As my office shift further away from my home, the daily commute stretched from 45mins to almost an hour or more. To make it more bearable, I will try to catch up on some old movies and TV shows I get from DVDs. However, these can take hours to sync if you have a lot of them in your computer. Or if you have movies on different formats – avi, MKV or DivX and don’t want to convert for your iOS device?
Air Video by “In Method”:http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html is one app that can make that possible. At US$2.99 – this is one solution for those who wants their videos anytime and anywhere.
Air Video lets you watch most of the DRM-free format available (see the supported list “here”:http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/features.html) – except those you buy from Apple – over WiFi or 3G. All you need is to install their free “Air Video server”:http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/download.html (Mac or Windows), configure the various folders with all your video files and activate the server, you are done!
If you want to watch it outside your LAN, you can configure the “Remote Access”:http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/remote-access.html function and take note of the server PIN number which you use to connect to the server. For that to work, your home network needs to have UPnP or NAT-PMP protocols running.
Next is to install the “Air Video app”:http://itunes.apple.com/app/air-video-watch-your-videos/id306550020?mt=8# on your iOS device – this works universally on both iPhone and iPad. To configure, you just need to add the computer running the server software. Like me, I set up both my server in LAN and also added the server PIN number when I access it outside.
To watch, you just need to connect to the server, and select the videos you want to watch. If it is in a format that can be watch directly with iOS device, it will let you stream. If not, you need the server to convert the file first before watching it. If you have a decently good machine, you can stream the video with LIVE CONVERSION – which converts and streams the video as you watch.
My set up at home is a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini connected via Starhub’s “MaxOnline Express”:http://www.starhub.com/broadband/plan/maxonlineexpress.html plan. As you can see in the screen grab below, the quality of the streaming is pretty good – both on WiFi or on the Singtel 3G network (disclaimer – haven’t try it on the move).
If you are one video junkie – this app is a must-have in your iOS app list! If unsure, try it with their “FREE version”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=313056918&mt=8 that limits the number of videos displayed. Let us know if this work for you!
- read more about “Air Video”:http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/
- purchase “Air Video”:http://itunes.apple.com/app/air-video-watch-your-videos/id306550020?mt=8# or download the “free version”:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=313056918&mt=8
