[conix67]

I went to install Air Video which the op sings the praises of on my iOS device and I find out I have to download server software for my mac that converts the video to an iOS friendly format.

I do not see the advantage of iOS. It looks to me like the playbook for $199 plus 99 cents for LAN file explorer plays the files without re encoding them. The iPad $500 plus $2.99 for Air Video has to have the files converted in advance or on the fly on the server side. I also tried playing the same mkv file with goodvideo on ios and it choked after a few seconds.

Honestly, I tried all kinds of stuff on PB, Android, iOS and AirVideo is by far the best implementation of this kind. Yes, it transcodes video on the fly, meaning you have to have something running on a PC/Mac, but it plays everything and interface is easiest to use.

On PB, Subsonic comes close as it plays everything like AirVideo does. The only problem with Subsonic is lack of a good client, and far pricier than AirVideo.

I use Lan Explorer regularly now, as it has its own advantages too. It's fantastic if you're playing video that is compatible with PB's video player. So often I run into videos that won't play, or without audio.

[13echo4]

Honestly, I tried all kinds of stuff on PB, Android, iOS and AirVideo is by far the best implementation of this kind. Yes, it transcodes video on the fly, meaning you have to have something running on a PC/Mac, but it plays everything and interface is easiest to use.

On PB, Subsonic comes close as it plays everything like AirVideo does. The only problem with Subsonic is lack of a good client, and far pricier than AirVideo.

I use Lan Explorer regularly now, as it has its own advantages too. It's fantastic if you're playing video that is compatible with PB's video player. So often I run into videos that won't play, or without audio.

If your using a client/server method than nothing is really going to beat splashtop on the PB. I have'nt tried lan explorer yet but I will soon. You just can't beat the $7 or whatever it is now for splashtop. I got it for $5.
If vlc is really streaming thi will prolly take the cake.

[Angus_CB]

Hey guys, you can close this thread now. It's just a mess, and I sold my PlayBook this morning.

You're not the only person that wants to stream to their Playbook.
The rest of us have more patience so I think the thread still has value.

[chrisrobinfollett]

How did you play an mkv? I just tried an got a media error.

I guess only some mkv files will play. Apparently it depends on how the video and audio were encoded. In order to play ALL mkv on the playbook it looks like you need to use subsonic or tversity/playon or splashtop or an Android sideloaded version of VLC. I just tried one to see if it would work and happened to try one that worked. I normally don't use mkv files.

[chrisrobinfollett]

Honestly, I tried all kinds of stuff on PB, Android, iOS and AirVideo is by far the best implementation of this kind. Yes, it transcodes video on the fly, meaning you have to have something running on a PC/Mac, but it plays everything and interface is easiest to use.

On PB, Subsonic comes close as it plays everything like AirVideo does. The only problem with Subsonic is lack of a good client, and far pricier than AirVideo.

I use Lan Explorer regularly now, as it has its own advantages too. It's fantastic if you're playing video that is compatible with PB's video player. So often I run into videos that won't play, or without audio.

I'll finish the airvideo installation tonight since consensus is that it's the best for ios.

[conix67]

If your using a client/server method than nothing is really going to beat splashtop on the PB. I have'nt tried lan explorer yet but I will soon. You just can't beat the $7 or whatever it is now for splashtop. I got it for $5.
If vlc is really streaming thi will prolly take the cake.

I have Splashtop on both my PB and iOS. It's a fantastic application as well, but I never use it for video streaming - you have to use PC/Mac client which is not optimized for tablet, and video quality isn't optimized for the bandwidth. If the compatibility is the concern, I guess this still beats the Lan Explorer.

By the way, it costs only $2.99 on iPad. I got mine for $5 on PB as well, but it's now $8 on PB.

[wgrose]

I'll finish the airvideo installation tonight since consensus is that it's the best for ios.

Plex is better, since you can see which episodes you've watched etc etc. Plex, however, is better suited for people with media-center PCs in the first place. It's pretty awesome to start watching a TV show or movie on your media-PC, and then grab your iPad and continue exactly where you last paused at.

You also get artwork and episode synopses with Plex. Air Video transcodes, which is awesome if your home wireless speed is slow. Either way, both apps playback any file, absolutely perfectly. Also, since it's not a web-based Flash thingy, the battery life is amazing on the iPad for movies. (8% an hour drop when using Air Video at medium brightness on my now-sold iPad 2).

