iPhone / iPad
iPhone / iPad
Mac OS
VLC Streamer is mostly designed to stream movies.
This means that you run the helper app on your computer and connect to the helper from your iPhone or iPad.
The helper converts your movies and streams them to your device.
It is also possible to copy movies directly to VLC Streamer through iTunes, and VLC Streamer will try to play them without using the helper.
For most movies (anything except a .mp4 or a .mov movie) VLC Streamer will use VLC to attempt playback.
Unfortunately - decoding movies makes your device work very hard - and particularly if you have a high resolution movie, it may simply be too slow.
You may have opened this page because of a 'too slow' warning.
If you're getting the 'too slow' warning, then the best fix is to connect to the helper on your computer and stream from that.
Once you have the helper installed on your computer, you can select any video on your Mac or PC (no need to copy videos in advance, or to add them to the helper).
When you select a movie, the helper immediately starts converting it to an efficient format for streaming and then streams it to your device.
Because this format is Apple's chosen streaming format - the device is optimised to play movies smoothly even at high resolutions.
Typically, you'll only have to wait a ten or so seconds for the helper app to convert enough of the movie and you can start watching immediately.
Another advantage of this approach is that it doesn't use up space on your iDevice - movies live on your PC/Mac and you can watch them when you're ready.
You can get the helper app from https://HobbyistSoftware.com/VLCStreamer
When you use the helper to stream movies to your device - then they are not copied to your device.
This means that you can only watch them while you are connected to your home wifi.
However, you can copy the converted movie to your device if you need to watch it later.
To do this, simply add the movie for streaming, then click on the info button next to the movie and select 'copy to device'.
Copying this way _is_ slow - but it gives you the advantage of optimised movies, and the ability to watch them away from home.