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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?
Click to expand...
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?
---
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.
I just picked up my gtablet yesterday and have been spending my time installing tnt lite and installing several apps. I bought it because when I go on trips I wanted something that could browse the net, and play videos. I installed RockPlayer and put a 720p mkv file onto the machine, however playback is very choppy and its almost like the device cannot handle it. I know that several people have gotten 1080p to work good, and I am wondering if there is a setting that needs to be enabled to make 720p work better? I did some digging and saw that someone said to edit a line in the build.prop file (set the media.stagefright.enable from true to false), but I cannot edit my build.prop file. And I am not entirely sure that this will fix the problem. Are 720p videos playable on this machine?
What profile did you render the movies in? Try changing the MKV extension to AVI... Sometimes some renderers treat containers differently even though they are using the same codecs.
just tried to rename the extension from .mkv to .avi and still same choppiness and eventually the videos stops playing all together. I am not sure what rendering is, but the file is encoded AAC 2.0 H264
h264 is not the issue, it's what profile its encoded in
I have this in my FAQ section (in my sig). h264 is supported, but the Tegra 2 cannot handle h264 encoded in high profile. It can handle main profile.
This is confusing to people. So, what I would recommend is to download the excellent "mediainfo" tool (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en) and it will show you how your videos are encoded.
As for container support, I think MP4 plays a little better than MKV, but Rockplayer (in the Market) seems to be able to handle MKV and using hardware acceleration. Again, as long as it's h264 main profile.
This is not just an issue with the GTab - all the Tegra 2 devices will have this issue as its a limitation of the chipset, or so I've read. Vega, Folio, even the mysterious Adam will probably have this same limitation.
Reference on h264 and main / high profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC
Thank you for clarifying. I am wondering can I convert the video to the main profile and then get it to work?
Maximus1000 said:
Thank you for clarifying. I am wondering can I convert the video to the main profile and then get it to work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's the tricky part. I haven't been able to figure that out yet, although granted I haven't put much time into it. I think these "profiles" depend on how you encode and which tool you use.
If you try the Tron Legacy trailers, they are 1080p but main profile. A good example of how nice videos can look on it, when encoded the right way.
I have to play around more with something like ffmpeg to see if I can pin this down. Another reason for transcoding is to keep the sizes down, since we have the 4GB FAT32 file size limitation to deal with. Yuk.
I've incoded a 1080p high profile to main. sound was in and out then tryed a few things and lost sound. Video played great anyways.
I guess it depends on the encode. I dl a 720p music video off of youtube, mp4 avc [email protected] (according to mediainfo) and it plays just fine.
japhule said:
I guess it depends on the encode. I dl a 720p music video off of youtube, mp4 avc [email protected] (according to mediainfo) and it plays just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be a lower screen resolution that full 720p (not all 720p's are alike).
I also read today that Tegra 2 720p should work in high profile, but 1080p definitely does not. But, Android itself might be limiting even 720p, so it's a crap shoot.
Just out of curiosity why do you guys want those big files on here anyway? Is it to output to a TV? I wouldn't think you would need such a high quality file to watch stuff on the G tab.
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0b2 using Tapatalk
Sprdtyf350 said:
Just out of curiosity why do you guys want those big files on here anyway? Is it to output to a TV? I wouldn't think you would need such a high quality file to watch stuff on the G tab.
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0b2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not about storing large files on the gtab...its more about having video portability. I keep my movies and videos on a server that I stream from my living room and bedroom. It would be ideal if I can play files on any device without having to reencode the video.
I did test 1080p files from YouTube and they did not play (high profile).
Ok, makes sense. I do the same thing using upnplay and my server. Thought you were wanting them on the tablet.
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Sprdtyf350 said:
Just out of curiosity why do you guys want those big files on here anyway? Is it to output to a TV? I wouldn't think you would need such a high quality file to watch stuff on the G tab.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A two hour 720p movie runs ~4GB, so it's close to the limit in FAT32. And you could easily go over the limit when encoding, which would require you to break the file up. Annoying.
The problem here is that none of the vendors want to agree on a replacement file system for portable devices (wow, no surprise there). MS wants exFAT, the open source community would prefer EXT3/4, and I assume Apple would prefer HFS+.
Sprdtyf350 said:
Just out of curiosity why do you guys want those big files on here anyway? Is it to output to a TV? I wouldn't think you would need such a high quality file to watch stuff on the G tab.
