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Streaming videos from home PC to Android phones and tablets trip report: I've been looking for something to fit the bill since the purchase of my first Android phone. I've literally tried and bought almost every app out there for this task. It's been a pretty frustrating journey since AirVideo, available only on iOS devices for ages, does everything I want. My Requirements:
Tested Devices::
Winner: Qloud Media (free version also available, ad supported)
Other Streamers: The following is the list of other streamers I tried. Instead of listing all the pros, cons and unique features of each streamer I will just note how it compares to Qloud Media for streaming over WiFi/3G on Android phones/tablets: Emit (free version also available, ad supported) I actually found out about Emit after evaluating Qloud, it's probably my #2 choice under Qloud Media. Their featuresets are very similar and I'm betting they're based on similar technologies. I actually bought Emit too because I like the ability to stream via a PC web browser via the Emit web app. On higher end devices capable of high bitrates/resolutions Emit can produce better video quality than Qloud. If I could only pick one video streamer to purchase I would still pick Qloud Media, the server and client are simply more stable (especially over 3G) and mature (Qloud client shows video thumbnails in the file browser and remembers last folder/video location between restarts). The Qloud photo viewer is a nice added bonus I actually use. On Emit one video I tested had no audio, restarting playback seemed to fix it, starting it again later had the same issue (may be a tablet issue). So if you get no audio try restarting playback.
VLC Stream & Convert Pro (free version also available, limited bitrate options) This is the first app I tried on Android. Setup is complex, playback is very finicky, working one minute and completely broken the next. Uses VLC on the desktop to stream content. If VLC is run as a service (through AndroStream VLC Server) it has no access to mapped drive letters.
AndroStream Pro (free version also available, limited to 2 minutes of play time) See above, AndroStream is almost identical to VLC Stream & Convert, even compatible with the same streaming server application. I Found VLC Stream & Convert to be a bit more customizable when it comes to bitrates and resolutions. PlayOn Mobile
Plex for Android Plex is actually pretty nice, but the video quality is just "OK", and cruddy for tablets. Starting video playback takes longer than I'd like.
ZumoCast (patched version for all devices and rotation support) I actually had very high hopes for this. Zumocast started out being available for only for iOS and PC web browsers. For iOS it was very comparable to AirVideo and some actually preferred it over AirVideo. They promised an Android client for ages, but it never seemed to come. Then they were bought out by Motorola which dropped iOS client support and released an Android client, but they locked it down to refuse to run on anything but three (as of this writing) Motorola devices (DROID 3, DROID BIONIC and Motorola ATRIX 2). The folks at XDA hacked a version that ran on all Android devices (link above). However its lack of support for video with DTS audio made it a non starter for me, which is frustrating since I believe it worked back before the Motorola acquisition.
Subsonic Music Streamer This is still my go to app for streaming music from my desktop. The music streamer is very mature and I really like the feature that stores/caches music I play for later playback when I have no net connection. Video playback is more of a tacked on feature that was added recently, and it feels that way. At the time it came out it was one of the best solutions for Android video streaming. Subsonic's video playback hasn't really matured since and is now comparatively primitive.
Splashtop Remote Desktop (tablet version also available) This is actually a remote desktop solution, but since it can stream at 30fps with audio you can use it remote into your desktop and stream videos you play on your desktop.
Orb Live (free version, ad supported) I used Orb back in the days when I owned a Sprint dumb phone streaming videos over their 2G network to 3GP format. I tried Orb Live when it first came out for Android, haven't tried it since, but from memory the quality simply sucked, was unstable and navigation was very clunky/slow.