[guerllamo7]

OP,
ORB or Splashtop should work for you. However, if you purchased the PB solely to stream video from your Mac (and nothing else) I suggest you spend $500 bucks and get a second iPad.
The Playbook is a multi-purpose, versatile, portable power house. I think you would probably be happier with an iPad since the ONLY reason to use the tablet would be to stream video from your Mac.

1.The Playbook can play movies (buy, rent, sideload, stream with Splashtop)
2.it can play music and has way better speakers than the iPad1,2,3
3.You could try reading a book on it and BB does not restrict access to competitor in-app stores
4. If you ever take a break from streaming movies from your Mac, try the web-browser.
Very nice flash and HTML5 support
5. Also, e-mail, calendar, contacts.
6. Facebook, twitter
I could fill a page of all the wonderful things I get to do with mine on a regular basis but if streaming video from your Mac is the ONLY purpose you got it then I don't know if it is the right device for you.

I think you may have made a mistake purchasing a product for such a limited scope. I hope I'm wrong and someone on CrackBerry will provide an answer for you.

Good luck!

[wgrose]

OP,
ORB or Splashtop should work for you. However, if you purchased the PB solely to stream video from your Mac (and nothing else) I suggest you spend $500 bucks and get a second iPad.
The Playbook is a multi-purpose, versatile, portable power house. I think you would probably be happier with an iPad since the ONLY reason to use the tablet would be to stream video from your Mac.

1.The Playbook can play movies (buy, rent, sideload, stream with Splashtop)
2.it can play music and has way better speakers than the iPad1,2,3
3.You could try reading a book on it and BB does not restrict access to competitor in-app stores
4. If you ever take a break from streaming movies from your Mac, try the web-browser.
Very nice flash and HTML5 support
5. Also, e-mail, calendar, contacts.
6. Facebook, twitter
I could fill a page of all the wonderful things I get to do with mine on a regular basis but if streaming video from your Mac is the ONLY purpose you got it then I don't know if it is the right device for you.

I think you may have made a mistake purchasing a product for such a limited scope. I hope I'm wrong and someone on CrackBerry will provide an answer for you.

Good luck!

1.) Splashtop works fine if that's your bag. I bought it a good while ago on the iPad but for movies I just don't like streaming the whole desktop. It's just harder on battery life and configuring stuff is just annoying, especially with sound. Different strokes, I guess...?

2.) I REALLY didn't care for the new email on BB OS 2.0. The whole thing just drove me nuts with its interface, in addition to having very little real estate with the smaller display.

3.) I agree the speakers on the PlayBook are just the bomb. So much better than any iPad. Curiously, the iPad 1 had the best speaker/s, and the iPad 2 and 3's speakers are just horrible.

In any case, I'm going to use my Vaio Z214 for the time being for movies. Very sexy media laptop (although it's also kind of crappy!).

Also, what's up with the BB 2.0 boot times? CRAZY!

[ryengjoe]

Try this out.

New streaming app in appworld

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...erting-715615/

[wgrose]

Try this out.

New streaming app in appworld

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...erting-715615/

Hah the day AFTER I sell my PlayBook. lol. Looks like only for Windows users currently, but looks promising.

[13echo4]

OP,
ORB or Splashtop should work for you. However, if you purchased the PB solely to stream video from your Mac (and nothing else) I suggest you spend $500 bucks and get a second iPad.
The Playbook is a multi-purpose, versatile, portable power house. I think you would probably be happier with an iPad since the ONLY reason to use the tablet would be to stream video from your Mac.

1.The Playbook can play movies (buy, rent, sideload, stream with Splashtop)
2.it can play music and has way better speakers than the iPad1,2,3
3.You could try reading a book on it and BB does not restrict access to competitor in-app stores
4. If you ever take a break from streaming movies from your Mac, try the web-browser.
Very nice flash and HTML5 support
5. Also, e-mail, calendar, contacts.
6. Facebook, twitter
I could fill a page of all the wonderful things I get to do with mine on a regular basis but if streaming video from your Mac is the ONLY purpose you got it then I don't know if it is the right device for you.

I think you may have made a mistake purchasing a product for such a limited scope. I hope I'm wrong and someone on CrackBerry will provide an answer for you.

Good luck!

