how do i stream videos to an android tablet ?

[vhelp]

- see updated success story in post # 33, 2014-12-15, a.m. -

windows xp home sp3, roku 3, android tablet 4.4.2 kitkat os and ruko android app and a few other apps.

i shopped around (including asking sales people at bestbuy) for how to stream movies and things to my android tablet, and what device would i need to do it. the short answer given was to get the Roku 3 and a Router. so, i picked up the two yesterday and went to work on them. and after many hours of trial and error, i am still no-where with getting video's to play on the android or through the roku to the android. there is even an usb on the roku and i put in a stick full of videos, mkv xvid mpg ts and so on, but there is no videos and no alert or indicator that a mem stick was put in the usb when viewing the roku 3 device on screen. so that route doesn't seem to work either. now, i am at the point of giving up on the roku due to the belief that i was given the wrong info from the start unless someone can set me straight on the processes.

so, now i am asking. what device do i need to purchase to ultimately watch videos on the android, whether on my desktop pc hard-drive or usb mem sticks/micro sd cards/hard drives. how do i get the videos on these devices to play on my android tablet through wifi ?

thank you for any leads in advance.

[Brainiac]

I have never attempted to do what you are trying to do, but I did a Google search and came up with this app that is supposed to stream content from your computer and cloud apps to an android device. Here is the link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nityaalabs.airstream&hl=en

I have not used this software so I cannot comment on whether or not it works. The website that I gave the link to says that the PRO version is free today.

Brainiac

[budwzr]

The website that I gave the link to says that the PRO version is free today.

Ummm...that sounds like the typical ruse used on malware sites to reel in the fish.

[TreeTops]

That app sure wants to take over your computer.

[vhelp]

if you mean the app installation on the android side, yes, that's been my experience with a lot of these apps it seems. and some of the ones that you also have to download for the pc side are quite large, too, too large for my out-of-space hdd. w/ less this 300mb most apps bomb out. oh well. i will keep trying to search for a way.

i once was able to stream from my desktop pc using an old specific version of vlc through wifi to my netbook succesuflly but that didn't last very long because it would loose connection most of the time, so i gave that up a few years ago. but i tried to find the instructions to that but that seems lost. but i've tried many different variations for the android side of things, i could find, like: plex, vlc streamer free, vlc s&c free, vlc stream & convert, vlc stream & convert ii, and vlc direct stream pro fre, but they all fail. that last one i get very close, i can only connect to the desktop pc and control the video(s) playing on that pc but i can't swap the target like it features, target=pc or target=android. when i set i to android and select a video to play on the android, vlc crashes and closes down on the pc. very frustrating. the help docs point to the same suggestions but none work to resolve.

[Clockwork]

so, now i am asking. what device do i need to purchase to ultimately watch videos on the android, whether on my desktop pc hard-drive or usb mem sticks/micro sd cards/hard drives. how do i get the videos on these devices to play on my android tablet through wifi ?

thank you for any leads in advance.

Where do the videos (and in what format do they) currently reside?

[vhelp]

they are on usb ext hdds, mem sticks, sd cards, micro sd, and windows xp home sp3 desktop pc hdd. my wifi is a usb belkin brand. been using it successfully w/ no trouble since i got DSL maybe 3 or 4 years.

and the secondary problem i am having is with the roku 3, where it does not give me an usb indicator. if i insert a usb mem stick of vidoes, roku doesn't do or show anything. there is no feature or place to navigate to select usb media.

[racer-x]

and the secondary problem i am having is with the roku 3, where it does not give me an usb indicator. if i insert a usb mem stick of vidoes, roku doesn't do or show anything. there is no feature or place to navigate to select usb media.

I have a Roku 2. I'm pretty sure you have to install the USB Media Player Channel before you can play videos through the Roku. I tried it once a long time ago, but my TV has a USB port and can play more formats, so I gave up on the Roku / USB Media Player.

[vhelp]

i looked it up in the store but not available. i guess they removed it or are calling it something else. i'll keep searching.

[Clockwork]

You could always just set up a share on your computer and stream from the computer to your Android device.

[vhelp]

sorry for the long delay, i lost the thread and forgot about it.

to update.. yes, i found the usb app. it is is not an android app, but rather a roku app that you have to search for and then install, which i did and can use it. but as it turns out, the roku suggestion (from the store sales clerk) was incorrect. you can not stream you home video (windows pc) to your tablet through the roku. there is just no functionality there.

so, let me rephrase the question: what hardware do i need to purchase in order to stream videos that are on my desktop windows xp or window 7, pc or laptop, to an android tablet for viewing ?

[_Al_]

none, if you have router with wi-fi and you install ES3 file explorer on android,
that app works like windows explorer basically, you navigate to shared windows folder and tap on video,

[vhelp]

i do. i have a netgear purchased several weeks ago, i thought i mentioned it. anyway. i have it connected [netgear -> DSL] to my verizon DSL 4-port my tablets connect to the netgear for internet or anything wifi. but that's as far as i've gotten in this endeavor.

and, yes, i did download and install the ES3 file manager you mentioned, (was playing with all last night but to no avail) but it will not play any videos that i throw at it. all the videos are black screen. some, you can hear audio, otherwise, nothing, no sound or video. i've tried xvid, mkv, my happauge .ts captures, some files i downloaded from this forum as test files, and so on, but nothing is playing.

just to repeat my system specs:

LG 7" tablet with 4.4.2 kitkat os.
netgear N900 wireless dual band gigabit router

[_Al_]

First, you need usable player, BSplayer or MXplayer. (mxplayer needs some ac3 codec now), you install them first and then try again.

