Streaming video from a linux server

[CliffD5]

I am looking for a solution to stream video, particularly avi files, from a linux (Ubuntu) server to my Droid Incredible. So far, I haven't been able to find a solution. I have installed Subsonic, but was only able to stream music which is what this seems to be primarily designed for. Has anyone else found a solution to stream video from linux?

 

[jdbower]

I may play with VLC a bit eventually to see what I can and can't do. Unfortunately I currently stream using Orb on a Windows XP VM (Ubuntu Lucid running VirtualBox as a host) but I'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see if there are any good native Linux solutions.

 

[DrSuSE]

I use Mediatomb... Works very well.

 

[jdbower]

I use Mediatomb... Works very well.

Out of curiosity, how do you get it to stream to your phone? It seems to be a nice DLNA server but the web interface seems to want to download the media files rather than stream them. At 1G+ a pop that can be a heck of a buffer time!

Am I just missing a plugin module on the server side? Or an application on the phone? Or did you find a transcoding format that works well with the Droid X's DLNA player? I did notice that I can almost play a WMV file through MediaTomb via the X's DLNA client, but it's playing at about one frame per minute so it's not all that useful

 

[DrSuSE]

Sorry, I don't have a Droid (I have an Epic 4G) so I am not sure about any Droid-specific requirements.

That said, any non-Samsung device I have used Mediatomb with has just worked out of the box. For my phone and my Samsung TV I have a line added to the config that Samsung required in order to avoid "Codec not supported" type errors.

Perhaps the Droid needs something similar?

Additionally, the web interface for Mediatomb is really just for choosing what files and/or folders are available to clients. It's not for actually playing any content.

So my experience for non-Samsung devices so far has been:

Install and startup Mediatomb
Browse to the web interface address the server gives you in the console
Navigate (via the folder tree on the left) to where my files are and click on the little plus signs as desired.
Startup the client which should see the available Mediatomb server.
Choose the media you want to play.

I hope that helps. I actually do not use any of the transcoding features of Mediatomb, they're disabled by default and so far I haven't needed them. Make sure you enable them if you do.

Good luck!

 

[rcuswalk]

Startup the client which should see the available Mediatomb server.

Please pardon my ignorance, but I'm not particularly good with this kind of stuff. I have Mediatomb set up and I can see all the files with the internet browser on my phone. From there I can download them to my phone. But what client should I use to stream the videos? I can't find a way to see Mediatomb with the video player on the Evo.

Thanks for the help.

 

[CliffD5]

Please pardon my ignorance, but I'm not particularly good with this kind of stuff. I have Mediatomb set up and I can see all the files with the internet browser on my phone. From there I can download them to my phone. But what client should I use to stream the videos? I can't find a way to see Mediatomb with the video player on the Evo.

Thanks for the help.

I am also still unclear if this is a streaming solution or something basically like a web server that I am going to have to download the full file before I can play it. Streaming is what I am looking for and I intend to install Mediatomb to see if it is a good solution.
I installed Orb on a Windows VM, but the streaming quality was horrible and that may be directly related to my upload bandwidth. Although I do have a Slingbox and the quality of that video stream is quite good considering...maybe their compression algorithms are slightly better.

 

[DrSuSE]

You need a DLNA client to stream off Mediatomb. The Epic4G is my first Android phone and it comes with a DLNA client. Not sure what else is out there for other Android phones so I don't have a recommendation.

 

[jdbower]

That makes sense now, I didn't realize the Epic had a DLNA client. The X does as well but it's pretty gimped. I was hoping that there was some magic trick that used a non-DLNA method to stream. I think Tversity does that over a web interface, maybe I'll have to experiment...

 

[CliffD5]

I have found an app on the market (VLC Stream & Convert - Android app on AppBrain) that interfaces with VLC. I am in the process of trying to set it up, but have run in to a few issues on the server side. If I can get it working I will report back with the results. Thanks for all the replies!

 

[jdbower]

This may be more like it. Try Jinzora. I'll need to pick things up a bit later to experiment but it seems to stream video over a web interface and has an off-market Android app.

 

[jdbower]

OK, I've finally gotten something that seems workable. Jinzora had promise, but sadly the Android application disappoints on the Droid X. I'm also more than a little concerned with their file permissions, but I may be able to work around that if the video streaming worked.

I'm back to TVersity and their web interface and I've been using HandBrake to convert to an appropriate streaming format. I've got a rough draft of how I've got things configured here. The best part is that they're promising a native Linux version which would be fantastic. Let me know if anything needs clarification.