I really liked this post. Very interesting points.
Guys where have yall gotten to on vlc? All you post is you only get wifi needs to be enabled. This is just a pita nag. It says it to do anything local or remote. I've been working on it all night. Thus far I can control vlc on my pc from my pb. I can explore files and play them. I can move the time position forward or back. Pretty much everthing but stream. After hrs of looking at this from different angles I think problem is in the os. It appears that android looks at wifi and streams different than qnx. I don't know I its in the stack or what. That explains why the wifi needs to be enabled message when playing. File locally. It comes up even when I'm exploreing files. Even though your connected the app is still looking for the wifi to be turned on.
My buddy insist that he is streaming video and still sends me screen captures of the stream. I dunno about itthough. He says he hasn't done anything to make it work. He's 1000 miles away or would go to him and see myself. Let me know what yall have going on.

[wgrose]

I had the same thing with VLC. Kept telling me to enable WiFi.

[costas1966]

How did you play an mkv? I just tried an got a media error.

I would think there may be some encoding problems with some movies...I had no problem playing any video on my server...and I have a mix of akv, avi, mp4 movies. I also have 3 different video players on my PB, and I've noticed that one may stream correctly, while the other may not.

So far, though...very few problems with streaming. And as others have said, the fact that it doesn't have to re-encode the file to a different format is awesome.

So far, so good. My challenge is how to watch a movie or download a movie on my server if I'm on the road...splashtop isn't very good at that, and I don't like the idea of a third party server somewhere.

[may21]

Honestly, I tried all kinds of stuff on PB, Android, iOS and AirVideo is by far the best implementation of this kind. Yes, it transcodes video on the fly, meaning you have to have something running on a PC/Mac, but it plays everything and interface is easiest to use.

On PB, Subsonic comes close as it plays everything like AirVideo does. The only problem with Subsonic is lack of a good client, and far pricier than AirVideo.

I use Lan Explorer regularly now, as it has its own advantages too. It's fantastic if you're playing video that is compatible with PB's video player. So often I run into videos that won't play, or without audio.

SteamingNow will fix the codec issue by remuxing or transcoding. StreamingNow in App World

[13echo4]

I had the same thing with VLC. Kept telling me to enable WiFi.

What I'm saying is its a false message. Its going to tell you no matter what you do. It tell tells you that even when your connected to vlc. The ap doesn't realize the wifi is enabled. Don't worry about it and go on and do what you want to do. It goes a way in just a second.
If anybody is having trouble getting connected, I will help you out.

[13echo4]

I have Splashtop on both my PB and iOS. It's a fantastic application as well, but I never use it for video streaming - you have to use PC/Mac client which is not optimized for tablet, and video quality isn't optimized for the bandwidth. If the compatibility is the concern, I guess this still beats the Lan Explorer.

By the way, it costs only $2.99 on iPad. I got mine for $5 on PB as well, but it's now $8 on PB.

I don't understand why its not optimized for the tablet because its not running it. I don't stream media either because I just put the file on my PB, phone or what have ya. I'm not about to get tied down by a mobile device.
Its my experance that splashtop saturate single core cpus.duals though have no problem. That said it streams very good using vlc on the host. I haven't tried wmp. I haven't used it for like ever. Vlc has been my choice for quite some time.
If you have your host's screen set to a high resolution its alittle tricky zooming in on things like start menu or using command lines in c m d. Lowering it helps or like I did just go use to it and now I can just zoom the right amount. I'm sure there better ways to do this its just what suited me.
Yea I was thinking about splashtop for a few weeks then when it dropped to $5 I couldn't see why not. Its well worth $5. I think its worth the $20 if you use it a lot.
To stream media your really going to have to a server on the host and use the host media player to "stream" the feed to you. I just don't consider using a file manager to open a file in your devices media player or with the file manager "streaming".

[costas1966]

To stream media your really going to have to a server on the host and use the host media player to "stream" the feed to you. I just don't consider using a file manager to open a file in your devices media player or with the file manager "streaming".

I disagree...by using a file manager to open the file, you are definitely streaming it to your device. There are two ways to stream the file as far as I know...either stream from the source, as in "play to..." or access the file remotely. In the first method, you are using more resources, in my opinion than the second method.

This means that if the source computer gets bogged down with other programs, you could experience crashes, stoppages, or other delays.

So, I can either "stream" my file from the computer TO my remote device, or access the file FROM my remote device.

