In this month, January 2013, Qualcomm Atheros released the IOS version of their Skifta, which can be used to stream videos (movies), songs, and photos from PC to IOS devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad, etc.) through home sharing network. And this app is totally free. If you want to test it to see this app's media streaming performance, below you will find a quick-start tutorial on how to use the Skifta.
Before we begin, all you need to do is to download and install the IOS app and the client app onto your IOS device and computer.
Next, run the Skifta on your IOS device, then you will see a quick start guide which includes "1. Choose a media source; 2. Choose a player; 3. Browse and play media". Once you tap the Choose a media source, you will be asked to register a Skifta account to access its service. Just do it by typing your username, password and your device title.
After you become a Skifta registered user, then you are allowed to select a media source for streaming. Here I will explain how to set a Mac computer as media source. To do this, run the Skifta on your Mac computer, then it will be shown as a device on the Remote tab, just tap the Here tab and tap on the computer, then you have done. What's more, select a folder which contains your media files which you'd like to stream as the source folder.
Now, let's go to the step 2, Choose a Player. Generally, skifta will automatically find the IOS device and list them for you to select. If it can not detect your IOS device, you can choose it from the list on the Here tab.
And the next, tap "Browse and play media" and you will see the source folder you set above. Open the source folder and select a song or a video, then tap it you will play the item which stores on your Mac computer on your IOS device. By the way, The Skifta can not stream the copy-protected videos such as Amazon purchased movies, BBC iPlayer downloaded programmes, etc. to the IOS device. If you must do this, you can use the DRM media converter to convert such protected video files to the regular old MP4 or MOV. Here is an example which show you how to use this software to re-encode DRM-ed WMV to iPhone.
Tip1: Besides streaming digital contents from a computer, skifta also enables you to stream stuff over internet. Currently, it support Dropbox, Instagram, and Picasa as the internet source. To achieve this goal, just tap the "Choose a media source" button, then you will see the Channels tab, tap it to select an internet source you like.
Tip2: The streaming speed via Wi-Fi is much faster than via Cellular connection, so if you want to steam the large size items such as a movie or a television episode, you'd better do this under the Wi-Fi.
Before we begin, all you need to do is to download and install the IOS app and the client app onto your IOS device and computer.
Next, run the Skifta on your IOS device, then you will see a quick start guide which includes "1. Choose a media source; 2. Choose a player; 3. Browse and play media". Once you tap the Choose a media source, you will be asked to register a Skifta account to access its service. Just do it by typing your username, password and your device title.
After you become a Skifta registered user, then you are allowed to select a media source for streaming. Here I will explain how to set a Mac computer as media source. To do this, run the Skifta on your Mac computer, then it will be shown as a device on the Remote tab, just tap the Here tab and tap on the computer, then you have done. What's more, select a folder which contains your media files which you'd like to stream as the source folder.
Now, let's go to the step 2, Choose a Player. Generally, skifta will automatically find the IOS device and list them for you to select. If it can not detect your IOS device, you can choose it from the list on the Here tab.
And the next, tap "Browse and play media" and you will see the source folder you set above. Open the source folder and select a song or a video, then tap it you will play the item which stores on your Mac computer on your IOS device. By the way, The Skifta can not stream the copy-protected videos such as Amazon purchased movies, BBC iPlayer downloaded programmes, etc. to the IOS device. If you must do this, you can use the DRM media converter to convert such protected video files to the regular old MP4 or MOV. Here is an example which show you how to use this software to re-encode DRM-ed WMV to iPhone.
Tip1: Besides streaming digital contents from a computer, skifta also enables you to stream stuff over internet. Currently, it support Dropbox, Instagram, and Picasa as the internet source. To achieve this goal, just tap the "Choose a media source" button, then you will see the Channels tab, tap it to select an internet source you like.
Tip2: The streaming speed via Wi-Fi is much faster than via Cellular connection, so if you want to steam the large size items such as a movie or a television episode, you'd better do this under the Wi-Fi.
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