Streamer

Streamer is a video streaming server packaged in Toast 10. The application allows you to stream video files from your computer to any computer with a web browser capable of playing QuickTime files. It doesn't support all the video formats, but thanks to Toast, it can easily convert any file you throw at it and start streaming right away. I was very amazed when I saw that for the first time. I dragged an XVID .avi file onto the interface and Streamer automatically launched Roxio's Toast and converted the file for me with optimal quality settings. After the conversion was done, the file was automatically added to the list of available files.

After starting the web server, the file was accessible via the web address that you get when you first run the application. This makes it easy for you to share your media without having to remember your IP address or having to set up a host name service for your dynamic IP.

Streamer tests your upload speed and chooses a quality setting for you based on the results that you got. The three quality settings are Low, Medium and High. The Low setting makes videos all pixelated but still watchable. Audio gets streamed well and there are no apparent audio/video sync problems. The higher quality settings allow for good looking videos, but you will have to pause the video a bit for it to buffer or it will lag a lot.

There is a preview function for the videos in your library. However, they don't play in a full-screen mode; all you really see is a thumbnail playing and that doesn't help much to determine quality, among other things. A nice feature that is hidden in the preferences is the application's ability to send you an e-mail when new videos are added. How thoughtful, right?

All in all, Streamer is an excellent app. The design is exquisite, it works great out of the box and doesn't require any port-forwarding. All kinds of devices can connect to it and play the content that you share. Yet another reason to get Toast Titanium.