How To: Use MovieGallery with MP4 Streaming Server

On January 25, 2012, in Acer Tablet, Android, Applications, Asus Tablet, Devices, Droid, Free, Guides, How to, Kindle Fire, Movie Gallery, NOOK, Samsung Tablet, Step By Step, Streaming Server, Tips / Tricks, Toshiba Tablet, Xoom, by Mitch

New in MovieGallery 1.4 is the ability to connect it to our free MP4 Streaming Server application.

This guide will help you in getting things set-up, so you can start streaming your videos rather than having to copy them over whenever you want to watch them.

What is MP4 Streaming Server?

If you have been working on converting your movies for a while (a bit over 9 years for me now), you probably have a collection of optimized movies that exceeds the storage capability of your phone or tablet. I came up with the idea for MP4 Streaming Server while using an 8GB iPod Touch (G1), and for some reason, I always forgot to transfer the movies I actually wanted to watch, or I was watching a TV show season, and had to refill it with new episodes after a while.

So, I created an app that would let me access my entire collection of movies and TV shows remotely. MP4 Streaming Server.

What is MovieGallery?

If you use an Android phone or tablet, and use it with movies and TV shows, you have likely used the build-in Gallery app to play your videos. While it works fine for playing videos, finding the movies is a bit tricky because it just shows thumbnails. MovieGallery was created to make things a bit easier. While it can display thumbnail images, it also enables you to use your own cover images for video files, making it a lot easier to find the movie you want to watch.

MovieGallery and MP4 Streaming Server

With the latest update for MovieGallery, we made these 2 applications connect to each other. You can organize your movies and TV shows in MP4 Streaming server, using playlists for movies, groups or TV seasons, and you can access all of it through MovieGallery.

What you need:

*An Android device running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or higher.

*A computer running Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8.

*Of course MovieGallery 1.4.

MovieGallery is available in the Android Market in both a free and a paid version. The MP4 Streaming Server connection works with both, however, there is a limitation on the free version on how many files it will display. It has also been uploaded to the B&N NOOKapp Store (for NOOKcolor and NOOKtablet) and

*And of course MP4 Streaming Server (1.3.4+ version), which is a free download from here.

Setup:

* MP4 Streaming Server

Download MP4 Streaming Server using the link above.
Open the downloaded zip file by double-clicking on it
Double-click on the “mp4ss_install” file.
Click through the installer. There is no spyware/malware/toolbars or anything, so just tap next-next etc.
At the last screen, remove the 2 checkmarks. If you leave the “Run …” enabled, you might experience a complication with adding files. Because the installer runs with certain permissions, things like Drag&Drop will not function properly.
After install, you will have a shortcut for MP4 Streaming Server on your desktop. Double-click on that to start the program.

If you do not have DVD Catalyst 4 installed, or, if you did install it but did not run it just once, MP4 Streaming Server will display a message and not start.

If you see this message, just start DVD Catalyst 4 once, trial or retail is enough) to make sure the files MP4 Streaming Server needs are in the proper location.

Then start MP4 Server again.

If you run MP4 Streaming Server for the first time, it will ask you if it should search for movies on your computer. Personally I prefer to manually select the movies and shows I want, so I click “No”.

When I created this app, I made it look and work a bit like Apple’s iTunes because originally I created the MP4 Streaming Server app to let me access my full movie collection wirelessly on my iPod Touch. Rather than having to connect it to my pc to fill it up, this way I had access to 100′s of movies and tv shows.

MovieGallery:

Just download MovieGallery from the Android Market, or if you are using a NOOKcolor or NOOKtablet, (when they finally update it) visit the B&N NOOKapp Store.

Adding video content (movies and TV shows):

In order for MP4 Streaming Server to be able to stream your videos, you of course need videos in a format compatible with your device. The nice thing about streaming your videos rather than copying them over is that you don’t have to worry about a file-size limitation for your device. The NOOKcolor, NOOKtablet and Kindle Fire all have issues with video files that are larger than 2GB in size, however, with streaming, you don’t have to deal with this. As long as the video files are in the proper MP4 format, and restrictions such as screen resolution (NOOKcolor) are applied to the video files, the file-size doesn’t matter. I’ve played true HD (1080p) movies of 14GB on my Kindle Fire using MP4 Streaming Server without any complications, files that otherwise would be unplayable (or even fit) on the device itself.

To make sure your movies are in the correct format for your device, give DVD Catalyst 4 a try. We have a collection of getting started guides on the website to make things as easy as possible.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus, B&N NOOKtablet, Amazon Kindle Fire, B&N NOOKcolor, Motorola Xoom, Toshiba Thrive, Asus Transformer, Acer Iconica A500, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Droid Bionic, HTC EVO3D and HTC Sensation

Find your movies using WIndows Explorer on your computer:

Then start MP4 Streaming Server:

Then simply drag your videos over from the folder to MP4 Streaming Server.

and they will appear in MP4 Streaming Server:

IMPORTANT: while not required for all devices, there are a few Android tablets, such as the NOOKcolor and NOOKtablet that require the files to be “streaming-enabled”. If you use DVD Catalyst 4 for your conversions, you can have it enable this for you automatically. Before you start the conversion of your DVD or movie file, enable “Power User”, and in Global Settings > Tweaks, look for the “Enable Streaming …” setting and enable it.

for video files that you already did, or if you use a different conversion tool that does not have this setting, you can use MP4 Streaming Server to do it for you.

Just select one of your movie files, and then tap on the button.

Because the files do get changed, make sure you have write/rename access to the files. If you are using a removable drive for your movies, this is not always the case.

Now you can organize your videos into playlists if you want. Simply select a movie, and drag it to “Favorites” to add it to the Favorites playlist, or drag it underneath (in the white area) to create a new playlist.

Drag more movies onto it if you see fit, or just create a playlist for a season of TV episodes for example.

To rename a playlist, just doubleclick on the name, and you can write your own name. Please refrain from using special characters such as *, &, %, $ etc.

Once you are satisfied with organizing your videos, I recommend restarting MP4 Streaming Server to make sure all your changes are updated.

Then tap on the button at the bottom right to start the actual server part.

MP4 Streaming Server will display what you need in order to access the server:

To check and see if your server is working, just tap on the link, or, type it over in the web browser on your Android device (make sure it is connected to WiFi).

With the MP4 Streaming Server now working, its on to

MovieGallery:

Start MovieGallery on your phone/tablet (or GoogleTV)

Tap on the button to open MovieGallery’s settings,

and (if needed) scroll down to the bottom.

There, enable the checkmark for it and tap on MP4 Streaming Server to tell MovieGallery where it is located:

In here type in the numbers displayed in the MP4 Streaming Server link:

then tap on OK.

If you made a typo, or if the server is not running or can not be reached (make sure wifi is turned on on your device), MovieGallery will give you a warning message:

If you did not get a message, everything is good to go.

Now exit out of the settings, and back out of MovieGallery and start it again.

Upon start-up, MovieGallery will connect to your MP4 Streaming Server, and load the videos and playlists from it.

Similar as with movies you copy to your device, MovieGallery will read jpg images that have the same name as the movie. By default it will load place-holder images, however, if you put movie cover images (jpg only) with the same name in the same location as where your movie files are located on your computer, it will load those instead.