Related
Based on what I've seen today it still has no:
- system dictionary for definition lookup(only for predictive text). The Kindle App does nothing when I press & hold on a word, unlike on my iOS device.
- hi-speed media scrubber for music. you know the little round knob on the progress bar that allows you to move the time index to any point in a song or video.
- unified search aka Local Search(apps, music, videos, contacts, emails)
The music app is pretty bad. I had several attempts to build a proper one, but the developer can not interact with the music library, other than playing existing playlists or songs.
You can't make custom playlists(actually you can, but it very, very, VERY complicated and prone to error and simply does not worth the shot), change the order of music inside the list and stuff like that for a third party app, and that sucks.
There are no new APIs for XNA (which is used to access the songs in the phone) so there is no way of making one.
If there is something I can say it is not right on WP, that's the music app.
mcosmin222 said:
The music app is pretty bad. I had several attempts to build a proper one, but the developer can not interact with the music library, other than playing existing playlists or songs.
You can't make custom playlists(actually you can, but it very, very, VERY complicated and prone to error and simply does not worth the shot), change the order of music inside the list and stuff like that for a third party app, and that sucks.
There are no new APIs for XNA (which is used to access the songs in the phone) so there is no way of making one.
If there is something I can say it is not right on WP, that's the music app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that imply that there´s the same limitation for video? ...and ...as a result of that a videoplayer with support for more codecs is very unlikely to ever happen?
TarKin said:
Does that imply that there´s the same limitation for video? ...and ...as a result of that a videoplayer with support for more codecs is very unlikely to ever happen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.
StevieBallz said:
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok. i was mainly into psp dev. before, and never had a winphone in my hands so far.
but if you say that´s possible, then i´ll go for the lumia920, reg. for a dev account and see what i can do
StevieBallz said:
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had the chance to look over what the native code can do and what it can't do, but it is to be expected that it will have limitations, just like C# has.
You can render images (obviously) and output them using Direct3D which is pretty much what e.g. VLC does on the Desktop. You have complete read access to files on the SD-Card for your registered filetypes. MKV could be registered, MP3 or AVI could not (because they are in use by the system already).
But of course you would not be able to offload processing to the dedicated decoding units like with the built-in Codecs, which will mean more processor utilization and worse battery life. Still as a programmer I don't see too many actual road blocks (but it's a bumpy road to do this to be sure).
@TarKin: before you drop the money perhaps it would be best to start looking into the SDK. I'm not an expert in Multimedia-programming by any measure so you might be able to spot problems in there beforehand.
If you're still going for a L920 with these uncertainties for your use-case: welcome to the family, I'm anxiously awaiting mine.
I've been looking into WiFi drives recently (with a particular eye on the "HyperDrive CloudFTP" to make use of a couple of external hard drives). Are these supported by Windows Phone 8?
Has anyone tried one with a WP8 device (presumably the web-based support works at least)?
HOD said:
I've been looking into WiFi drives recently (with a particular eye on the "HyperDrive CloudFTP" to make use of a couple of external hard drives). Are these supported by Windows Phone 8?
Has anyone tried one with a WP8 device (presumably the web-based support works at least)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All WP7 devices had a UPnP/DLNA Client on Board so you will be able to access the data using that route. The Web App should work as well. Aside from that the device seems to support FTP and SMB as well. There are Apps on WP7 that allow accessing those although they will have to be updated for WP8 before you can use them to share data they retrieve from the WiFi-Drive in other Apps.
The system itself has no direct support for Windows Explorer like functionality.
StevieBallz said:
All WP7 devices had a UPnP/DLNA Client on Board so you will be able to access the data using that route. The Web App should work as well. Aside from that the device seems to support FTP and SMB as well. There are Apps on WP7 that allow accessing those although they will have to be updated for WP8 before you can use them to share data they retrieve from the WiFi-Drive in other Apps.
The system itself has no direct support for Windows Explorer like functionality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only dedicated app I've seen (so far) is the Western Digital "WD2Go" which only supports about 3 devices.
Presumably there are more generic DNLA apps.
