iTunes Video Library Streaming on iPhone

[gceo]

Check out this method for streaming your iTunes video library to you, even outside of your LAN.

http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/09/21/out-of-the-box-itunes-streaming-to-your-iphone/

Just a few lines of code in Terminal.

I also had to use a chmod on the Music folder.

sudo chmod 755 ~/Music

Works pretty slick.

 

[Avatar74]

It works!

What's really nice is that by default it launches the movie viewer app but allows you to view in any orientation. I think this is the next wave of technological convergence... being able to take an AppleTV type concept and extend it over the internet to connect you with your LAN content from anywhere.

I think Apple is aiming in that direction with iPhone, AppleTV and devices they have in the pipeline.

 

[djearlybird]

How long does it buffer if you are out of the coverage area of your LAN?

 

[Avatar74]

I'm not quite sure how long it buffers but it works great over 802.11g. My only problem is that I have some file formats that work on AppleTV that don't on iphone but I'll just have to re-encode them. I have over 120GB of drive space set aside for my media library so that shouldn't be a problem!

 

[dangleheart]

I don't understand why people are surprised ( and excited ) this actually works. This is no different from viewing a streaming video clip with Quicktime from the internet at large. I do grant the value added by providing the simple steps to link up the itunes movies folder to the web server so it can serve the movies for you.

 

[sanford]

Telekinesis does this and some other things with a GUI and no changing permissions on your Mac. Google for telekinesis iphone. There's a Google Code page. It's extensible, web-only, involves only Safari on the iPhone, no native apps installed on iPhone, no hacking. Works a charm for streaming audio and video, even FairPlay DRM Protected AAC songs and I assume video if the iPhone is authorized to the Mac in question, even in its alpha pre-release stage. Some features secure but it's not secure for media streaming, so if you're going to stream outside your local network, take appropriate precautions. But it sounds more secure than this method, as when you chmod that folder it's permanent until you chmod it back. But when you quit Telekinesis everything is locked up tight again.

Oh, I was going to add, Apple was head in this direction with iTunes a while back. You could stream music to anyone over the Internet. Like your own radio station. It was so cool for about 15 minutes Technically there might have been some ASCAP issues, but you couldn't download the songs, so no one really cared. Then some Gumbys wrote and released an app or iTunes plug-in to let you actually download from other people's iTunes libraries -- instant P2P piracy mill; so Apple clamped the sharing to local network only. Too bad.

My PS3 and PSP do this over the Internet, securely, which is pretty cool, but since my media is focused on Apple products and the PS3 I just use for games, I wish Apple would secure this and do it again for Apple TV and/or Mac -> authorized iPhone or other authorized Mac.

Check out this method for streaming your iTunes video library to you, even outside of your LAN.

http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/09/21/out-of-the-box-itunes-streaming-to-your-iphone/

Just a few lines of code in Terminal.

I also had to use a chmod on the Music folder.

sudo chmod 755 ~/Music

Works pretty slick.

 

[Avatar74]

I don't understand why people are surprised ( and excited ) this actually works. This is no different from viewing a streaming video clip with Quicktime from the internet at large. I do grant the value added by providing the simple steps to link up the itunes movies folder to the web server so it can serve the movies for you.

I'm not impressed with the fact that it works. I'm impressed with how it works... It switches into the movie viewer app which is as good or better than watching it from the onboard memory. For one thing, it's not locked in a browser style window as are many Windows Media solutions for watching movies on PCs and mobile devices. For another, the video streaming can be viewed in any orientation.

The biggest value added here will be in how and when Apple implements their own pushbutton solution for you to stream this over your network to iPhone anywhere you are on the go. It'll be extremely successful if it's consistent with Apple's reputation for excellent user interface design.

 

[sanford]

Yeah, it doesn't embed it in a freaking Safari page. I was stunned when I used Tele and saw it looked just like it was playing off the iPhone's internal storage.

I'm not impressed with the fact that it works. I'm impressed with how it works... It switches into the movie viewer app which is as good or better than watching it from the onboard memory. For one thing, it's not locked in a browser style window as are many Windows Media solutions for watching movies on PCs and mobile devices. For another, the video streaming can be viewed in any orientation.

The biggest value added here will be in how and when Apple implements their own pushbutton solution for you to stream this over your network to iPhone anywhere you are on the go. It'll be extremely successful if it's consistent with Apple's reputation for excellent user interface design.