Android tablet as media server

Was talking to a co-worker. He said by default XBMC is a media player and you would need to enable the other features (like being a media server). Googling around a bit I found this, which talks about a "Services" menu (which used to be called "Network" prior to v12 Frodo). I thought I had downloaded the latest, but I don't recall seeing a "Services" menu/tab, or any other menu items like the ones shown at the above link.

Hmm, must have missed something.

Yes, you can enable UPnP in XBMC. That would allow you to steam media to any UPnP client. The .apk you downloaded should have been Frodo v12.2. That's the latest stable build...

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Settings/Services#UPnP

Android 12.2 Frodo download:

http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/android/xbmc-12.2-Frodo-armeabi-v7a.apk

shabbs wrote:Yes, you can enable UPnP in XBMC. That would allow you to steam media to any UPnP client. The .apk you downloaded should have been Frodo v12.2. That's the latest stable build...

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Settings/Services#UPnP

Android 12.2 Frodo download:

http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/android/xbmc-12.2-Frodo-armeabi-v7a.apk

Finally found the Services menu (wasn't where the wiki said it was). Worked pretty well but I still have to figure out how to add subtitles. I had downloaded the subtitles but for some reason they always insist on zipping them up. So now I have this zip file sitting inside my Downloads folder and I'm not sure how to extract. Man, I miss the right-click button. I tap and hold (in the ES file manager app) but there is no option to extract).

OK, subtitles extracted. But they are the wrong ones (the subtitles include the "Previously on Homeland..." intro but the video does not). Need to find subtitles without that preamble. I guess if I had proper software I could edit the srt file to remove the preamble and adjust all the times accordingly (would not want to ever do it manually).

With XBMC, I know with TV Shows you need to follow a certain folder structure etc... if you want it to be picked up automatically. Not sure if the same is for sub titles. I don't use 'em so I'm not aware.

shabbs wrote:With XBMC, I know with TV Shows you need to follow a certain folder structure etc... if you want it to be picked up automatically. Not sure if the same is for sub titles. I don't use 'em so I'm not aware.

It's fairly standard that if a same-named file with extension srt exists in the same folder then it will be used for subtitles (some players will automatically include them, others still require you to enable subtitles).

Coming along, nicely. I've installed a plugin for XBMC that goes out and finds subtitles. So much easier than what I've been doing to date. I messed up with the first one I downloaded (got it on the second try -- for some reason the first in the list when it searched was for an episode from S2), but the next three I just picked the top one in the list and it fit -- I think they must match on the title (name of show, season, episode) and then look at the running time, too, because if you strip off the "Previously on ..." it's up to a 2 minute difference in running time).

Next, I've got to try it out at home with the TV -- right now the audio kinda sucks, and the video is not as smooth as I'd hoped -- maybe it will be better when I'm just streaming it and the rendering is done by the TV.

When I used BubbleUPnP it used an external player, so I used MX Play, and I found that disabling the h/w decoder and letting it use the s/w one significantly improved the playback quality (I guess the h/w acceleration does not work very well on this particular h/w). There must be some kinds of setting for playback on the SBMC but, so far, I have not found them.

XBMC FTW!!!

shabbs wrote:XBMC FTW!!!

It's certainly getting there. I am concerned with performance, though. Where are the settings -- there should be a million of them -- to tweak the playback/rendering/etc? The audio was poor, and that's putting it mildly, but I bet it was because the tablet was not keeping up.

OK, cooking with gas now! Google for answers and apparently not the only one to see choppy playback or scratchy audio with Frodo. "Solution" was to download the latest nightly build. Hopefully it's not going to have any bugs I run into.

Well, not quite there, yet. Although I can see the subtitles when playing in XBMC, I don't have subs when streaming to the tv. I guess, in a way this makes sense, as the subs are in a separate file, and the media server only serves up the media. I suppose UPnP doesn't support transferring a subtitle file.

So what I need is for XBMC to do the rendering and output to the tv. I don't think this is possible via streaming (I would have to reencode the video with subs added in). And I don't see an HDMI port on my tablet.

It could be that my only option is to transfer the video and subtitle files to a USB and then play them that way (the tv will pick up the subs if they are in a file with the same base name).

No HDMI out on your tablet?

#fail

shabbs wrote:No HDMI out on your tablet?

#fail

Ah, I was wrong:



The micro USB port acts as the HDMI port with the adaptor.

Hey, Santa, just one more thing ...

OK, interesting dilemma, probably a quirk of AnDroid that I don't really know about.  I download some files and they end up in the Downloads directory on the tablet.  I haven't figured out how to delete the torrent without deleting the download (i.e. I want to stop uploading) so what I do is pause it, then move the files to a different folder, then delete the torrent.  But quite often what happens when I hook up the USB cable, I can see *some* of the files I moved over, but not others. I can see the files in the folder I move them to using a File Manager app on the tablet, but I don't see them (not all of them) in Windows Explorer.

Edit:  For example, right now, I've got two episodes of Almost Human (pretty good show, didn't start recording it until now) with subtitles files -- I can see the video files and copied those over, but I don't see the subtitles files.  So now they are gone from the Downloads folder (since I moved them on the tablet), and I see them in the other folder using the File Manager app, but I don't see them when looking at the folder using Windows Explorer.

I guess I could get AirDroid and copy files without USB, but there's no guarantee the same won't happen.  I'm missing something.

Android sux.

shabbs wrote:Android sux.

Umm, ok, so what's the solution?

Also, I have no trouble seeing the files using the Android app; it's the Windows Explorer that's having issues.

shabbs wrote:Android sux.

You won't be saying that when Android "Big Turk" comes out.