Until recently, if you wanted to watch access your movies, music or TV shows on your iOS device you had to go through the extra step of transferring the content from your desktop to your mobile device. That’s now a thing of the past! With VLC Streamer, you stream your media content from your PC or Mac through your WiFi to your iOS device. It also allows you to store your entire media collection on you iPhone, iPad, or iPod, rather than on your PC or Mac. Best of all, you can do all of this for free, as long as you don’t mind dealing with a few ads. FYI – VLC can convert most movie formats, but it won’t stream any DRM protected videos.
Access the iTunes App Store from your iOS device and hit the traffic cone icon located in the top right corner of the screen, and then select Local Network and then select Plex Media Server, which will call up the media contained in your Library. Just be aware due to the multiple levels of nesting, you will need some extra time initially to locate your files.
You can enjoy the same ease of use on your PC, Mac, or Linux computer. Multiple TVs are no problem, because Plex will work on all of the popular streamers and on a lot of the newer smart TVs too.
Plex Media Server is free, available for PC or Mac and is free and you can download it from the developer’s website at: https://plex.tv/downloads. Plex lets you organize your media, including photos and home videos in one place. You can add descriptions, you can add movie or TV plot summaries, and even album photos. It lets you view your media on everywhere TV in your home or from any mobile device when you’re on the fly.
After you download Plex, launch the app, either from the Windows System Tray, or your Mac’s Menu Bar, and right click on the icon, then choose Media Manager. Your browser will then open and it will load the Plex Web App automatically. The developer has also provided a Wizard that will walk you through the Server set up to assist you in creating your Media Libraries.
Once you have completed the set-up, Plex will automatically scan all your media, collect the metadata about content, and categorize it for you too. Any content that you recently added, will be up front to make identifying your new stuff super easy. Plex keeps track of the program you’re watching so that you can easily resume play or, if you prefer, simply move on to the next episode.
Now that your devices are all set, sit back, relax, and enjoy your multimedia experience!