Streaming out the back of your home router

[Oliver]

I don't know what I'm doing so that's why I'm asking the question.

I can easily download movies (don't ask how if you're going to preach).

My sister wants to stream some movies on her phone that I download.
She lives two states away so I have to put it on my router USB.

If she was technical, she could download it onto your mac & play it.
But she doesn't want to do that (it's a company mac she uses).

But she has an iPhone 14, which is what she uses to stream movies.

Given a typical 1080p movie is about 2GB, downloading onto her phone is
problematic for her (plus she's not technical so it has to be easy).

She wants to stream it instead.

It's easy to put the movie onto the router USB stick and that makes the
entire 2GB available to her for downloading, but can she stream it?

I guess the test is whether I can stream it on my own network, right?
How do you test "stream" a movie that you have access to on your LAN?

What software does that streaming (to simulate what she'll need to do)?

I have VLC and MPC-BE freeware but that "plays" the full movie.
How would I stream a movie on Windows to test it out for her iPhone?

[Big Al]

Post by Oliver
I don't know what I'm doing so that's why I'm asking the question.
I can easily download movies (don't ask how if you're going to preach).
My sister wants to stream some movies on her phone that I download.
She lives two states away so I have to put it on my router USB.
If she was technical, she could download it onto your mac & play it.
But she doesn't want to do that (it's a company mac she uses).
But she has an iPhone 14, which is what she uses to stream movies.
Given a typical 1080p movie is about 2GB, downloading onto her phone is problematic for her (plus
she's not technical so it has to be easy).
She wants to stream it instead.
It's easy to put the movie onto the router USB stick and that makes the entire 2GB available to her
for downloading, but can she stream it?
I guess the test is whether I can stream it on my own network, right?
How do you test "stream" a movie that you have access to on your LAN?
What software does that streaming (to simulate what she'll need to do)?
I have VLC and MPC-BE freeware but that "plays" the full movie.
How would I stream a movie on Windows to test it out for her iPhone?

Do you have google drive? One Drive?
I put an AVI on my GoogleDrive and clicked on it and it opened in Firefox and played.
With either drive you can share items with her. Last time I did it, it just wanted the email of
the person you share with and it sends a link to them. She then clicks the link.

[Oliver]

Post by Big Al

Post by Oliver
I have VLC and MPC-BE freeware but that "plays" the full movie.
How would I stream a movie on Windows to test it out for her iPhone?

Do you have google drive? One Drive?
I put an AVI on my GoogleDrive and clicked on it and it opened in Firefox and played.
With either drive you can share items with her. Last time I did it, it just wanted the email of
the person you share with and it sends a link to them. She then clicks the link.

The Google Drive is no different than a flash stick stuck in my router.
With the huge advantage of the file not being on someone else's server.

Both make the file accessible to anyone on the Internet with the link.
But that doesn't answer the question of how to stream it.

[Big Al]

Post by Oliver

Post by Oliver
I have VLC and MPC-BE freeware but that "plays" the full movie.
How would I stream a movie on Windows to test it out for her iPhone?

Do you have google drive?  One Drive?
I put an AVI on my GoogleDrive and clicked on it and it opened in Firefox and played.
With either drive you can share items with her.   Last time I did it, it just wanted the email of
the person you share with and it sends a link to them.  She then clicks the link.

The Google Drive is no different than a flash stick stuck in my router.
With the huge advantage of the file not being on someone else's server.
Both make the file accessible to anyone on the Internet with the link.
But that doesn't answer the question of how to stream it.

Cool, who's router. I could use that.

[Chris]

Post by Oliver

Post by Big Al

Post by Oliver
I have VLC and MPC-BE freeware but that "plays" the full movie.
How would I stream a movie on Windows to test it out for her iPhone?

Do you have google drive? One Drive?
I put an AVI on my GoogleDrive and clicked on it and it opened in Firefox and played.
With either drive you can share items with her. Last time I did it, it
just wanted the email of
the person you share with and it sends a link to them. She then clicks the link.

The Google Drive is no different than a flash stick stuck in my router.
With the huge advantage of the file not being on someone else's server.
Both make the file accessible to anyone on the Internet with the link.
But that doesn't answer the question of how to stream it.

Streaming requires a client to watch and a server to manage the content. At
best, without some additional software, you can provide access to the
files. An iphone may be able to watch it directly from its source or may
need to download it.