HOD said:
The only dedicated app I've seen (so far) is the Western Digital "WD2Go" which only supports about 3 devices.
Presumably there are more generic DNLA apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The HTC one is called Connected Media. The Samsung one is called AllShare. I don't know at the moment what Nokia calls theirs but there is one as well.
We have provided a free software Wondershare DreamStream that can support chromecast your PC Video to HDTV
Rich video format support:MP4、AVI、MP4、MOV、WMV、MP3、M4A and much more
Download link: http://www.wondershare.com/dreamstream/
The official release version is on its way!
Hi everyone, this is mini wan from the Product Development Team at Wondershare. We would like to thank everybody
for their enthusiasm, support and valued insights into this beta. We are excited to announce the official release is
on its way, with future support for a wide range of devices. We’re also pleased to announce the inclusion of
optional Auto-Indexing based on your input and comments. Stay tuned for the latest version!
New version of this program just added Chromecast support. Looks promising, but very buggy (see below).
Information link: http://support.wondershare.com/media-center/
Download link on this page: http://support.wondershare.com/media-center/history.html
Wondershare is a Chinese company that has published a lot of low-cost video apps over the last several years. I've tried some of their video converters and DVD authoring programs. They are frequently given away on Giveawayoftheday.com. They have a full-featured video converter program, so it would be logical for them to have a Chromecast extension that could transcode. I'm also curious o see how this interacts with Chrome, since every other app I know that can cast to the Chromecast from a PC has to run within Chrome. I'll try it...
No good on Win7 64-bit, crashes a few seconds after starting:
MediaCenter has stopped working
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: MediaCenter.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.6
Application Timestamp: 5319ad9a
Fault Module Name: DeviceDiscovery.dll
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.2
Fault Module Timestamp: 5318a4f7
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00001bd4
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Win7 32-bit on another computer: same crash
Also has an error on startup on WinXP and can't find the Chromecast (yes, I can cast from Chrome running on WinXP, I know it's not officially supported).
Error is: "The procedure entry point inet_pton could not be located in WS_32.dll"
That's 3 for 3. Obviously not ready for prime time. Better give it a few days for Wondershare to fix initial bugs before you waste time trying it.
Update: problem identified as an incompatibility with Roku media players on the same network.
Also note that it has a couple of types of bad behavior:
1. Installs Wondershare Helper to auto-run on Windows startup (common to their other apps, can be removed from startup without hurting anything)
2. Starts auto-indexing ALL drives and media files on your system without prompting to ask which folders you want to index. In fact it has no settings at all to control auto-indexing.
mini_wan said:
I found a free software Wondershare Media Center that can support chromecast your PC Video to HDTV
Rich video format support:MP4、AVI、MP4、MOV、WMV、MP3、M4A and much more
View attachment 2623016
View attachment 2623017
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This program is running flawless
Big high five and thanks for finding it
neo4uo said:
This program is running flawless
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What Windows version?
DJames1 said:
What Windows version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows 8.1
Shame its windoze only. The installer runs fine under wine in linux and it completel the installation. Then the exe itself is .NET, and mono crashes when trying to load it.
neo4uo said:
Windows 8.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I don't think the problem is with the Windows version. I have my notebook here at at work that still has the Win7 32-bit version I tested with the Chromecast at home, and it doesn't crash when I run it here (although there's no Chromecast on the network here at work of course).
I don't think it's the absence of the Chromecast that's significant though, because I had inadvertently left the Chromecast USB cable unplugged the first time I tried it at home. The Chromecast wasn't on, but it still crashed that first time, same as subsequent times after I got the Chromecast turned on and connected properly.
I think it may be something else on my home network that is responding to the "DeviceDiscovery.dll" and confusing it into crashing. Let's see, my Roku 2 XS and my Android tablet are online all the time. Maybe one of those? I'll try disconnecting those later to see if it makes a difference. Or maybe it's something to do with the Chromecast having different historical IP addresses that are cached somewhere on my computer, and it's crashing when it tries to check one of those non-existent IP addresses?
worked like a charm here, but I can see the quality slightly reduced.. does anybody notice that? but overall recommend apps, can't wait to get a new update of this
keep it up guys.
