How to Stream Your Media to Your Android Phone

Streaming media is content sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the viewer in real-time. With streaming media, a Web user does not have to wait to download a file to play it. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream of data and is played as it arrives.

It's the same basic principle like on YouTube, where you can already start watching the video before it is even fully loaded.
You don't need to store the media on your Android phone and have more space available without you having to leave your media content at home.

But you do need a fast internet connection. Although the content is being transferred to you in compressed form, it still uses up a lot of bandwidth. A WiFi network is almost a necessity.

But if you manage to set up a WiFi network at your home, you can do incredible things with streaming media. You can listen to music stored on your PC while doing house chores. And I'm sure you will find much more ways to make use of this technology.

In general we know applications that can stream only audio and applications, that are capable of streaming audio and video.

While audio streaming applications can't transfer video, they are designed to use as little bandwidth as possible while providing a decent sound experience.

That's why audio streaming applications are the perfect choice for streaming music.
There are many apps capable of streaming audio:

• Audiogalaxy - one of the best audio streaming applications I've come across so far. It lets you stream your DRM-free music from your home computer to your phone from anywhere using 3G, EDGE, or WiFi. You need to sign up for a free account to use this application, but once it's done you can stream all of your music from your PC to your Android phone.


• Gmote is actually an Android Remote App, but since version 2.0 it has a very good streaming feature which allows you to stream music from your computer to your phone.


• SubSonic is a Web-based media streamer with Android support. Like other Android media streamers, it allows you to listen to your music, stored on your computer, wherever you are.

Audiogalaxy is a free music streaming service. It allows you to select your entire music collection and to stream it to another computer using a web browser or to listen to your music on your smart phone without having to save it on your phone directly.

Installing Audiogalaxy is very easy. You need to download two applications. The server application will run on your computer and manage the streaming while the client app on your Android device will play the music.

You can download the server from their main site. The client app is available on the Android Market.
The steps to install and set up Audiogalaxy are as follows:

1. Sign up for a free account at their main site audiogalaxy.com. If you want to use their service you will have to sign up. But don't worry, as I mentioned before, signing up for an account is free.


2. Download and install the server application. Once it's up and running you should see your music collection on their website. Of course you see your collection only if you are logged in.


3. Select your music folders. I assume you don't want to see every audio file on your media list, so you have to select the folders containing your music. Just click on the Audiogalaxy icon in the task bar and select the option "Your music folders".


4. Install the client App on your Android phone. After the installation you just have to run it and sign in with your Audiogalaxy username and password.

And that's about all you need to know to stream your music to your Android device.
Of course I assume you will only listen to albums you have legally bought.

Video streaming applications are rarer, mainly because there are not many people who want to enjoy a longer video on their small phone screen.

But they can still be useful in many situations.
Video streaming Apps use in general more Bandwidth than Audio streaming applications.

Some applications, capable of streaming video are:

• VLC Stream & Convert - This application can be used only in combination with VLC. It's a good video streaming App, but it's a little tricky to set up, mainly because you have to enable the web streaming option in VLC.


• Gmote and a compatible video player like MoboPlayer. Gmote is already known to be an all problem solving application, so it's not a surprise that it also streams video. But you additionally need a good video player App like MoboPlayer. The default video player, that comes with the Android operating system, isn't compatible with some of the most usual video formats.


• TScinema is another video streaming application. The difference with TScinema is, that you have to sign up for a TeraStore account and upload your videos before you can stream them to your other devices.