With a few applications, you can turn your Android into a complete multimedia center . Although to make the most appropriate that the device has some minimum specifications, of course.
The main thing is that you can connect to a TV. Rare is the terminal medium / high range that does not have a video output, either miniHDMI or by MHL (which can convert HDMI with appropriate cable).
Storing content
The other is storage. Need space to store multimedia content . Although there are solutions to access content from a local network, few Android devices have an Ethernet port, so it will normally have to do it via WiFi. And with WiFi conseguirmos not fast enough to play HD video without jumps.
So we are concerned that the device has memory card reader, or what is better, a port USB that supports OTG to which he can connect hard drives.
XBMC , a marvel of multimedia manager
It is still under development, but XBMC promises to become an essential solution to manage all our multimedia content on Android. With a long run on other platforms, Android application still has work ahead, but for now is very stable and looks dramatically .
Images, video and audio are central pillars of the application, but not content with that. Complete weather information, pitcher of the applications we have installed, extensive information on the entire system (both hardware and software) …
And even more: support for style templates, extensions to add even more functionality, and of course a powerful integrated video player , able to keep playing while other overlay menus and options are shown.
Problem: to be in development, support is limited to specific devices , and with good specifications. Are not yet fixed the minimum requirements, but surely will require a processor using Tegra 3, and will need to hopefully have Android 2.3 or Android 4.0 more likely.
Not even Google Play, and apk downloaded from the official website of the project.
Official Site | XBMC for Android
Medi a modest Media Center for Androids
If your device does not have access to Honeys XBMC , yet we need not discard. Medi is not as sleek or as sophisticated, but we can do the workaround .
With Medi we can comfortably manage episodes of series, and movies. Its strong are actually series: series can tell you what we, looking at a complete database, and mark out the last episode we’ve seen (by season and number).
With this information, Medi automatically indicates how many episodes we have available in our device, and if we have captions for them. Furthermore, we can see how many have been issued after we have, including number, title and date of original issuance of each chapter, and a program guide series that we follow.
Medi offers an option to download subtitles for an episode with a single click, but unfortunately the system does not work too well, and rarely achieves its purpose. As for the movies, there is no way of organizing: a simple list in alphabetical order.
An important detail is that Medi not include Adobe , we installed separately. When we “play”, the file will open our default video player. At the end we will Medi, allowing us to mark it as “seen”.
Unfortunately, the Spartan aspect of Medi and shortcomings are maintained over time. I’ve been using it for several months and has just received updates , no substantial improvements. Integration with Miso or other similar social networks could use beads.
In Google Play | Medi: Media Center for Android (Free)
Subloader, subtitles in one click
We talked about Subloader , a small application that is responsible for obtaining subtitles for TV episodes and movies automatically. It is a good complement to XBMC and to replace inefficient capacity Medi.
The weak point remains that becomes uncomfortable when we have stored many episodes, since it is more difficult to find those who are without subtitles. The latest is a web version to download subtitles using drag the video to the browser.
In Google Play | Subloader , Subloader Full (0.99 €)
MX Player
MX Player is one of the best video players available for Android. It is looser than including XBMCfor now, when faced with HD videos, and is the ideal complement if Medi use with multimedia content manager.
In Google Play | MX Player , Player Pro MX (€ 4.40)
Overall Summary
If your device is one of many for whom the doors of XBMC are closed, we can still make it a good media center. And to add multimedia content does not need another computer, since there are P2P solutions , shoveled , of which we have spoken in the past
The weakest point in this case is Medi, which lacks a boil. After a long time searching, I have not found a better solution .
And if I’m honest, not worse : it seems the only alternative in Google Play, and even search for “Medi” shows quite out of the first results.
Do you know any alternative to these applications?