Media sharing between server and phone.. what is the best method

413x · 17 May 2013 at 22:47

My main 'hobby' task at home atm is getting everything synced up in the most efficient way.. and im having difficulty
here i want to be able to access my shared folders on my server with my android 4.1 phone.

Basically i want to access my music/videos over the cellular network and wifi.

This isnt so much of a problem at home between PC and PC with to XBMC/WMC etc. But android poses more of a problem with multiple options and mixed reviews.
I dont really want a cloud based system as the files are just to big

I expect to be able to listen to music from the server over 3G
I expect to be able to watch MKVs over wifi

Atm im trying Plex. Is there anything better?
Plex is having difficulty maintaining a smooth MKV file (full 1080p uncompressed converted sown by plex to 1Mbps) and i dont kow if this is a processor limitation of bandwidth. surely it shouldnt be bandwidth?

Server is running WHS 2011
server is a N40L

Rich_L · 17 May 2013 at 23:25

It's probably processor-limited as transcoding 1080p is a pretty hefty task, you could try it on a 720p or DVD-rip file - if it works fine outputting at 1Mbps then it'll be the processor for sure.

Maybe try Universal Media Server, it'll require more tweaking I imagine and will be less 'Plug and Play' than Plex but I've found it to be more efficient at transcoding than Plex and similar.

I'm thinking about doing similar, I have a UMS server outputting to the PS3 in the lounge but haven't got round to setting up profiles for the various mobile devices we have yet. Also our upload speed previously was pitiful so there was no point in doing external access but it's much better now.

413x · 18 May 2013 at 08:05

I thought it might be.
Indeed a full quality dvd rip plays faultlessly. Looks like I will need to the blu rays down.. Ugh. I need to do this anyway I guess to save space

Slade2 · 19 May 2013 at 08:08

I have tried loads of different movie players on my nexus 10 over the past few weeks and the best of the bunch seems to be BS Player atm it just edges it over MX player a little bit for me. I use that and ES file explorer to play stuff on my tablet but you could also try skifta as I use that to play stuff from my HDR box down stairs in the TV upstairs.