In my opinion, you are streaming the file in either case.

[13echo4]

I disagree...by using a file manager to open the file, you are definitely streaming it to your device. There are two ways to stream the file as far as I know...either stream from the source, as in "play to..." or access the file remotely. In the first method, you are using more resources, in my opinion than the second method.

This means that if the source computer gets bogged down with other programs, you could experience crashes, stoppages, or other delays.

So, I can either "stream" my file from the computer TO my remote device, or access the file FROM my remote device.

In my opinion, you are streaming the file in either case.

I just don't see it. Accessing a file is one thing. Aight you have media file on an exterer hdd. You open file with media player found on the os drive. That's not streaming. When then media being played is sent to anther device it then becomes streamed.
Look at it like this. Streamed data can be picked up by any device that can connect to the sending device and render the data. That vlc for example. You can stream video from vlc to all of your nodes that's running vlc.
Your device using a file explorer to access the file doesn't have a video stream running that other devices can render. The other devices will have to open said file. Streaming allows you not have to have the codecs on the device. The host has the codecs and passes it to the client. Explorer your media player will have to have the codec.
If your media server is a big deal you give it higher priority. Th higher the piority the more resources allowed to it. Does this gaurantee that crashes or lags won't happen? No, but will make it less likely. Build your system with this in mind and give it the resources to pull this off. At times of streaming shut down unneeded apps.

[dejanh]

I'm absolutely suggesting you set up your own server.
If you're trying to say that setting up apache using xampp is hard, I lol at you.

no I'm not gonna do that. Stupid solution for something that should work out of the box. There is a reason why I have a DLNA media server and it is so that I do not have to do crap like this.

[13echo4]

no I'm not gonna do that. Stupid solution for something that should work out of the box. There is a reason why I have a DLNA media server and it is so that I do not have to do crap like this.

Hold up for a second. It does work out of the box. The problem isn't the PB. Its the software your trying to use. If you don't mind spending a few $$$$s then go buy the new app.
Vlc direct your using was written for android then converted for the PB. All this is really doing is making it look like a qnx app. It will still run like it was writen I.E. The android icons staying in the app etc. Well android os handles streaming different than qnx does. Sooooo you can do everything with vlc direct but stream. Unfortunely that's one function you can not control. I'm trying to get the source and find out how qnx streams and fix this. If I can do this I'm also going to change the android icon to a  .
Look rim built the platform.. The devs need to get off their and write something.

[PoJoTheCrooked]

If you have a desent duel core cpu 2gb of ram or more you can stream video very well with splashtop. Use vlc to to play the movie. For that matter install vlc on your PB and stream video with vlc.
I just have to ask why oh why stream the video. Do you not have a usb cord? Just put the movie on the PB. Even. 16gb will hold up to 35-40 movie files depending the bitrate used to encode. I have hdds that I ave nothing but mp4s on. I put files on our devices and when we get done we just delete of the device. I can put it back on if wanted put back.

Might be a stupid question, but how do I get vlc on my PB? I tried going to their website, and sure enough, there's a link for "VLC for QNX" but it only leads to a download of the vlc source code. Any help?
Thanks in advance.

[Superfly_FR]

Playbook is not - yet - DLNA compliant.
I'll suggest you simply install any web server on your media device to acces your video files ... and just use your browser on the PB to display them.

[bounce007]

For those who are still having issues streaming videos from computer to PlayBook on the SAME WiFi Network, try setting up your computer as a server and stream videos that way

Windows users can use IIS to set up a server. Check out this thread: http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...haring-609013/

I haven't had any success with streaming .mkv videos so beware. I generally stream .avi videos. Good Luck.

[13echo4]

Might be a stupid question, but how do I get vlc on my PB? I tried going to their website, and sure enough, there's a link for "VLC for QNX" but it only leads to a download of the vlc source code. Any help?
Thanks in advance.

We're talking about vlc direct not vlc itself. You have 2 choices. 1st download it from app world. People say it doesn't work but it does. I'm playing with it now. Your going to get a little nag message that wifi has to be enabled for everything you try to do. Don't worry about it. The message goes away in less than a second. The app doesn't realize wifi is turned on. With this choice or the second you can do everything but stream video.
2nd choice download the. Vlc direcg apk and convert and sign it. This is what I first did. Same results. I'm pretty sure choice 1 is far better for you.