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0b2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't speak for everybody else, but for me I'd want to just use the video files I broadcatch from the NNTP groups. Ideally, I wouldn't want to have to reencode video to watch it, just access it directly from my media server. Standard definition avis work okay, but eventually these will not be offered and of course the HD versions look way better. Over the years it's been harder to come by a regular source of SD resolution TV Series feeds. The 720P encoded files quality are noticeable versus SD even on this smaller screen. Ideally we would get high profile 720P MKV at least to work as it seems this is what the guys doing NNTP TV Series seem to be encoding in.
What I would see happening is that a video player on the GTablet will access the files off the media server and stream, not play files directly off the local Internal SD. Regardless of where the file resides, it looks like it needs to be refined to play these files more fluidly.
I'm not saying this will be the only nor primary method of viewing video files, but having the flexibility and option is always nice. Especially when all the tvs are watching something else. ;P
dkhilo said:
Can't speak for everybody else, but for me I'd want to just use the video files I broadcatch from the NNTP groups. Ideally, I wouldn't want to have to reencode video to watch it, just access it directly from my media server. Standard definition avis work okay, but eventually these will not be offered and of course the HD versions look way better. Over the years it's been harder to come by a regular source of SD resolution TV Series feeds. The 720P encoded files quality are noticeable versus SD even on this smaller screen. Ideally we would get high profile 720P MKV at least to work as it seems this is what the guys doing NNTP TV Series seem to be encoding in.
What I would see happening is that a video player on the GTablet will access the files off the media server and stream, not play files directly off the local Internal SD. Regardless of where the file resides, it looks like it needs to be refined to play these files more fluidly.
I'm not saying this will be the only nor primary method of viewing video files, but having the flexibility and option is always nice. Especially when all the tvs are watching something else. ;P
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First rule of Usenet.....
roebeet said:
First rule of Usenet.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay I'm doing the Madagascar penguin "you didn't see anything gesture" now. LOL.
Sent from my GTablet-TnT-Lite using Tapatalk
japhule said:
It's not about storing large files on the gtab...its more about having video portability. I keep my movies and videos on a server that I stream from my living room and bedroom. It would be ideal if I can play files on any device without having to reencode the video.
I did test 1080p files from YouTube and they did not play (high profile).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please share how you are thinking about doing that using movies/pictures/videos on Windows Media Center share or NFS mount.
I tried very same thing as some of my movies still in vob format or mpeg2 (home recordings of kids), tv recordings using microsoft format or streaming pics, and nothing seems to work. I was able to use upnpplay (android program in the market place) to browse my stuff on the shared drive, but can't play mpeg2, vob or other format.
does anyone know what's the best way to do this?
G Tab supports H.264 1080p main and high profiles
Detailed specs on what Audio and Video formats G Tablet supports are listed in the manual downloadable from the Viewsonic web site.
But in a few words - it does support up to 1080p, both baseline, high, and main profiles for H.264 with certain limitations for each, and MPEG4 simple profile.
rob_z11 said:
Can you please share how you are thinking about doing that using movies/pictures/videos on Windows Media Center share or NFS mount.
I tried very same thing as some of my movies still in vob format or mpeg2 (home recordings of kids), tv recordings using microsoft format or streaming pics, and nothing seems to work. I was able to use upnpplay (android program in the market place) to browse my stuff on the shared drive, but can't play mpeg2, vob or other format.
does anyone know what's the best way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My entire system is redundant. I have my windows 7 share as well as my htpc/nas running tversity, orb and audiogalaxy (music only). Everything is shared in every way. First I try just streaming the file through Windows 7 dlna, which generally works fine. I too use Upnplay. If something doesn't work (very rare) I move to looking for it through Tversity which attempts to detect the dlna device and scale it so it works. I've never needed to use Orb on the GTab since I really got everything up and running, Orb is for when I actually am on the road and want to watch sth. from my home network. PlayOn may actually work as well - it has a free mode which allows you to use it to share files on the local network using VLC codecs.
Video Playback
I'd like to add to this conversation with, I hope, clarification of how to get higher definition video playback working on the GTab.
I've tried four video files that are 720P or 1080P. None of them works well in Movies, DoubleTwist, Rockplayer, or VitalPlayer.
G Tablet, TnT 4.21, OE kernel. Market fix. Various apps.
