Android File Explorer & Media Player

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Mr.J

Mr.J

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Is there any app for android which allows to browse media files on PC's hard drives from mobile/tablet and play them on the same using the WiFi connection?
 
You can browse the files on your network through ES File Explorer and play them through your favourite media player like MX Player.

How smooth it will be on wifi, depends on your video file size and your wifi data transfer speed.
 
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I'm not sure what exactly you are looking for. If you want an app to control your PC and play the files in the PC itself, then probably you should look at Unified Remote.
 
Use the same method as posted by prime above. Works well for all content up to HD resolutions. Anything above and it starts stuttering.
In case of wanting to stream hefty HD content, make sure your router is capable enough!
 
I tried ES file explorer to browse files in my PC. When I select them to play, I get blank screen. It seems both default Android and es media player seem to download the file instead of streaming it. Bandwidth on my phone during download was hitting around 7-11Mbps constantly.
Otoh, copying the videos to phone and then playing them went smoothly.
 
Use a third party video player app to play files on your PC. In case you have one installed on your phone, you will be asked for your preference when opening any file.
I use MX Player and have set it as default player for playing all streamed content using ES FE.
 
ES Explorer is working. HD videos are not working properly, but that is to be expected. My phone is HTC Explorer which is not very powerful.
DVD rips are playing smoothly.
 
well i tried playing FHD movies in MX player, the sound was too low and the frame rate was really choppy
so i dumped it and got archos player which plays everything quite smoothly
 
To stream files from PC or any other device and play them on your phone or any other device supporting DLNA like a LED TV try the following apps.
BubbleUPnP UPnP/DLNA

Or a set of two Indian apps by TATA.
1 works as a server and other as client.
pixel media controller
pixel-dms

I have been using the above two. But I have heard very good reviews about BubbleUPNP also. Its both free and paid. where as the indian ones are free.
I stream from my PC/Phone to the TV/Phone.
 
I also use ES File Explorer for accessing file on my PC, pretty easy and fast.
For transferring files over wifi I use DashDroid.
 
I used ES FIle Explorer and MX Player initially but then I switched to BSplayer .MXPlayer is pretty good for playing local files off the phone but BSplayer is better at playing videos over wifi from a shared drive.The H/W Decoding option makes quite a few Yify 720p prints choppy over wifi but BSplayer plays it smoothly.Another case in point would be trying to seek to a particular timeframe in the video.In that case MXplayer will take around 1 -2 secs to resume playing the file from that point but BSplayer will play it right away.
 
ubergeek said:
well i tried playing FHD movies in MX player, the sound was too low and the frame rate was really choppy
so i dumped it and got archos player which plays everything quite smoothly
Click to expand...
Dice player has a similar 4x volume boost as archos but it allows swiping to go forward and back which archos does not have. Archos also does not allow to change the aspect ratio. You can't watch anything in 4:3 with it. I would say dice is better than archos which seems new and needs to catch up.

If frame rate is choppy, it means the player has a problem with audio encoding of the file. Some players are more robust with this than others. MX can be susceptible as well as BSplayer with the HD & HD+ options. Whenever i found this happening the stock player always handled it but its more limited in terms of UI.

mx only has a 2x volume boost.

Nothing beats the swiping response of bsplayer so far, too bad it had no volume boost in the free version.
 
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Yeah Es File explorer + Mx player works for all 720p videos for me. Earlier when i was not aware how simple it is a process to access files on pc on same network and play movies, i was paying for the upnp software.
@ubergeek: Does the archos player play 1080p videos smoothly over wifi?
 
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