Popcornhour and Iphone

[ronnie41]

Hi,

I have a question regarding to some problems with connections between my popcornhour and my Iphone.

Since it is possible to stream between lets say a dreambox (sat box) and the iphone trough a nice app like This one I wanna ask if it is possible to instal server software on the popcornhour as provided on that website.
It could mean that it is possible to stream from the pch to the iphone trough wifi or 3gs.

Is this possible or is it a stupid question?

Sorry if is is posted in the wrong section

[gnujon]

To stream video from your Popcornhour to your iPhone over WiFi you can use an application for the iPhone called 'SharePlayer' which is available from Apple's App store.

There's no need to install any additional software onto the Popcornhour, as SharePlayer just connects to SMB (Windows) file shares, which the Popcornhour can already offer.

This plays xvid files stored on my Popcornhour very nicely over WiFi with my iPhone 3GS.

[Mr. Wolf]

(01-30-2010 12:28 AM)gnujon Wrote:  To stream video from your Popcornhour to your iPhone over WiFi you can use an application for the iPhone called 'SharePlayer' which is available from Apple's App store.

There's no need to install any additional software onto the Popcornhour, as SharePlayer just connects to SMB (Windows) file shares, which the Popcornhour can already offer.

This plays xvid files stored on my Popcornhour very nicely over WiFi with my iPhone 3GS.

Can you confirm Shareplayer works directly on the iPhone? What quality? What other formats it plays? Does it play also audio?
I found the application on Appstore and there are no reviews on any store.
And no LITE version either so, I'm a bit reluctant to pay for it just to make some tests.
Also, I didn't found any info on the net concerning the application and the developer.

I'm currently using Air Video and it works pretty well. Including streaming from DM800 with a modpack. The problem is that it requires a server running for decoding.

Thanks.

[Gary]

I had a look at SharePlayer in the AppStore the other day after reading about it ... I thought the same things as you but didn't buy it because I can't see myself using it much at all. It's only AU$5 or something so if you use it a lot you should buy it.

You can "Report Problems to iTunes Store" from within iTunes -

Open "Store" menu bar item, click "View my Account", you'll sign-in, then be shown the AccoutnInfo. On this page is a link to "Purchase History", then you'll see "Report a Problem" button. I've been refunded for an app after I reported that one of the apps I purchased didn't work.

I'll be interested to read a review of it if you buy it!

[jcarlier]

Hi,


there is a nice iphone app : PLUGPLAYER
that streams from pch to iphone

[Mr. Wolf]

OK. Tested both Shareplayer and Plugplayer.
Both are useless and don't work with PCH-A110.

With Shareplayer I managed to connect to the box and launch some video. Divx played at very poor quality and with major stuttering. MKV HD are launched but don't actually play. Just a bunch of frames skipping.
Plugplayer is even worse. Except connecting and browsing the box I didn't managed to do anything. Launching the video just don't work.

The only correct streaming that works very good from the A110 can be done with Air Video. Works also with live streaming from DM800 if you install a modpack. It's definitely like you have a miniTV in your pocket. The big disadvantage is that it needs a server running on PC/Mac.

Otherwise, if anybody managed to have a good experience using Shareplayer or Plugplayer please share and explain exactly how it worked for you and the quality level you achieved.

I made the tests on an iPhone 3GS and wired A-110 to Dlink DIR-655.

[jcarlier]

With Plugplayer:

audio : mp3 ==> no problems

video : divx ==> not possible , ask to steve jobs
mp4 ==> no problems

so you have to convert your divx ..

[chris57]

Don't panic there is a new iphone app coming that has the ability to control the PCH models.

It's being beta tested presently but looks very flashy for those with iphones. They will be bringing out other versions such as android as well soon.

Don't think it is for the masses yet but have a sneaky preview here:-
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/...a-players/

[dc11ab]

(02-07-2010 02:51 PM)Mr. Wolf Wrote:  OK. Tested both Shareplayer and Plugplayer.
Both are useless and don't work with PCH-A110.

That's a bit harsh.

The limitations are mainly in the iPhone: what formats it allows to play, and from what source. PlugPlayer and SharePlayer merely try to bridge it.

So if your media isn't encoded in a format that the iPhone does support...
-- that is mostly anything apart from h.264 (such as videos from iTunes store), MPEG-4 in .mp4, .mov, .m4v formats, and mp3, protected AAC, AAC audible, Apple lossless in .aac, .mp3, .m4a files and perhaps some select more --
...then then you'll need to either remux, re-encode or use an application to transcode (like VLC etc.) your divx's, mkv's, dvd iso, m2ts or whatever is not on the iphone supported list.

[T800]

(02-07-2010 02:51 PM)Mr. Wolf Wrote:  OK. Tested both Shareplayer and Plugplayer.
Both are useless and don't work with PCH-A110.

With Shareplayer I managed to connect to the box and launch some video. Divx played at very poor quality and with major stuttering. MKV HD are launched but don't actually play. Just a bunch of frames skipping.
Plugplayer is even worse. Except connecting and browsing the box I didn't managed to do anything. Launching the video just don't work.

The only correct streaming that works very good from the A110 can be done with Air Video. Works also with live streaming from DM800 if you install a modpack. It's definitely like you have a miniTV in your pocket. The big disadvantage is that it needs a server running on PC/Mac.

Otherwise, if anybody managed to have a good experience using Shareplayer or Plugplayer please share and explain exactly how it worked for you and the quality level you achieved.

I made the tests on an iPhone 3GS and wired A-110 to Dlink DIR-655.

Does Air Video have to use iTunes?

EDIT:
Nevermind, it doesn't.

[T800]

Tried Air Video last night. Very impressed, I should get quite a lot of use out of this.

I never thought I could stream a 1080p file to my iPhone

It even plays .TS files with LPCM, DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD!!

Don't get me wrong I won't be using it to watch 1080p Blu-ray rips but knowing that it has that much power it won't struggle when I watch TV shows including 720p episodes.

[gnujon]

All the xvid files (TV shows) I've tried playing from my PopcornHour via SMB over my WiFi network using SharePlayer play flawlessly with no skipped frames and no stuttering at all on my iphone 3GS.

You might want to look at the performance of your WiFi network if your experience differs.

720p and 1080p MKV files aren't watchable, but I didn't expect that they would be. I doubt the iphone CPU is powerful enough for that. For files like that you'll need to use something like Air Video (which is awesome, but you need a computer to run it on, so no use if you want to stream straight from a PopcornHour).

The big difference between PlugPlayer and SharePlayer is that PlugPlayer can only play video formats that the iphone can already support. SharePlayer can play many other types of video files directly on the iphone using software decoding. PlugPlayer however does support uPnP, so paired with a uPnP server that supports transcoding, this could have some interesting possibilities. Apparently people have had some success with the free 'TVersity' uPnP server for Windows and PlugPlayer.

The PopcornHour does include a uPnP server in addition to SMB, but doesn't offer any transcoding abilities. SharePlayer is a great option for streaming video directly from a PopcornHour, but don't expect to able to watch your 720p files.