Streaming Music Options

[Fingo]

Seeing as how there are no 32GB microSD cards currently available, I have been trying to find out all I can about streaming audio from my home to my Droid; i have around 100GB+ of mp3s I would like to be able to access. I am looking for feedback from anyone who has used these apps and services or suggestions for any that I have overlooked.

Orb
Subsonic
Mecanto
imeem

I have barely started playing with Mecanto. It's just hard for me to believe that they will allow you to upload any amount without any type of payment - unless they are planning to charge a considerable amount for the app later on.

I do have Pandora installed, and I love it. But sometimes I just want to be able to queue up my own playlist of songs.

 

[jodaboda]

Mecanto WILL charge later on, but you can probably keep the beta (which works fine for me). Fortunately, I think it will just be a reasonable one-time fee for the app; no recurring fees and no storage fees (I don't care about that anyway; my home computer is always on).

There are posts around on how to set up you own server, and there's also the possibility that Simplify will come out with something.

Thanks so much for posting the others available. It looks like Imeem was acquired and shut down by Myspace. Have you tried Subsonic? It looks promising...

 

[mkhopper]

Gmote

Took about 2 minutes to configure on my home PC and although they say streaming to phone is still in beta, it works great.

Instant access to the few thousand music files I have on my media server from anywhere? Yes, yes I will.

The only real drawback for me is not having a search function, but I'm sure that will be included in a future update.

 

[marvinrock]

Okay - mkhoppers post was a bit vague and I had to do some searching to get the music streaming while I wasn't @ home to my phone. So below are the instructions copy/pasted from the gmote FAQ which answers how to stream easily

http://www.gmote.org
GMote can operate by going through your cellular network's data connection. Here are the steps needed to enable this:

1) Make sure your cell phone is connected to a cell network (you can verify this by browsing to a web page)

2) Setup port forwarding on your router to forward port 8889 to the computer that is running the GMote server. (note: if you don't have a WIRED router either, then skip to setp 3) Here are some quick tips on how to do this:

*2-1) Determine your computer's local ip address by right clicking on the gmote server icon and selecting 'help', 'show local ip'

*2-2) Log into your router and go to the port forwarding section (it might be called NAT settings, or Application and Gaming).

*2-3) Set the start and end port to 8889, the protocol to 'both', and the ip to the local ip of your computer that was determined in step 1 (note: if you plan on using gmote touch, then you'll also have to forward port 9901).

3) Determine your external ip (this is different from your local ip). You can determine this by going to: What's My IP Address? (I suggest you try to use your ip first to make sure everything works. However, external ip addresses tend to be dynamic and therefore may change after a few days. If this is your case, you can try to enter the hostname that is shown on the website. This is more likely to remain constant).

4) Make sure that the GMote server is started on your computer

5) Start GMote on your phone. It will try to automatically find a server. Once it fails, select the 'Enter server manually' option.

6) Type in the external ip address that you found in step 3.


If these steps were followed correctly, the application should now be working. If you have any problems (especially in step 2), you can try Googling "port forwarding".

**Also, setting up port forwarding on your router may expose your computer to external security risks. You are therefore setting this up at your own risk, and by using Gmote, you agree that the Gmote developers will not be held responsible for any damage that occurs.
Please keep in mind that since you are going through your carrier instead of through a local network, normal data charges may apply if you don't have an unlimited data plan.

Source : Gmote FAQ


Works like a charm!


{edited for readability}

 

[lekky]

thanks marvinrock, not sure how usable it will be yet. Will try tomorrow on the train

 

[marvinrock]

I tinkered around with it myself a bit that day, and it's very usable or UN-usable dependant on 4 things
1) your music files be mp3's & videos be mp4s
2) You have a good amount of M3U playslists (these are easily convert-able from other formats)
3) your wifi/3g connection
4) your connection speed @ home

If all those are good - easy peasy - I have a cruddy wireless connection at home so it wasn't completely worth it, though I did get to enjoy an old episode of The Office from my external HDD back home while I was at work which was pretty sweet.

 

[alchemistkevin]

gmote sounds gr8. thanks for the tip

 

[iamanalog]

I'm surprised i never tried gmote.. Works amazingly.

 

[Esquire1]

I've used Gmote but it is very... amateur. It needs a lot of work. It does the job, yes, but it's still pretty weak at navigating files.

I just wish someone would make a DLNA app. It would make things so much easier. Windows Media Player lets me stream from Win7 PC to Win7 PC, on any network, with no hassle other than putting in my Homegroup code. Something that simple on Android would be great.

 

[bubbles7361]

Is it just me or does gmote not have any authentication when used over the Internet. Not sure how excited I am to open up my library to anyone with a port scanner.

Subsonic looks much more polished and says it supports several types of authentication. I was going to install it an try it out this morning but their download server is down.

 

[jodaboda]

Is it just me or does gmote not have any authentication when used over the Internet. Not sure how excited I am to open up my library to anyone with a port scanner.

Subsonic looks much more polished and says it supports several types of authentication. I was going to install it an try it out this morning but their download server is down.

downloads seem to be working now:
http://www.subsonic.org/pages/download.jsp
(windows installer at least)

 

[dezmoduo]

I'm attempting to use the Subsonic app on my HTC Droid. I havethe app on the droid and on my server and the new port is forwarded in my router.
I am still getting errors when testing to my server from the phone.
The test to Subsonic demo works fine. Wondering if the fact that my music is on e/music as opposed to c/my music? But I entered the new directory on the PC and it found my music files......

So close, so close.

Do I used the "/" setting or the "/music" setting, or the "/subsonic" setting in the tray icon. Then of course I have to change the server address on the phone. A few too many variables. Could it be I'm too old? or its 2AM and I should call it a day?

