Stream from PC to Kodi (xbmc)
Does anybody know is it possible to stream movie from PC (using VLC or similar) .. to Kodi (XBMC) .. perhaps via AirPlay or something similar ? .. I want to be able to push stream from PC to Kodi (like AirPlay does) .. NOT to create shared folder and access it over the network.. I would like PC to be the one thar initiates playback .. same as I do over iPhone Airplay.. I have tried to look into VLC manual but noting seems appropirate..
Thank you, M
Streaming from VLC to Kodi is pretty simple and I can walk you through the steps. The only thing I don't think you can do is make VLC initiate the playback... that has to come from Kodi itself, I'm afraid. Since you are connecting to VLC from Kodi, if you pause the stream on VLC's side, Kodi will drop the connection. I have yet to see a way of making VLC initiate the playback like the 'Send to Kodi' add-on for Firefox/Chrome does.
Anyway, if you are still interested, here's a way to stream a file from VLC on your PC to any Kodi player you have...
1: On your PC, open Notepad and copy & paste this:
#EXTINF:0,VLC Stream
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:10803
- Note: You will have to change the x's to the connection your PC uses. For example, your PC might be at: '192.168.0.6' (Keep the ':10803' port part at the end. This is important!)
2: Once that's done, save the file somewhere with a .strm extension. For example: 'VLCStream.strm'
3: You now need to copy 'VLCStream.strm' to a folder on your Kodi player or, if you have an online server/personal webspace, etc, copy it there instead. This is because you need to play that .strm file from Kodi.
4: Next, open VLC and from the menu, choose: 'Media >> Stream...' (or Ctrl+S)
5: From the 'File' tab, click on 'Add...' and select the video file you want to stream.
6: Once you have chosen the file, click on the 'Stream' button.
7: Click 'Next'.
8: In the 'Destination Setup' window, click on the 'File' dropdown menu and choose 'HTTP', then click on 'Add'.
9: Leave the path as it is (should just be a forward slash) but in the 'Port' section, change '8080' to '10803' and click on 'Next'
10: In the next window, uncheck 'Activate Transcoding'.
11: Click 'Next'.
12: Click 'Stream'.
13: Your VLC should now play and display 'Streaming - VLC Media Player' in the window title.
- Note: You won't see or hear the file being played locally but it IS working. If you want to make sure, you can check the 'Display Locally' box in the window in step 8.
14: Open Kodi and choose 'Videos >>> Files'.
- Note: Although I use a different skin, I'm writing this for the default 'Confluence' skin for Kodi. Some menu names/icons may be different.
15: What you have to do now is select the .strm file you saved to your Kodi folder, or to your server, and you should now see the streaming video playing in Kodi. (I'm guessing you already know how to link to a specific folder/server so I don't need to go over that)
Hopefully, if you followed the steps correctly, you should now have the file streaming from VLC to Kodi. If it doesn't work, close VLC and follow the steps again. It works for me and does so each and every time.
I hope this has been of some help to you and if you find out a way to make VLC initiate playback, do let us know.
IB
You might not know this: VLC can grab your Screen and stream it, so basically you would have to open the stream, fullscreen it, start VLC via commandline and then open the shortcut in Kodi.
Not pretty but should work.