

Show HN: Streem.io - Media Center on the Cloud - ritikm
http://www.streem.io

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justjimmy
So…are you fishing for interest/validation?

I don't mind it, just put it upfront that I'm not getting anything in exchange
for my email address. Thought I get to try out the product but I'm just on a
waiting list.

Then I'm asked to share/spam it, something that I have not tried/vetted, with
my social circle?

I'm very interested in the service, just tell me upfront you're only
collecting emails for now.

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brittohalloran
A fantastic alternative is Plex (no affiliation). You can host your media on
your own computer and watch it anywhere. Plex handles all the network nonsense
(no ports to forward, etc...). Depending on the filetype and what your device
can play, plex will either transcode on the fly seamlessly or just stream the
exact original file.

Downside is you have to have a computer that is always on, connected, and
potentially unusable for other purposes when transcoding. In my case it's a
Acer Revo HTPC connected to the living room TV.

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mistermann
Is there a Plex client for Android?

I use AirVideo on iOS and it is flawless, but would like to find something
similar for Android.

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Kudos
The Android client has just got a complete rewrite that's made it better than
its iOS counterpart (I use both regularly). However, it's still in beta and
only available to Plex Pass users until the final release.

There's also an app for Samsung Smart TVs that I use a lot.

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10char
I've been a beta user of Streem, and how _fast_ my videos are ready to view is
pretty incredible. Other services I've tried easily take an hour to transcode,
but Streem gets it done in a few minutes. Really excited to see more folks
using it.

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zzzmarcus
With Flex and AirVideo transcoding is done in real time and works really well.
Zero wait time for uploading and transcoding sure beats even a few minutes.

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hospadam
This looks cool - but what is the advantage of using this over something like
Plex? With Plex - I'm hosting the files myself... so I don't have to upload
something until I want to watch it remotely. I realize that could also be a
negative (if my server goes down while I'm traveling - bummer). But surely
with my own server, I can have much more storage, and my files are instantly
available once they're on the computer. Also - Plex is free.

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ritikm
You nailed it -- we're useful for people that want to access their library
from anywhere (at work, on vacation halfway around the world, etc.) on any
device (phone, someone else's laptop, etc.) without having to lug around their
DVD collection or an external hard drive. Having a server at home is also
limiting because a) it uses your upload bandwidth, which clogs up your home
internet connection, and b) your upload bandwidth probably isn't fast enough
for instant streaming (the average is around ~1.6mbps these days), so
buffering/seeking will slow you down.

The best way is to compare it to Dropbox -- Dropbox : USB :: Streem : Plex

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radley
Your position overlooks the massive file uploads we'd have to do to use your
service. That's a lot more content "clogging up your home connection".

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ritikm
That's true. The way we look at it is that it's a one-time hit that you take
initially versus always having to keep a computer on at home for streaming
using your home connection; we also let you transfer in files through other
means, so if you already have some content stored online, you can easily
transfer it in.

~~~
spangborn
With most media like TV shows, you only watch it once - so watching it
remotely from a home server is the same as your "one-time hit."

Just my two cents.

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kmf
Seems like a souped-up alternative to what I've been using for the last six
months: <https://put.io/>

Part of what I love about Plex (which has worked great at home; not so much
remotely) is that it aggregates a lot of online video sources inside the app.
This looks to do about the same. Very cool. Best of luck to you guys.

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envex
Do you anticipate any legal repercussions?

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dan1234
Interesting title but the site doesn't display correctly on the iPad, which is
the only device I have handy…

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te_chris
Yeah I found this too, like some weird side effect of overflow hidden on the
viewport perhaps? (disclaimer: not a great CSS dude...)

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angryasian
I just upload things to my s3 bucket and streams perfectly. Takes a little
more management as I'll maybe delete a season and upload a season or movie at
a time, but its really minimal amount of work for the times that I do know
I'll want to watch something when away.

~~~
jervisfm
Interesting. Are you able to access your content on the go with a mobile
device ?