Videos all playing from /SDCARD
Here is some more information about those videos, using Mediainfo:
Touring Car race:
720P MPEG-4 50FPS AVC ([email protected]) (CABAC / 3 ref frames)
AAC Stereo
Big Buck Bunny:
http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/
1080P OpenDML AVI 12Mbps 24FPS MPEG-4 Visual ([email protected])
AC-3 audio
Audi R8:
720P AVC Matroska 800Kbps 29.970FPS AVC ([email protected]) (CABAC / 2 ref frames)
AC-3 audio
Donington LG demo:
1080P BDAV M2TS 35.5Mbps 29.970fps AVC ([email protected]) (CABAC /3 ref frames)
AC-3 audio
Are all of these simply too much for me to get away with playing on the GTab? I've played most, if not all of these, using a Broadcom 70012 Crystal HD decoder card on a Dell Mini 9 (Atom N270) with few problems.
Thanks for the help.
Well this is actually a topic with 2 quetions in it.
1) Did you guys already notice when playing a movie on the Prime, and you connected the prime to a tv through a microHDMI cable the subtitles shown on the Prime, do not show up on the television. It looks like the prime only sends the pure video signal to the tv and not the extra's such as subtitles. Is there some kind of workaroud for this? I've tried both DicePlayer as MX Video Player without any succes.
2) This is the main question. What program do you guys use, and which settings, to convert movies you've downloaded or ripped? I know the Prime plays a lot of formats, but the main reason for asking is that most downloaded movies are rather big files (over 10Gb). So I want to make them smaller in size. So which program do you recommand for that, and which which settings?
Personally I've tried two programs:
- XMedia Recode. Ideal program because it has already a lot of pre-settings in it, also one for the Asus Transformer. But the outcome file is quite grainy.
- MediaCoder. A lot can be adjusted, but no presets. And from a quick comparison, I think the outcome file is not really nice to look at. Lot's of distortion, blocks, etc.
So please advice.
Google DVD Catalyst
So far it's hasn't met a DVD or video file it didn't like.
Transformer Prime presets at different quality settings.
I've been using it for a while, it's great.
Ok I will try that. But does it also hard encode the subtitles, so the subtitles are show on the Tv when the prime is connected through microHDMI to the tv?
10GBs? Where you getting your movies from !? I use 720p BluRay Rips that are around 2Gbs or less
This is for personal watching on the prime not using TV.
I use various torrent sites to get my HD TV Shows to watch at work
I also MX player to play movies that the stock player wont play
I download movies for watching on the tv, but sometimes, eg, when I'm in the nighshift, I want to convert them to 720p movies.
I also watch older movies which are not always in 720p, or not even in X264 format, but only in DVD format.
And because I'm living in the Netherlands, not everybody encodes the movies in 720p with dutch subtitles but only in 1080p. So that's why.
But then is there still the problem that the Prime does not show the subtitles on the tv. The only way to see the subtitles I think, is when they are hard coded in the movie.
Not sure about DVD Catalyst and hard coding them but Tools4movies is great about answering email. They should be able to tell you if it's possible or not. My laptop is down for the count right now or I'd look at the many settings this program has to see if its a possibility.
From Tools4movies website:
Tools4Movies was founded in late 2003. While initially developed as a basic video conversion utility, in the middle of 2004, the
first version of DVD Catalyst was released under the name of mMedia.
mMedia consisted of 2 separate applications called mDVD and mVideo. mVideo was the continuation of an in-home build video
conversion utility, and mDVD was essentially a modified version to enable DVD support.
After a few months of continuous development, mMedia was replaced with PocketDVD 1.0, which initially hold onto the 2 separate
applications, but with later versions, both were merged into a single application to make better use of the powerful batching capabilities
that the applications offered. The first name change, from mMedia to PocketDVD was decided on due for marketing reasons.
After a few successful version-upgrades, and PocketDVD 2.0 winning the Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards, a
new name change was needed because we were receiving too many support requests for applications with a similar name. While initially
beneficial (we do answer all emails within a very reasonable response time, even if it was not for our own application) we found it better
to have a more distinctive look and name to avoid confusion. As we at DVD Catalyst are cat-persons (well, 1 cat and 2 yorkies at the
moment), we decided to use distinctive cat-eyes in the graphical design, and of course DVD CATalyst as a name.