[Oliver]

Post by Chris
Streaming requires a client to watch and a server to manage the content. At
best, without some additional software, you can provide access to the
files. An iphone may be able to watch it directly from its source or may
need to download it.

I wasn't sure how streaming works, but if that's how, I'll look for a free
Windows streaming server (which Paul suggested might be Windows Media
Player, but which I've never used (and which I never want to use) as I've
instead used Media Player Classic incarnations the entire time Windows has
been around). https://windowsreport.com/fix-media-streaming/
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/media-streaming-not-working-windows

The fact I've never set up Windows Media Player may be why none of the
instructions on the net work because control panel options aren't there.

Win+R control
View by: Small icons
Network and Sharing Center
Media streaming options <<<<< this doesn't exist on my Windows 10 Pro

All the articles just *assumed* that the "Media streaming options" exist.
Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\
Media streaming options
https://www.wincope.com/how-to-turn-on-or-off-media-streaming-in-windows.html
https://www.howtogeek.com/215400/how-to-turn-your-computer-into-a-dlna-media-server/
https://winbuzzer.com/2020/05/15/how-to-use-your-pc-as-a-windows-10-dlna-server-for-media-streaming-xcxwbt/
https://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/turn-on-or-off-media-streaming-in-windows-10.html

That option does not exist in my Windows 10 pro control panel.

After a lot of searching, I found this.
https://www.elevenforum.com/t/enable-or-disable-dlna-media-streaming-in-windows-10-and-windows-11.10295/
Which supplies two administrator-run registry files:
https://www.elevenforum.com/attachments/default_user_choice_turn_on_dlna_media_sharing-reg.44450/
https://www.elevenforum.com/attachments/disable_dlna_media_sharing_for_all_users-reg.44451/

But even running that first registry file as admin didn't
ADD the "Media streaming options" to the control panel.

So, I'm still looking for how do we get the media streaming options
to show up in the Windows 10 pro control panel. It may take a while.

It may be that you MUST enable the damn Windows Media Player though.
https://www.top-password.com/blog/how-to-turn-on-media-streaming-in-windows/

If that's the only way of streaming out of Windows, I guess I'll do it.
But there must be a way to stream from Windows without that damn app.

I wonder if VLC or MPC-BE can do media streaming server tasks?

[Char Jackson]

Post by Oliver
So, I'm still looking for how do we get the media streaming options
to show up in the Windows 10 pro control panel. It may take a while.
It may be that you MUST enable the damn Windows Media Player though.
https://www.top-password.com/blog/how-to-turn-on-media-streaming-in-windows/
If that's the only way of streaming out of Windows, I guess I'll do it.
But there must be a way to stream from Windows without that damn app.

I use the free version of Plex to provide LAN and/or WAN streaming of my local
video library, but that might be overkill for what you're trying to do.

https://www.plex.tv/

[VanguardLH]

Post by Oliver
Win+R control
View by: Small icons
Network and Sharing Center
Media streaming options <<<<< this doesn't exist on my Windows 10 Pro

I am using Windows 10 Home x64 22H2. When I run control.exe, I see:

https://imgur.com/a/VwfMy5D

I click on Network and Sharing Center, and see:

https://imgur.com/a/ZOrlNob

When you to "Windows features on or off" (appwiz.cpl, click "Turn
Windows features on or off"), is "Media Features" selected?

After ensuring "Media Features" are installed, and in n Windows services
(services.msc), is the "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Services"
set for Automatic startup, and is it in Running state?

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/enable-or-disable-dlna-media-streaming-in-windows-10-and-windows-11.10295/

That mentions using the policy editor which you have with the Pro
edition of Windows.

Remember if you allow external (Internet) access to the host where you
run the server, it will be available to anyone that wants to connect
there unless you put the host in a DMZ secure zone, and somehow control
who can connect to the server.

Post by Oliver
It may be that you MUST enable the damn Windows Media Player though.
https://www.top-password.com/blog/how-to-turn-on-media-streaming-in-windows/

Well, you're the one that wants to investigate using Microsoft crappy
setup for media streaming. You were given other software suggestions
that were designed to be media servers.

Post by Oliver
I wonder if VLC or MPC-BE can do media streaming server tasks?

Those play media players, not media servers which you'll still need to
setup for someone else to stream videos from your host to their rather
than the simpler file download setups.

[Paul]

Post by Oliver

Post by Chris
Streaming requires a client to watch and a server to manage the content. At
best, without some additional software, you can provide access to the
files. An iphone may be able to watch it directly from its source or may
need to download it.

