Hi All,
I just wanted to post my experience of my streaming setup for music. I guess this would work for videos as well but have not tried it till now. I tried bluetooth but found several constraints, my Pioneer vsx-930 jumped a few seconds and i found that there was a significant quality drop over bluetooth. So i was breaking my head on DLNA setup. Most new receivers are DLNA certified so this would work as long as you use any DLNA certified player.
Apple users would have it easy through airplay. So this is again mostly for android only folks.
My need: I'm lazy, I dont want to sit in front of laptop and setup songs. I wanted to do everything- Access media, Control my playlist and play it on my receiver. I dont have a standalone cd/bd player. I did not like the Windows 7 cast to device option.
Must have: Receiver, Laptop and phone connected on same wifi network
1. Setup your laptop as media server: one small setting update needs to be done to allow access to your laptop/external hdd connected to laptop over network. You can refer this link. How to Turn Your Computer Into a DLNA Media Server
2. Android apps:
a. BubbleUPnP: So far this is the best app for media streaming. I reads all my mp3s. But catch: need paid version to access media server. So if you plan to get licensed version this is best option. I have some mp3s with mp3 tags messed up. So this player saves me in this case alone.
Cast from mobile: Yes
Cast from hdd/laptop: No (need paid version)
b. AllCast: Somehow i could not get this working for me. Maybe it may work you can give it a try
c. AllConnect: This is the best free alternative out there. But, it is not able to play songs with incorrect mp3 tags. Perfect otherwise. You can access playlists, enqueue individual songs, full access from your mobile.
Cast from mobile: Yes
Cast from hdd/laptop: Yes
So now you all set to stream music from laptop or hard disk.
Now, the other problem. I want to access spotify, pandora from india. So I have these other apps, indieshuffle which you can use without any proxy. But how do i stream it?
Note: The above options only play available music, not stream internet music
d. AllStream: this works perfectly, you can stream any music playing on your mobile apps to the receiver. Trial is free, I'm running on trial but i will have to buy the licensed version. This lets me stream music from any apps to receiver. So next step for apps that need proxy setting.
Note: You need to ROOT your android phone. One common scare tactic, all warranty will be lost/phone will crash etc. Yes it may happen software is never 100% bug free
So if you dont want to root this wont work. I rooted by sideloading KingRoot. No reboots no hiccups, 5 min job done with few click on the app.
3. Mobile Proxy setup:
a. Hola: This is the best free proxy I found that can use US server. I didnt run into bandwidth or other constraints. Plays Pandora/Spotify without lag in most cases.
b. SIdeload Streaming apps: Pandora/Spotify will not show up on playstore. Just google you should get latest apks and you can install them easily.
Once installed open up Hola, for each app you want to open, you can setup the proxy server you want to use and open from Hola. So now you can listen to Spotify/Pandora from your phone in India.
Hope this was helpful, any suggestions alternatives welcome
So I'm able to now control all my music from my phone
I just wanted to post my experience of my streaming setup for music. I guess this would work for videos as well but have not tried it till now. I tried bluetooth but found several constraints, my Pioneer vsx-930 jumped a few seconds and i found that there was a significant quality drop over bluetooth. So i was breaking my head on DLNA setup. Most new receivers are DLNA certified so this would work as long as you use any DLNA certified player.
Apple users would have it easy through airplay. So this is again mostly for android only folks.
My need: I'm lazy, I dont want to sit in front of laptop and setup songs. I wanted to do everything- Access media, Control my playlist and play it on my receiver. I dont have a standalone cd/bd player. I did not like the Windows 7 cast to device option.
Must have: Receiver, Laptop and phone connected on same wifi network
1. Setup your laptop as media server: one small setting update needs to be done to allow access to your laptop/external hdd connected to laptop over network. You can refer this link. How to Turn Your Computer Into a DLNA Media Server
2. Android apps:
a. BubbleUPnP: So far this is the best app for media streaming. I reads all my mp3s. But catch: need paid version to access media server. So if you plan to get licensed version this is best option. I have some mp3s with mp3 tags messed up. So this player saves me in this case alone.
Cast from mobile: Yes
Cast from hdd/laptop: No (need paid version)
b. AllCast: Somehow i could not get this working for me. Maybe it may work you can give it a try
c. AllConnect: This is the best free alternative out there. But, it is not able to play songs with incorrect mp3 tags. Perfect otherwise. You can access playlists, enqueue individual songs, full access from your mobile.
Cast from mobile: Yes
Cast from hdd/laptop: Yes
So now you all set to stream music from laptop or hard disk.
Now, the other problem. I want to access spotify, pandora from india. So I have these other apps, indieshuffle which you can use without any proxy. But how do i stream it?
Note: The above options only play available music, not stream internet music
d. AllStream: this works perfectly, you can stream any music playing on your mobile apps to the receiver. Trial is free, I'm running on trial but i will have to buy the licensed version. This lets me stream music from any apps to receiver. So next step for apps that need proxy setting.
Note: You need to ROOT your android phone. One common scare tactic, all warranty will be lost/phone will crash etc. Yes it may happen software is never 100% bug free

3. Mobile Proxy setup:
a. Hola: This is the best free proxy I found that can use US server. I didnt run into bandwidth or other constraints. Plays Pandora/Spotify without lag in most cases.
b. SIdeload Streaming apps: Pandora/Spotify will not show up on playstore. Just google you should get latest apks and you can install them easily.
Once installed open up Hola, for each app you want to open, you can setup the proxy server you want to use and open from Hola. So now you can listen to Spotify/Pandora from your phone in India.
Hope this was helpful, any suggestions alternatives welcome

So I'm able to now control all my music from my phone
