[daglesj]

Running it through wifi...installed the desktop streaming software on the NAS...running like a champ!

Yes but what type of NAS is it? QNAP/Synology/Drobo....or homebrew (re-functioned PC)

[BarracudaBob]

You might also want to look into X-Plore which is another Android port. It has a dual pane interface which is great for copying files to/from the NAS as well as a built in player for videos which plays multiple file types including mkv.

[daglesj]

Is it in App World?

[daglesj]

Just tried another hopeful. UPnPlayer.

Yep it loads, yep it finds my NAS, yep it finds all my media files (just like most of these apps). Does it actually play anything like it says it should?

Nope (just like all of these apps so far). Am I missing something? Well I cant find any settings, no instructions no nothing. Tapping all over the screen does nothing. I have several media players etc. installed so codecs are not an issue. Please don't let it be another "needs a PC to actually view stuff on" app.

Doesn't anyone test software anymore or is half-assed the new coding methodology now?

I'm talking here as a potential customer that is prepared to pay good money for decent software. Just be nice if I could find any.

So far the best I have got is running the media through Twonky in the web browser. So why not a more slick experience than that?

Now lets install some more fails.

[SifJar]

The problem is that decoding virtually every format requires native code libraries in Android, which don't work on the Playbook. In other words, the only way to play most of these formats on the PB is in a native QNX app with codec support for them. The majority of formats won't ever play in any Android player because the codecs there are written in a way that doesn't work on the PB, so it can only use the built in codecs, i.e. it should be able to play the same formats as the built in "Videos" app, but no more. So basically, you'll have to transcode the videos to a supported format and then those players should work. It has nothing to do with the coding of the apps in question, they all most likely work perfectly on the Android devices they were actually written for. You have no right to complain about "half assed coding", especially when it's an app that hasn't been converted officially by the developer, and is instead converted by some random person and installed via sideload.

[daglesj]

Then if they don't work, why are they even in App World? Again I ask isn't anyone (RIM I'm looking at you) testing this stuff? Why bother converting or sideloading? My media is all in codecs that can be played on my Playbook, I've tested them so that excuse doesn't wash.

This is the whole point, most of this crap doesn't work. It's not good for anyone. Sideloading in most cases is a kludge and a poor one at that. It's not helping RIM and they should either push for good quality native apps or ditch Sideloading all together.

Sorry if I won't give a bad idea a free pass.

[SifJar]

Then if they don't work, why are they even in App World? Again I ask isn't anyone (RIM I'm looking at you) testing this stuff? Why bother converting or sideloading? My media is all in codecs that can be played on my Playbook, I've tested them so that excuse doesn't wash.

This is the whole point, most of this crap doesn't work. It's not good for anyone. Sideloading in most cases is a kludge and a poor one at that. It's not helping RIM and they should either push for good quality native apps or ditch Sideloading all together.

Sorry if I won't give a bad idea a free pass.

Sideloading isn't a feature for consumers. It's a feature for developers. The tools for developers are public, so that anyone can create apps, and so consumers started using them to sideload apps. Sideloading also has nothing to do with Android. It works for native and sideloaded apps alike. I cannot fathom your logic that some Android apps not functioning correctly when converted and sideloaded is a reason to remove sideloading. That makes absolutely no sense.

I did not realise the apps you were talking about where in App World, I thought most of them required sideloading. It is true that in some cases apps appearing in App World do not undergo the most rigorous testing by RIM. You know what? There isn't an app store in the world without buggy apps in it.

As for your question "Why bother converting and sideloading?" - I really don't understand what you're asking here. One minute you say the apps you're talking about are in the App World, then suddenly you're talking about sideloading. I honestly can't figure out what you're getting at here.

Now to your point that your media is in codecs that can be played on the PB: I guess I was mistaken in thinking all the native PB codecs where available within Android player. I haven't bothered too much with Android media players, and I don't really intend to. I find the stock one perfectly sufficient for my needs. (I'm not saying others should too, just explaining why I made the mistake).

"This is the whole point, most of this crap doesn't work. It's not good for anyone. Sideloading in most cases is a kludge and a poor one at that." - again, it's not a consumer feature. Sideloading is not there so that anyone can find an APK, convert it to a BAR and install it. Sideloading is there (and has been since the start, before the Android player was added) so that developers, who are building apps (or in the case of Android apps, porting them and making tweaks so they can run properly) can test their apps on hardware. It is NOT designed for you, which is why I was saying before you have no right to complain about any app you have sideloaded not working completely correctly, and this is especially true of Android apps.

"Sorry if I won't give a bad idea a free pass." - I fail to see any bad idea.