DVD Catalyst was born out of our own personal needs. After looking around the web for an application to assist us with putting movies
on our portable devices, we found that there was nothing on the market that would easily enable us to start a conversion with more than
just one DVD track or video file. On top of that, all available software treated DVDs and video files as being different, basically forcing you
to purchase 2 products for essentially doing the same thing.
So rather than settling for a multi-app solution, we started development on something that would do what we want; Rip multiple DVDs,
convert numerous video files, and provide us with all the control over the conversion we could ever need.
Unlike most video-conversion-app developers out there, we actually use our own software on a daily basis. Whenever we run into
something we would like it to do, we build it into our software.
Coming from a history of support-jobs, we actually listen to our customers. Besides providing the best possible support, we are also
always open for suggestions. We do come up with ideas and new features ourselves, but customer suggestions and feature requests has
made DVD Catalyst what it is today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for video conversions I like using the program "super"
www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html
Download link is at the bottom of the page.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
Bart1981 said:
Ok I will try that. But does it also hard encode the subtitles, so the subtitles are show on the Tv when the prime is connected through microHDMI to the tv?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Bart,
DVD Catalyst will hard-code the subs into your video files.
If you have any questions, just send me an email or PM. If it makes it easier, I can reply in Dutch if needed.
^^^
See this is why these guys are the B-E-S-T!!!!
I've tried DVD Catalyst, and wow, it's amazingly fast!
I'm impressed bij the simplicity and the quality!
dvdcatalyst said:
Hi Bart,
DVD Catalyst will hard-code the subs into your video files.
If you have any questions, just send me an email or PM. If it makes it easier, I can reply in Dutch if needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gna gna, that makes it a lot easier ;-)
2. I use xilisoft video converter ultimate. The PS3 HD h.264 profile works perfectly.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
{EDIT}
It appears there is an audio issue with RockPlayer and Hardware Decoding on our device. After contacting the developers, they will be releasing a version with SW audio support while using hardware for video to fix this. Expected within one month. Post will be updated once released.
DicePlayer has been recommended as an alternative as it has HW decode and native SAMBA support, however it does not appear to handle hardware decoding for as many formats as RockPlayer (watch for SW in the upper left).
{/EDIT}
Hi all,
While going through the Accessory Guide post (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1377669) I realized there was an odd recommendation on video playback using Emit Free. With our devices there is no need for transcoding like you would have to do on an iPad, but it's still not "easy" to get full 1080P playback over the network.
With root, you can install cifs drivers that are pretty efficient, but without it, many times video stutters. I tested a large combination of File Managers that mounted CIFS/SAMBA shares and Video Players to see which performed best.
From File Manager HD and Astro to MXPlayer and XYPlayer nearly all of them had stuttering issues with 1080P video, and lag when seeking in 720P video. Below is where I ended up, which entailed perfect 1080P playback, with zero lag when seeking (tested on high bitrate MKV and AVI w/ AC3 and DTS audio samples).
1. Install ES File Explorer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop
ES File Explorer is a file manager that supports CIFS/SAMBA mounts (these are the shared folders on your Windows, Mac, or Linux PC). Once open, swipe right to access the network shares. I recommend turning on "Detail" mode in the settings, so you can see file sizes and permissions, too. The advantage of ES File Explorer over other managers I tried is that the CIFS implementation has been optimized very well, and was the best at streaming the file data to the video player from a speed and bandwidth perspective.
2. Install RockPlayer Lite: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redirectin.rockplayer.android.unified.lite
RockPlayer is a great player that includes hardware acceleration, much like MXPlayer. The difference here is that like ES File Explorer, RockPlayer seems better optimized for network file handling. With other players in combination with ES File Explorer, there were still lag issues during seek. RockPlayer has none of these issues.
Be sure to enable HW acceleration in Rockplayer
Also ensure app mode is set to "stretched" instead of "zoomed"
Any questions, or other options, feel free to post below.
If this guide was helpful, please click Thanks below instead of replying to keep the thread clean.
Thanks!
Ben
i tried your suggestion.
yeah it gets rid of the lag but:
- there is no sound for most of my hd mkv videos
- subtitles dont show for mkv files
nice to see that the tfp actually does have the power to play these smoothly though!
