Droid X & DLNA & HDMI

zuckerj

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I'm wondering if anyone has come up with a total solution to my problem.

Objective:
Play streaming content from a media server, through my Droid X phone, out to the HDMI port to my (non-DLNA) LED TV in the kitchen.

(I mention in the kitchen because I'm sure someone was going to mention connecting up some other device to the TV. I have a PS3 connected to the TV in the living room. This is just a solution for the kitchen)

Current Unsuccessful Solutions:
I have got things to work, but am coming up just a little short.

The four pieces of solution that ALL need to work are
1) Media Server that transcodes media for phone device
2) Client application on phone that will communicate with media server
3) Client application that will output to the HDMI port
4) Client application that will allow me to control the stream (ie. that I can pause the video stream, or seek to a particular point in the video stream)

Solution #1:
1) :) I am using the Vuze Media Server on my laptop. This media server seems to work great. It transcodes the video, if needed, for the destination device, and ...

2) :-( ... my Droid X is able to play the streaming content via the DLNA application that comes with the phone. But I cannot control the stream (more on this below).

3) :) The DLNA application also lets me select the HDMI port for output. This works great and the content DOES play on my TV! As a matter of fact I can switch back and forth between playing on the device and playing out to the TV via the HDMI port (although this restarts the stream).

4) :-( But the main problem here is that I am unable to control the stream. Once it starts playing a video, that's it. It just keeps playing and ignores all PAUSE attempts. Further, if I try to jump to a specific point in the video, it says that "seek" is not supported. And worst of all, if I have to stop the video (to take a phone call perhaps) it will NOT return to the point it left off. It starts completely over. All in all, pretty much unusable solution. :-(

Solution #2:
1) Vuze Media Server

2) Skifta client application. Allows me to connect to media servers and play content on the phone. Further, I CAN control the flow of the stream. I can pause and, with limitations, seek within a stream (apparently if the stream is too long there are issues).

3) But the main problem here is that Skifta DOES NOT allow me to select the HDMI port. The developers of Skifta say that it uses the native media player on the device, but apparently this doesn't give me access to the HDMI port option. Now the developers are telling me they are coming up with a change that will allow you to select your media player. But that means I need to find a media player that will use the HDMI port.

So my questions:
1) Does a media player exist that will play to the HDMI port on the Droid X?
2) Is there a better solution for what I am trynig to do?

Any help very appreciated. Thanks in advance Droid community!!!

Jz.
 
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redirwons535

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I've done this quite a few times with real hdmi. You'll have to read up on the app a little cause it can be a little tricky at first. Before I start using real hdmi I turn on dlna and copy media to phone (you can play it while copying). Then I plug in turn on real hdmi and play. For unsupported file typs use rockplayer (another payed app but so worth it for this purpose) good luck
 
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real hdmi

Real Hdmi should do the trick. With a slilng box and real hdmi, you can watch just about anything in sd. If you are in a place with wifi you can stream hd content pretty well. vuze works really well but it doesn't give you the features you want. I'm sure someone will come out with an update for that. I stream stuff from my pc to my ps3 with vuze all the time...
 
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