My continuing quest for an app that will allow me to play Flash video content from UK-based sites such as LoveFilm has proved fruitless thus far, so I’ve recently found myself playing with Air Video once more. InMethod Air Video MKV playback: Air Video enables viewing of unsupported video formats on iOS devices This …

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Thursday 7th April 2011 08:59 GMT Alex Walsh

almost great

I've used this for a while. its great for converting stuff to store locally or stream in a format native to the iPhone but the resources it requires to transcode exceed what my modest Acer Revo can manage. Shame really because I use the nettop in a permanently on scenario.

Out of interest, why choose this over Orb, which does music as well?

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Thursday 7th April 2011 09:02 GMT Anonymous Coward

Streaming direct from NAS?

Running a server program on a PC is no good. All my vids are on a NAS. Any suggestions for an app that will stream directly from the NAS to iOS? Tried AirPlayer, but it's not great performance wise, and a bit buggy...

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1. Thursday 7th April 2011 09:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Buzz Player
  
  I've been streaming from ReadyNAS duo to iPhone4 using Buzz Player - has so far handled all my various vid formats just fine. Can't comment on mkv files, but apart from that I'm very very happy.
  
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2. Thursday 7th April 2011 15:00 GMT JEDIDIAH
  
  The N in NAS means you can use the stuff anywhere.
  
  > Running a server program on a PC is no good. All my vids are on a NAS
  
  So you just mount your NAS as a drive on whatever machine AirVideo is running on.
  
  How long have MacOS and Window supported this sort of thing? Forever?
  
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  1. Friday 8th April 2011 09:12 GMT Annihilator
    
    @JEDIDIAH
    
    "So you just mount your NAS as a drive on whatever machine AirVideo is running on."
    
    How clever, I'm sure the OP didn't think of that. Or maybe, the objection was around needing two machines to be on - a server and a random PC to transcode. The real request was for an Air Video server that will run on common NAS setups. FreeNAS seems a blindingly obvious choice.
    
    I'm in the same scenario, and while the NAS is on 24x7, the PC isn't - so have to plan ahead if I want to watch something remotely.
    
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Thursday 7th April 2011 09:03 GMT mafoo

"Buy from amazon"

erm, wtf?

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Thursday 7th April 2011 09:03 GMT Tom 38

Welcome to 2009

http://www.ioncannon.net/programming/452/iphone-http-streaming-with-ffmpeg-and-an-open-source-segmenter/

My version of this is ~100 lines of python, to choose the file, setup the transcoding and segmenting in the background, and hand off to webkit.

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Thursday 7th April 2011 09:05 GMT Paw Bokenfohr

What I'd be more interested in...

...is a similar server/application that doesn't require the use of intermediate servers, ideally based on UPnP or DNLA.

I'm technical enough that I can open a port in my firewall, and point the app at my public IP (or in my case an FQDN as I have Virgin Media, so no static IP for me) so that I can stream directly from my PC, and then it wouldn't matter if AirVideo pulled their service, rendering the app useless.

This is what happened with Simplify (which I had paid for, and worked great, until they went away, rendering it useless).

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1. Thursday 7th April 2011 12:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  There is no service for them to pull with this app
  
  "so that I can stream directly from my PC, and then it wouldn't matter if AirVideo pulled their service, rendering the app useless"
  
  I think you have misunderstood how this works, you are running a server application on your pc so there is no actual service that they could pull.
  
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  1. Friday 8th April 2011 08:43 GMT Paw Bokenfohr
    
    Really?
    
    I'd love to be mistaken, but I'm afraid that I think it's you that is, sorry.
    
    How does the app "find" the server running on PC when you're out and about?
    
    With Simplify you ran a server on your PC, so you're streaming direct from your PC to the app, but in order for the app and the server program to be able to find one another, they used the Simplify central servers; that's why you have to log in to the same account on the PC server and the mobile app.
    
    Once the central servers disappear, the PC server and app are useless because they have no way to find each other - the mobile app has no setting to specify an IP of the PC server for example.
    
    From my trial of Air Sharing it seems to be the same, and so seems to have the same reliance on the central service that could be terminated at any time.
    
    To be sure, it makes it easier for non-techies to set up, but that's not what I want; I would prefer some reliability this time.
    
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    1. Friday 8th April 2011 09:11 GMT Annihilator
      
      @Paw Bokenfohr
      
      "I'd love to be mistaken, but I'm afraid that I think it's you that is, sorry. How does the app "find" the server running on PC when you're out and about?"
      
      Good news Paw, you are indeed mistaken. There is a Windows or Mac application that runs on your desktop that does the transcoding. The iOS device uses Bonjour to detect it when on the local network, no external service required. When doing it while out and about, you're responsible for finding your home IP address and having the ports opened, there is no central server to disappear.
      
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      1. Monday 11th April 2011 08:37 GMT Paw Bokenfohr
        
        @ Annihilator
        
        Awesome - thanks for that. When I trialled it (some time ago) it wasn't like this, or at least, I don't remember it being like this. I'll give it another go.
        
