i910 as a media center

[Guest Enraged Ninja]

I want to use my i910 as a primary source for on the go media (video and music), streaming from my PC as the base of all my files. I drive around all day as a cable technician and having the i910 as a mobile media center doesnt sound to far fetched... does it?

I currently have tried tinkering around with winamp remote, but i cant quite seem to tweek the video for a nice quality pic. MP3's work well with winremote.

I have pocketplayer but i cant figure out how to get it to show my network when im connected wifi.

Any Last.fm users that have it for i910?

Verizon has stuck me with the nice unlimited data plan and i really want to use it to the fullest. Might as well stream a bunch of stuff to it

Edited May 11, 2009 by Enraged Ninja

[Guest Turborepu]

i use pandora alot, i dont do wideos much, except through skyfire or youtube..

[Guest Rob V]

FWIW, be aware that VZW's "unlimited" data plan is not. There have been reports of customers being cut off for using "too much" of their "unlimited" plan, although I think it's a double-secret formula in terms of defining what "too much" actually means. If you read the fine print, I think they specifically list streaming of audio or video among the prohibited uses, along with tethering to your PC and a few other things. (I guess those prohibitions don't apply if you're streaming content purchased from VZW, or if you're paying the extra monthly ransom -- sorry, "fee" -- for tethering...)

Dunno if they still come down on people for using more data than the 'average user', but they've certainly done so in the past. Does anyone have more current info? I'm curious as well.

Rob

[Guest lokiofmidgard]

I want to use my i910 as a primary source for on the go media (video and music), streaming from my PC as the base of all my files. I drive around all day as a cable technician and having the i910 as a mobile media center doesnt sound to far fetched... does it?

I currently have tried tinkering around with winamp remote, but i cant quite seem to tweek the video for a nice quality pic. MP3's work well with winremote.

I have pocketplayer but i cant figure out how to get it to show my network when im connected wifi.

Any Last.fm users that have it for i910?

Verizon has stuck me with the nice unlimited data plan and i really want to use it to the fullest. Might as well stream a bunch of stuff to it

My friends and I have used Orb for many years now. It is free and very convenient. You can stream video and audio from your home computer (depending on how fast your home computer is). I use the older version which you can find at www.my.orb.com.

[Guest Omega Ra]

FWIW, be aware that VZW's "unlimited" data plan is not. There have been reports of customers being cut off for using "too much" of their "unlimited" plan, although I think it's a double-secret formula in terms of defining what "too much" actually means. If you read the fine print, I think they specifically list streaming of audio or video among the prohibited uses, along with tethering to your PC and a few other things. (I guess those prohibitions don't apply if you're streaming content purchased from VZW, or if you're paying the extra monthly ransom -- sorry, "fee" -- for tethering...)

Dunno if they still come down on people for using more data than the 'average user', but they've certainly done so in the past. Does anyone have more current info? I'm curious as well.

Rob

I believe they limit you to 5gb

[Guest ely_az]

+1 on Orb. I have been using it for a couple years on my Moto Q and now on the Omnia i910 and it is great. If you have a TV tuner in your computer you can even watch LIVE TV! I use it to watch Cubs games when I am out.

[Guest Turborepu]

the limit is for the tethering plan and the laptop card, it is actually in the small writing. The phone plan does noes have those specifications, although there is some vague wording in there, but no solid numbers.

[Guest creamridge]

i use pandora alot, i dont do wideos much, except through skyfire or youtube..

How did you get pandora on the omnia? everytime i try it the site says it only supports like 3 winmo phones...

[Guest Enraged Ninja]

My friends and I have used Orb for many years now. It is free and very convenient. You can stream video and audio from your home computer (depending on how fast your home computer is). I use the older version which you can find at www.my.orb.com.

Isnt winamp remote based off orb? Ill give orb a shot, winamp remote is in beta and basically uses orb if im correct... but... i dont know about winamp remote so much on video.

How about a media player on the phone itself? When i try to open up any video from winamp remote it defaults to windows media player even though i have told Pocket Player and other media software to control all video. Not sure if its opera doing this (now that i think about it..) or something else forcing to to WMP. Wondering if my shotty experience with video is winamp remote or WMP.

Thx for suggestions on orb ill give it a go

[Guest Enraged Ninja]

I tried orb and it is exactly like winamp remote. Sticking with orb though instead of the off brand.

Still having trouble with video though... am i doomed when it comes to streaming my video? The stream keeps having to buffer ~5-8 secs and the load is about 1-2 mins before the video even starts. Tried across all media players too, 3 of them; pocket player, coreplayer, windows media. Windows seems to load the video faster than the rest, but the buffering kills the video purpose.

The videos i have tried range from full length movies to things like episodes of family guy. Im sure it would help if i re-encoded these to a smaller video format and such... but is that really necessary? I thought windows mobile phones (with the power behind the i910) would be able to load / stream these videos fine...?

Or could it be the provider (verizon)? Am i dropping to many packets to recieve a stream of video? Youtube ap works just fine... I doubt its my connection at home - im a comcast technician (local cable provider) w/the highest speed of internet we offer here. Upload speed is 200+ KB.

Does anyone else stream video? i guess the big thing im trying to accomplish here :D

[Guest dwallersv]

Another Orb endorsement. I have my home PC set up with 3 terabytes of media -- tons and tons of video and music. I have Azureus (bittorrent client) set up to automatically download the TV shows I like, commercial free. So, at all times I have access to media -- lots of new stuff -- anywhere I have a cell signal.

The best player for video, hands-down, is CorePlayer. Has nice built-in YouTube support too. I have PocketPlayer as well for music (nicer interface, more flexibility with settings related to audio than CorePlayer, but only slightly; where PocketPlayer shines is in library management).

On my Verizon 910, I can usually achieve 250-300kbps streaming from my Orb server, which is plenty to produce a full-resolution (actually, for some reason Orb sizes the stream to 246x478, or something like that, just slightly larger than the 240x400 display), 30fps stream that plays beautifully on CorePlayer with only an occasional dropped frame (usually due to network issues). I've watched an entire movie (Fantastic Voyage) with only a few dozen frames dropped overall.

As a portable "media center" the Omnia is unmatched. I picked up the video cable for ten bucks (google it -- there are a variety of sources at this price), and it has been just the coolest thing on the planet to hook my phone up to my friend's entertainment system and watch programming streamed from my server back home (in this case, some episodes of Red Dwarf). Resolution is VHS. I keep the video cable in my car.

With a wireless stereo BT headset (I've got the Plantronics Voyager 850, which I can't recommend highly enough!), the Omnia with CorePlayer and PocketPlayer, Orb back on a powerful PC back home with a Quad CPU and lots of storage, you've got an exceptional worldwide portable media solution.

[Guest dwallersv]

BTW, Orb/Omnia users -- try the Orb "Home Theater" interface on your Omnia if you haven't yet -- it's really, really nice, and all the functionality is fully supported by Opera. Much nicer than the Mobile interface. Only downside is that getting at and changing Orb settings (like streaming speed, etc.) is a bit more awkward. You might find, though, like I did, that it's a worthy tradeoff.