Try iPhone Remote: 200 GB+ of movies!

[geordisjd]

Telekinesis rocks!

It's been mentioned before in other threads which now appear to be dead.
It's an incredible piece of free software (at this point) still being developed, but it works. I can now remotely access over 200GB of movies, all my iTunes library (20GB of music) and other less exciting stuff on my home computer and play them on my iPhone from wherever I want (work or anywhere else, it could be done from anywhere with wifi access). It took some time to make it work (with the help of members in the discussion group) but now it's as easy as clicking on a bookmark in my iPhone safari. I had to figure out what dyndns was about, and retrospectively, it's easy.
Movies have to be in m4v format. All of Battlestar Galactica and Law and Order and the Stargate TV shows... What a treat.
Mov and avi formats don't work.
And, darn, it's only for the Mac.

 

[theraker007]

that sounds pretty sweet. I only have a of and I'm not getting a mac book pro until leopard releases so I guess I gotta wait my turn hehe

 

[alexster]

now we need one for windows =]

 

[jptolife]

omg, this is amazing! just tried it and is just AMAZING! LOVE the screen and camera ones. thanks!

 

[Johnny iPhone]

geordisjd - I used iPhone remote and it's fantastic but I don't know how to configure it to let me use it from outside of my own wifi network.

Do you think you could post how to do it? I read through the google group for the program quick when it first came out but there were no detailed guides.

 

[geordisjd]

What's your setting?

How is your computer connected to the internet? Is it connected directly to a router/modem with an ethernet cable (in which case the answer is easier) or is the connection wireless? Does your router/modem have a static or dynamic IP address?

 

[Johnny iPhone]

How is your computer connected to the internet? Is it connected directly to a router/modem with an ethernet cable (in which case the answer is easier) or is the connection wireless? Does your router/modem have a static or dynamic IP address?

I've got a wired connection to an actiontec router (verizon fios issue). I believe i'm dynamic IP - but not certain.

 

[geordisjd]

Dynamic IP address?...

Most routers have a dynamic IP address, so let's assume you do.
First, you have to get into your router's settings and open the ports 5010/5012 to your computer's IP address (usually something like 192.168.x.x).
Next you have to get a dynamic DNS address or "domain" (go to dynDNS.com for a free setup) that will always point to your computer's IP address. Let's say you've called it "myname.dyndns.org". (They have easy tutorials to set it up.)
Of course iRemote must be running.
Then, write https://myname.dyndns.org:5010/ in your iPhone's safari's address bar and it should be directed to your domain name, which will direct it to your router, which will direct it to your computer.

If any of this is not clear, let me know. Got to go to work. I'll be happy to try to help.

 

[Johnny iPhone]

Most routers have a dynamic IP address, so let's assume you do.
First, you have to get into your router's settings and open the ports 5010/5012 to your computer's IP address (usually something like 192.168.x.x).
Next you have to get a dynamic DNS address or "domain" (go to dynDNS.com for a free setup) that will always point to your computer's IP address. Let's say you've called it "myname.dyndns.org". (They have easy tutorials to set it up.)
Of course iRemote must be running.
Then, write https://myname.dyndns.org:5010/ in your iPhone's safari's address bar and it should be directed to your domain name, which will direct it to your router, which will direct it to your computer.

If any of this is not clear, let me know. Got to go to work. I'll be happy to try to help.

Thanks for the instructions. Ok, I have a snag somewhere as connecting to the dyndns account I setup doesn't work from the phone - it says safari can't find server. I don't know if I opened the port properly on the router - it is a little tricky on this verizon router.

this is what the router is reporting:
networked computer/device: 192.168.1.8
networked address: 192.168.1.8 (both obtained from ifconfig in terminal)
public ip address: blank
protocols: iPhone Remote - TCP 5010-5012 -> Any
WAN connection type: All Broadband Adapters
Status: Active

See any glaring errors in all of this? THanks again for your help, I really want to get this working!

 

[diranged]

so I'm actually having a hard time getting it working right... I've got a 700gb movie collection that I've ripped using HandBrake into .m4v files with h264. All of the movies play great on my AppleTV and range in size from 640x480 (old copied VHS tapes) to 1920x1080i HD DVD rips.

I can use a web browser and play any of my TV show rips, or the SMALL movie rips. Whenver I click on a large enough file, I get an immediate failure. I assume this is some kind of bug in the Telekinesis code...

Here's whats weird... I've got an iTunes store TV show that streams great to the iPhone -- but none of my other files will. I can stream any of my TV shows to a web browser, but they come up on the iPhone and give me a little "cant play" symbol.

I presume I've just got my files with a slight incompatibility ... but I'm wondering if anyone has an idea what it is?

 

[Decibel9M3]

Ok, i've got this connected and everything, but how do you play movies?

 

[RTpics]

Just to let you guys and girls know. i have been using SOONR this is nearly the same as telekenisis (iremote). you can access all of your computer. open PPS files in fact view every file on your MAC (intel) or PC. i also use the skype option that comes with it cost me 40cents to call the UK instead of $10.00.

it comes with spotlight, mail etc,. check it out.

