After some faltering steps with a Miracast/DLNA dongle, I decided to shell out for a Chromecast and hope for the best. I'm nearly ready to return it after only two days of fooling around.
Maybe I don't understand the concept? It seems to me that Chromecast is really designed for streaming web content to your TV, using your device as a "remote". I say this because as far as I can determine, if you try to send local content (e.g., a video stored on your device) to Chromecast it must travel from your device, through your router, and then to the Chromecast. I make that conclusion from the fact that I see no Wi-Fi signal emanating from the Chromecast (once the initial setup is complete), unlike the DLNA dongle which had its own Wi-Fi to which I would connect directlyconnected to one TV). That way we can just access the files on the tablet wirelessly and Jodi will play virtually anything.nted to cast videos.
Using the same local video via MX Player and LocalCast, I get a smoother playback via the DLNA dongle than with Chromecast. Now this may just be a codec issue or something, but it looks suspiciously like poor throughput, especially as I was about as far away from my router as I could get in a multi-story house when I tried this.
With Chromecast I can cast the entire screen, unlike with the DLNA device. That, of course, also gives choppy video. I can even get some streams in Kodi to play (via LocalCast) but for some really vexing reason cannot get local content to play with Kodi in the same way.
Mmm...... I guess if I have a question it's whether I'd be better off with Chromecast or the DLNA device considering most of the casting would be local content with some occasional streams via Kodi. I don't subscribe to any web-based material like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.
The issues I am having with LocalCast are another thing altogether and I've emailed the developer about those. My preferred DLNA app is EZCast, but I can't get it to work as an external player with Kodi and that knocks it out of the running.
Edit: never mind. I returned the Chromecast. It turned out that the DLNA dongle played more formats and overall did a better job with local files. Still not ideal. Probably the best bet for us is a basic android box running Kodi (we already have a PC connected to one TV). That way we can play the files from the tablet wirelessly and Kodi plays virtually anything.
Related
Only been playing with it for a little bit, but there's a new VLC compatible streaming client available on the Market called VLC Stream & Convert.
It allows you to run VLC on a client on your lan (be sure to add the Web control interface from VIEW/ADD INTERFACE) and connect to it. You can either remote control VLC from the phone....or..you can stream video to your phone from the client side app with a simple filesystem browser.
Though the realtime conversion and streaming isn't the best quality it's most definitely handy and orders of magnitude more seamless than dealing with DLNA.
Maybe everyone else isn't a hardcore media geek with terabytes of video spread about a home lan like me. But this addition to the market makes me happy!
Thought I'd share.
Scott
This looks really cool. Will definitely try this tomorrow after work!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
masterotaku said:
Only been playing with it for a little bit, but there's a new VLC compatible streaming client available on the Market called VLC Stream & Convert.
It allows you to run VLC on a client on your lan (be sure to add the Web control interface from VIEW/ADD INTERFACE) and connect to it. You can either remote control VLC from the phone....or..you can stream video to your phone from the client side app with a simple filesystem browser.
Though the realtime conversion and streaming isn't the best quality it's most definitely handy and orders of magnitude more seamless than dealing with DLNA.
Maybe everyone else isn't a hardcore media geek with terabytes of video spread about a home lan like me. But this addition to the market makes me happy!
Thought I'd share.
Scott
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may have just solved a problem for me... I am having some issues though.
I have it installed and working. I find my VLC player through the app and can start videos no problem, but there is no audio.
What AAC encoder are you using on your system? Im running on Win7 and cant seem to get it working.
ritalin said:
You may have just solved a problem for me... I am having some issues though.
I have it installed and working. I find my VLC player through the app and can start videos no problem, but there is no audio.
What AAC encoder are you using on your system? Im running on Win7 and cant seem to get it working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On all the PC's on the home lan I now only ever install VLC, Media Player Classic Home Cinema, and FFDSHOW. VLC's built in AAC decoder generally handles things fine, but if it gets confused (in the case of some encodes with weird FOURCC headers) FFDSHOW usually picks up the slack externally.