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vividmind
This needs an about section to show who is behind the service.

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nickmolnar2
I am a big fan of Put.io. This seems like a contender to replace it, although
there is a long way to go. One of the wonderful things about Put.io is that it
is so versatile. I use their Boxee app, Android App, iPad app, as well as the
web version regularly. That's a lot of work to replicate.

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thecoffman
What sorting of pricing/space requirements are you planning on offering? I run
a boxee server with several NAS devices on my home network and it works great
- but it would be nice to watch something at my girlfriend's place without
loading it up on a USB drive and carting it over.

~~~
mcrider
Plex and MyPlex is also a pretty good solution to watching your media library
away from home. And Plex is really a great media center on its own.

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rynop
Collect the email then give the "sorry". That shit is dirty. Be
straightforward upfront.

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sethist
So what is the catch on this? I am guessing there are legality issues and/or
they extremely limit your library. No company can afford to offer what they
claim to be offering without some serious cash behind them.

~~~
ritikm
It'll be through limiting your library -- free users will get a certain amount
of space and streaming bandwidth for free, paid tiers get more as you scale up
the price ladder (Dropbox style).

Additionally, we have a completely free collection of movies/TV shows
aggregated from Sidereel, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, NBC, etc. At the very least,
you can use this as your one stop to browse all the movies/TV shows you can
stream through other services (for free, or if you have their subscription),
receive recommendations, track with friends, etc.

~~~
sethist
Are those limits established yet? There isn't any place on the page that would
indicate any limits or even the existence of paid tiers. This stuff should be
visible before requiring a user to signup.

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haveplant
Wow pretty cool splash page. To bad I can't even check out the service.

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avidal
The homepage mentions you can use your account here to stream content to any
device, including consoles. How does that work? Can we connect to it as a
network file server?

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ritikm
You can use our webapp using the console's web browser.

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mcantelon
Is this running on Node.js? The favicon looks like Express's.

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ritikm
The website is on Node.js; the webapp itself is on Meteor.js

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faramarz
Is it safe to assume this isn't exactly legal? Why haven't Apple or Netflix
done this? (because licensing deals suck!)

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ritikm
On the legal front it's like Dropbox -- storing your personal media collection
online and letting us transcode and organize it is fine, especially because
the content is private (like Dropbox) and not publicly listed (we're not like
Grooveshark). Of course, we're DMCA compliant and take down files if they're
deemed illegally obtained.

~~~
faramarz
I see, thanks for that.

So does that also mean you have to store every file? or more like iTunes Match
where if the file exists on the server, everyone gets served the master,
instead of storing duplicates from millions of users.

You don't really have to answer that. it's not an end-user concern.

~~~
ritikm
We're actually storing a single copy of every unique file. i.e. if you upload
a completely identical, MD5 hash duplicate copy of something we already have
stored, we'll just give you a pointer to that file. This way, we don't have to
store _every_ file, and we're not like iTunes Match (which actually requires
licensing) because we're not giving you a master file (iTunes Match gives you
a master file that plays at 256kbps, even if you upload the same song at
128Kbps -- they can do this through licensing; we can't give you a master 720p
video file even if you upload a 360p version because we don't have those
licenses). Legally, doing the MD5 hash duplicate technique was deemed legal
after MP3Tunes' case (not referring to their entire case, just the part about
the MD5 hash duplication) because it's just like any other method of
compression.

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pacaro
So if I know the MD5 digest of some content I would like, all I have to do is
generate a collision and then "upload" it?

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themstheones
Why do you have to sign up to browse? Seems barbaric, or at least Medieval.

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josh2600
What is the backend?

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zekethefreak
It seems a lot like the defunct wixi.com

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h1srf
How much can I upload 1GB? 10GB? 30TB?

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minm
Another alternative is Tonido. Install Tonido in your computer and stream
music and videos to iOS and Android devices. No need to port forwarding. It
simply works. You can even stream your iTunes playlist.

