Play Videos & Audios on Bluestacks for PC

Hey Fellas!

So recently, a queer thought struck my mind, also I was suggested by one of the comments by "Anonymous" in one my posts. This was about being able to play Media Files (Videos & Audios) on Bluestacks. Here the bigger question was "Why" rather than "How". Anyways, here is my analysis after trying to do so.

(I wanna write this all in a vivid, unbiased way, no offense to anyone. Although there are very less chances of offending here!)

Bluestacks is a software that allows one to run Android Apps on PC itself. To see my complete review on it, visit the following URL:

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THE REASON

So before the Query "How to Play Media on Bluestacks", it is necessary to think about Why would one want to play Videos/Audios on Bluestacks, when we've got a better platform (the one on which Bluestacks works- Windows/Mac) available. Lets be perceptive and think a little deep.

After doing so, I came to think, hey it's not a bad idea to try and play Media Files on Bluestacks for PC. There could be a few reasons about why would one wanna do that. First, one would want to test a Video/Audio Playing App on Bluestacks itself, which is an adequate reason in itself.

Second, one could have a media file in the Bluestacks in-built memory. To play that one could first transfer it to the Bluestacks shared Folder and then Play it OR directly play it with the Bluestacks' Player he/she might have. Ofcourse the latter one is a better choice in most cases.

Third, There could be any other reason! You can think of it yourself :P. Or maybe you simply wanna play Videos/Audios on Bluestacks Just for Fun.

Also, Bluestacks might run videos in a worse way than PC, showing lags. The probable (not sure) reason for that could be that Bluestacks is a platform stacked upon another Platform, so while using Videos/Audios in Bluestacks, the PC has to take load of both the Bluestacks and its Video/Audio Player.

PRE-REQUISITES

There are a couple of pre-requirements to utilize the method of Playing Videos & Audios on Bluestacks for PC properly:

1. Bluestacks for PC

Bluestacks is ofcourse required to be able to do something on it! :D . To see how to properly install Bluestacks Android App Player for PC, see the post in the following link:

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2. A File Exploring App

Ideally, to play Videos and Audios on Bluestacks Android App Player for PC, you'll need to browse the file OR even first transfer your Media File (Video/Audio), to Bluestacks. One of the popular ones is "ES File Explorer", to know how to install ES File Explorer on Bluestacks, see the post in the following URL:

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3. MX Player

MX Player is one of the Best Media Players for Android and this is not only according to me, but also many others believe the same. So we'll harness this cool Player for Playing Videos/Audios on Bluestacks for PC. You can see my review on MX Player in the post in the following link:

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To download MX Player on Bluestacks for PC, you'll first need to run Google Play Store on Bluestacks for PC. To see the method to do it see the post in the following URL:

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After running Google Play Store, simply search for "MX Player" in, then Install it. Using the Free ad-supported version would also be fine.

THE METHOD

Image By jesadaphorn, freedigitalphotos.net

So, if you have nay reason to play Videos/Audios on Bluestacks, let's commence doing that. I would like to explain the way to do it, in kinda Journal way. I think I'll explain it a lot! lol!!! If you want simply the result, Scroll Down to "The Verdict" heading.

Videos' quality will be talked about in the popular, what I'd like to call "Pixel" format. For example, if you've played videos in a popular Internet website like Youtube or Dailymotion, the qualities are specified as "144p", "240p", "360p", "480p", "720p", "1080p", etc.

Note: All of this analysis was done on Bluestacks version 0.8.3.3026.

1. Foremost thing, I took a variety of Video formats and copied them to Bluestacks Virtual SD Card. These file formats included MP3 and WMA for Audios & MP4 (360p), MP4(720p), MP4(1080p), WEBM and a Flash Video (FLV-360p) for Video Formats. If you wanna know how to share a file to Bluestacks SD Card, see the following link's post:

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I know that advanced users might say that Media formats are merely containers and it is the Video/Audio properties that matter. But Video formats have a general convention that a usual MP4 will behave like this and a WEBM like that, so just for explanation, I'm doing it in terms of formats.

2. Next was the turn of playing them. I went for the Bluestacks in-built Player first. It was able to play MP3 file in a fine way. But strangely wasn't able to play the popular MP4 format and even more strangely, it was actually able to play the less popular WEBM format and that too, perfectly! Also, as expected FLV format didn't play!

3. Now, it was the time to summon the external agency to play the remainder. Yes you're right, for Playing MP4, FLV and WMA Formats, I installed MX Player.

MX Player has a good interface. It scans the videos automatically, if they're in Bluestacks SD Card. It can also be made to scan Audio Files, by going to its "Settings" > "Audio" > ticking "Audio Player". So all the Media Files will now be displayed in MX Player.

Note: MX Player also gives an option to change the H/W decoder to S/W or vice versa. I'll recommend not to touch that option, as the other way might be worse.

Now, it was nice to see that the rest of the Formats will at-least be played. MP3 & WEBM played fine, as earlier. WMA Audio also played fine this time. FLV showed glitches by improper co-ordination of Video with Audio and showing lags. So did MP4 (360p), but still it was just fine (at-least Audio was running properly).

When I turned to MP4 (720p), the resultant was not at all good, the video didn't at all match Audio and after some time, even Audio got halted. Now you can yourself predict the result of MP4 (1080p): again, improper Playback.

4. You might know that MX Player also offers codecs for Playing Video/Audio files, I tried ARMv5, ARMv6 and ARMv7 ones and it reduced the playback quality with improper Video and Audio matching, so it is not at all recommendable to use MX Player codecs for this case.

THE  VERDICT

Image By Stuart Miles, freedigitalphotos.net

After all of this, the Result that I can show you would to use MX Player on Bluestacks, after enabling Audio Files scanning. You will then be able to play most of the Audio files.

In case of videos, the results are multifarious. WEBM (360p) video plays perfectly. MP4 (360p) & FLV (360p) are not perfect, with some glitches of Audio-Video coordination. MP4 (720p) and MP4 (1080p) won't at all have good coordination.

That's it!

I hope you'd have liked the way to play Videos/Audios in Bluestacks for PC.

Comment with your own reviews on how you would want to use this method OR do you like it OR anything else. You can also ask questions.

ENJOY!!!