[ralfyguy]

I have the UPNPlayer as well and it does the same thing on mine. This app IS from Appworld and it does not work. I womder myself what RIM is actually doing in those couple of days or so approving the app. Obviously not teting it for function. Kinda lame if you ask me.

[daglesj]

I haven't sideloaded anything. I read the listings and forums here re converted apps and it looks like a carcrash.

If sideloading is 'just for developers and nothing to do with Android or normal folks' then why does RIM make such a thing about it and if ever there is a rumour its going drop it, so many here go 'wtf??'

So what is it really for? Seems to me its there to artificially boost AppWorld numbers with half-working untested apps.

If its not bad coding or bad testing, why is it that so many of these file/media/streaming apps just dont work?

[pacoman03]

"I haven't sideloaded anything. I read the listings and forums here re converted apps and it looks like a carcrash."

You've been reading the wrong threads. Many of us have sideloaded many converted android apps and are very happy with the way most perform. That being said, one has to go into it with one basic understanding- some converted android apps work very well on the PB, some work OK, and others don't work at all. It has a lot to do with the source of the bar files sideloaded- those from GoodEReader have a very good chance of working great or at least OK, while those downloaded from apktobar.net have a very good chance of not working at all. The reason is that Good Ereader's apps have been tested to at least provide partial functionality, apktobar files haven't been tested at all.

"If sideloading is 'just for developers and nothing to do with Android or normal folks' then why does RIM make such a thing about it and if ever there is a rumour its going drop it, so many here go 'wtf??'"

RIM doesn't make a thing about it at all. People in this forum go WTF about rumors of dropping sideloading because they don't want to lose the ability to run sideloaded apps that they like and use.

"So what is it really for? Seems to me its there to artificially boost AppWorld numbers with half-working untested apps."

This makes no sense, since people generally only sideload apps that aren't in app world, so how does the ability to sideload boost AppWorld numbers?

If its not bad coding or bad testing, why is it that so many of these file/media/streaming apps just dont work?

Which media streaming apps don't "work"? The only one you've mentioned is UPnPlayer, and from my reading of it's description, it isn't really designed to do what you want it to do anyway- its description says it allows streaming from a server to a renderer and others seem to have been successfully able to use it in this way. While it also says the newest version allows streaming to the PB, it doesn't really tell you how to do this, since it doesn't seem to have its own internal media player. You also stated that you couldn't stream with Ghost Commander, but nobody stated that Ghost would stream from a NAS drive. I said in an earlier post that it might work, not that it would. Further, it definitely will stream from a networked PC without problem, and may still allow streaming from a NAS drive. It's just that Ghost doesn't have an internal media player, so for it to stream it needs to launch a media player that can stream- which likely requires sideloading. Other android apps, ES File Explorer and X-Plore, both of which need to be sideloaded, will also stream media without problem- it's just that you refuse to try them because you don't want to sideload apps.

[daglesj]

So here we are nearly in 2013 and nothing in the whole of AppWorld can let joe user simply connect to their Qnap or similar and just stream some standard media files on their playbook?

Poor state of affairs if thats the case. I guess i'll have to wait for the magical BB10.

Ahem

[costas1966]

Yes but what type of NAS is it? QNAP/Synology/Drobo....or homebrew (re-functioned PC)

Asus home server running WinXP Server 2003.

[costas1966]

So here we are nearly in 2013 and nothing in the whole of AppWorld can let joe user simply connect to their Qnap or similar and just stream some standard media files on their playbook?

Poor state of affairs if thats the case. I guess i'll have to wait for the magical BB10.

Ahem

In the meantime, you may want to try Kalemsoft Media Player from app world...probably the best media streamer out there to run media off your NAS to your PB.

[daglesj]

In the meantime, you may want to try Kalemsoft Media Player from app world...probably the best media streamer out there to run media off your NAS to your PB.

Got it already. Doesn't work with a NAS (as in a proper nas Qnap etc).

[daglesj]

Asus home server running WinXP Server 2003.

As expected, not a Qnap/Synology/Drobo standalone type NAS like most folks will have.

No use to me.

[Michel Souris]

I haven't sideloaded anything. I read the listings and forums here re converted apps and it looks like a carcrash.

If sideloading is 'just for developers and nothing to do with Android or normal folks' then why does RIM make such a thing about it and if ever there is a rumour its going drop it, so many here go 'wtf??'

So what is it really for? Seems to me its there to artificially boost AppWorld numbers with half-working untested apps.

If its not bad coding or bad testing, why is it that so many of these file/media/streaming apps just dont work?

If it wasn't for sideloading, the PB would not be functional; it can't even get messaging right - no full IMAP support.
I've got about 60 Android apps loaded, and they make the tablet fun, and let it fly.

