PlayOn App For Android Coming Very Soon

[jwc553911]

It's back on sale:
Watch Hulu, PBS, ESPN3, Netflix, and more on your iPhone or your TV with your wii, ps3, or xbox 360 | PlayOn

 

[tavenger5]

Anyone have any news on this? I see that I can access playon using DLNA, but no videos play.

 

[tavenger5]

nevermind... App for Android? | PlayOn

 

[GT944]

so since i already have a license for it i will be able to use it on my d1 when they come out with it?

Yes. I've already tried it on my ipod touch and it works great.

So, let me get this straight - you pay for usage and can out the program on multiple devices (of yours)??

Sent from my ADR6300

 

[mmarcuse]

For those interested, it looks like Playon introduced Android support -quietly-. It's not even mentioned yet on their website, but it works, and works well.

After I installed their 1/28 update (3.1.24), I was surprised to see that when I browsed to m.playon.tv on my Droid, I actually had the option to play the content. I was able to stream Hulu, Netflix, and everything else that Playon can handle, and it worked equally well over Wi-Fi and 3G. It does use Flash, so it is limited to Android 2.2 devices, but it worked flawlessly on my D1 (SS4.8 - Froyo). Interestingly enough, my upstream bandwidth is only about 400-500 Kbps (ADSL), but the playback was pretty smooth over 3g. It is processor intensive on the server, because it's transcoding on the fly, but while streaming,CPU usage on a fairly low-end AMD dual-core was about 30-40%.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised. Whatever thoughts I might have had about using my early upgrade with the iPhone are now gone. I'll wait for 4G before my next upgrade.

 

[born2golf]

Thanks for posting this. I am a longtime playon user/advocate and have been patiently been waiting for their announced android app. In the interim this is very good news. After reading your post I upgraded and tested right away. So far so good, both over wi-fi and 3g.

Thanks again.

 

[kywihu]

How do you do it over 3g? I have playon on my computer and when I tried going to their mobile site, it tells me that no devices are found unless I hook up my usb.

Sent from my ADR6300 using DroidForums App

 

[mmarcuse]

After you set up the mobile access on Playon and get a successful test (hit the 'test' button, you must go to PlayOn on your device while your device is connected to your home wi-fi. This 'pairs' your device to your playon server. Once you have done that, you should be able to disconnect from wi-fi, and from that point on, when you go to PlayOn you should see your server even over 3g.

One thing I did differently is I set up the port to use manually rather than use uPnP on the router. Not sure if it matters, I just don't like enabling uPnP.

 

[s13_slider]

So a question I have about this is does the computer being used as the server need to be on in order to use the app on the phone? It's seeming so since the transcoding is done on the fly. In other words, if I wanted to use the app of my phone while I was out, would the computer need to be on at home?

 

[born2golf]

So a question I have about this is does the computer being used as the server need to be on in order to use the app on the phone? It's seeming so since the transcoding is done on the fly. In other words, if I wanted to use the app of my phone while I was out, would the computer need to be on at home?

Yes.

But there seems to be some confusion in the last few posts. Perhaps I can clear that up. Playon is a windows program that is a media server. It is NOT an android app. It does the following 2 things:
1. re-routes internet media to other devices, such as a PS3/Xbox/Wii/Roku/iPad/iPhone/ and sort of Android. So for instance you can watch Hulu on your xbox via playon.
2. streams local media files from the PC to those other devices .This is certainly nothing new as windows can do this all on it but it is convenient for devices that cannot connect to the windows media server features.

The recent activity on this thread is stating that it is now possible to stream media to Android via the device's web browser. The mention of an app is related to the future app for android yet to be released by playon. That app would replace the browsers method and instead have structured way of connecting the playon media. That is currently how it is done on the iPad.

The windows program costs $39/year or $79 forever. Again this is a media server program, and cannot be compared to a 99 cent app.

Why is this important? neither Netflix or hulu have yet to release their android apps, but playon users can watch both... right now, in addition to lots of other stuff. Also, if anyone has experience with hulu plus, which is required for most non-PC based hulu viewing, there is a great deal of content that is still not available via hulu plus on anything but a PC. For instance, sometimes if your try to watch a show on hulu plus using your PS3, you may see a message that the particular program is "web only" meaning you can only watch is from a PC. Playon users don't have this limitation, because as far as hulu is concerned, your PC is the thing pulling the content down. Then playon redirects it to whatever you are using to watch it from.

 

[cnmsales]

FYI the app has been officially released today in the market.

And if you REALLY want to get some use out of playon then go here PlayOn Scripts :: Home :: PlayOn Scripts and PlayOn Plugins

Pay close attention to the TVLinks script. It with a megavideo premium account will single handedly allow you to cut the cord from the cable tv company. I pay 10 bucks a month for my tv service. How much do you pay for yours?

 

[kodiak799]

So can someone explain why they want this? If I understand correctly, it lets you stream Hulu and other tv from your computer to your phone. Now if your computer is that close by, why in the world do you want to watch the program on your teeny wittle phone screen?

I mean, really people, do you HAVE to watch Oprah while you're in the shower?

 

[cnmsales]

It lets you stream ALOT of stuff to your phone. But it also streams to your xbox, ps3, wii, and other DLNA compliant devices.

Like I said I have cut the cord to cable TV with this software, the free tv links script available, and a premium megavideo account.

 

[born2golf]

So can someone explain why they want this? If I understand correctly, it lets you stream Hulu and other tv from your computer to your phone. Now if your computer is that close by, why in the world do you want to watch the program on your teeny wittle phone screen?

I mean, really people, do you HAVE to watch Oprah while you're in the shower?

Wow, that wasn't even close to being funny and at the same time it is incredibly short sighted. Playon was originally designed to move internet video like netflix and Hulu to your TV. The ability to view it on your phone is a new development, but is still useful. Why would you assume that you would need to be near your computer to stream media from your PC to your phone? Are you completely unaware of the global data network that your phone is connected to? Perhaps you should consider the fact that other people actually LEAVE their homes, but may still want to watch hulu or netflix.

 

[kodiak799]

Perhaps you should consider the fact that other people actually LEAVE their homes, but may still want to watch hulu or netflix.

That would be pretty neat if PlayOn does that, but I don't think it does, which, again, takes us back to watching Oprah in the shower. I see the potential, but as is pretty worthless. And Hulu and Netflix are coming to Android soon enough.

Yeah, Hulu doesn't work on the PS3 so cool app for that, but as an app for my Android smartphone I say it's worthless.