out. Usually this is sorted out on the streaming server side and not the player.
I am saying that the software you are using to stream is more then likely causing the problem.
Give Twonky a try. Thats what I use and as I said I can stream divx/xvid avi's without issue. The downside is that Twonky is not free, the upside is that there is a 30 day trial to test and see if it resolves your issue. If it does, I dont think the price for Twonky is that bad, I paid $15. If you want a free one (they update compatibility less frequently) just google search DLNA or UPNP streamers and test a few out. XBMC is a good open source alternative, but is really not an option if you are using a windows box. XBMC is a program and not a service so you would be running a full media player at all times. XBMC can be setup as a standalone in linux though, if you have a spare PC to use.
Good luck.
When I say "stream," I don't mean from a home network source, I mean from an http source.
Therefore, I don't think the DLNA solution applies (Although i'm probably going to end up taking your advice for when i want to play videos from my computer, so thanks for the tip )
But that still leaves the current issue. Any Ideas?
tmpryid said:
When I say "stream," I don't mean from a home network source, I mean from an http source.
Therefore, I don't think the DLNA solution applies (Although i'm probably going to end up taking your advice for when i want to play videos from my computer, so thanks for the tip )
But that still leaves the current issue. Any Ideas?
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Click to collapse
AHHHHH.... I have been looking for a way to do this as well. HTTP streaming should no longer be an issue when 2.2 drops as sites like quicksilverscreen and the like all work fine through Flash 10.1 in 2.2. I have tested this with a Nexus1 and it works beautifully even over 3g.
I still want to have access to my home server though as I have close to a terabyte of video and my system is setup to auto download shows as they come out.
I am hoping to get my hands on a deODEXed version of the AllShare app to see if I can remove the WIFI only restriction. After that it should just be a matter of setting up a VPN back to my server.
Right, megavideo should work fine once we get the 2.2 update (woot! cant wait till we get flash xD)
as for movies uploaded on megaupload, I guess i'll survive with the .downloadTemp folder trick for now. Thanks.
And if i may ask, what's the quality like on allshare and twonky? and how fast does it respond to fast forwarding/rewinding?
I would like to stream from a regular windows samba share over wireless. I can't even get that working properly. It appears to be a limitation with the player and not the OS.
I've searched thoroughly on this and no solutions, only a few other users reporting the same problem.
Got a TV, Blu-ray player, or network media player that supports DLNA? Can you record a video on your Vibrant, and successfully play it on your client device? I think I saw someone say they had success using a WD Live HD Plus...but I'd sure like to get confirmation before I go get one.
I picked up a Samsung BD-C6900 player that ought to do this. Getting the networking set up on both the phone and the blu-ray went extremely smoothly. The Avatar trailer plays over DLNA perfectly. But videos recorded with the phone's camera? No go. They play for a second or two, then freeze, then sometimes pick up again, much farther into the clip, then freeze again. Even on the smallest resolution.
The C6900 is going back, unless I get some satisfaction from level three support in the morning...by the time I got that far tonight, the department had closed for the day.
So maybe I try the WD, or wait until some future time when Samsung finally gets around to doing the engineering that should have been done before releasing product, and spreading hype about Allshare that crosses the fine line from fraud into marketing.
Any other experiences or ideas?
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Update 10/1/2010 5PM MT:
Amie at level 3 support did not have any solutions, but was conscientious in taking down the data to relay to development.
I discovered that turning off "record audio" results in videos that play through allshare correctly, excepting the highest resolution mode. Even though they play correctly, there is a notice at the beginning: "Audio codec not support". This notice also sometimes briefly appears at the start of the malfunctioning videos that do contain audio.
I've copied the videos over to Ubuntu and used mplayer -identify to start analyzing them. Nothing jumps out as suspicious. In both cases, the audio format ID is 255 and mplayer selects the FAAD AAC codec. Mplayer plays them all fine.
I tried Twonky Mobile Server in addition to allshare, and it behaved similarly to allshare. It produced a log file in which the most interesting difference between avatar_trailer and the recorded videos is that DLNA profiles were found for the malfunctioning videos, but no profile was found for the Avatar trailer.
I wonder if something is triggering on-the-fly transcoding to happen, even though it should not be needed? On-the-fly transcoding is something that can happen under DLNA, so that broader compatibility can be achieved. It's going to be slow, though, on these embedded processors. Slowness due to transcoding would be consistent with the symptoms. I don't know whether such transcoding would happen on the server end (phone in this case), or the client end. Anyone, anyone? Bueller?
My next experiment will be to burn the videos to disc and see what the C6900 does with them in that case.
Update 10/1/2010 10PM MT: All the videos play fine when burned to disc. So it's purely an allshare issue...but is it on the phone end, or the BD player end? I checked back and found the source of the report that the WD Live worked with DLNA from a Vibrant...but it was not claimed that videos recored using the Vibrant's camera worked. So I have never seen any report of anyone ever playing their Vibrant-recorded videos using DLNA/allshare. Seems like something amiss on the phone end, then...but why, if the video files themselves are OK, do two different DLNA server apps (allshare and Twonky) both fail in the same way?
Next experiment: stream to Windows 7 as the DLNA client.
I would like to capture the DLNA streams, but am not sure how to go about that.
Mods: I see you moved this to Q&A. I think perhaps it would be a better fit in Development, now?
Tried flashing a different ROM, Frankin-Twiz Final. It has allshare removed. TwonkyServer Mobile had Unrecoverable Error on startup. So I restored to stock.