 

[Tinman]

Just to let you guys and girls know. i have been using SOONR this is nearly the same as telekenisis (iremote). you can access all of your computer. open PPS files in fact view every file on your MAC (intel) or PC. i also use the skype option that comes with it cost me 40cents to call the UK instead of $10.00.

it comes with spotlight, mail etc,. check it out.

I'm just now testing SoonR (PC) and so far it looks good. Was hoping it allowed access to Outlook Notes, but alas it does not.

So far I see it being very useful for accessing Office docs, PDFs, photos, and email that might not otherwise be on my iPhone. Not really useful though for music and video though. Being able to access that data from any Web-connect computer is a plus too.

For media I've tried TVersity, which uses your computer only as a server (no third party server involved) but it would not start properly. If I can get that to work it looks cool (will transcode video on-the-fly and stream it at both WiFi and EDGE speeds). Benefit to that is that if I am at home it will stream from my PC to my iPhone at WiFi speed.


FYI: I use Onesuite.com (prepay LD) for international calls and pay about 2.5 cents for UK calls--17.5 cents to mobile numbers. It can be setup to recognize the caller ID from your phone, so no PIN needs to be entered. (No affiliation.)


--
Mike

 

[geordisjd]

Johnny iPhone

It sounds like you're doing everything right. Do you still have problem connecting? I have noticed there is a delay establishing a dns.org connection to an IP address and when it actually becomes active.
If you can't connect that way, maybe you can try a direct connection to your modem, For that, you have to use the IP address reported by your browser (not the one reported by System preferences). Go here to find it.
Enter that directly in the iPhone browser: https://myotherIPaddress:5010/.
It should work. The problem with it is that if your IP (as reported by the browser) changes, it stops working and you have to enter the new reported IP in the iPhone. I noticed that my IP address doesn't change frequently. It will if I have to restart the computer, which I seldom do. Another possibility is to change your IP address (in the router's settings) from dynamic to static.

 

[geordisjd]

Safari and Quicktime

I think you might be overestimating the limits of what an iPhone Safari can play. Small files will load a lot easier than large ones. All my m4v files are no larger than 480x270. I'm not sure if there is an actual limit to the total size of what can be played. All my TV shows are around 600MB and play fine. Here's some info on the limits of iPhone safari/video from Apple. It says that only 10MB movies can be loaded (which is true with .mov format), so I was really surprised that 600MB of .mv4 would play at all, but there must be a limit to the file size anyway. I don't think it's a Telekinesis bug.

 

[Johnny iPhone]

It sounds like you're doing everything right. Do you still have problem connecting? I have noticed there is a delay establishing a dns.org connection to an IP address and when it actually becomes active.
If you can't connect that way, maybe you can try a direct connection to your modem, For that, you have to use the IP address reported by your browser (not the one reported by System preferences). Go here to find it.
Enter that directly in the iPhone browser: https://myotherIPaddress:5010/.
It should work. The problem with it is that if your IP (as reported by the browser) changes, it stops working and you have to enter the new reported IP in the iPhone. I noticed that my IP address doesn't change frequently. It will if I have to restart the computer, which I seldom do. Another possibility is to change your IP address (in the router's settings) from dynamic to static.

I checked my real IP address from whatismyipaddress and tried the following link:
https://ipaddress:5010/
and got a server not found. iPhone remote is running, so I assume the port is not forwarded? https://localhost:5010/ on my wifi network does work.

The fios setup is strange for port forwarding. Man, I really wish I could get this running!

 

[geordisjd]

I checked my real IP address from whatismyipaddress and tried the following link:
https://ipaddress:5010/
and got a server not found. iPhone remote is running, so I assume the port is not forwarded? https://localhost:5010/ on my wifi network does work.

The fios setup is strange for port forwarding. Man, I really wish I could get this running!

it sounds like the router is not configurated properly. I got this to work with both an Earthlink modem and a Comcast Linksys router. Both of them are pretty user-friendly now. You may want to contact your service provider to configure the router's settings if they're not obvious. Once the settings are right, it's really pretty simple and reproducible, at least when I'm not using dyndns, which doesn't seem to be working reliably today.

 

[shift_2kmaxima]

this is awesome....
i just downloaded iPhoneremote
http://code.google.com/p/telekinesis/downloads/list

then had everything set up, and now i can do a lot of things through my iPhone its awesome...but how do you play movies or even music?
is it possible?
thanks guys

i've tried m4v format (rob and big show) and it says "safari could not activate something blah blah blah" (on iPhone this is)
what am i doing wrong

thx

huso

 

[geordisjd]

this is awesome....
i just downloaded iPhoneremote
http://code.google.com/p/telekinesis/downloads/list

then had everything set up, and now i can do a lot of things through my iPhone its awesome...but how do you play movies or even music?
is it possible?
thanks guys

i've tried m4v format (rob and big show) and it says "safari could not activate something blah blah blah" (on iPhone this is)
what am i doing wrong

thx

huso

there shouldn't be anything to activate to play a movie in the proper format.m4v videos and mp3 tracks from iTunes will play by just launching them. If none of them do, u may have defective software. I would reinitialize the iPhone if necessary and reinstall.

 

[shift_2kmaxima]

you mean like Restore my iPhone through iTunes?
or reinstall the software Iremote?

thx