Internet Streaming
Stream Movies, Audio from iDisk to Your iPxxx
I’d forgotten that I’d converted many Battlestar Galactica Recorded TV files recorded using Windows Media Center to mp4 files and stashed them away on a NAS drive.
I just had one of those A HA moments and uploaded one of them to my iDisk in the cloud (which comes with my MobileMe subscription). I had been thinking of iDisk as a place in the cloud to stash files, but not as a streaming server. I downloaded the iDisk app to my iPad (and to my iPhone) and yup, I’ve got another place to store media files that can be served to my computers and iPxxx devices over the Internet. Apple supplies 10GB of cloud storage space (compared to the 25GB Microsoft supplies with SkyDrive, but MS doesn’t seem to have an App in the App store <G>).
Here are a couple of captures from my iPad:
iPad + WHS (Vail) + Air Video + Recorded TV = Internet Streaming
Air Video (Free) for the iPad just made my non DRM’d MCE Recorded TV mobile. A few simple hoops to jump through and a couple of gotcha’s, but for me, well worth the effort. I’m streaming recorded TV over 3G.
Ingredients:
Vail (WHS2) Beta
Apple iTunes x64
Air Video (Free from the App Store)
iPad
DVR-MS Recorded TV files
Well, Vail is in public beta. I’m disappointed that there isn’t any Media Center functionality (i.e., whole home networked Media Center), but at least I’ve got a slick way to stream my unprotected recorded TV (and other video formats) while away from home.
I’m going to be purchasing the full version of Air Video. This one’s a keeper and then some. I set up the free version today and I’m, well, wowed.
Air Video streams quite a number of file formats natively, and can convert some (but not all) in real time and stream. That includes dvr-ms (but not, unfortunately, wtv). I’m looking for a slicker way to automatically convert my wtv files to dvr-ms, but for now, I right click a wtv on a W7 machine and then select convert to dvr-ms. Enough for a demo and to know that this is one app I’m going to be using alot. The Free version of Air Video only allows 3 files in a folder, so for now, I’ve divided a few files up accordingly and stored them on my Vail machine. That was the hard part. Or at least manually distracting.
In order, I
1. Installed iTunes x64 (this includes Bonjour – if you already have iTunes without Bonjour, you will need to install it)
2. Downloaded the server side software. Configured it by specifying the folders
3. . Downloaded and installed the Air Video Free server software from iTunes on my iPad
4. Specified the server on the iPad in Air Server Server settings.
5. Started watching streaming recorded TV over 3G (also works at home on WiFi)
Note: If your router isn’t UPnP, you will need to forward TCP Port 45631
You can see you can play in real time with Live Conversion. This worked perfectly for me. You can also convert and queue up various titles.
Full screen in landscape view on my iPad is totally watchable.