Yes, the Roku was the problem - somehow it is returning a network response that crashes Wondershare Media Center.
But even though it's working now, the performance is disappointing. The video stutters, even with straightforward mp4 files. It's possible that may be because it's still indexing the large video collection on my secondary hard drive - but I didn't tell it to that, I don't want it to do that, and any software designer with an ounce of sense would have made indexing a low-priority thread.
DJames1 said:
Yes, the Roku was the problem - somehow it is returning a network response that crashes Wondershare Media Center.
But even though it's working now, the performance is disappointing. The video stutters, even with straightforward mp4 files. It's possible that may be because it's still indexing the large video collection on my secondary hard drive - but I didn't tell it to that, I don't want it to do that, and any software designer with an ounce of sense would have made indexing a low-priority thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
probably because of that, the quality are quite decent in my side (playing 720p mp4 movie) I can see the pixel in my 50 Inch TV from very closer look , however from 1,5 - 2 meters it is acceptable and I dont see the quality degraded.
seems the method are similar with video stream cast extension, but VideoStream Cast extension definitely seems more mature than wondershare apps. but now my problem is solved, I can play mp4 files with .srt :good:
Nope, video continues to stutter after it has finished indexing, and it even loses audio sync while casting an mp4 file that doesn't need transcoding. I have a fast desktop computer (CPU utilization only 5% while Media Center is casting), and a good solid WiFi connection to the Chromecast. One time the Chromecast showed its "Brain Freeze" error message while Media Center was trying to cast to it. I think this app is just not ready for release. For the moment I'll stick with Videostream and do a quick conversion to mp4 if I have a file in an incompatible format. Media Center uninstalled for now, but I'll try it again when it's out of beta.
Tried playing an .avi and it stuttered a lot
win 8.1
I tried it on my PC with Windows 8.1, but it seems it can't find my Chromecast, it says "No cast devices found" =\
The download link doesn't seem to work for me! can anyone upload it somewhere and put the link here?
alakiha said:
The download link doesn't seem to work for me! can anyone upload it somewhere and put the link here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Download link on Wondershare website is broken.
Can anyone share it?
The Download link is to http://download.wondershare.com/cbs_down/media-center_full1694.exe, which is the version everyone has been testing for the last couple of days. They are probably updating it, which is a good idea since the testing showed it wasn't ready for general publication. Probably best just to be patient and wait to see if an update version shows up in the next few days.
DJames1 said:
The Download link is to http://download.wondershare.com/cbs_down/media-center_full1694.exe, which is the version everyone has been testing for the last couple of days. They are probably updating it, which is a good idea since the testing showed it wasn't ready for general publication. Probably best just to be patient and wait to see if an update version shows up in the next few days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything related to Wondershare Media Center seems to have been removed from their web site.
www.wondershare.com/media-center/
Looks to me like it was deliberately removed...
Download link is dead.
Can any one upload it and share with us?
I have searched for a streaming app for windows, to chromecast... for long time now
lemondroid said:
Download link is dead.
Can any one upload it and share with us?
I have searched for a streaming app for windows, to chromecast... for long time now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This product will be on-line as soon as possible, we will inform you the first time
DJames1 said:
New version of this program just added Chromecast support. Looks promising, but very buggy (see below).
Information link: http://support.wondershare.com/media-center/
Download link on this page: http://support.wondershare.com/media-center/history.html
Wondershare is a Chinese company that has published a lot of low-cost video apps over the last several years. I've tried some of their video converters and DVD authoring programs. They are frequently given away on Giveawayoftheday.com. They have a full-featured video converter program, so it would be logical for them to have a Chromecast extension that could transcode. I'm also curious o see how this interacts with Chrome, since every other app I know that can cast to the Chromecast from a PC has to run within Chrome. I'll try it...
No good on Win7 64-bit, crashes a few seconds after starting:
MediaCenter has stopped working
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: MediaCenter.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.6
Application Timestamp: 5319ad9a
Fault Module Name: DeviceDiscovery.dll
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.2
Fault Module Timestamp: 5318a4f7
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00001bd4
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Win7 32-bit on another computer: same crash
Also has an error on startup on WinXP and can't find the Chromecast (yes, I can cast from Chrome running on WinXP, I know it's not officially supported).
