Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

How can I stream my HD media over the internet?

3K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  habskilla 
#1 ·
Ok, so I've been searching around the web for an answer to this and haven't come up with much. I've found a few different services out there that may do the trick (Orb, Twonky, etc.) but I think there must be some way I can do it.

My main goal for this is to be able to have my in laws access my media collection. For the sake of this let us not worry about bandwidth or connection speeds. I am just trying to figure out the logistics of how to make this work as simply as possible. I know that the first step would be to have their computer see mine over the net. I want them to be able to stream the videos, not have to download them first.

I'm sure I am not the only person out there who is interested in this so I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions.

Ideally I would like to have a solution that will not be dependant on the OS or at the very least work with both Mac and PC.

If anyone wants any specific information on my setup I am happy to share it.

Cheers
 
#3 ·
You honestly might actually be the only person interested in this. When family/friends want to borrow my media, I just lend them the disks the good, old-fashioned way. I seriously wouldn't do it this way for several reasons personally, legality aside, and switched my whole LAN to 1Gb/802.11n from 100Mb/802.11g solely for the purpose of media streaming. When it comes down to it though, you ultimately want to setup either a streaming server (as you found already) or a VPN-based WAN.
 
#4 ·
Probably easiest to just set up a VPN and have them connect.
While connected, their computer works as if it was on your home network. So any of the things you have shared over your network, they can access the same way.

All modern operating systems have this built in these days, pretty simple to set up (google instructions, but its usually as simple as 'set up a new connection' and follow the prompts).

If you're on cable/fixed IP you can give them your IP to use to login, or you can setup something dyndns to give them a domain to connect to your computer/VPN.
 
#5 ·
Let's assume that I own the rights to any videos I am wanting to share (videos that i have made, etc.)

How would I go about setting this up?

I came across a great app, Air Video, for the iPhone/iPad that does what I want... but you need to have an iPhone/iPad. I want to be able to stream to another computer.

Cheers
 
#6 ·
easiest way to do it is over a VPN. once that's done (and you have enough bandwidth, which for some reason you want to take out of the equation, which makes no sense) then they can just browse to your server and watch whatever's there, just as if they were in the next room


the key is the bandwidth


if you don't have enough, then you're wasting your time, to be honest
 
#9 ·
I believe that VLC can also stream content. SageTV Placeshifter would have been an option but you can no longer buy it. Windows Media Encoder kind of did this but it was discontinued several years ago.

Another, perhaps more legal, use would be to stream content from your a PC in you regular home to a second home such as a cottage, chalet, etc.

But unless you have dozens of terabytes the easiest and cheapest way to do this is likely to buy hard drives and copy the files for them. You can fit a lot of "your own content" on a 2TB drive that costs much less than $100. And it also gives you an offsite backup.
 
#11 ·
Natilus13,

Here's a solution that will work on many platforms. The anchor is XBMC http://xbmc.org/download/. Here are the general steps needed:
- Create an account at http://www.dyndns.com/. This will tie your dynamic IP to a constant name. This is a free service.
- If your router has the ability, setup your dyndns info in there or grab the dyndns client and run it on one of your computers.
- Create a ftp server. Filezilla works great and is open source.
- Create a secure user account that has read only access to where your media files are located.
- Somehow allow internet ftp traffic to the computer where your ftp server is running.
- Setup XBMC on the remote computer. XBMC is open source.
- Create a ftp video source in XMBC that points to your dyndns account, and uses the secure ftp user you created.

Very simple open source/free solution. I've done this, and it works terrific. But, I have FibreOp that has a 30 Mb/s upload :). This will still work well with a 1 or 2 Mb/s upload.

Another solution, as you know, is Orb, but it's windows and MAC only. Orb does adapt well to low bandwidth situations.

Good luck

PS There are many legit reasons to share home media over the internet. Personally, I've gone down this route to allow me to control and keep all my content in my hands. Next time you're at a photo sharing site, read the TOS carefully and you'll be shocked to read who has rights to your photos once you upload them.
 
#12 ·
Thank you all for your responses, especially habskilla. I will give it a try and see if it works. Where I currently live I believe I had enough upload speed for this to work.

In response to the person suggesting I copy the files to drives, I do have terabytes of files so that is not an option. There is also the fact that my media library is constantly growing so therefore I would have to buy twice the amount of storage if I was making duplicate copies of everything.

As for Youtube, or any other similar solution, habskilla brings up a very valid point. Read the TOS. I too would like to retain ownership to my own media.

Thanks again all. I've always found this community very helpful :D

Cheers
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top