        Anyone know of an app that does the same thing for music at the moment?
        
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        Tuesday 12th April 2011 11:28 GMT A. Nervosa
        
        @Paw
        
        I strongly recommend looking at Subsonic if you want to stream your music (and video) from a home server. Fantastic web interface and Android / iPhone apps that allow you to stream and cache music directly to your phone (arguably removing the need for iTunes completely).
        
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Thursday 7th April 2011 09:35 GMT InITForTheMoney

Zumocast is similar and works over 3G networks

I've been using Zumocast for the same thing, also happens to work fine over 3G, it's even quite good and I've streamed video to my iPhone at good quality and without any stuttering.

Zumocast will also allow you to view documents that you have stored on your computer and to download movies, music or documents to the phone from your library or shared folder. Quite a nifty little app for a free service.

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1. Thursday 7th April 2011 11:00 GMT Alex Walsh
  
  reply
  
  Air Video works over 3G- I've been sitting in the park watching IT Crowd before :)
  
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Thursday 7th April 2011 11:00 GMT RichyS

Use it, and it's okay.

"Apple’s control-freak tendencies mean that iOS devices only play Apple’s preferred MP4 video format"

So control freaky that you can download the free VLC app from the App Store and play pretty much any format you want -- even all those poor quality AVI and DivXs you 'aquired' somewhere!

I bought Air Video a year or so ago, and have found it moderately useful -- the good thing is you don't have to carry your video everywhere with you, the downside is you have to have your Mac on, and it only really works over a local network.

I haven't really bothered with the transcoding as all my video (mostly DVD rips) are already in .m4v H.264. Let's face it, H.264 is basically the best codec, and I see no reason to mess around with containers such as MKV (why it's so popular in certain torrenty parts of the Internets is beyond me). Maybe there's just something I don't get.

@Alex Walsh: I tried Orb before getting Air Video, and found it to be a little unreliable (I wasn't bothered about the music bit of it either). YMMV, however.

What I'd like to see is a NAS box that can offer AirPlay streaming as a source. At least AirPlay works, unlike the mess that is DNLA.

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1. Thursday 7th April 2011 15:00 GMT JEDIDIAH
  
  Stop swimming in the cool-aid
  
  > So control freaky that you can download the free VLC app from the App
  
  ...except you can't because Apple doesn't allow proper free software.
  
  It offends their "control freak" sensibilities. Can't have the end users installing whatever they want or sharing things with each other.
  
  This is a great app for overcoming the fact that the stock iPad is a walled garden that doesn't allow for things like avi or mpeg or samba. The fact that is "convoluted" should not be held against it.
  
  It seems it is getting marked off for the iPad's limitations despite the fact that this product is a means to bypass those limitations.
  
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  1. Friday 8th April 2011 08:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
    
    Misinformed
    
    Re: "Stop swimming in the cool-aid"
    
    Er wrong. I have VLC. Installed it prior to it being pulled and i use it to play .wmv and .mkv video. Apple didn't pull this app. VLC did. It was a port and a VLC programmer complained some of the AppStore terms are incompatible with the Open Source license VLC source code uses. He was probably annoyed the port to iOS had been done without them. Anyway, the app was available but Apple removed it at the request of VLC.
    
    The article is wrong. Apple allowed VLC and another VLC like app (without an incompatible Open Source license) is perfectly possible. Of course H.264 has big advantages because it means all video decoding is hardware accelerated , a massive boost to battery life. The no longer available version of VLC I have runs the battery down about twice as fast for non h.264 formats.
    
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2. Friday 8th April 2011 08:43 GMT Penti
  
  MKV
  
  MKV is partly so popular because it's a better container format with better support for stuff like subtitles and supports using AC-3, DTS-MA, TrueHD and so on. Which will fail in a MP4 or M4V container. You can always remux files that will play though. (They have started to support AC3 kinda, but it's recently and MKV was already established and used with all three formats by then).
  
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3. Wednesday 13th April 2011 15:50 GMT hitmouse
  
  poor quality AVIs
  
  I have a lot of high quality AVIs I've made myself. In the cases where I've ripped my own DVDs for use on a multimedia hard drive, almost none of these support m4v/H264. Ditto for DVD players with USB input - pretty much every $40 DVD player on the planet supports DivX/XVID but almost none support H264.
  
  I too have VLC on my iPhone but you have to go through somersaults to get the video onto the device because iTunes won't just pick up these files in a video-sync.
  
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Thursday 7th April 2011 11:00 GMT J 12

Airplay is wonderful

Just played around with this again, and my new AppleTV last night. Using the Airplay feature means I can send from mac to iPhone/iPad and then to TV via AppleTV. No cables to plug in and I can have the full remote next to me. This means I don't require another computer in the bedroom as a media client.