(someone has since posted a dlna.apk in that thread that restores allshare)
I had to reinstall Twonky after flashing back to stock, and after that, it worked better! There must have been an update to it in the interim...
Still not perfect; there are pauses every few seconds, but it resumes from the right spot.
My best guess is that an on-the-fly transcode is happening due to the unusual 32k audio sample rate of the camcorder videos. The client device probably doesn't support that rate over dlna. I bet some client devices do, and would play the videos smoothly.
Hopefully a firmware update for the BD-C6900 player will come along that fixes it.
I acquired a Western Digital Live Plus HD player at Best Buy for $99. With the Vibrant running TwonkyServer Mobile, the WD plays all videos perfectly, even 720p!
I didn't try allshare--no reason to bother, and I like how Twonky stays running in the background and lets you do other things on the phone.
The C6900 is boxed up ready to go back to the store.
Greetings from Portugal.
Before I start, yes, I have tried searching for it. Found a couple of old threads that didn't help much...
My question is: Is there a way to watch any video format without it stopping every few minutes?
If I use the stock player everything is fine, but it cannot support several video formats like avi, rmvb... etc. I use the MX player, but on some types of video, it stopps every few minutes. It's sooooo annoying!
From what i've seen in some threads, it happens with other video apps too. AND, when i am watching something directly from the internet, like fastpasstv, the video stops loading also every few minutes. I have to restart the loading from the middle... not hard, but also annoying. (using stock browser, and this doesn't happen on youtube for example)
Is the issue related? Since it seems to be happening to both online and offline video viewing...
I am stock, non-rooted, and non-unlocked... Wifi is fine.
I have the same problem. But it is a MX Player specific one for me. BS Player works fine (but has other issues).
Edit: I tried with the 'Performance Mode' and it works so far. Maybe a workaround?
I never have this problem when streaming one of many video formats from my PC to my Prime using ES File Manager to find the video files on my PC and MX to play them as streams.
Is this something that you tend to experience with streams/videos being played directly on the Prime?
For me it is locally played .ts videos.
Meanwhile I found this thread http://groups.google.com/group/mx-videoplayer/browse_thread/thread/533d7296c0305183
It might be a Prime/ICS problem. There seems to be no solution up to now.
I get this same issue trying to stream video from sites other than youtube. It is when I'm streaming that I get most of the lock ups with the prime, reboots, etc. Maybe it is something to do with the allotted cache size of the browser being used up and cleared to make room for more buffered video?
It is rather annoying. You basically have to let it load and watch the whole thing as it goes. If I hit pause or so anything else then it risks stopping the stream where ever its at in the buffering. It's nice to have it start loading up, hitting pause, and walking away for a few minutes to let it buffer up. But then when I come back it would have just stopped about a 1/3 into it or 1/2 way. It would require hitting the reload button at the top or having to close the browser, kill it in the task manager, and then reopen it.
I don't have this issue with Netflix though. They did something right in their app.
I used to have this issue with mx player. It really sucked having to restart a movie every 5-10 minutes.
You want to use Dice Player. It's played everything I've thrown at it. All in Hardware rendering so the screen goes blank when plugged into HDMI.
Haven't had any issues since. I'm using the paid version, I assume they are both alright though.
When streaming video from youtube, or other sites and I hit pause during that stream, the entire loading of the stream will stop. Whatever is buffered will play but the stream will not resume loading from that point forward.
Example: Say I'm streaming a cartoon from the web and the clip is 5min long. About 2min into the clip I have to pause it because the phone rings. When I come back it will only play another 30 seconds and then stop (the stream which was already buffered plays). The player will just show the little symbol for loading/buffering but the wifi transfer icon on the tablet is doing nothing. I will have to reload the page and the video from the beginning.
The same can happen if I try moving around the clip. If I wanted to jump 30 seconds into the clip or backward in time it can trigger the player to stop loading. It will also happen if I open another app and return to the browser; like reading a new email. If I'm using netflix to stream I don't run into this problem. I assume its because of their programing in the app etc.
Is this a limitation to streaming video on mobile devices when it doesn't complete the buffering if interrupted? A computer will just continue to buffer it into memory for playback but are mobile devices set up to stop that loading so that memory is kept free? I know our primes have browser issues with freezing and rebooting but I don't know if this is part of the browser issues the broader prime community is experiencing.
I am on stock os, I use boat browser and the stock browser, and tried the suggested remove all browsers, uninstall flash, and reinstall trick. My phone has always been bad at streaming video so I can't really compare that with my tablet.
I really like BS Player and use it constantly on my Galaxy Tab 10.1.
I find it has a fantastic LAN streaming capability and great interface. However, it auto selects the thumbnails.
This isn't necessarily a problem for me bc I use it set to 'file list'.
However, my 5 yr old can't read yet, so I set it to Thumbnails.
Unfortunately, the auto gen thumbnail feature selects some random frame 99% of the time, and the image will have no bearing on the movie whatsoever.
Is there another video player that allows you to select your own thumbnail from a screenshot or picture file?
Tnx
After a bit of searching I found "Archos Video Player".
It doesnt allow user defined thumbnails but instead it reads the movie title, searches the web and grabs the official movie poster for the film.
Way better then some screen cap from the video.
The best part is there's an option to auto open your vids with another player.
I just use archos to browse my movies and play with BS Player.
Not only do I use it for my daughter, it looks so good I use it for myself.