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How to stream audio and video from your computer across the Internet

Linux Mac Windows

media hive is a cross-platform (works in OS X, Windows and Linux) streaming media management project. With it, you can access your media collection from any web browser, and play your media from anywhere you have Internet access. This tutorial will guide you in setting up and using media hive.

  1. To get started, download media hive. This steps and screenshots for this tutorial are specific to OS X, but Windows and Linux users should be able to follow along.
  2. In OS X, open a Terminal by going to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal. Navigate to the mhive directory using the cd command. If you unpacked media hive to your desktop, type cd Desktop/mhive. Launch media hive by typing ./mhive.sh.

    Windows users: double-click mhive.bat in the media hive folder.

    You’ll be prompted to create a user name and password.

    3. media hive
    click to enlarge

  3. A whole bunch of text will fly by. Wait until it’s done scrolling.

    4. media hive
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  4. Now open your web browser and load the page http://localhost:8080. Enter the user name and password you just created two steps ago.

    5. media hive
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  5. You might as well check out the default template, as you can change it at any time. So leave Everything,Everything selected, and click Set Skin.

    6. media hive
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  6. Enter the path to your audio and video files in the spaces provided. In OS X this will probably be something like: /Users/your-user-name/Movies for AVI and MPEG files, and /Users/-your-user-name/Music for Vorbis and MP3 files.

    In Windows, it will probably be something like: C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\My Documents\My Movies for AVI and MPEG files, and C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\My Documents\My Music for Vorbis and MP3 files.

    When you’re done, click Save

    7. media hive
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  7. Wait a minute or two while the media hive builds your catalog.

    8. media hive
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  8. All of your video files should be listed. Select Music from the Change Media Type drop-down list to see your audio files.

    9. media hive
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  9. To view the other skins, select one from the Change Skin drop-down list.

    10. media hive
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  10. The iPhone skin is neat, but didn’t totally work for me (might have been a Firefox issue).

    11. media hive
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  11. To access media hive from another Internet connected device on your local network, just visit the internal IP address of the machine running media hive (on port 8080). For info on determining your internal IP address in OS X, see this tutorial. For info on determining your internal IP address in Windows, see this tutorial.

    12. media hive on a windows mobile smartphone

  12. You can stream your playlists from media hive to any Internet connected media player that supports MP3/OGG/AVI and/or MPEG.

    13. media hive on a windows mobile smartphone

  13. Selecting playlists is straight forward.

    14. media hive on a windows mobile smartphone

  14. Video streams quite well across my local network, but not so great across the Internet (this is due to my less than fantastic upstream bandwidth). Audio streams perfectly across the Internet.

    15. media hive on a windows mobile smartphone

  15. If you want to be able to connect to media hive from outside of your home network, you’ll need to enable port forwarding for port 8080 in your router/gateway.

Posted in Linux, Mac, Windows.

4 comments

By Ross McKillop – September 22, 2007

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4 Responses

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  1. EL Chrisco says

    I can’t configure the mhive, can anyone help me please?

    October 10, 2009, 12:52 pm
  2. karthi says

    Using this method, can i stream my tv tuner card input to my friend pc which is connected by internet?? So that, he can watch the tv channels through my server…

    October 12, 2009, 4:04 am

Continuing the Discussion

  1. GadgetGadget.info - Gadgets on the web » How to stream audio and video from your computer across the Internet linked to this post on September 22, 2007

    [...] Kristen Nicole wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptEnter the path to your audio and video files in the spaces provided. In OS X this will probably be something like: /Users/your-user-name/Movies for AVI and MPEG files, and /Users/-your-user-name/Music for Vorbis and MP3 files. … [...]

  2. How To Access You Media Files On Your Computer From Anywhere linked to this post on September 22, 2007

    [...] Internet connection you can access you media files from anywhere in the world. This post tells you How to stream audio and video from your computer across the Internet. As if happens with everything in life, you need to be prepared before hand in order to be able to [...]



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