I wasn't sure how streaming works

You'd look for a list of them somewhere, like Plex or Serviio (Java).

My TV Tuner has a streaming server but that does not count.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serviio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plex_Inc.

List not really complete.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_streaming_media_software

Paul

[Newyana2]

"Oliver" <***@invalid.net> wrote

| My sister wants to stream some movies on her phone that I download.
| She lives two states away so I have to put it on my router USB.
|

I've never seen that. If you're using it then there are two potential
problems. First is security. You're allowing access to your router by
anyone. Second is that it's just data. Software needs to run on an
OS.

If it were me I'd tell her to get a cheap computer or laptop aand
stream it to a TV. As long as there's HDMI output and a TV with an
HDMI port, you can set the TV as a second display that's duplicated
and the HDMI will also handle sound.

I watch mainly two things. Movies/TV streamed from Netflix, PBS or
Hoopla, and downloaded movies. In my case the downloaded movies
are legal -- things like movies from the 30s and 40s that are on youtube
or Archive.org. The streaming plays through a browser set to fullscreen.
The downloaded movies play on Media Player Classic. You can also use
VLC or whatever. Again, setting it to fullscreen means you're watching
the movie on TV as it would normally be.

I use an old Win7 computer with one TV and a Raspberry Pi 4 with
the other. Someone would have to set that up for her, but it's easy
to use, cheap, and takes up about the same space as a pack of
cigarettes. I paid $100 for the complete kit. With the RPi, the TV is
the monitor. It's a version of Linux. The streaming or playing of files
works the same way. There are USB ports to move files onto the
RPi desktop for playing.

All of that would require that your sister figure out how to download
files that you put somewhere online, but there's not much more to
know once it's set up. Then she can sit back, relax and put away her
magnifying glass. :)

[VanguardLH]

Post by Oliver
I don't know what I'm doing so that's why I'm asking the question.
I can easily download movies (don't ask how if you're going to preach).
My sister wants to stream some movies on her phone that I download.
She lives two states away so I have to put it on my router USB.
If she was technical, she could download it onto your mac & play it.
But she doesn't want to do that (it's a company mac she uses).
But she has an iPhone 14, which is what she uses to stream movies.
Given a typical 1080p movie is about 2GB, downloading onto her phone is
problematic for her (plus she's not technical so it has to be easy).
She wants to stream it instead.
It's easy to put the movie onto the router USB stick and that makes the
entire 2GB available to her for downloading, but can she stream it?
I guess the test is whether I can stream it on my own network, right?
How do you test "stream" a movie that you have access to on your LAN?
What software does that streaming (to simulate what she'll need to do)?
I have VLC and MPC-BE freeware but that "plays" the full movie.
How would I stream a movie on Windows to test it out for her iPhone?

A free OneDrive account nowadays comes with only 5 GB of quota. That's
enough to hold a couple movie files. Google Drive free comes with 15 GB
of quota. As already mentioned by Big Al, that would let you share your
movies, and just with your sister, not with everyone on the Internet
that tries to connect to your router (which you had to open to Internet
access to let your sister get at the files). But you didn't like that
solution claiming it was the same as granting access to your router and
its USB drive which is not true. Your actual complaint is the transfer
uses someone else's server for cloud sync storage.

Perhaps you want to run a web server, and grant her access to a file.
You give her a URL with a path on your web server where is the file, and
it gets downloaded by her web browser. Oh wait, you said she doesn't
want to download. She wants to stream, so she wants you to do even more
work for her entertainment.

So, perhaps what you want to setup is a video streaming server. Your
router is not a streaming server. You'll need to dedicate a host on
your intranet to run a streaming server, put it in a DMZ, get a static
IP address for the WAN-side of your router or use a DDNS (Dynamic DNS)
service to give a hostname to your router, and punch a hole in your
router's firewall to redirect inbound traffic to your streaming host,
figure out how to authenticate to your server to ensure accesibility to
only those you grant access, and that is on top of having to setup a
stream server. For some info on setting up a stream server, See:

https://www.dacast.com/blog/live-streaming-server/

Besides the info they provide, their article has a link to open source
streaming servers. After all, you did cross-post to alt.comp.freeware.
Their link points to:

https://awesomeopensource.com/projects/video-streaming

There are other online guides on how to setup your own media streaming
service, like:

https://www.vplayed.com/blog/video-streaming-server/

Oh, did you check with your ISP if they permit running Internet
accessible servers on your intranet? Many put in their TOS that
operating public servers using a personal-use service tier violates
their terms of use, so you have to pay to upgrade to a business service
tier. Your ISP monitors your traffic volume. They'll know when the
volume is sufficient to indicate operating a server on your intranet
over a personal-use service tier. Are you going to pay for a business
tier service plan just so your sister can stream movies from your
intranet host when she could watch free movies from elsewhere? When you
lose all your ISP's service when they suspend your account, you'll find
your ISP is not so friendly when trying to get your account unlocked.