[rockhammer]

I just tried es file explorer on my android phone and it works great. Did have to install also mx player to play .mov files (which took many minutes to cache over wifi before playing for 533MB file). Would be really nice if it shows up in app world for the less technically apt people like me.

Would love to have that app on my playbooks but could not get the sideloading to work. I downloaded the .bar file from the goodereader Site (dated 2012/12/05). I also tried the sideloading method found elsewhere in crackberry which involves installing jre and ddpb. I did run ddpb, was able to get that .bar file into ddpb and ddpb did show "done!" after the install. However the ESFE is nowhere to be found on my playbook.

Can anyone offer a pointer here? Is there a proven method that works? Or did rim close out this avenue? Thanks a lot.

[FF22]

You did put the pb into Developer Mode? You've scrolled down (by swiping up) to make sure if it not located further down the page?

You might also try using the Chrome Browser and the Playbook App Manager on your computer - is seems easier to me.

[omniusovermind]

I don't feel having to set up a NAS on your PC is a kudo for ES. ES works as-is on Android devices and you can simply use the LAN tab to connect to your PC through smb. When you try to move or stream files onto your playbook with it though, it malfunctions because the Playbook doesn't use android file structures for recognizing where /sdcard is located, ES can't figure that out, and force closes.

[Xopher]

For copying with ES, I just use the Copy and Paste options and am able to copy this to my PlayBook just fine. The "Copy To" command fails, but manually copying works just fine.

I stream movies from my NAS all the time with ES. I love not having to copy a movie over just to watch it.

[glamrlama]

I don't feel having to set up a NAS on your PC is a kudo for ES. ES works as-is on Android devices and you can simply use the LAN tab to connect to your PC through smb. When you try to move or stream files onto your playbook with it though, it malfunctions because the Playbook doesn't use android file structures for recognizing where /sdcard is located, ES can't figure that out, and force closes.

ES file explorer works fine for me and my SMB shares to stream to my PB. I don't use a NAS. My problem is it wants to close if I choose "copy to" instead of "music" when building a play list.

[rockhammer]

Thanks, F2, for the response. I did put it in developer mode, entered ip address, pw, the whole bit. And the install finished with a "done" msg.

I have 2 pages of apps. The ESFE is certainly not appended to the end as new apps normally get placed and I can't find it elsewhere either. App world -> my world does not show it either (though I don't expect it to be in there).

I have chrome browser installed on my pc but unaware what I use it for in this case. I'm not familiar with blackberry app browser either.

Thanks.

[FF22]

Thanks, F2, for the response. I did put it in developer mode, entered ip address, pw, the whole bit. And the install finished with a "done" msg.

I have 2 pages of apps. The ESFE is certainly not appended to the end as new apps normally get placed and I can't find it elsewhere either. App world -> my world does not show it either (though I don't expect it to be in there).

I have chrome browser installed on my pc but unaware what I use it for in this case. I'm not familiar with blackberry app browser either.

Thanks.

(sorry for the tardy reply but was out beating myself up cross-country skiing)

While there is some plug-in for Firefox it seemed to complex so I went with the Chrome version.

Here's the website link for the add-in for chrome

PlayBook App Manager

Someone had posted a tutorial website but I don't recall the link

[rockhammer]

F2, I finally managed to get ESFE onto my playbook.

I followed the instructions by Canadian Thomas here How To: Sideload Android apps on PlayBook OS v2.0 for use with the Android App Player | CrackBerry.com, which is really the same as those for mac as referenced in the main part of that post. A copy of the Playbook_Tools folder/files can be found in here http://hatax.home.comcast.net/~hatax...book_Tools.zip as of the time of this post. To clarify, I use a Mac and these instructions are for mac. Previously I was following the windows version of the instructions while running vmware/fusion+win7 on the very same mac (not sure if this explains why it didn't work before). On both mac and win7 sides I had jre 7u10 newly installed. The benefit of following the mac instructions is that I bypassed the ddpb needed on windows side (which I might not have had the latest version); although you do need the whole bunch of .jar files in Playbook_Tools. The .bar file I used was found here Blackberry Playbook Android Apps | Good e-Reader Android APP Store - Playbook App Market. Apologies for the minutiae but I thought I should record it for the next user in need.

All that however is the good news. The bad news is that this ESFE seems to be far slower on my playbook than on my nexus S. On my phone, the jpeg thumbnails come up almost immediately whereas on the playbook it is taking many minutes even though they are hooked up to the same wifi network. In the time it has taken me time type this post so far including cut/pasting urls, it still has not finished showing the >100 thumbnails!

I will try video streaming next. Hopefully it will be smart enough actually to buffer instead of caching the whole video before playing it as it did on my phone.

Thanks again.

[rockhammer]

playbook & esfe does not have a codec for .mov and I have lots of .mov files. Does anyone have a suggestion? Thanks.