Hi I was wondering if there is anything like the Air Video (ipod touch) on the Android platform. For those who are unfamiliar to this, it lets you watch any format movies stored in your PC and streams it over Wifi or net to device....it's got live streaming which allows you to watch the video as it converts on the fly and has Subtitle support. I searched the forum for anything like that, I did check out the TVersity post but it doesn't seem to support subtitles..I would be cool if someone can guide me to the right direction.

Thank you

Not directly.
If you convert your files to mp4 format with burned-in subtitles you can use the suggestions mentioned in the tversity thread, including the MP4 Streaming Server app I mentioned in there as well.

You can look into Orb, but not sure if that would do what you need.

The MP4 server was bound to port 80 so, if you happen to be using that port already there aren't any options to change it.
None I found anyway.

On the left side, where the playlists and such are, click on "Streaming" You can change the port there.

DVDCatalyst: I set everything up for the MP4 Streaming. On my Droid if I use wi-fi I don't have any problems with bringing it up. But if I go to 3g (which is what I would use when out and about) it will not load. Any suggestions of what I need to do? I was so excited about this so that my grandson could watch his movies while we were out and I would not have to store them on my phone. I would greatly appreciate any input./

3G is a different network than your own wifi network at home, so you will have to set up port forwarding on your router. It's not for the average computer user to set up though.

This is what needs to be done to make it work (I strongly recommend to have someone with some networking experience do these steps):

*Step 1* Your computer has to be set up with a fixed IP address.
this link will give some details
hotComm FAQ: Assign Static IP Address (Windows XP)

I would mention to not use the exact same IP as what your computer has now, because it might conflict with a different computer in a few days. If your computer shows 192.168.1.101 as your IP, (or 102, 103 etc) I would suggest to use 192.168.1.50 or something along those lines. if your IP ends with a number in the 100 range, the router probably gives IP's out between 100 and 200 so do not pick one in between those. The router usually has a xxx.xxx.xxx.1 number, so dont use that either. Some routers use 192.168.2.x or 192.168.0.x When you set a fixed IP, make sure the first 3 parts are identical. only the last part can be different.

Once you have changed your IP, make sure you test if you have internet on your computer before you continue (visit Google and search for something). If you dont have internet access, go back to where you made the change, and look over the settings. To make it the way it was, set it to dynamic again, and restart your computer.

*Step 2* enable port forwarding on your router.
In most cases you can just type in the router IP (192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1 or whatever it shows as a gateway in step 1) in internet explorer/firefox/safari (where you would normally type the website you want to visit like Google)
Then there should be a section for advanced, portforwarding or something along those lines. In there you have to set up portforwarding of port 80 to the IP you gave your computer in step 1.

This might help : PortForward.com - Port Forwarding Guides Listed by Manufacturer and Model

*Step 3* you have to use your external IP (the IP of the routers internet connection to visit the website on your Droid. Rather than the http://192.168.x.x you use on wifi, it will be some other number. You can get this number by visiting What Is My IP Address - Shows Your IP Address on your computer (not on your Droid over 3G, that will be different.

Keep in mind that this number can change when you restart your router, power loss etc.
You can use a website like DynDNS.com - Free Domain Name, Managed DNS, Email Services which lets you run a little program on your computer that would link to this website, and rather than the IP, you get to use something like "http://gavinsnana.dyndns.org" as a website name instead of the ip number. the little program will update your IP to that name, so you dont have to keep track of it.

Unfortunately this whole process is a little complicated and not for the faint of heart. It's pretty straightforward, however, you will have to understand some of the basics of networking to be able to set this up. Due to the enormous amount of different router brands/models, computer configurations, its impossible for me to provide a more detailed step by step guide.

Lastly, as mentioned in the manual of the streaming server app, as well as on the information page on the website, (note, this applies to streaming in general, not just to mp4 streaming server) do keep in mind that the quality is directly tied to your upload speed at home. Your download speed (watching videos on the web on your computer) is usually considerably higher than your upload speed, but when you stream from your PC to your Droid over 3G, it uses the upload connection of your internet. For best results, run a speedtest on your computer to see what the upload speed is, and then adjust your videofile quality accordingly. (use a slightly lower total quality to be safe) If you play a 1500Kbps video on a 256kbps upload speed, you can watch 1 second of video then wait 3 seconds, making a 2 hour movie last 8 hours.

I tried it but did not have internet connection. Does it make a difference that I am using a broadband modem from cable company and I have a wireless router attached to that so that I can use my laptop wirelessly from another room? I appreciate your help. I guess If all else fails I will just keep one or two movies on my phone for him.

I tried looking for a diagram, but nothing really applies, so I will do it in text here:

{INTERNET}
|
[BROADBAND MODEM]
|
[ROUTER]
|
[PC]

On your PC, you follow the steps described here [ http://www.hotcomm.com/faq/faq_staticipxp.asp ] to get your current IP address.
When you get this:


Write down the ip address (in above it is 192.168.1.50), subnet mask (255.255.255.0), default gateway (192.168.1.1) Note that the IP and the gateway are most likely different than yours.

Continuing with the hotComm guide, when you follow the steps to get here:


make sure you set the subnet and the gateway to what you have written down, and the IP address to the same as you wrote down as well, but for the last number, if its below 150, add 100 to it, (101 becomes 201), if its higher than 150, substract 100 from it.

for the 2 DNS boxes, in the first one put your gateway IP, leave the second one empty.

