Android phones and tablets now have great screens, making them a lot better at using their media while you’re in bed. Some places don’t fit your fat laptop. But in this wonderful world of seamless internet streaming, who wants to hook up their PC and manually transfer files?
If your entire video collection is stored on your PC (tidily organized in the appropriate folders, I hope), streaming it all to your Android phone shouldn’t take much effort. so. The process listed below required 3 different apps but it took me less than 5 minutes to set them all up. And when it’s ready, you’ll be able to use your Android to watch videos stored on your PC in seconds.
What you need
- Plex Media Server for Windows/Mac
- BubbleUPnP Android App
- Video player (optional) like MX Player or VLC (our review here)
Step 1. Download and set up Plex Media Server on PC/Mac
We will be using Plex’s media server as our movie and music database. Download and install the application. It will run in the background and you will see Plex’s icon on the taskbar. Click on it and the webview will open in your default browser.
From here, give your PC a recognizable name and click Next.
To add media click More library and select the type of media the folders will contain. It could be TV shows, movies, music, etc.
Now click Add folder and choose the folder where all your movies/TV shows/music files are stored. It is important that you organize all media properly in folders and labeled accordingly.
Click Add Later Next and you’re done.
Step 2: Set up and use BubbleUPnP
BubbleUPnP is a giant application. The basic app, all we need to stream media, is also free. You can purchase the premium version if you want to stream content to other servers or to Chromecast.
With this app you can play media to and from any local or cloud server. The good thing is that the app doesn’t require any setup.
All you need to do is make sure your PC is turned on, Plex Media Server is running, and your PC and Android are connected to the same network.
Now swipe in from the left edge to open the sidebar. Here you will see sections called renderer And Library. renderer is where the media will be played and Library show you the source.
In our case the Android device is the renderer, so there’s no need to change that. inside Library touching part Local media server button and there you will see Plex Media Server (wait a few seconds to scan if it doesn’t show up). Select Plex media server.
Now, from the app’s home screen, tap Library and here you will see all the media files that you have imported into your Plex Media Server. Touch Videotapes folder and navigate to Movie or TV program library you created. Here you will see all your TV shows sorted and organized.
Tap the media file and you’ll get a pop-up saying BubbleUPnP doesn’t support playback; so you’ll need to choose an alternative media app for playback.
Step 3: Select Media Apps
In the screen asking you to choose a media player, you can choose the default media player that comes with every Android device, or choose something like VLC or MX Player.
The reason you should download such players is because they are better equipped to play high definition MKV files. Everything from decoding to transcoding on the fly is well done.
But you can’t stream subtitles: If you’re streaming media this way, it won’t carry the subtitles. You will have to manually transfer them to your Android device, which is a chore. So if you use this method, know that you will need to skip the subtitles.
alternative choice
Android Apps Plex Media Player
Plex has its own media player that works directly with the Media Server. But it costs $4.99. And the media will be played within the app itself so media geeks won’t get pro features like gestures for playback etc.
If you have shared your Windows files and folders with anyone on the network, an application like ES File Explorer can be used to retrieve them.
But the process is not so easy and may not be for everyone. If you’re interested in applying this setup, here’s a guide.
How do you stream media?
What’s your favorite way to stream media on your Android device? Let us know in the comments below.
Top image via Shutterstock.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