Error is: "The procedure entry point inet_pton could not be located in WS_32.dll"
That's 3 for 3. Obviously not ready for prime time. Better give it a few days for Wondershare to fix initial bugs before you waste time trying it.
Update: problem identified as an incompatibility with Roku media players on the same network.
Also note that it has a couple of types of bad behavior:
1. Installs Wondershare Helper to auto-run on Windows startup (common to their other apps, can be removed from startup without hurting anything)
2. Starts auto-indexing ALL drives and media files on your system without prompting to ask which folders you want to index. In fact it has no settings at all to control auto-indexing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it, thanks!:good:
I'm looking for a video player/server app for WP8 that will allow me to play locally stored files (MP4) from my phone (an HTC 8X) onto a DLNA-capable television. So far I've not found anything that seems to be able to do this, although I thought it would be quite simple (my Nexus 7 has at least half a dozen players that can do it).
Closest I've found was Nokia Play To (set up after spoofing the store into thinking my 8X was a Nokia 925). That app runs OK, but fails to find any DLNA devices, even when connected directly to their hotspot. Also found MyMediaHub, which works fine as a DLNA controller (playing to the renderer from an external DLNA server) but can't play local files. Moliplayer can act as a local renderer (to play files from an external server on the phone via DLNA), but what I want is kinda the other way around, to play from the phone rather than to it.
Are there any players out there which can fulfil this role which will work with the 8X, or am I limited to filling my tablet up with films rather than using my phone for the job (which I'd prefer as they are on there anyway for watching whilst travelling).
The WP8.1 update is supposed to have this ability baked into the OS. Just hold out a few more days, ok a week..
juanitoriv said:
The WP8.1 update is supposed to have this ability baked into the OS. Just hold out a few more days, ok a week..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a corporate phone, so I may have to wait slightly longer than that, knowing our IT crowd. But it's good news anyway, thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep a check on what does get released with the update, with fingers crossed
There's also Share Box from Samsung (DLNA client that can stream images/videos/music over WiFi). May require proxy trick. Not tried on a non-Samsung phone.
GoodDayToDie said:
There's also Share Box from Samsung (DLNA client that can stream images/videos/music over WiFi). May require proxy trick. Not tried on a non-Samsung phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This one also doesn't work on HTC (I've already tried, app failed with "Media service not started" message). Looks like you're out of luck (say "thanks" to HTC for the "great support" and never buy HTC's junkphones again )
P.S. Theoretically, there is no "rocket science" in DLNA server functionality; the only showstopper I see now is the API limitations to access local videos. Hope, with WP8.1 update, some third-party DLNA servers will hit the store...
GoodDayToDie said:
There's also Share Box from Samsung (DLNA client that can stream images/videos/music over WiFi). May require proxy trick. Not tried on a non-Samsung phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... or Nokia "Play To" app.
Doesn't HTC have Connected Media?
thals1992 said:
Doesn't HTC have Connected Media?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OP needs a DLNA server, not a player (there are few DLNA players available at the store).
thals1992 said:
Doesn't HTC have Connected Media?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for Windows Phone 8, that is only for WP7.X: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/connected-media/d154a04b-d3ad-47dd-bfc9-a1022e409af6
Budniu said:
... or Nokia "Play To" app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I mentioned in my first post - I tried that via a store-spoof to make it think my 8X was a Nokia 925 and serve me Nokia apps for install. The app installs and runs, but it can't find the DLNA renderer, even when connected directly to it. The webpage that details the spoof (using Fiddler2 on a PC as a proxy man-in-the-middle for the set-up process) also reported the same, that Play To installs and runs but can't detect DLNA devices.
As noted, I can find options for DLNA controllers (e.g. MyMediaHub) and DLNA players (e.g. Moliplayer), but what I'm not finding for WP8.0 is a DLNA server app that can see locally stored files. With luck 8.1 could fix this by baking it into the OS, so I will wait patiently until it filters down through our IT boys and their testing.