I'll run through my collection (it's well over 3 terabytes now so it might take a bit) and see if I run across anything with AAC that this stumbles over. I'm running Win7 x64 on this laptop, so it'll be my guinea pig.
I have a good idea of a few known encodes I have with weird AAC audio header info, primarily because they also won't play natively correctly in the phone's built in video player or rock player. I'll let you know what I find out.
EDIT: Well that didn't take long. It seems that the same encodes with .AAC audio that give the built in player grief (as well as Rockplayer) also refuse to have their audio play correctly in this streaming app. Even more interesting, these all play natively within VLC on the desktop. However, VLC, FFDSHOW, and my universal backup plan when encountering weird stuff that won't play (KMPlayer) all use LIBFAAD for .AAC decoding. Upon further investigation it appears that some .AAC profiles (there are actually six baseline types of .AAC audio...go figure) aren't properly supported by Android's native .aac parser (found this info on DoubleTwists support forums).
Looks like this is a native flaw in Android itself at this point. Going to investigate further. Thank god that there are literally only a handful of encodes in my collection that have this problem or I'd be pulling my hair out.
Can someone show me how to use this to stream over 3G??
I opened ports on my router and got my WAN IP entered but it won't let me connect.
Did you enable the Web Interface in VLC on the client PC? It is not on by defaut.
Start VLC on a PC on your lan, go to the VIEW menu....ADD INTERFACE...WEB INTERFACE. With that selected the android client should automatically find the VLC instance running on your lan connected PC. This assumes no additional firewall is blocking the app on the PC.
I got it working pretty good using wifi inside my network, so I think VLC is setup properly.
What I'm trying to do is to stream through t-mobile 3G.
I did the port forwarding in my router, but couldn't get the app to connect my home PC via 3G.
I've been able to get it to connect via 3G here, though only HTTP audio streaming seems to work. RTSP video streaming seems to be broken via 3g, and again this appears to be an Android issue from what I'm reading.
vcxzfdsa said:
I got it working pretty good using wifi inside my network, so I think VLC is setup properly.
What I'm trying to do is to stream through t-mobile 3G.
I did the port forwarding in my router, but couldn't get the app to connect my home PC via 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
masterotaku said:
I've been able to get it to connect via 3G here, though only HTTP audio streaming seems to work. RTSP video streaming seems to be broken via 3g, and again this appears to be an Android issue from what I'm reading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the dev's site, found here
"Why does rtsp streaming not work over 3G?
Some operators don't allow rtsp on their network. Http streaming should work instead but for videos you can only stream the audio track."
If its true that t-mobile is blocking RTSP then that sucks. Im going to play with it tomorrow and see for myself.
If this doesnt work then Im back to square one. I really wanted to find a way to use the Twonky media server I already have setup and streaming. I have been streaming videos to friends and family for about half a year now. My Fios 30mb up 30mb down even allows me to stream 720p content over UPNP without so much as a hiccup.
First person that can manage to remove the wifi only option in AllShare gets access to my collection. . I have been trying to find it but im not really sure what im looking for in the code.
When the MHL cable is used, are you able to view anything, or are you restricted to certain services?
For example, can you watch a program you are streaming, or can you only watch something stored on your device?
Also can the Media Link DLNA streamer be used in the same way?
Thanks.
the MHL box/cable will mirror your device display onto a tv - as in EVERYTHING. whereas DLNA will push only media files: specifically photos, music & supported video formats.
unfortunately, despite average reviews i took the plunge on the now relatively inexpensive HTC Media Link which has proven to dislike more standard video formats than it likes ... i seriously wish someone would build a working rom. such a good idea, so poorly implemented. i cannot comment on other dlna devices as i haven't used any, but it is a fantastic feature i hope develops into a standard.
