Help Stream video and audio over LAN and WAN

[AndroidX2.2]

I have over 100GBs of audio and video files on my PC that I would like to access at anytime. Whether it's around the house or on the go. 9 out of 10 places I'm usually at have highspeed wifi connections so I'm not too concerned about streaming over the 3G network; although it would be nice.

Basically, I want to set my PC up as a private media/file server that I can access from my rooted Droid X 2.2.....cheaply, free if possible.

I'm actually surprised that this device doesn't have streaming capabilities over local wifi networks. I can transfer files over from my home network and then play them but that requires a lot of wait time and uses a lot of space on the phone.

I know how to configure ftp and http servers with DNS if that helps. http would take a long time to code and can't be updated quickly so I'm hoping it can be done with an ftp server.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[GregTard]

Well the first thing you need to take care of is to make your server accessible from the internet if you want to stream remotely. Therefore you need:
- a static IP address or
- use a service like DynDNS
Of course, you will need to implement the security to make it possible without opening you up to everyone in the world so you will need a firewall setup. Then you need a server to stream the data from.

You can make a router/firewall using Linux and iptables or something similar. You will also need some software for streaming. I would suggest starting here for some options.

 

[dookie1]

I'm actually surprised that this device doesn't have streaming capabilities over local wifi networks...

it does.

it's called DLNA, and requires a DLNA compliant device on the server end. win7, among other things.

i use both the X and a DLNA compliant preamp to stream music off an in-house win7 'server'. never tried video.

 

[drhill]

I have twonky media server installed on my windows home server. I am in the process of converting most of my stuff to mp4s (h264) for streaming. The phone doesn't work as well as my tv does (this years Samsung model). It doesn't do mkv and for anything that isn't properly it wants to copy to the phone instead of stream. The phone also doesn't do divx or xvid from what I can tell.

I was hoping I could use the phone as a DLNA digital media controller to tell my tv to play files from the server. It almost does that. It only works with media types that the phone can play, not the tv. So it seems as if it is reading from the server to the phone and then streaming from the phone. Not what I wanted.

I blame the media types issue on motorola as mkv is supported by other DLNA devices.

 

[Fabolous]

I just paid the $10 and use ORB. It works pretty well, even with my TV tuner, so I can get semi-live TV on the go

If you don't need the TV aspect, I think there's a cheaper version of the Android app for $5 that does audio and video.

 

[AndroidX2.2]

Right now I'm trying AndroStream, its based off VLC media player and server. It works, but the video play back is choppy. I've tried lowering the video quality and video/audio bitrates with no luck.

I'll give ORB a try, I hope its better than AndroStream.

 

[traveldevel]

Basically, I want to set my PC up as a private media/file server that I can access from my rooted Droid X 2.2.....cheaply, free if possible.

VLC Stream & Convert can stream your media from VLC over Wi-Fi / 3G. The conversion happens while streaming.

Also you can just do a on-the-fly transcode & transfer to your phone.
This feature is called "convert to phone".
Because I recently added playlist support to the Pro version "convert to phone" is under revision to make it work in a kind of batch mode.

I just added a guide how to stream over VPN. It works great over 3G and Wi-Fi and protects your VLC by password.

 

[Jayme]

Twonky works great for me and its free.

 

[nofez]

I just paid the $10 and use ORB. It works pretty well, even with my TV tuner, so I can get semi-live TV on the go

If you don't need the TV aspect, I think there's a cheaper version of the Android app for $5 that does audio and video.

Just for info, you don't need the app to use Orb.

You can install the free server on your PC and just use your phone's browser, pointed to mycast.orb.com to access it.

You lose the custom UI of the app, of course, but if you set the web UI to "home theater" it's usable.

 

[abh220]

VLC Stream & Convert can stream your media from VLC over Wi-Fi / 3G. The conversion happens while streaming.

Also you can just do a on-the-fly transcode & transfer to your phone.
This feature is called "convert to phone".
Because I recently added playlist support to the Pro version "convert to phone" is under revision to make it work in a kind of batch mode.

I just added a guide how to stream over VPN. It works great over 3G and Wi-Fi and protects your VLC by password.

I tried VLC Stream & Convert.
it works great, I am able to stream from my pc .

@TravelDevel
Thanks a lot

 

[Farlander]

Cool thread thought I'd rehash. I'm using an host/client combo right now called skifta which works amazingly well though still a bit choppy on large hi res videos. I decided to set up my own ftp and access it with my phone, but I cannot seem to get a decent stream. I can connect to all my files with blazing speed but the streaming seems to crash. I access the ftp with es file explorer, but maybe a different app can stream via ftp?