Mirage Beta
DNLA Based Transcoding: One route I examined a bit and abandoned was DNLA/UPNP based servers (such as TVMobili, Serviio, TVersity, and PS3 Media Server) and clients (BubbplleUPnP, UPnPlay, and Skifta), using a regular Android video player such as MX Video Player (free version, ad supported). The reason I abandoned a DNLA based solution is that it requires a server to recognize your Android client device's capabilities and transcode appropriately. This gives no tweaking options for WiFi vs 3G connections and tends to be fairly complex to setup. DNLA is better suited for non transcoding scenarios where you want to stream the source file as natively as possible. DNLA is my solution for streaming content to my Samsung Smart TV (using Serviio) over a LAN connection. When quad core tablets come out a DNLA client over a high speed LAN connection might make more sense. Notes: * Flash video quality effect - There are several streaming clients that require Flash for Android for video playback. Every streamer that does suffers from what I call the Flash video quality effect. No matter how high the bitrate and resolution there seems to be pixelation / jaggines issues on outlines of video objects. Because of this every streaming client that relies on Flash fairs poorly when compared to streamers that don't use Flash. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Oct 25, 2011 |
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Oct 25, 2011 05:16
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Rapsey posted:If you have upnp enabled ports will be opened automatically. The reason for the UDP port range is because of RTSP streaming protocol that we also support. We support HTTP Live Streaming which only requires the TCP port (2.3+ devices), RTSP on the other hand requires the additional UDP ports. Many installations have unpnp disabled for security reasons, including mine, unpnp is also broken in many DD-WRT builds. The UDP port range for RTSP makes perfect sense. My primary concern is the ability to choose the port if you want to run multiple Emit servers behind a firewall such as I have for a friend's Qloud installation. I think the audio issue was was with the HP Touchpad running Gingerbread. I tried testing on my EVO 4G, and the same video works with audio the first time but hitting back to exit the video crashes Emit every single time now. Edit: Now it doesn't crash on back button, weird. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Oct 25, 2011 |
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Oct 25, 2011 07:26
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Some App Suggestions: JustPictures! (free) An awesome and free photo viewer app I use on my phone works great on the tablet (Just Pictures). Works with Picasa, Flickr, Smugmug, Facebook, Photobucket, Windows Live, Tumblr, Deviant Art, Imgur and your SDCARD. I use it a lot for browsing friends Flickr albums. QuickPic (free) For viewing local pictures, gallery app sucks this one is much nicer and allows you to hide folders which contain pictures you don't care about. Browser Alternatives Worth Checking Out: Opera Mobile (free) My daily web browser, I like to think of this as the "Chrome" of Android browsers, lightweight, fast and has the most important features you care about. Latest version is a little wonky on some sites with Flash. This for sure is my favorite browser to read the Somethingawful forums with, the text reflow on zoom in works better than any other browse out there. Boat Browser (free) Very fast browser with multiple tabs and Flash support. Seems to be the most HTML complaint browser I've used, the only major feature missing is no text reflow. An ideal browser for tablets as text reflow has less relevance. This browser handles Flash sites the best of the competition too. Maxthon Browser (free, 10" tablet version) Another fast browser with multiple tabs, I'm just starting to check this one out but have been impressed so far. Keep an eye out for this one. Dolphin Browser HD (free) Not as fast as the rest, but for sure the most featurful. I like to think of this as the Firefox of the Android browsers. I use this on sites in conjunction with the Dolphin Lastpass plugin to autofill forms/passwords since I hate typing on my phone. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Oct 25, 2011 |
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Oct 25, 2011 08:38
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My favorite computer remote control app: PhoneMyPC
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Oct 25, 2011 10:44
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zer0spunk posted:opensignal Yea, non starter for me as all my devices (and yours) are too weak to play most of my content which is in 1080p, even with Diceplayer's HW acceleration. Also a non starter as 3G, let alone 802.11g can't handle the stream bandwidth needed for such content.
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Oct 25, 2011 16:53
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Olewithmilk posted:Any good free apps for podcasts? Apparently they stopped supporting Google Listen? This might be of help: http://www.androidauthority.com/podcatcher-roundup-top-9-best-android-apps-for-playing-podcasts-16817/
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Oct 25, 2011 17:11
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zer0spunk posted:Not sure what you mean by this. I can handle just about everything except high bit rate 1080 stuff over g. Over /n and it's fine. My phone has a qualcomm m8660/1 gig of RAM. It's a 960x540 display so playing 1080 content on it is pointless. Sending 1080p content back to another renderer (phone --> xbmc) works. Nice that you have a high end dual core 1.2ghz cpu, most of us don't. Even a Tegra 2 CPU can't handle a lot of 1080p content. The video source resolution shouldn't matter, it is what it is, the video can be 4k video, that doesn't negate the fact I want a way to watch it on lets say a 3" 320x240 device over let say 802.11g. I'm not quite following your ftp "streaming" solution, as far as I know no Android video player I know of can stream from an FTP source and no Android ROM i know of can mount an FTP source as a file system mount. Also trying to stream 9 GB of video over a 250 KBps connection at any acceptable watchable frame rate just wouldn't work. That's why transcoding is done, so you can stream content at a bitrate that's more suitable to your device's capability and available bandwidth. zer0spunk posted:
My former housemate will probably have your babies for this one, thanks. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Oct 25, 2011 |
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Oct 25, 2011 17:53
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zer0spunk posted:stuff.. If I was interested in streaming SD content I would go back to using my PocketPC. I don't feel like my HP TouchPad and Evo 4G are quite end of life yet, hell I barely reached the one year point on the EVO. And no seek support? No thanks, on a low bandwidth connection loss of signal is almost a guarantee, I don't feel like watching the first 5 minutes of a movie 20 times because I can't seek to where I left off. Also, as stated before most of my content are in bitrates that would cause a 60 minute watching session using the ftp stream method over 3g consist of 55 minutes of buffering and 5 minutes of watching.