I have been using ES File explorer and it does help with the streaming. However, I have not gotten a streaming video to play thru the whole movie/show. Seems every 10 or 30mins (differs), it will quit playing. I've tried the same setup on my Galaxy Nexus and don't have issues. I guess I can try Rock Player. I guess no one else has this issue? I've seen it mentioned once or twice while reading the boards but no answers. I thought maybe it was on my end and somehow the wifi was dropping, but if it is...its not displaying it.
I use dice player. It has native ability to open network shares and plays HD MKV files over wifi without lag or stutter.
r0ck0 said:
I use dice player. It has native ability to open network shares and plays HD MKV files over wifi without lag or stutter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can it transcode dts audio or any multichannel audio? any program i have tried plays fine but there is no audio
tried it , unfortunally no sound on most of my mkv's.
Dice player does a better job, way more codecs supported and equal network performance, rockplayer seems to build up a bigger buffer, at the beginning it may look like its more stable but after a while both are laging .. (high profile 1080)
what's up with all the lagging ? wifi performance not good enough or is the SOC not capable of streaming and decoding all at once? no problems from sdcard ..
knives of ice said:
can it transcode dts audio or any multichannel audio? any program i have tried plays fine but there is no audio
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Dice player works great with mkv movies with DTS and AC3 audio on my TF201. Dice player is the best way to stream movie using a NAS Imo.
tested with dlink dns-323 and stock tf201.
Tempie007 said:
tried it , unfortunally no sound on most of my mkv's.
Dice player does a better job, way more codecs supported and equal network performance, rockplayer seems to build up a bigger buffer, at the beginning it may look like its more stable but after a while both are laging .. (high profile 1080)
what's up with all the lagging ? wifi performance not good enough or is the SOC not capable of streaming and decoding all at once? no problems from sdcard ..
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Click to collapse
Wifi performance is the issue for me. If i'm sitting next to the router 1080p plays fine. If I go to other rooms(even adjacent rooms) then it will stutter periodically. It really impairs one of the primary uses that I wanted the Transformer Prime for. As of now I use Plex to transcode to a smaller bitrate
Tempie007 said:
tried it , unfortunally no sound on most of my mkv's.
Dice player does a better job, way more codecs supported and equal network performance, rockplayer seems to build up a bigger buffer, at the beginning it may look like its more stable but after a while both are laging .. (high profile 1080)
what's up with all the lagging ? wifi performance not good enough or is the SOC not capable of streaming and decoding all at once? no problems from sdcard ..
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Click to collapse
Interesting, I've had the exact opposite impressions with Rockplayer having more HW decoding support. In any event, I'm stupid for not testing audio.
I've updated the first post based on discussions with the developers of Rockplayer, and will do a re-work of this guide focusing on both solutions once it is released and we can test.
Thanks,
Ben
I haven't tried Rockplayer. However, I get excellent results with Diceplayer. I stream all 720p and most 1080p .mkv using estrongs file explorer. Some 1080p will get lag. Just depends on the bit rate your 1080p video is encoded at, and your WIFI connection speed.
I actually just run an entire home PC with Win 7 Ultimate on it for my movie collection. I just RJ45 it right to my Wireless router. That way I can stream all of my movies to any device in my home. I have quite a few WDTV lives hooked up to all my tv's in my house. So it works out great.
Plus once in awhile If a 1080p video isn't playing well on my prime. I convert it using airvideo. I have airvideo server running on the Win 7 server. (those that have an ipad 2 that is) Have this option. You simply load airvideo on your ipad 2. Select the .mkv you want to convert to .m4v and add it to quere. Airvideo has all the conversion and bitrate methods built in the program. So I don't have to mess with jumping on Win 7 machine. Loading a conversion program and blah blah. I have yet to find an Android program that compares to Airvideo. If someone has suggestion let me know. (Yes, I have tried PLEX). Just can't beat the Live Conversion and simple conversion in Airvideo.
lollee76 said:
I have been using ES File explorer and it does help with the streaming. However, I have not gotten a streaming video to play thru the whole movie/show. Seems every 10 or 30mins (differs), it will quit playing. I've tried the same setup on my Galaxy Nexus and don't have issues. I guess I can try Rock Player. I guess no one else has this issue? I've seen it mentioned once or twice while reading the boards but no answers. I thought maybe it was on my end and somehow the wifi was dropping, but if it is...its not displaying it.
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Yeah i get the same thing happening to me randomly.
Using mx player and es file explorer, maybe 15 or 20 mins into watching, the player will just quit by itself. Doesnt happen always though, maybe twice for every 5 vids i play.
