How to Stream Video to your ChromeOS from Windows

**aelfwyne** · 02-05-2011 09:47 PM

(Beta Tutorial - More Explanations Pending As Needed)

So... I watch a TON of anime. I want to be able to see it on my CR-48, but Google doesn't see fit yet to allow us to watch our own video. Downloading files over the LAN just results in a file that won't play. So, we need to turn our video into something "internetty".

The answer? Flash, of course. And a webserver. But if you go looking, you'll find lots of for-pay solutions. Other solutions you find are done with VLC, which of course, we can't run a client for.

But, since we CAN run Flash apps, we just need an app that will play video. And one to serve video.

So, without further ado, the very basic steps required. You'll need 3 programs.

1) A program to convert your video. I have used both FLV and MP4, but FLV seems to stream MUCH quicker for the same filesize. It is the recommended format. I use Any Video Converter to make the FLV files. If you want a free solution, there are tons out there, but I cannot recommend one. Googlefu will save you.

2) A webserver to run on Windows. You can use Apache, but for simplicity I use Abyss.

3) A Flash Video Player. I found that JW Player is a great solution.

Once you have these 3 programs, here is what you need to do in a nutshell:

1) Install Abyss Web Server. Default options are fine. It will run on windows startup, but you can close it in your tray if not using it. Your new "website" hosted on your home PC will be located at C:\Abyss Web Server\htdocs\ - you can access it on your desktop by going to localhost or 127.0.0.1/. To access it from your CR48, you'll need to know your LAN IP address or external IP address if you have a hostname mapped to your LAN or are using DynDNS. That part is beyond the scope of this tutorial. For my use, LAN access only is fine, so I would use 192.168.1.117/ to get to the desktop from my CR48. AGAIN, that number will be your OWN internal LAN IP address which I can't give you, you'll need to find it on your own.

2) Install JWPlayer. I installed it in the recommended directory C:\Abyss Web Server\htdocs\jwplayer - I'm not sure if it will work without modification in other directories or not.

3) Create an HTML file to view your video. This tutorial will assume you only have one video to view for now. If I write a selection system later, I'll come back and update this.
a) create a new textfile named "video.html". Make sure NOT to let windows put a .txt extension on it.
b) Paste the following code into the textfile.

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>

	<title>Videos</title>

	<style type="text/css">
		body { background-color: #fff; padding: 0 20px; color:#000; font: 13px/18px Arial, sans-serif; }
		a { color: #360; }
		h3 { padding-top: 20px; }
		ol { margin:5px 0 15px 16px; padding:0; list-style-type:square; }
	</style>

</head>
<body>
	<!-- START OF THE PLAYER EMBEDDING TO COPY-PASTE -->
	<object id="player" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" name="player" width="328" height="200"> 
		<param name="movie" value="player.swf" /> 
		<param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> 
		<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> 
		<param name="flashvars" value="file=myvideo.flv&image=preview.jpg" /> 
		<embed 
			type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
			id="player2"
			name="player2"
			src="player.swf" 
			width="1200" 
			height="700"
			allowscriptaccess="always" 
			allowfullscreen="true"
			flashvars="file=myvideo.flv&image=preview.jpg" 
		/> 
	</object> 
	<!-- END OF THE PLAYER EMBEDDING -->
</body>
</html>

4) Install your video conversion software. If using Any Video Converter, select FLV as the output profile and set the resolution to anything below 1280x720 - the lower you go and the lower bitrate you choose, the easier it will be on your bandwidth. If you're on a LAN you won't need to go small, but if you're planning on streaming over the internet, you want to make sure the file isn't too big. You can also use MP4 as the output type as long as you go into the Options and select "flatten and add fast start" to the MP4. However, I have noticed it takes a LOT longer to buffer an MP4 file even on a LAN than it does the FLV of a similar size. I recommend FLV for now.

5) Copy your new video file to the C:\Abyss Web Server\htdocs\jwplayer directory. You can place it elsewhere, but you'd need to put the path into the HTML file yourself if you do. Also, the sample HTML file expects the video to be named "myvideo.flv". You can use other names, but again, you'll need to update two places in the HTML file to do this.

6) Test the HTML locally by loading http://localhost/jwplayer/video.html in your local web browser. If that works, then try loading it on your CR48 by substituting your desktop's LAN IP or internet IP in place of localhost. It should work very well.

----
That's it. It is working for me, so hopefully I gave enough info for you to get it working. I may at some point rewrite the HTML to allow inputing of a filename, or maybe even some kind of selection, but I'm not big into web programming. I just want my anime on my CR48.

If you have any questions, post them here & I'll try to answer if I can, and update the tutorial if necessary.