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StreamToMe Features

StreamToMe strives to be as simple an application as possible. Despite this simplicity, there is support for a large number of features and settings to control many aspects of the streaming setup.

Streaming

StreamToMe can stream from any Mac or Windows PC running the free ServeToMe server program.

  • Streaming of movies, music and image files from a huge list of supported formats and codecs (see the list of supported formats and supported codecs).
  • Stream a variable bitrate for best possible quality or select a specific bitrate
  • Connect via local network, 3G, 4G or non-local WiFi

iOS options

The following options are available when StreamToMe runs on iOS devices.

  • AirPlay audio
  • AirPlay video
  • Playback through component, composite, VGA, DVI or HDMI cables
  • Background play supported for music and video (can be disabled)

Formats

  • See the list of supported formats and supported codecs for a (nearly) complete list of supported media formats
  • H.264, MP3 and AAC formats played without transcoding
  • Other formats are transparently live-transcoded into supported formats

Browsing, collections and searching

  • Search any file by name across your whole collection
  • Search, sort or browse iTunes library by Title, Album, Artist, Composer, Year, Genre and more
  • Search, sort or browse iPhoto library by Face, Photo Roll, Keywords and more
  • Sort Shared Folders by name or date, ascending or descending
  • Play files from any folder or from your iTunes Library or iPhoto Library
  • Optionally track play counts
  • Folder "flattening" so that you can merge all subfolders of a Shared Folder into a single view for playback as a unified playlist

Playback interface

  • Play any view in StreamToMe as a playlist: single file or continuous playback (in order or random)
  • Playlists supported for movies, music or image files — or any combination
  • Set the duration of photos in slideshows
  • Play files fullscreen or in an embedded view
  • View a history of the last 50 files played in the player (or clear the history if you wish)
  • Resume long files from their previous playback point
  • Select preferred audio tracks and subtitle tracks when multiple tracks available
  • Remotely control one copy of StreamToMe using another copy
  • Support for both embedded subtitle files and separate files (see the list of supported subtitle file formats)
  • Right-to-left subtitle support
  • Auto-detects subtitle character encodings or manually specified subtitle character encoding

Server options

  • Server can be password protected or publicly accessible
  • UPnP-IDG and NAT-PMP support for automatically configuring non-local access on single NAT networks
  • Bonjour autodiscovery for servers on the local network
  • One button reset of server settings if you accidentally create any problems with the server settings
  • All external access and communication can be disabled if you're concerned about privacy
  • ServeToMe can be configured to run on a specific network interface if required
  • Runs as a service on Windows so you the server can continue running when you're logged out and can support Windows Home Server
  • External address verification to automatically detect if your server can be reached from outside your local network
  • Configure a custom port for privacy reasons or to allow multiple ServeToMe servers to be externally accessible on the same local network

File formats

StreamToMe supports the following file formats. Remember that for successful playback, the file must contain codecs in the formats specified in the next section.

  • 3gp
  • aac
  • ac3
  • aiff
  • alac
  • asf
  • avi
  • dif
  • divx
  • dv
  • dvr-ms
  • flac
  • flv
  • gif
  • gvi
  • jpg
  • jpeg
  • m2ts
  • m4a
  • m4b
  • m4v
  • mka
  • mkv
  • mov
  • mp2
  • mp3
  • mp4
  • mpc
  • mpeg
  • mpeg4
  • mpg
  • ogg
  • ogm
  • ogv
  • png
  • rm
  • rmvb
  • tif
  • tiff
  • ts
  • wav
  • webm
  • wma (except for lossless)
  • wmv
  • wtv (preliminary support)

Files must have one of these file extensions to be seen by ServeToMe.

Supported codecs

StreamToMe has full support for PCM, MP3, AC3, AAC, WMA9, MPEG1, MPEG4, H.263, H.264 (aka AVC), H.265 (aka HEVC), WMV9, DivX, VP6, VP-8, VC-1, MJPEG, Theora, Vorbis and Xvid codecs.

Unfortunately, due to the diverse nature of video codecs, it is possible that even though a codec is listed in this supported list, it may have playback issues or not work with StreamToMe.

Supported subtitle formats

StreamToMe supports SRT, SSA/ASS, SUB and MOV/SUB TXT subtitles.

SSA/ASS subtitles and can be embedded in an MKV file or they can be in an external file with the same name as the file they are associated with but with the extension "ssa" or "ass".

SRT subtitles must be in an external file with the same name as the file they are associated with but with the extension "srt".

Plain text subtitles (this is how SRT and SUB subtitles are normally embedded) may be an embedded track in an MKV, MOV or MP4/M4V/MPEG4 file.

NOTE: DVD format subtitles, aka VOBSUB subtitles, do not work with StreamToMe.

Not supported

The most important point to remember is that StreamToMe is an application for streaming files stored on your Mac or PC running ServeToMe. Most of the scenarios that StreamToMe cannot handle are scenarios where ServeToMe is not involved.

StreamToMe is not a program for streaming from generic websites on the internet like Netflix, Hulu or YouTube. StreamToMe cannot stream from Icecast servers or ShoutCast servers. StreamToMe cannot stream from services like Pandora, DropBox or iCloud. Most of these services have their own dedicated iOS applications.

StreamToMe cannot stream from any live source of media (Internet radio, video cameras, webcams, TV tuners).

StreamToMe cannot stream directly from a DLNA server.

StreamToMe cannot stream directly from a NAS drive or AirPort Extreme attached drive unless that content is mounted on the desktop of a computer running ServeToMe and streamed through ServeToMe running there.

Even when streaming from a ServeToMe server, StreamToMe cannot stream from DVDs, BluRay DISCs, ISOs, RAR or ZIP archives. For more on unsupported file formats, please see our list of File formats that will not work with StreamToMe.

File formats and codecs not supported

Apple's M4V/M4P/M4A ("FairPlay" protected files) cannot be played with StreamToMe.

The following file formats do not work with StreamToMe:

  • Files with DRM, copy protection or encryption, including:
    • Apple's iTunes M4V/M4P/M4A (protected) files
    • DVDs
    • BluRay Discs
    • HD-DVDs
  • VIDEO_TS folders or VOB files
  • Apple Prores 422 files
  • Apple Intermediate Codec
  • WMA lossless
  • DVD format subtitles, aka VOBSUB subtitles, do not work with StreamToMe.

Further, any media file with discontinuities (timestamps that reset or contain breaks) may not work or may not be seekable.

Live streams of any kind are not supported at this time.