You acquired the movies through apparently non-legal means. Now you
want to share them. You want to share with your sister? How do you
know you sister won't do what you are trying to do? What if she gives
the URL, password, or however you setup access to others to stream your
movies, so lots of people start streaming your movies?

What is your upstream bandwidth speed? You might enjoy downloading or
streaming movies from the Web, but that is using your downstream
bandwidth. Lots, maybe most, users get asymmetrical bandwidths: fast
for downstream, slow for upstream. Your sister would be pulling data
from your server, so your server is sending out data, and that uses your
upstream bandwidth. I get 900 Mb/s downstream, but only 18 Mb/s
upstream. For SD videos, you need 1.1 Mb/s. For HD, 5 Mb/s. Youtube
recommends 20 Mb/s.

https://updater.com/guides/how-much-speed-for-streaming

They're oriented to you streaming from a server, but your sister will
streaming from you. Your upstream bandwidth may be sufficient to stream
here a video, but then you'll have less yourself for other upstream
tasks, and likely you won't know when she's streaming your content to
her. Also remember if she is streaming that she will have to stream
again and again to watch the movies over and over. With a download, she
can watch a movie as many times as she wants without impinging on your
upstream bandwidth. She'll be constantly leeching your upstream
bandwidth, and at times you won't know.

How much data quota does your sister have on her cellular service on her
phone? She could easily eat it up watching streamed movies. Even if
she has a cellular plan with unlimited data, have her read her contract
since "unlimited" to them is not what "unlimited" means to you. Will
she always use a wi-fi connection from her phone to her cable modem at
home? Is she relying on downstream bandwidth available at wi-fi
hotspots?

https://medium.com/@thxltd/streaming-movies-on-your-mobile-device-we-need-to-talk-4643938967a9

Does your sister HAVE to watch your "acquired" movies, or does she just
want to watch some free movies? There are apps that connect to movie
streaming sources that are free, like:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.pluto.android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tubitv
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.peacocktv.peacockandroid
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imdbtv.livingroom
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ottoly.freetv
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.future.moviesByFawesomeAndroidTV

and so on. Even Youtube's app can watch movies from Youtube some of
which are free. Some free streaming services are mentioned at:

https://www.lifewire.com/free-movie-streaming-apps-1357452

Even her own ISP may provide a streaming movie service for free using
their app. Those are web-centric apps to facilitate using a streaming
service. You can probably can just use a web browser to their site to
do the same video watching.

So, you have to expend lots of resources, and do tons of work, just
because your sis doesn't want to download files from a cloud sync
service. Do you also do her laundry? She commands, you obey. Would
she ostracize you if you told her you weren't going to share those
"acquired" videos via media streaming, and told her to either get the
media files using cloud storage to share, or for her to "acquire" the
videos from the same sources as did you?

[Paul]

Post by Oliver
I don't know what I'm doing so that's why I'm asking the question.
I can easily download movies (don't ask how if you're going to preach).
My sister wants to stream some movies on her phone that I download.
She lives two states away so I have to put it on my router USB.
If she was technical, she could download it onto your mac & play it.
But she doesn't want to do that (it's a company mac she uses).
But she has an iPhone 14, which is what she uses to stream movies.
Given a typical 1080p movie is about 2GB, downloading onto her phone is problematic for her (plus she's not technical so it has to be easy).
She wants to stream it instead.
It's easy to put the movie onto the router USB stick and that makes the entire 2GB available to her for downloading, but can she stream it?
I guess the test is whether I can stream it on my own network, right?
How do you test "stream" a movie that you have access to on your LAN?
What software does that streaming (to simulate what she'll need to do)?
I have VLC and MPC-BE freeware but that "plays" the full movie.
How would I stream a movie on Windows to test it out for her iPhone?

Windows Media Player (WMP) has a streaming server in it.

You could set it up on 192.168.1.2 right now, and sit at
192.168.1.5 and watch a movie.

That's an example of a basic streaming server.

Paul