I’ve got a mini network at home (desktop running Windows 7 Premium and a laptop running Windows XP).

I’ve also got a couple of Android phones and an Android tablet and they all share the same internet/wi-fi connection.

I’d like to be able to stream media direct off the computers on the android tablet (and to a lesser extent, the phones).

Is this actually possible? I know I can copy media onto the Android (currently using AirDroid for this) but I want to avoid this if I can. I’ve also got Double Twist installed for sync’ing purposes but both these techniques mean I have to wait while files transfer over the network and just fill the phones/tablets limited memory…

(The desktop is hardwired to a Linksys EA3500 router and all other devices are using the routers wi-fi, if this is relevant.)

I’m not a network expert by any means so please keep any possible solutions nice and easy!

Thanks

This clicky is what you are looking for.

🙂

BS player work well

Shop for imediashare or bubble Upnp.

Ive had luck with andromote on a tablet. Tablet then connected of HDMI to a TV. Pretty easy to do IIRC correctly but I rebuilt my tablet and havent used it since as I now use an Xbox as a media extender instead.

http://lifehacker.com/5716117/the-best-media-streaming-apps-for-your-android

I use ES File Explorer. Works well for one off files, not really a media manager though.

What you want is a player that supports DLNA, and a DLNA server for your computer.

If you have an HTC with Sense, I’m pretty sure that it supports DLNA out of the box. It used to at least. Otherwise if you search google play for DLNA, there are a bunch of apps that will play DLNA.

On Windows, there are a few DLNA media servers, quite a few are free – eg.I think this one is http://www.serviio.org/

Once you have a server and a client running on the same network, in my experience it just kind of works, as long as your router supports something called uPnP, and has it turned on in the router settings (all modern routers do support this).

What you want is a player that supports DLNA, and a DLNA server for your computer.

If you have an HTC with Sense, I’m pretty sure that it supports DLNA out of the box. It used to at least. Otherwise if you search google play for DLNA, there are a bunch of apps that will play DLNA.

On Windows, there are a few DLNA media servers, quite a few are free – eg.I think this one is http://www.serviio.org/

Once you have a server and a client running on the same network, in my experience it just kind of works, as long as your router supports something called uPnP, and has it turned on in the router settings (all modern routers do support this).

I find homeDia works well. A lot easier to use then skifta and is much smaller.

Scholarsgate – I’ve only used Skifta( connecting to a couple of Twonky servers) , and thought that very easy to use – what did you find easier about homeDia ?

HomeDia has no configuration. you just open it is will find you dnla/upnp media servers and way you go. It doesn’t ask you to choose a media source or player. It’s all discovered for you. Any media servers on your network are listed in the remote devices which you can browse and play.

I use it with an old pc running Nas4Free with a upnp service. Which means I can access my music from my galaxy s2, nexus 7 and ps3.

Plex was originally written for Apple products but has been ported to Windows, Linux, Android etc. Install it on the PC where all your media lives, it’ll organise it for you and serve it out over your network. You can then install the client app on the other PCs, tablets, phones, etc and stream to them.

Works very well and provides a nice interface. We use it at home – Mac mini running the server, clients on AppleTV, iPad, and my Android phone. And my missus can work it, which is a good indication of it’s user friendliness!

It will serve video, music, photos, and also has plugins for BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD, etc which means less faff.

STW roolz…thanks for the replies so far – I’ll do some more research based on the above recommendations!

Also worth looking at Gmote…

So I’ve been playing around with HomeDIA and Plex. Wow!

HomeDIA – very simple set up and can be used when you’re on the same wi-fi network. Takes a little time to buffer but not too bad

Plex – free desktop install of their media server software (PC, MAC or Linux) but a couple of quid for the Android client. Well worth it. I’m streaming my iTunes library off my desktop PC at home onto my phone in work (don’t tell the boss!). Music library required next to no configuration as it just found and used my existing iTunes library – got all the iTunes artwork, genres, rating etc etc.
Video was a little more tricky as it seems to require the files to be laid out in a very specific folder structure with strict naming conventions as it looks up the metadata on TVDB.com
Not tried the various iPlayer plug-ins yet but don’t think I’ll actually need them.

Again thanks for the suggestions. Saved me hours of time

I’m now so 2012! 🙂

serviio is great DLNA server, runs perfectly stable on my linux nas.

Also check out subsonic which is arguably even better for music..

i use upnplay on the android to pickup the DLNA server and subsonic app