After this you should still have internet, (might take 30 seconds before your connection is restarted) and then you can continue with the other steps mentioned in my previous response.

Thank you so much for your patience and great info. I got it to work. Yeah! I am now converting movies to work with my uplaod speed. You guys at dvdcatalyst are great and you have a great product. My grandson will be enjoying m/ovies thanks to you. Keep up the good work

You are very welcome,

I'm glad you got it all figured out and working. Before you know it, you will be a network admin

Let me know how it all works out.

Have you found the Streaming profiles in DVD Catalyst 3 yet? In the first dropdown (where you select Verizon/Motorola/Android) select "Streaming" and in the second one a couple of Droid profiles with special settings for bandwidth will show up. These profiles are put together to provide the best quality on a limited upload speed. The screen resolution/video quality combination in those should make things easier for you.

edit: Dont forget to enable the "enable streaming" checkmark in Global Settings > Conversion. this eliminates the need to do the lightning bolt in the MP4 Server program

thanks for the additional info. I will make the changes. I love techie stuff. It makes my brain work
So when I come across something like this i try to keep going till I get it figured out. I think that's why o just love this phone. Anyway..
Thanks again

I use an app called orb live, you set it up on your pc and phone and allow folders on your comp, then orb live searches those for media and the droid can access them, regardless of format. Also you can access the pcs webcam

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but this is the closest thing I could find regarding the issue I am having. I am trying to convert and upload videos to my server running lighttpd. It has been driving me crazy because I have followed guides, used programs, etc to get a compatible video. I am currently trying DvdCatalyst and still with no luck.

I finally came across this thread and entered the url for a movie trailer DvdCatalyst linked here. It worked like a champ. I downloaded the file (right click save as onthe mp4 link) and uploaded it to my server unchanged. It didn't play with an unsupported file type error.

I looked at mimetypes in lighty and found mp4 was not registered. I entered video/mp4 as the mime and restarted the server to try again. Same error message. I have been scratching my head all day over this :-( I think I am so close and yet so far away.

Any help would be appreciated from anyone who is more experienced than myself (there are many )

Thanks for your help

Unfortunately, not all webservers support this method.
In MP4 Streaming Server I use a plugin-webserver called realthinclient (RealThinClient :: VCL components for HTTP(S)) and the webserver where the mp4 files are stored on is running apache.

I have not managed to make it work on other versions of apache or internet information server, and honestly, I have not spend time or effort on it either after I had it working in the MP4 Server app. During development of the app I actually tried numerous other webserver plugins, and this was the only one that worked.

Thanks for the reply, looks like I will have to install virtualbox and run the streaming server you so graciously made I was hoping not to have to use anything but my own webserver.


Is it possible to run your mp4 server on wine?

Apache is capable of doing it as well with MP4 files, because that is the server that is hosting the trailer videos. That might be easier for you to do.

MP4 STreaming Server does run on winem however, it has a requirement of that you have to run DVD Catalyst 3 (the trial version is sufficient) first to have it create a folder with some required files. Without that folder, the streaming server app will not run.
In addition, the file locations will have to use the windows-structure (c:\movies instead of /usr/movies).

With the trailers on my website, I just upload them to the site, and then just post the direct link to the file for people to access it.

Ah I thought you used a customized version of apache? Just a default install is hosting the trailers? That would be very handy if I just needed apache

The tools4movies.com website is hosted by powweb. I have no idea what particular settings are used by them for apache. I tried setting up a windows-version of apache on my development system, but this did not work for me. I spend a few days of fiddling with it and then gave up.

This might clear things up.

The idea for the streaming server came to me by accident. A buddy of mine asked me to convert a video file for him so he could put it on his ipod. I uploaded the MP4 file directly to my website, and when I gave him the link, it streamed instead of downloading the actual file.
With that in mind, combined with a 1TB drive filled with my ipod-optimized video files, I came up with the MP4 Streaming Server app. Initially I figured I'd just install Apache on a computer, and hook the drive, but this didnt work. I spend some time troubleshooting it, and then I came up with the idea that other people would have to go through the same, so I started working on a single-executable program with a build-in webserver in Delphi. I tried all the webserver components I could find, and only one worked the way it needed to.

Because it works on my website, I know it works with Apache, but because it is a paid hosting provider, I have no idea what settings are used. I do not use any htaccess files though.
I briefly looked through powwebs documentation and knowledge base, but couldn't find anything in particular, but you might be able to find more info. I'm sure they have specs listed somewhere.

Folder browsing is disabled, but when I had a test folder that had it enabled, just selecting a file from there would stream, so metadata and such is not mandatory.

Thanks for the explanation

I got it working with a default apache install!

Tried to pw protect the directory but that broke the streaming function. I figured someone else might need that info. I also have dir listing enabled with no issues.

Thanks for your help with this and your wonderful converter. Many thanks!

You are welcome,

Look for an old post of mine with "faststart" in it. To make files streamable on the Droid as well as on PC, the faststart "atom" needs to be enabled, otherwise it will download the whole file first before it plays it.

In DVDCat, just enable the "Enable streaming for MP4 files" in Global Settings > Conversion.