topic Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC in Android TV

SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

nickeggington — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 21:10:57 GMT

Hi,

I've recently purchased a 65" AG9. I have a range of media stored on my PC and played the content to my old Sony via a Trongle KODI box.

(Kodi box used a SMB connection to a shared location on the PC and output the content to the TV).

I've had many problems with the Kodi box and want to replace it.

Can anyone give me basics please on how best I can play the content direct to the AG9 that is stored on my AG9? If I switch between inputs there is a standard media player which seems really basic.

Through the Google Store I downloaded VLC and this connected very easily to my PC using SMB - although the interface doesn't seem as a sophisticated as Kodi.

I'm a lost as to what is best to do. Do I need to install a DNLA on the PC? VLC seems to be working with standard streaming enabled on Windows 10.

Should I used the 'standard' AG9 media player? What are you using? Should I download Kodi from the Android store?

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Cheers

Nick

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

kinggo01 — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 09:57:11 GMT

well......... how about installing KODI directly on TV?

There are some limitations, mostly sound related but otherwise it works just fine.

And use NFS if you can.

KODI is the only reason why I'm considering Android TV again. No need for another box and another remote.

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

nickeggington — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 18:38:07 GMT

Hey,

Many thanks, I came to that realisation after I'd posted - not sure why I didn't think of that straightaway! This is my first Android TV so am new to being able to install programs. It makes total sense though.

Is Kodi superior to using VLC for example? Why do you recommend using NFS over SMB? Historically I've always connected my 'kodi' box by creating a SMB connection to the shared drive - but it has been problematic at times.

And final question sorry, when you use a program like Kodi on the TV is there anyway to the media statistics while a programme is playing, for example resolution, Mbps, etc. I noticed the usual I+ button on the remote doesn't work for some Android programs. And I couldn't find anywhere that maps the remote buttons to actions in Kodi.

Cheers

Nick

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

kinggo01 — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 12:02:05 GMT

there's an addon for KODI so you can map buttons, keymap editor.

Regarding the full media info, I'm not sure. You can get some like audio format and such but for a full info you might need to run KODI in debug mode. Never needed that so didn't investigate further.

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

nickeggington — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 22:39:23 GMT

Many thanks again. And would you recommend Kodi over and above other apps that can stream from a PC, like VLC, etc.

I'll check into what's involved in creating a NFS. I've had so many issues with SMB that hopefully NFS is less troublesome overall.

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

kinggo01 — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 23:01:38 GMT

Well, if you have everything organized on a server side and you don't care about presentation then it really doesn't matter is it VLC or just some file browser that will open up the file with some player.

You can install a few of them side by side and see which one suits you needs the best.

NFS is kinda tricky if you are not exactly at home with those things. And since KODI on android is a bit different your export options needs to be like this

mnt/mount/point ipaddress/24(rw,insecure,no_subtree_check)

you can use just your TV ip then it is without /24 but in that case you'll need to make exports for other device again. If you use *.*.*.0/24 than it is available for every device on the network.

But I'm using linux on server side, not sure how are the thing with windows since they do not support NFS natively.

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

nickeggington — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 10:01:59 GMT

Superb, thanks again for the help.

As you're saying Win10 doesn't support NFS natively but there does seem to be a number of standard 'free' programs.

I'll take a look at NFS otherwise defer to SMB.

Cheers

Nick

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

kinggo01 — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 10:45:48 GMT

that I have zero experience with. I'm not doing much with windows for over a decade so I can't help you there.

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

nickeggington — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 12:12:20 GMT

That's absolutely fine, thanks for all the help. I've got a way forward with options which is the main thing and understand everything better now.

Cheers

Nick

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

nickeggington — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 09:11:21 GMT

Hi,

Sorry one further question - if I select through the TV inputs there's a Media Player which I presume must be Sony's own. This seems to require a DNLA on the PC.

Is there an advantage or differences in using this set-up/approach compared to an Android App like Kodi/VLC.

I'm assuming the Sony Media player functionality is limited.

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

kinggo01 — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 09:44:03 GMT

Limited is very nice word for what it is.

I never used that over a network much but I know that on local drives it scans and then shows all media all the time. There's no tree view so even if you have your content organized all you get is a 46398793 thumbnails on the screen. Or more.

The best way to use that player is to actually select file in some file manager and then open it with default player.

The player on non android TVs is better since it supports tree view.

I that changed in oreo or now pie, than my apologies for wrong info.

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

nickeggington — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 10:11:25 GMT

Many thanks, that was my impression from the very quick look I had at it but I just wanted to check that I hadn't missed something and that there wasn't some reason I should be using it instead!

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

rooobb — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 11:48:18 GMT

Via DLNA the stock player rely on the server for organizing the display and it works fine (I use serviio and you have different view like folder structure and various views based on movie metadata). In any case the way it renders any video/audio is the best compared to other player. But on usability there are far better option (I prefer Nova Player BTW)

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

nickeggington — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 13:30:21 GMT

Thanks for the explanation - that kind of makes sense now. Without installing any DNLA I was able to 'read' the media from my PC, I presume this is possible because simple media sharing is enabled in Win10 so it's acting as a very basic DNLA.

I didn't appreciate that the server side software (serviio for example) impacts how the media is displayed by the standard Media Player, etc.

I'll take a look at the different options, I had seen reference to Serviio being recommended as a free DNLA.

Cheers

Nick

Re: SONY AG9, Media Player, playing content stored on a PC

rooobb — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 13:37:27 GMT

That's the way DLNA works. And yes windows has its own very basic dlna server. Serviio is among the best. And the free version is enough for most usage