HTC's implementation of DLNA is better than most, but its not HTC's problem, DLNA is the problem.
DLNAis a sorry attempt at normalizing UPNP. dlna is upnp with tons of restrictions. upnp showed some decent promise but dlna cuts through it with a meat cleaver in a bad attempt at specializing it for audio/video. because a/v manufacturers are backing DLNA it is getting more PR but IMO they should use upnp directly.
The issue with DLNA is that it is a limitted standard (doesn't support many codecs for example) and only works for content that is in the clear (i.e. not encyrpted). And the other is that the user interface for browsing is that of the client (TV for instance), which may be a sorry affair with a case of poorly implemented user interfaces
I'm sure everyone is somewhat familiar with Samsung's AllShare Cast dongle that's used to wirelessly "cast" media from a Samsung device(your Note 3) to the AllShare Cast hardware dongle/device attached to any compatible TV... What I'm curious about is does anyone have experience with any of the other hardware devices used for screen mirroring or "casting" directly from their device to an attached dongle or TV? In your opinion, what's the BEST out there? I've already got a Chromecast and it works well for what it's supposed to do...it streams NetFlix, Youtube, Hulu Plus, Google Play Music, Google Play Videos, but it DOESN'T stream directly from a mobile device....YET. So it doesn't fully meet my needs right now. I know the Roku is an option, but I was just wanting your opinions on any device you prefer.
Thanks guys!
I recently got the Chromecast and wish it did everything, but only time will tell.
This is probably in the minority, but I use my server/htpc with XBMC to play everything else. XMBC allows DLNA devices, so I can stream local content on my phone to the computer. I also use it to stream some other content. For example, I use Anime Plus app to watch some anime. It gives me the option to use external players, because of this I choose the default Samsung player and then click the AllShare icon to send it to my computer. If there are other apps out there that allows you to use the default video player, then you should be able to do the same.
For music, I use Subsonic since it's also on my htpc computer, but I rarely play music through my TV.
LG L9 P769 with stock Jellybean
In brief: I was able to stream live TV from the 'HDHomeRun Prime' to my phone using the app 'HomeRunTV'.
I recently purchased a network cable card tuner: a tuner that will stream to my home network so I can watch cable on computers/phones/etc, a 'HDHomeRun Prime' by Silicon Dust.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HKIB6E/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I did NOT purchase this tuner (actually, it has three tuners) to stream to my phone; that's just a side benefit. There are a couple of apps that will allow an Android phone to stream from this tuner.
-The first is InstaTV, which offers a free and a pro version. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keyitech.instatv.pro
-The second is HomeRunTV, which is pay only. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zaren.HomeRunTV
Neither of these apps have a 'guide', they only list channels. With either of these apps, the tuner can stream to the phone one of two ways:
1) you can stream native H.264 video from the tuner to the phone.
2) you can install a (free) program on a computer to decode the video and stream a lower-bandwidth signal to your phone.
I was unable to get InstaTV's program to install on my dinosaur PC, but I could install HomeRunTVs program to install (it also requires VLC, also free, but I haven't finished setting VLC up yet), so I chose to just purchase HomeRunTV app 'HomeRunTV' ($2.99) for my phone
Along with HomeRunTV I also needed to install a video player because the ones I have are not supported. I installed MX Player (Free) on my phone. MX Player does NOT appear to have have hardware acceleration on my phone; it has hardware accelerator plugins and I have not checked to see if there is one that supports the L9.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mxtech.videoplayer.ad
The app's developer recommends a different video player, VPlayer; that player is by the same developer and is either paid or has a 7-day free trial. I may try it later.