Cast ALL your PC movie to HDTV through Google ChromeCast without quality loss
Free app for chromecast: cast ALL your PC movie to HDTV through Google ChromeCast without quality loss
Rich video format support:MP4、AVI、MP4、MOV、WMV、MP3、M4A and much more
http://labs.wondershare.com/project/wondershare-media-center.html
http://download.wondershare.com/dreamstream_full1694.exe
Dreamstream is apparently the same product that was released March 10 as "Wondershare Media Center" version 1.0.0, and then abandoned a few days later (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2676575). Presumably mini_wan can tell us, since he was the original poster in that thread too, and he seems to be a company rep.
Funny, the download file name still ends in _full1694, same as the Wondershare Media Center installer. Is that a build number or something else? I hope it's an improved version, since the original showed lots of promise, but too many bugs.
Unfortunately it looks like it will take a while to find out. Setup file corrupted.
...and now the links have been removed. I guess it's not quite ready. Check back later!
DJames1 said:
Dreamstream is apparently the same product that was released March 10 as "Wondershare Media Center" version 1.0.0, and then abandoned a few days later (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2676575). Presumably mini_wan can tell us, since he was the original poster in that thread too, and he seems to be a company rep.
Funny, the download file name still ends in _full1694, same as the Wondershare Media Center installer. Is that a build number or something else? I hope it's an improved version, since the original showed lots of promise, but too many bugs.
Unfortunately it looks like it will take a while to find out. Setup file corrupted.
...and now the links have been removed. I guess it's not quite ready. Check back later!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Previous versions has some problems in our program, but the current version we have made a lot of changes in the quality of cast .we have great improvements, have solved the audio and video sync issues. We will launch a better version in the near future and look forward to your suggestions
Ok, now the installer works. Not much different from Wondershare Media Center but the name though.
- It still crashes in DeviceDiscovery.dll on startup if there's a Roku device present on the network
- It still wants to automatically index all drives on the system, with no choice of folders to be indexed, file types to be indexed, or location to store the index
- Transcoding works, but there's a lot of pauses and the Chromecast often freezes permanently
- It still leaves WSHelper running, although at least it doesn't seem to install it to auto-run on startup
So, not much to show for a month's work.
DJames1 said:
Ok, now the installer works. Not much different from Wondershare Media Center but the name though.
- It still crashes in DeviceDiscovery.dll on startup if there's a Roku device present on the network
- It still wants to automatically index all drives on the system, with no choice of folders to be indexed, file types to be indexed, or location to store the index
- Transcoding works, but there's a lot of pauses and the Chromecast often freezes permanently
- It still leaves WSHelper running, although at least it doesn't seem to install it to auto-run on startup
So, not much to show for a month's work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version of the product you are using?
mini_wan said:
What version of the product you are using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DreamStream 1.1.0.17
exe date 2014/4/8 17:14
.avi played fine, small quality loss though
DJames1 said:
DreamStream 1.1.0.17
exe date 2014/4/8 17:14
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you send the products log file to us?
The log path is Program Files\Wondershare\DreamStream\Log
Actually it's in C:\Program Files (x86)\Wondershare\DreamStream\Log on my Win7 64-bit system. How do you want me to send it to you?
The log file doesn't show where the program crashes in DeviceDiscovery.dll. I already reported the details of that crash in the old thread about Wondershare Media Center.
Do you want the log entries for the media items where the transcoder had problems and the Chromecast froze?
mini_wan said:
Cast ALL your PC movie to HDTV through Google ChromeCast without quality loss
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I read this and then I read comments about transcoding. If this app is transcoding then there in quality loss. Does this support mkv? Including vc1 video? What about audio formats.
I've tried to run this but it will not run on my 8.1 laptop, so before I waste anymore time is it really "ALL with NO quality loss"?
I'm sorry if I sound confrontational, but when you make claims like that, you're gonna get held to it.
Work for me!
I have a netbook, acer aspire one, 2g of ram, and it work very well!!
The only thing is that subtitles are not suported.
I only try with .avi