How to stream videos to a computer on another network?

[djl1010]

My girlfriend and I are currently living long distance and we would like to watch some movies together. I have many movies and tv shows on my hard drive and would like to know what the best way to view simultaneously is? If it is the best solution I can zip the series and send it but I was looking for a streaming option.

The website: watch2gether.com has a nice concept but is there something like that that will allow me to use files on my computer?

The other option I have explored is streaming with VLC. Many of the TV series are MKV files however. I'm not sure if that's a problem with streaming or not though. I have tried streaming with VLC but I'm still kind of new with port forwarding and even though i thought I forwarded the right ports, I check them and it says they're closed. I have dabbled with VLC streaming before and I can't even get it to work on my own network let alone across networks. Every time I try to display locally I get audio and no video and I can never connect to the stream from another computer. If any of you have had experience and gotten VLC to work with the latest version, please let me know. Thanks for all the input.

 

[Seoulja615]

Have you tried teamviewer? It is remote desktop software but you will have same screen on both computer.. but not sure about the sound

 

[djl1010]

I'll take a look at it. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[jsmithepa]

Even before you talk about how, you both will need beefy Internet connection. I measure BR stream no compression at 7 MB/S, compressed MKV at 4 MB/S, so that's about 70 mbit/s and 40 mbit/s, both download and upload, so ADSL is out. We are talking premium cable or Verizon Fiber. Now there maybe special equipment out there that will compress the heck of the stream before sending it but am gonna guess that won't be cheap. Once we get the pesky ISP$$ issue resolved, THEN we can talk about how on both ends.

 

[djl1010]

okay my internet service is around 80mbps with verizon both upload and download. Hers is more like 20mbps. Im not sure how hardware will play into this but I am running an i7 and 32GB ram she is on an amd 1.3GHz and 4GB memory. would converting to mp4 help?

 

[Alabalcho]

Set-up a DLNA server on your computer (check eg this one), and put your movies there. Your girlfriend can access that server remotely, and have almost-same-experience as you if you start watching at the same time.

 

[azaran]

Late add in to the discussion but if you and your girlfriend haven't resolved it yet, look in to Plex. You would need to have the server software (so you can stream it) and the home theater software (so you can watch it without a web browser). She would just need the home theater software unless she intends on streaming, tho with her internet I wouldn't recommend it. From there, you link her account to yours for sharing, and the shared library will show up in her player. Bam you're streaming to her computer from yours.

Theres a bit of configuration, may have to foreward a port on your router, etc but their forums are fantastic. Tons of reference and how tos, and members are very responsive.