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Oct 25, 2011 18:26
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zer0spunk posted:I don't see why the touchpad couldn't do this with a stable android rom running on it. It's got the hardware for sure. If you're looking to stream 1080p films to your phone or tab over 3g, I really don't know what to say. I think the best you'll get is maybe netflix streaming at a compressed 720p with a bunch of buffering. I'm not going to comment beyond this, because it's bringing this thread off topic. You're providing solutions for problems I don't have. I have content, I want to play that content on multiple targets, it may be my 55" TV over a gigabit connection, it may be on my quad core desktop. I have lots and lots of content. This content is on my NAS. I don't want to re-encode my content before hand for various targets as that would take a very long time, take extra disk space I probably couldn't spare and I wouldn't even know what to pre encode for which target as I don't know what content I may want to watch at any given moment on which device. I use Serviio (DNLA server) with my Samsung TV when I want to watch on that target. And I use a transcoding streamer when I want to play on my phone. The right tool for the right job. I've been working streaming solutions and media since they were first available, I know what works and what doesn't in various scenarios as I've actually tested various solutions extensively across many devices and years.
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Oct 25, 2011 19:05
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Amazon free app of the day is OfficeSuite Pro 5 . Might be worth a grab.
scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 10:12 on Oct 26, 2011 |
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Oct 26, 2011 10:07
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Want to run Android apps on your PC? Try out BlueStacks: http://www.bluestacks.com/download.html Also install BlueStacks cloud Syncer on your Android device to send a copy of apps on your Android device to the PC Player: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bluestacks.appsyncer
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Oct 26, 2011 13:53
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ExcessBLarg! posted:I haven't tried FTP because it's a deprecated protocol (in my book) for anything other than public (anonymous login) servers. I know fuse.ko capability exists, does any popular ROM/Kernel include it? I've mounted cifs stuff on phone before, even on WiFi it's slow as poo poo, Samba is a super inefficient protocol. The main point I was making is even if my media were on my SD card my phone/tablet would still be too weak to play them without re-encoding. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Oct 26, 2011 |
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Oct 26, 2011 18:14
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Cool free app: mozimobi - Send and receive text messages through a web browser. Been trying this recently and it works quite well. I hate friends who text me because I hate typing on my phone, so this will probably become a must have app for me.
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Oct 27, 2011 07:56
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torjus posted:In the same vein, DeskSMS makes it possible to send and receive text messages through Google Chat/Talk, the DeskSMS website and a chrome extension. There's even a widget included to control which services you want to sync with. This looks cool too, from what I read in the comments this one costs $5 a year? The Amazon free app of the day, Ghost Radar, is loving idiotic. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 08:50 on Oct 27, 2011 |
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Oct 27, 2011 08:41
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Ozmodiar posted:What's the best "shopping list" and/or "note taking" app for Android? As an alternative to Evernote, I really like Springpad.
