I have a lot of music, videos, and pictures on my personal computer, but sometimes I am not at my desk and I still want to view my media content. Fortunately, I have an Android phone and with Skifta I can easily stream these files to my phone through a WiFi network.
Register for a Skifta Account
Registering for a Skifta account is free and allows you to use the advanced features of the app.
Install Skifta on your PC
Step One: After registering and before you can stream media from your PC to your Android device you will first have to download and install the Skifta database application (get Skifta for other devices) to your PC.
Step Two: Once the app is installed you will have to wait some time for the app to configure.
The Skifta application will now run in the background and you no longer have to worry about it. If you wish to remove Skifta, remember to uninstall the Skifta background app.
Step Three: Launch Windows Media Player to configure your network settings.
Step Four: Click on “Stream” and “Allow remote control of my Player…”. This ensures that Skifta on your Android device can read the data on your computer through Windows Media Player.
Step Five: Next click on “Stream” and “More streaming options…”. Here you can enable which devices are allowed to access your network. Ensure that you have allowed your Android device access to your “Homegroup”.
Your media will now be configured for streaming.
Install Skifta On Your Phone
Step One: After configuring your PC, install the Skifta Android app on your device.
Step Two: Ensure you are connected to a WiFi network (the app only works over WiFi)
Step Three: Launch the Skifta app on your Android device.
Step Four: Once the app launches, wait for the app to update.
Stream Media From Your PC To Your Android Device
After installing Skifta on your computer and your Android device, you can start streaming media.
Step One: On the main page of the Android Skifta app you will have to select a media source. Skifta allows you to stream content from your PC, other devices connected to your local network and even “channels” on the internet such as your Facebook Photos and podcasts like Revision3.
Step Two: Next you have to select the device you want the selected media to be viewed on. If you want to simply stream content to your Android device, then simply select your device.
Step Five: Now you will be able to start browsing and playing the media on your PC (or whichever other channel or device you selected earlier).
Step Six: Select the media type you wish to stream to your Android device. The media that is in your Windows Media Player library should appear in this list. Be warned if the list of media you are trying to load is quite large (for example a large number of videos) you may have to wait some time.
Step Seven: Finally, select a video to play it on your Android device.
That’s it! Provided the file you are trying to play uses a compatible Android media format it should play without a problem.
Conclusion
Skifta is one of the easiest streaming apps I have come across. As long as you follow the setup as described in this article you should have no problems streaming videos, music, and even photos. Having said that, unlike competing products Skifta does not convert the video on the fly. So, you have to first ensure that the video you are trying to stream is in a compatible format. This can be problematic, however it is not a deal breaker.
Recommended Reading:
AudioGalaxy: The Easiest Way to Stream Music to Android And iOS
How to Install VLC-Shares In Ubuntu And Stream Videos to Android
You can stream your videos and music (especially music) via subsonic anywhere on the web using subsonic. I run a music only subsonic to stream music to my laptop and android phone when im on the go from my pc. Cant quite get video to work adequately because of a relatively slow dsl upload connection.
Let me know if you’d like to give it a run off my sever.
Thanks. Subsonic looks good. we will take a look
Great article! Have you tried shifting from remote places? This works really well for me as I’ve got all my Music etc on a NAS drive at home which I subsequently access on my android phone or from my work laptop using skifta…
Thanks for your comments. I haven’t tried shifting from remote places, as I only own a desktop PC and an Android smartphone.
This is just another UPnP app, I wonder what’s so special about it. There are others like 2player that have the same look and feel but require no additional application on the client (I even wonder what that app does on the client, as UPnP is built in into Windows anyway). Or there’s the (not-so-nice-looking) Android default app “DLNA” which does exactly the same.
Anyting available to send video FROM droid to network device? e.g. wifi directtv console