Kindle Fire question

[Homerboy]

Is there a way (maybe I have to root it?) to stream videos from my home server to the Kindle?

I am an existing Prime member so I am covered for a lot of shows and movies and such, but there are some that I'd like to be able to stream directly from my personal collection. Music too I guess.

Thanks.

 

[ponyo]

Prettiest method is Plex.

Splashtop Remote could work too.

There are others but Plex is the prettiest option. But it's pricey at $5.

 

[Homerboy]

Cool. I'm vaguely familiar with Plex (for $5 though it's still a steal).
I was thinking too I need to see if there is a XBMC port of some nature.

 

[Homerboy]

actually... I'd prefer not having to install a server side app as Plex does.

 

[ponyo]

then you're pretty much screwed. I don't know any option on Android that doesn't require server software. There's no XBMC port for Android. Only iOS has that. XBMC port for iOS is ridiculously awesome but you need to jailbreak in order to install it.

 

[Homerboy]

yeah. I have to get my hands on an appleTV as well. I've been running XBMC since before it was called XBMC (I forget the original name) on the Xbox1.

I'll give Plex a shot. For $5 it's worth the gamble.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I found a way using an app called Potato Server. Actually that's the name of the PC program, the Android app is called Remote Media Center. Use it in conjunction with a decent video player app like MX Video Player or MoboPlayer. All free.

 

[sygyzy]

actually... I'd prefer not having to install a server side app as Plex does.

I am only familiar with XBMC and not Plex. I am really confused by it. Why would they design it in a manner that requires you to install a server, then run a client? Why didn't, they make it self contained like Boxer or XBMC?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[poofyhairguy]

Why would they design it in a manner that requires you to install a server, then run a client? Why didn't, they make it self contained like Boxer or XBMC?

Because most SoCs have a very limited list of codecs and encodes they support. The point of the server-side software is to transcode the video over to a format that is compatible with each device. Another benefit is that the stream can be optimized to the connection that you have when utilizing remote play.

If you have one of the few devices that can truly play all formats, or you have content that is not demanding (divx), you can easily just share the media on your network and playback the content using a SMB-enabled file browser and Dice Player. That is what I do with my SGS2.

The Kindle Fire is maybe not one of these devices except with non-demanding content. The SoC isn't terrible (I can get similar TI stuff to play most of the clips with Dice Player), but the Amazon market lacks any decent media apps. Plex is a really good solution.

One final thing- why isn't there XBMC for Android?

If you look you will find people are working on it, but it is much harder than it was in iOS given the wide variety of devices and SoCs. I hope to see it one day, but we don't need it to play our files. Dice Player on my SGS2 plays more files than the iPad 2 with XBMC.....