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Oct 28, 2011 09:53
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Wanted to mention a couple of apps: ezPDF - Hands down the best pdf viewer for Android. Perfect Viewer - Mentioned before, but a great CBZ/CBR/etc.. comic reader. Movies by Flixster - Favorite app to find local movies theaters, show times and trailers. Network Info II - Lots of great info about your active cell, wifi, etc.. connections. Fing - Network Tools - Very fast network discovery/scanner info tool, includes tools for Ping, Traceroute, TCP scanner, DNS lookup, WOL and a few other useful tools. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Oct 31, 2011 |
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Oct 30, 2011 23:40
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Kyrosiris posted:This may be a silly question, but is there anything like Remote Desktop/VNC/LogMeIn for phones that I can have my mom install on her new phone so I can help her with remote troubleshooting? It's a lot easier to help that way than trying to get her to read out error messages and what have you to me. The only way to do this is via a rooted phone and DroidVNC. The reason you need root is Android disallows apps to even take a screenshot of the system let alone stream it out. Since DroidVNC requires an open port, which sometimes isn't doable. The options available are to have the user VPN into your network, or setup a SSH tunnel. Pretty much all ROMS have built in PPTP & L2TP VPN capability, which can be setup with most Windows flavors. A free VPN solution that might work is NeoRouter (think Hamachi for Android), but I haven't tried it. I have OpenVPN setup on my CM7 ROM, but giving VPN access to any old client is a bit more than I'm willing to do sometimes, so I use a SSH port tunnel. I setup DroidVNC in combination with ConnectBOT to log into my SSH server (I use Bitvise WinSSHD, it's free for personal use). In the ConnectBot connection configuration I set the following port foward: Nickname: VNC (can be anything, just a description) Type: Remote Source port: 5902 (the port on your SSH server to tunnel to) Destination: localhost:5901 (the source port on the Android device) Then, once the user logs into my SSH server, on my desktop I use RealVNC client to connect to 127.0.0.1:5902. Another tricky thing is DroidVNC hasn't been updated in a while and even though certain keyboard keys are supposed to emulate the soft keys (F1 for menu, Home for Home, Esc for back), sometimes, depending on the device, they don't work. So I use another app, Button Savior (also requires root) to display on screen home/menu/back/search icons. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Nov 1, 2011 |
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Nov 1, 2011 04:29
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I remember reading somewhere there was a way to decopule an app from the market. I have a certain application I don't want updated (CM7 skin which I don't like the new versions). While it's around on my market apps list I can't use the update all feature which is annoying.
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Nov 5, 2011 16:13
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Vykk.Draygo posted:If you're rooted, long press the app in Titanium Backup and unlink it from the market. Thanks! Looks like I needed the Pro version for the unlink feature, just bought it, and it seemed to work fine. Found the app in the list under the Backup/Restore section, long pressed it and chose "Deattach from Market" from the popup menu. I've been getting by with the free version of Titanium Backup for a while, it's a pretty powerful tool but the UI is horribly unintuitive. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Nov 5, 2011 |
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Nov 5, 2011 16:55
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Live a Little posted:Does anyone have a good recommendation for a good app for video podcasts? There's just so many choices coming from iOS. Will especially love something can subscribe or download from the itunes podcast feeds since it seems really popular but I know how apple can be with "their" content. For iTunes podcasts you probably want doubleTwist: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.doubleTwist.androidPlayer It's $5, but I'm a fan of DoggCatcher for general video podcasts. Here's a 7-day free trial: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.snoggdoggler.android.applications.doggcatcher.trial I haven't tried it, but a free alternative that might work is ACast: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mathias.android.acast scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Nov 8, 2011 |
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Nov 8, 2011 21:58
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Gravitom posted:Can anyone recommend a good Picasa viewer app? I have tons of albums so I need something that can sort multiple ways like alphabetical and by date or to search. Here's a couple you can give a try: JustPictures! PicasaTool
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Nov 9, 2011 10:00
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Swype is the default keyboard on the Sprint Epic Touch 4G (Galaxy S2 Phone) and most people I know who have the phone aren't even aware of the Swype capability, they just peck at it like a normal touch keyboard.
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Nov 14, 2011 20:20
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One of the things I really liked on my TouchPad in WebOS was the keyboard, especially the dedicated numbers row. Closest I can get on Android is the free Hacker's Keyboard, which works fairly well. Another thing I like about Hacker's keyboard is that it doesn't autocapitalize the first letter of a word, on most Android keyboards they do it in a way where if you want the first letter to be lower case it's either a hassle or practically impossible.GigaPeon posted:Another Amazon Store question. I got Diner Dash 2 when it was a free app, played it a bit, got a new phone and tried to install it there. Then I saw that the app is now listed as unavailable. (http://www.amazon.com/Glu-Mobile-Inc-Diner-Dash/dp/B004HXHE96) It's up to the Dev. I've seen a case where a Dev decided not to list his app on Amazon anymore. The dev asked previous purchasers to send him an email / copy of the app purchase receipt to arrange for a copy to be sent. scarymonkey fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Nov 15, 2011 |
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Nov 15, 2011 00:50
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I use Opera Mobile for most my browsing needs, I actually enjoy reading the SA forums more with it than the Awful app, but it's still a little wonky for flash. For Flash content it's either stock for my phone or boat browser on my tablet.