Perhaps I'll spend another couple of hours messing with it all tomorrow.


dez
nyc

 

[dezmoduo]

Gmote set up pretty easily, BUT it only works on the wireless network that is in proximity to your server!! And I thought I'd go to the bar tonight, hook up to their wireless and stream my home computer. Look how cool that is !! eh? me and my ERIS!!!

Wrong!!

Close but no cigar.

Still can't get Subsonic to read my server.


dez

Gmote

Took about 2 minutes to configure on my home PC and although they say streaming to phone is still in beta, it works great.

Instant access to the few thousand music files I have on my media server from anywhere? Yes, yes I will.

The only real drawback for me is not having a search function, but I'm sure that will be included in a future update.

 

[dezmoduo]

Subsonic is now streaming for me over 3G. Instead of using their "localhost" setting, I entered my "outside iport" , and I'm up and running. 3G no wifi needed.

So I'll test it @ work tomorrow, and if its stable , I think I'll buy a license.

Seems nice.


dez

 

[marvinrock]

Yeah, I'm having much more luck streaming my music via subsonic than gmote. Subsonic also works @ work for me which makes it a plus.

 

[flammenwurfer]

Gmote set up pretty easily, BUT it only works on the wireless network that is in proximity to your server!! And I thought I'd go to the bar tonight, hook up to their wireless and stream my home computer. Look how cool that is !! eh? me and my ERIS!!!

Wrong!!

Close but no cigar.

Still can't get Subsonic to read my server.


dez

If you forward the correct ports you should be able to stream your music over the internet outside of your internal wireless network with gmote. I've done it.

 

[reddragon72]

Subsonic is now streaming for me over 3G. Instead of using their "localhost" setting, I entered my "outside iport" , and I'm up and running. 3G no wifi needed.

So I'll test it @ work tomorrow, and if its stable , I think I'll buy a license.

Seems nice.


dez

This is what I use and it works great for me on my N1, but my fiancee's Behold2 wont connect. I have tried everything on hers to no avail. But other then that the program and the web interface for Subsonic works really well, and has tons of options.

 

[Fadelight]

gmote doesn't work for me over 3G.

I really would love to find a program that would do it without wanting to take $10 from me (especially without even letting me try it. Like... Subsonic).

EDIT: Nevermind. Gmote works over 3G. I just had to follow the directions and enter the EXTERNAL ip instead of internal.

 

[lekky]

Moozone is a decent alternative. Gives you 2gb free storage, with features like playlists etc. The app has a good UI for playing music too.

 

[jasontheguitarist]

I've tried subsonic and had a few issues plus the fact that it was a trial was annoying. Tried Orb and its decent but the android app is a hackjob port of the Iphone app and its way too slow.

The best thing I have found so far is Jukefly. I used to use them a long time ago to stream to other computers, but now it seems they have apps for Android and that other shiny phone.

It works pretty well but the user interface is pretty clunky on the phone apps. Searching by artist is annoying since it doesn't group the results into albums. The most organized way seems to be the "albums" view. Not perfect but workable. I think this is a port of the iphone app as well but it works better than orb.

 

[marvinrock]

I really would love to find a program that would do it without wanting to take $10 from me (especially without even letting me try it. Like... Subsonic).

Subsonic DOES work for 30 days before requiring a "donation", been working pretty good for me for two weeks, but I'm not much of a donation guy, so I'm going to give jukefly a go today!

 

[Bipolarchucker]

I use Winamp as my main media player and also have "Winamp Remote" installed along with it so I can listen to my music collection at work.

Winamp Remote is actually just MyCast your digital media with Orb 2.0 remote pc access software which as far as I know is free of charge and comes with all of the bells and whistles you're all looking for including searching, security and it even does video and also allows you to choose what format you stream the music to your device.

It also doesn't require you to be able to connect to your PC so you don't need to mess about with port forwarding on your router.

Install it, wait for it to index your media, log in at orb.com with the browser and search your mp3s from there and click the speaker to play the tracks.

Give it a go. Orb is a well established platform and works with the built-in (at least in my Desire) Streaming Media App. I also tried it with DroidLite but it kept dropping the stream and restarting.

And before you say it, no I don't work for Orb.

Cheers

 

[marvinrock]

Jukefly - crashes too often to be use-able on my droid - my collection is 100+ GBs of music so that may be why. Sticking with Subsonic for now.

@Bipolarchucker - My problem with Orb is two fold (note I'm only using orb for video - this is not in relation to streaming audio) - 1) it's not free as you mention, the demo they have only allows me to choose 3 files randomly selected to watch. 2) the audio is never in sync. If the video in question is more than 10-20 minutes, the audio refuses to sync. I know I have a amazingly fast upload speed (25MBs down/25MBs up) so it's not an issue on my end, pulling from a computer that I can verify is not doing anything else at the time. If that starts working and the audio sync kicks in, I may use it.


Androirb (SP?) IS free - but I have over a TB of video files, and the fact it just lists all my videos makes it also practically un-usable for me. I'm still holding out for a quality solution.

@Fadelight - Subsonic is free for 30 days, then you have to make a donation. The online portion of it stays free, just the android app you have to "donate" after 30 days.

 

[Fadelight]

@Fadelight - Subsonic is free for 30 days, then you have to make a donation. The online portion of it stays free, just the android app you have to "donate" after 30 days.

Thats what everyone says... their website included. It isn't what I found, though. The very second I registered, it started with the error messages and prompts. It literally would not let me try it.

 

[marvinrock]

oh that sucks - sorry to hear. I'm loving Subsonic for the moment, have 12 days left on my trial. If you want to at least experience the product I can give you my info so you can hop on mine - I have about 100 GBs of tunes on there.