A fantastic alternative is Plex (no affiliation). You can host your media on your own computer and watch it anywhere. Plex handles all the network nonsense (no ports to forward, etc...). Depending on the filetype and what your device can play, plex will either transcode on the fly seamlessly or just stream the exact original file.
Downside is you have to have a computer that is always on, connected, and potentially unusable for other purposes when transcoding. In my case it's a Acer Revo HTPC connected to the living room TV.
Good point. I think the bigger downside is the speed -- most people's home internet upload speed is probably not fast enough (the average in the US is ~1.6mbps) to support you streaming your media from around the world and having someone at home use the internet simultaneously.
The use case that this would be useful for is if you don't want to worry about having a local media center at home and relying on your home internet connection to do the streaming (also Streem offers social integration, aggregated list of movies/TV shows to browse, etc.) :).
Yeah my connection is really good so that's not a problem for me (20 down, 4 up).
I think the aggregate location to find free content online is a great angle to pursue. Create a nice couch interface like YouTube Leanback and I think you're onto something.
The Android client has just got a complete rewrite that's made it better than its iOS counterpart (I use both regularly). However, it's still in beta and only available to Plex Pass users until the final release.
There's also an app for Samsung Smart TVs that I use a lot.
Also no affiliation, and I couldn't recommend Plex more. My 2-year-old Mac Mini handles the transcoding and serving very well. It really is a great UI and seamless.
In fact this Streem looks a lot like Plex's web interface that I already use.
I've been running plex on an older Core 2 duo Mac Mini for a few years. Overall I love it. The downside is the Mac Mini takes a little longer when it's transcoding.
Comments
A fantastic alternative is Plex (no affiliation). You can host your media on your own computer and watch it anywhere. Plex handles all the network nonsense (no ports to forward, etc...). Depending on the filetype and what your device can play, plex will either transcode on the fly seamlessly or just stream the exact original file.
Downside is you have to have a computer that is always on, connected, and potentially unusable for other purposes when transcoding. In my case it's a Acer Revo HTPC connected to the living room TV.
Good point. I think the bigger downside is the speed -- most people's home internet upload speed is probably not fast enough (the average in the US is ~1.6mbps) to support you streaming your media from around the world and having someone at home use the internet simultaneously.
The use case that this would be useful for is if you don't want to worry about having a local media center at home and relying on your home internet connection to do the streaming (also Streem offers social integration, aggregated list of movies/TV shows to browse, etc.) :).
Yeah my connection is really good so that's not a problem for me (20 down, 4 up).
I think the aggregate location to find free content online is a great angle to pursue. Create a nice couch interface like YouTube Leanback and I think you're onto something.
Is there a Plex client for Android?
I use AirVideo on iOS and it is flawless, but would like to find something similar for Android.
The Android client has just got a complete rewrite that's made it better than its iOS counterpart (I use both regularly). However, it's still in beta and only available to Plex Pass users until the final release.
There's also an app for Samsung Smart TVs that I use a lot.
Yes, there's an android and iOS app as well as a roku app. The Plex Media Server works on windows, mac, and linux.
Yes and it's really good. 599 but totally worth it. Also works as a remote for the HTPC client.
http://www.subsonic.org is a pretty cool alternative for music streeming from home as well. Especially with https://github.com/hakko/musiccabinet
Also no affiliation, and I couldn't recommend Plex more. My 2-year-old Mac Mini handles the transcoding and serving very well. It really is a great UI and seamless.
In fact this Streem looks a lot like Plex's web interface that I already use.
I've been running plex on an older Core 2 duo Mac Mini for a few years. Overall I love it. The downside is the Mac Mini takes a little longer when it's transcoding.
Yeah you definitely need the computing power to handle transcoding otherwise it's a frustrating experience.