[vhelp]

the thing is, all the players play my videos, including the hauppauge .ts captures i do from disney channel.

KM Player
Mobo Player
MX Player
MX Player Codec (ARMv7 Neon - my LG android tablet)
video (internal player)
VLC

they just won't play through the ES3 file manager app when i stream them.., keeps popping up error message about AC3 audio not supported.

[_Al_]

you do not have bsplayer in that list,
mxplayer dropped ac3 support lately, and apps are updated automatically so you perhaps lost that feature, nevertheless there is a way to play ac3 again with mxplayer, download a zip file from here

[vhelp]

i was not able to get past all the mazes of add poping up to find a link for the mx codec download. i'm on android table (chrome browser) and it was difficult navigating through all that. besides, i wouldn't know how to install a zip file for an android tablet, only download and let it install from the app store. anyway.

i managed to find bsplayer v1.21.175 app and installed that on the tablet. it seems to be able to play the videos from my hauppauge, which are all 720x480 w/ ac3 audio, but all the videos hesitage in and out, the audio too. some video, the audio goes out of sync. its like, slow-motion studder for both video and audio playback. don't know what else to do. i am able to play 1280x720 videos from youtube no problem. not sure if it is the resolution, but all my videos are 720x480, so i'm at a lose here as to what is causing all this playback issues.

[Ai Haibara]

i was not able to get past all the mazes of add poping up to find a link for the mx codec download. i'm on android table (chrome browser) and it was difficult navigating through all that. besides, i wouldn't know how to install a zip file for an android tablet, only download and let it install from the app store. anyway.

All you need to do is scroll down to the second post on the linked page, and click on the "AIO Pack" (all-in-one pack) link (in blue). Once the zip archive is downloaded, in MX Player, go to Settings > Decoder > Custom codec (near the bottom) and point it to the zip archive you just downloaded.

...I don't recall getting any pop-up ads on that page in Chrome on my Nexus 7, though. On my other devices, I use Opera or Firefox, and haven't really seen any ads on that forum with those.

[vhelp]

i've been trying different things and nothing is working. i am wondering if all videos have to be coded a certain way to work on the android. maybe all audio should be .mp4 encoded. that would be a lot of work to have to remux all videos since the audio would have to be encoded to mp3.

i will keep researching....

[vhelp]

ok, it appears i was able to download and install it. all i did after i installed it, (don't know where it downloaded to though) close down MXplayer and then reload it. upon loading, it told me that it found a codec and asks if i want to use it. natually i said yes. now, the videos are playing, but after a second or too, they have trouble playing the audio and start studdering again, both video and audio. i don't understand enough to figure this all out. there must be a better alternative than this. i can easily play youtube and other internet videos, but i can't play these.

[vhelp]

my wifi is sitting 10 inches away from the usb 2 wifi adaptor. and i'm looking at the wireless network connection status, its reading 54.0 Mbps. i am at maximum and at this close distance but it is operating as if i'm in the next apartment and receiving 1.0 Mbps.

is there something better that i can use to measure the through-put of these devices to determine what is causing the playback problems ?

[racer-x]

Might be a wise idea to write an ffmpeg batch script to just re-encode audio to aac and save to .mp4 for best tablet compatibility sake....

[vhelp]

idea... can someoe post a few short known to play videos for android tablets that i can test ?

maybe that help determine what the problem is. I can add them to my shared folder of videos. i have setup a shared folder i:\videos where i dump test videos into on my windows xp home computer.

[vhelp]

i was thinking the same thing, racer. i am saving that as a last resort... that i hope, will not have to do.

[racer-x]

This one should play with no problems.

[vhelp]

ok, so i'm still trying different videos, but notice nothing is playing, and when i look at my wireless network window, it is showing i have 24.0 Mbps and nothing is playing. i don't believe it. i'm not on the internet and the usb 2 wifi adaptor is sitting on my tablet. why is the wifi going up and down like that ?

[vhelp]

now its back to 54 Mbps......

[vhelp]

is it possible that someone found my network of videos and is watching them ? the SS.ogg clip you posted downloaded around 50KB/s, it usually 125KB/s. i don't know how to set it to a password login. so i guess anyone can get into my computer. i will have to shut it down and sratch this whole thing then! sheesh!

[_Al_]

idea... can someoe post a few short known to play videos for android tablets that i can test ?

something like this should be played without problem:
720p, H.264: x264.exe --crf 18 --ref 3 --tune film --vbv-bufsize 30000 --vbv-maxrate 30000
AC3 audio, 640kbps or less, using eac3to for example: eac3to.exe "input.audio" "output.ac3" -384 -down6 -down16
and muxing both streams into MKV

but in your case you don't need to re-encode again so remux is a better choice, I just posted that as an example , you can make MKV like that youeself

[vhelp]

the ss.ogg file plays the same as the others but a little worse. if i run it through ES3 file manager, it doesn't play at all, just a black screen. but if i run the BSplayer and run the clip through that then it plays, but with the same symptoms but worse.

edit:just to note, i set both BSplayer and ES3 file manager to point to my i:\videos server through the LAN option.