The issue with using a NAS to stream direct to iPhone is that most of them don't really have the grunt for transcoding. As it happens, I convert all my dvd / vids to H264 .m4v files that get stored on my NAS. Some sort of Airvideo server without transcoding. for Synology NAS' would be great

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1. Friday 8th April 2011 08:39 GMT Synonymous Howard
  
  Elgato have just upgraded their EyeTV ios app for video over AirPlay
  
  and it works a treat .. live and recorded TV on my AppleTV streamed wirelessly through my iPad from my Mac Mini captured using an EyeTV tuner ... weird but wonderful.
  
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Thursday 7th April 2011 12:33 GMT stu 4

used to use it - now just use samba shares

samba shares and xbmc for ios

or ifile

work a treat. even plays 720p mkv files and some 1080p mkvs

stu

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Thursday 7th April 2011 15:00 GMT Philip Harvey

@RichyS

"So control freaky that you can download the free VLC app from the App Store and play pretty much any format you want"

Lord Steve pulled VLC from the App Store since he didn't want to abide by the GPL licence terms, dooh!

Transcoding with Handbrake and playing using FileAppPro works very well. You don't get the poor playback performance and reduced battery life associated with VLC and other software based players such as Oplayer, no need to stream over 3G and no need to add the file to your iTunes library. Of course this isn't streaming, so you have to think an hour ahead of time to convert the video you want to take on the road with you...

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1. Friday 8th April 2011 08:39 GMT Michael C
  
  get it right
  
  the VLC group itself ordered it pulled. Not because Apple does not support GPL, but that GPL does not support ANY form of "app store" model. Apple has nothing to do with it. A VLC app on Android can be equally ordered pulled. the remote is fine, the VLC player is not.
  
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2. Friday 8th April 2011 10:18 GMT RichyS
  
  @Philip Harvey
  
  Hey, don't let facts get in the way of a good anti-Apple rant.
  
  Get back in yer basement...
  
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Friday 8th April 2011 08:36 GMT Anonymous Coward

Android user, and

I have had poor results transcoding Freeview terrestrial digital TV recordings to iPod-style MP4 for mobile viewing on Android - eg, sound out of step with picture. This may be partly due to eccentric behaviour by my Freeview recording boxes - I have one for "radio" and one for TV.

Currently I'm using the free Android VitalPlayer which uses the FFmpeg library to play, legally I hope. I picked it because it seems to be more updated than a couple of other FFmpeg programs, and being free with adverts is initially tolerable. One of my devices apparently generates videos wtithout a working play counter but otherwise it's going pretty well.

Meanwhile FFmpeg developers seem to have quarrelled and forked the software as libav. Whichever version goes best, I don't suppose that the MPEG patent owners will be very upset to see an open-source competitor (let's say) in trouble

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1. Friday 8th April 2011 11:07 GMT Robert Carnegie
  
  Re-reading what I just posted,
  
  I haven't yet tried to play "Freeview" radio recordings on my tablet. That's more of a grey area than the video.
  
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Friday 8th April 2011 08:40 GMT Milkfloat

Sold.

Based on the review, I went and downloaded this as I was fed up with batch converting from .avi's. i am using this to stream to an ipod touch and then onto my Apple TV 2. One word of warning, I had to find and install the beta of the server software to get the video to work. With the release version I had audio only on the ATV. It seems to work well coping with converting a large .mkv file on the fly. To be honest it would be a damn sight easier if nasty Steve was not quite so restrictive.

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Saturday 9th April 2011 06:37 GMT Carl Partridge

Good, but can do more with other apps

I'm all for this 'anti-cloud' approach of streaming video from your own home - I mean you pay for your ISP connection, so you already own your own piece of the cloud!

But there are other options to Air Video. Orb works well, as mentioned by another poster, and can I mention my own (free) server called 'Remote Potato'. Does the same, but also streams all your music, pictures and video too, plus access to Windows Media Center scheduling, EPG, etc if you're running Windows 7. Cons: the server only works on PCs, but you can stream your content to any web browser on any OS, and there are clients available for Android, iOS and WIndows Phone too.

Re: house rules, I'm trying to avoid this being a shameless plug; there are indeed pros and cons to Remote Potato (and obviously I wrote it!) but I would recommend checking it out before you choose a streaming solution - many thousands already have.

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Tuesday 12th April 2011 12:17 GMT Philip Harvey

@RichyS & @Michael C

I think you need to get your facts right. Apple pulled VLC from the app store rather than comply with GPL. If you guys want to dispute the facts how about quoting some sources rather than just slagging people off.

http://applidium.com/en/news/apple_pulled_vlc_off_the_appstore

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/as_vlc_for_iphone_ipad_pulled_from_app_store_whats.php#

One of the VLC developers complained to Apple that they were putting their DRM on top of VLC application, which restricted the number of devices that the application could be installed on to to 5. The GPL says you can't restrict re-distribution, so they were not complying with the licence of VLC. Steve didn't want to comply with the GPL so instead decided to pull the app.

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