Stream video to an iPad/iPhone for Free

Apple’s iPad is a wonderful device for watching video, but the limited space on the cheaper 16GB device can limit your selection. There are solutions, such as Netflix’s great app, but that requires a subscription. There are commercial apps that can stream video from your computer to the iPad, but why spend money when you can do the same thing for free with an old computer (Windows, Mac, Linux) and a local network.

This instructable takes advantage of HTML5 video, witch allows you to stream H.264 video to your apple product. I will be using an iPad, but this should work for any device that supports H.264 video in HTML5, even the Chrome browser.

Anyone with some basic computer knowledge and basic networking knowledge should be able to follow these instructions. Some HTML/PHP knowledge can be useful for customizing the web UI, but none is needed.

Step 1 Parts

Computer
H.264 video (not DRM iTunes videos)
Wi-Fi network
Apache Server (part of Xampp)
PHP (optional)(part of Xampp)
Filezilla server (optional)(part of Xampp)


I set up the server software on an old PIII computer, but this will work on any computer. I used PHP to create a better user interface, and Filezilla to remotely add videos to the server, which is running next to my router with no monitor.

You can choose to run Apache and PHP on your main computer. You will need to leave your computer on to stream videos, though. I had an old computer, so I chose to use it. It is an old Pentium III 500mhz with 128MB of ram running windows XP. I find that I am bandwidth bound and not processor bound. The external drive I’m using to store videos on is connected via USB 1.1, so that plays a big part of it, yet I am able to stream standard def video fine.

Comments

[maxmunzel]

Hi, thats an awsome idea, but I would use php's readdir command.
Look at this: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.readdir.php

[dbbd]

I use AirVideo, but I really like your idea. I'm sure it can be used also to stream music as well. I think the iPad is a great device except the lack of memory, so its best use is to be a streamable pad, only the streamers they have now cost money.

Will it stream videos to the Safari browser?
For AVI, MKVs, I won't have to transcode?
Thanks
Dan

[acrog2]

I haven't tested music, but in theory it is no different. This same concept works with desktop browsers that support h.264 HTML5 video, so all current generation browsers except firefox. Though, there are better solutions for streaming to a desktop. VLC integrates easily into this system.

However, you WILL need to transcode your video in to format supported by mobile safari. I don't know what container formats are supported, but the video needs to be H.264

Aaron

[acrog2]

I choose xammp because when I tried simply sharing the files over a network, I couldn't play the videos. I wanted something free, so air video and other services were out of the question, and all of my videos are in the proper format, so transcodeing isn't a problem, but if it is, then $3 isn't to much to pay, but I doubt that I could transcode video realtime on my old pIII computer.

[camintmier]

Instead of installing xampp and all that, how about just using something like HFS? http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/ It's small, lightweight, and serves files easily. I currently use it to connect my pc files to my iPod Touch, and can stream video thru it efficiently. You could also use Air Video ( http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html ) to stream videos, but you have to pay for it. I highly recommend it because it'll transcode just about any video you can throw at it to something iPhone compatible. Note: You'll have to run the server software also, which does all the transcoding. It's fairly small, my system shows it only using 40MB when idle. And you can connect your device to multiple computers running the server software.