Erusman said:
I haven't tried Rockplayer. However, I get excellent results with Diceplayer. I stream all 720p and most 1080p .mkv using estrongs file explorer. Some 1080p will get lag. Just depends on the bit rate your 1080p video is encoded at, and your WIFI connection speed.
I actually just run an entire home PC with Win 7 Ultimate on it for my movie collection. I just RJ45 it right to my Wireless router. That way I can stream all of my movies to any device in my home. I have quite a few WDTV lives hooked up to all my tv's in my house. So it works out great.
Plus once in awhile If a 1080p video isn't playing well on my prime. I convert it using airvideo. I have airvideo server running on the Win 7 server. (those that have an ipad 2 that is) Have this option. You simply load airvideo on your ipad 2. Select the .mkv you want to convert to .m4v and add it to quere. Airvideo has all the conversion and bitrate methods built in the program. So I don't have to mess with jumping on Win 7 machine. Loading a conversion program and blah blah. I have yet to find an Android program that compares to Airvideo. If someone has suggestion let me know. (Yes, I have tried PLEX). Just can't beat the Live Conversion and simple conversion in Airvideo.
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I'm amazed you think going through all that is better than PLEX. With PLEX you just load the app and select the movie... Done. For bonus it also works when you're away from home and want to watch a movie even tethered through 3G
dalingrin said:
I'm amazed you think going through all that is better than PLEX. With PLEX you just load the app and select the movie... Done. For bonus it also works when you're away from home and want to watch a movie even tethered through 3G
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Well, I will try Plex again. I haven't tried it in awhile. Alot of movies I don't have any problem with. Its only the high bit rate 1080p mkv's. I know Plex does Live conversion as well. Perhaps they have improved it since I last used it. One feature i did think was cool with plex was how it catagorized your movie collection for you.
Erusman said:
Well, I will try Plex again. I haven't tried it in awhile. Alot of movies I don't have any problem with. Its only the high bit rate 1080p mkv's. I know Plex does Live conversion as well. Perhaps they have improved it since I last used it. One feature i did think was cool with plex was how it catagorized your movie collection for you.
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Click to collapse
Another nice thing about Plex is that you can choose not to do live transcoding and just stream the original video(silly wifi bandwidth allowing). But, that does bring me to my one complaint about Plex. You cannot directly stream the original video if it is mkv, it will always transcode.
In my experience:
If you want to avoid transcoding, then rooting + CIFS support really is the best, most efficient way, imho...plus, you're killing multiple birds with one stone, as file types not recognized by ES or other file explorers that support SAMBA, but which are supported by various apps on your tablet, will still work with whatever app you're using to interact with them.
Otherwise, this guide is good for playback without transcoding for some files. I'm able to stream some of my bluray and HD DVD rips (full bitrate mkv's with no down-sampling, de-rezzing, additional compression or detail removal) without transcoding, but high-bitrate titles such as The Empire Strikes Back hitch frequently. Don't know if that's a limitation of my wireless setup, tho).
On the transcoding side:
Emit free works fine. It's a little easier, imho, to set up remote file sharing that even Plex is, if you have to set up port forwarding manually on your router, as the instructions are pretty explicit about which ports it's using and how to get it set up. And, it's free.
Plex works fine, and cross-compatibility between Ipad and Android on the Plex server side, along with the cataloging, support for file types such as .wtv, and the channels concept, is pretty damn cool imho. You have to look around if your setup falls outside the norm as far as port forwarding manually is concerned, but if you don't experience issues, getting set up with a myPlex account for remote streaming is pretty straightforward. Transcoding looks pretty stellar if you can support anything above 4 mbps on your wireless, and it doesn't take a lot of CPU horsepower to do live streaming, either. I have an older AMD processor in my HTPC, and I stream 1080i .wtv files all day long to both my Prime and my wife's Ipad with no or extremely little stutter, and all my bluray rips play without issue. .WTV files can be played back while they're being recorded, and while watching something else on the HTPC, too...oh, and combine this with a Windows Media Center control app, and you can basically watch live tv on the Prime...just browse the guide, set a show to record, and you can watch it almost immediately in Plex, while it's recording.
Last, but not least, Splashtop THD or whatever the newer version is, actually works pretty damn well on my office rig, which is nvidia-equipped. .wtv files work as well, but you have to set your machine to open them by default in WMP instead of Windows Media Center.