I am typing this while watching "We Are Marshall" on AMC's SD channel and sitting close to my wireless N wireless router. The movie has a lot of action and there are a few times where there is pixelation or artifacts (i.e. when everyone is cheering and jumping around after the game, or when someone is being tackled) but overall I'm happy with the quality considering that I did not buy the tuner for this purpose. If I go downstairs or to the bedroom (through two walls) I see more artifacts. If I watch the same show on AMC's HD channel in the basement there are frequent artifacts - but keep in mind it's a hollywood football movie; in the more static scenes, the image is fine.
When watching a SD channel with less motion there appears to be some 'deinterlacing' effects but the picture is crisp when watching a HD channel.
I have NOT set up VLC on my computer yet, so I can't test the feature where my computer streams to the phone. This should improve quality and range. If I ever get around to doing so, I will post an update. As I mentioned before, I did NOT purchase the tuner to stream to my phone but I figured I might as well get the ability, especially if it only costs $2.99.
edit:
Tuning into a station takes between 10 and 20 seconds depending on if it is SD or HD and if I am near the router or in the basement, I believe this is a buffering issue but I do not know for sure. Between the time it takes to tune in a channel, and the lack of a guide, you better know what you want to watch because channel surfing would take forever.
So wait, what does this do? Does it let you watch TV on your phone or what?
Ilxaot said:
So wait, what does this do? Does it let you watch TV on your phone or what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. It's sort of like putting a cable card in a computer so you can watch TV on that computer, except it puts the cable card on the network so multiple devices can share it. DLNA-enabled blu-ray players and TVs can stream from it, and PS3 and XBox.
It will allow me to use a PC as a DVR, and my daughter will be able to use her laptop as a DVR, and we can all watch TV on our phones/tablets.
I believe that with DLNA-enabled devices you can get 'premium' content like HBO. The L9 has DLNA but the app I'm using does not, so I can't watch HBO on the L9 with this app.
That's pretty cool dude! Nice find! I'd recommend a better thread title though. When I saw "HomeRun" I was reluctant to come here since it came off as a Pitch-by-Pitch MLB app lol.
Hey guys, i'm looking for best android apps to stream videos to chromecast. The problem is that most of them only support mp4 files. I found only one that supports all file formats, it transcodes the file on the fly on your phone and streams directly to chromecast. its called Megacast. Does anyone know anything similar?
Try using Plex... It's a paid app, but free from time to time in Amazon App Store
Megacast - Chromecast Video
This isn't strictly a Chromecast app, but rather than Android one that you'll need to download on your phone. Regardless of how you get it on your TV, through, Megacast is an excellent Chromecast player that has real-time transcoding support, allowing you to play files from your phone or tablet that aren't supported natively on your individual Chromecast device. This includes AVI, MKV, 3GP files and more. It can also automatically pre-load subtitles or let you add your own, making it one of the most flexible video streaming apps around
The Google Chromecast lets you display video, photos, pictures and other media content from supported apps on your big-screen TV, using your Android or iOS device as a remote control. You can also send content straight from a Chrome Web browser on your computer. There are hundreds of apps that take advantage of this unique technology, which Google calls "casting," to offer a new way to link.
Try BubbleUPnP
BubbleUPnP, many video + audio options, local transcoding, supports configurable subtitles and transcodes only when necessary.
Plex always transcodes when using subtlitles, always thanscodes if audio is Dolby/DTS to Stereo, and does not support AC3 passthrough as BubbleUPnP does.
Plex is a hog.
+1 for BubbleUPnP, amazing Android app. With a good media server running on the pc (like Serviio) you can stream everything to your Chromecast (transcoding is done by the pc).
Not a huge fan of BubbleUPnP, when I download something off ttorrent, its a roll of the dice of it will work with it. I'd have to say my go to is local cast. Worst is allcast
Allcast isnt bad. I mainly use it to stream Showbox
Plex by far.
Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk
Emby all the way. Its,s free, its for, its better than plex
BubbleUPnP also works with DLNA and transcoding on the fly. With a powerfull device is amaizing. Slow devices work with hickups. Waiting for a while for Mxplayer to chromecast but still no go.