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Nov 16, 2011 20:12
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The Ferret King posted:Any idea what browser I should use to be able to view The Daily Show videos? I use Opera except for Facebook, where I use my default browser since opera doesn't display it correctly. But neither will play the Daily Show videos that appear on my wall, either from the Facebook site or when navigating from the Daily Show site itself. It kinda tries to load up the ad video before the content, but it doesn't play. Do I need a different browser for every site or am I just looking in the wrong places? Give Boat browser, Dolphin HD and Maxthon a try, all free in the market. Boat doesn't reflow text like Opera does but has been the best browser for flash content in my experience.
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Nov 18, 2011 23:10
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Cardiovorax posted:What's a good app to record calls on a SGS2? Ideally it'd integrate into the call menu and work on a manual basis, so I can turn it on when I need to record something I can't be arsed to write down. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.killermobile.totalrecall.s2.trial
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Nov 25, 2011 23:07
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Splizwarf posted:This came up in conversation yesterday for me too: do the Nexus phones get a free pass on this when they're rooted or do you need to unroot to watch Market movies on them too? Dunno, but if it's still locked out you can probably do something like this: http://forum.sdx-developers.com/index.php?topic=16930.0
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Nov 25, 2011 23:08
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Gyshall posted:I just installed Airdroid. It is a remote app for controlling your phone via web browser. It is the slickest solution I've seen as far as texts right from my computer. Now I don't even have to take my hand off the keyboard! Nice find, I think I like that better than Remote Web Desktop.
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Nov 27, 2011 07:29
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Maker Of Shoes posted:I have enough abandoned paid apps littering the My Apps section of the Market to be extremely wary of subscription based purchases on Android. Here's a not as fancy free SMS from desktop browser app: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.application.Mozimobi
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Nov 28, 2011 20:23
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ConfusedUs posted:So, AirDroid It was already mentioned on this very page, and yes it's very cool. I'm sticking with Mozimobi for SMSing from browser as it seems more lightweight as a always running background service and the browser app gives me an audio alert when a new message comes in. I should put that in as a feature request to the AirDroid folks.
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Nov 29, 2011 00:48
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LastInLine posted:Next time you get something from Amazon just throw five or so on your order. They're like a $1 each on there but it's not worth just ordering the cables. That or get Amazon prime and get 2-day free shipping on even cheap trivial poo poo.
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Nov 29, 2011 02:50
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LastInLine posted:The cheapest ones are usually available through stores that sell on Amazon, not Amazon itself. Does Prime's free shipping apply to those too? (I live like a quarter mile from an Amazon distribution center so I get things the day after I order anyway even on Super Saver shipping so I never looked into the details of Prime.) Stores that sell through Amazon usually don't qualify for prime, but then those stores also don't qualify for super saving shipping for orders $25 and over. Some stores have their own free shipping like this one: http://www.amazon.com/HTC-DC-M400-Wildfire-Supersonic-Incredible/dp/B004T0GHOU/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1322535252&sr=8-8 I live in California and when it comes to cables (HDMI, USB, Network) I usually buy from Monoprice which has dirt low prices and $5 one day shipping in California.
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Nov 29, 2011 03:56
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AlexMoron posted:On the subject of AirDroid and connecting through WiFi, does anyone know of a good USB access point that works on Windows 7 64-bit? On my old XP machine, I'd hacked my Nintendo WiFi USB thing to work with ASUS SoftAP and had great success in connecting to that with my phone and saving a LOT of battery. Ever since I built a new computer with Windows 7, I haven't found a working solution. Why not just get a router with WiFi? Seems like a much more stable and easy to use solution. Routers can be had for dirt cheap.
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Nov 29, 2011 04:07
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AlexMoron posted:I have one, it just doesn't reach all the way to my room due to there being so many walls in the way. In fact, to get a connection on my PC, I have to be wired in through a switch for it to work. Moving it is not an option, unfortunately. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704044
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Nov 29, 2011 04:32
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New Google Maps 6.0 was just released, adds indoor navigation for people who can't read IKEA maps: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/29/google-maps-6-0-hits-android-adds-indoor-navigation-for-retail/
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Nov 29, 2011 20:32
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fudsak posted:No one can read IKEA maps. Those secret doors are hidden so loving well. It's on purpose, they design it so you have to loop around their other poo poo before finding an exit, that way you're more likely to browse and impulse buy their other products.
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Nov 29, 2011 22:40
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Until DicePlayer sorts its poo poo out so it can be purchasable again on the market give BSPlayer Lite (free) a try, it also supports hardware accelerated playback of mkv files with subtitles.
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Dec 30, 2011 23:23
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