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pulseaudio-dlna is a lightweight streaming server that makes it easy to stream audio from a Linux computer that uses PulseAudio, to a DLNA / UPnP or Chromecast device in the same network.

The tool discovers all UPnP / DLNA / Chromecast renderers in the network and adds them as sinks to PulseAudio. You can then either select the sinks from the sound settings, or use pavucontrol to control which applications can stream to the UPnP / DLNA or Chromecast device. 

Lets get started with installing and using pulseaudio-dlna.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:qos/pulseaudio-dlna
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-dlna

pulseaudio-dlna

On the other end, make sure the DLNA / UPnP or Chromecast device is powered on.

Next, open the system sound settings. In Ubuntu (Unity), from the Sound Menu, select Sound Settings and your DLNA / UPnP and/or Chromecast device should show up in the output list:

Select the device you want to stream to and... thats it (well, for DLNA / UPnP devices, you may need to accept the connection - a popup should be displayed on the device screen; Chromecast should start streaming immediately).

In my test under Ubuntu 16.04, the sound was perfect while using the default pulseaudio-dlna settings however, the sound was distorted when streaming to a Chromecast. To get it to work properly, I ran pulseaudio-dlna with mp3 as the codec and ffmpeg as the encoder backend:

pulseaudio-dlna --codec mp3 --encoder-backend=ffmpeg

Note: to be able to use ffmpeg as the encoder backend, youll need to install it. Its available in the official Ubuntu 15.10 and 16.04 repositories (so to install it, use: "sudo apt-get install ffmpeg") however, its not for Ubuntu 14.04.

For Ubuntu 14.04, you can search for a PPA that provides ffmpeg (use e.g. Y PPA Manager to search in Launchpad PPAs) - heres one that has ffmpeg backported from a newer Ubuntu version, but note that I didnt test it -, or install it from source.

pulseaudio-dlna allows changing the server port, force auto reconnect, set the cover mode (whats displayed on the DLNA / Chromecast device) and much more. To see all the available pulseaudio-dlna options, type:

pulseaudio-dlna --help

If you want to send single audio streams to the device, you can use pavucontrol. To install it in Ubuntu, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install pavucontrol

Then launch pavucontrol (it shows up as PulseAudio Volume Control in the menu / Dash) and on the Playback tab, change the stream to the DNLA / Chromecast device, only for the apps you want to use for streaming. As an example, heres Audacious set to stream to a Chromecast device:

OBS Studio is a free, open source application which allows video recording and live streaming. The app can be used to stream to various popular websites such as Twitch.tv, YouTube, Hitbox.tv, Vaughn Live / iNSTAGIB.tv, DailyMotion, Connectcast.tv, GoodGame.ru, CyberGame.tv, CashPlay.tv along with custom streaming servers.

The original Open Broadcaster Software was rewritten, with the main goal of being multiplatform, along with a more powerful API and a more thorough feature set. The new multiplatform OBS Studio is currently in alpha and is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

In Linux, OBS allows recording a window or a monitor, on top of which you can add various overlays such as an image, text, webcam or media source and of course, audio input (microphone) and output (the game, a music player, etc.), with various options.

Below Ill try to make a quick start guide for streaming to Twitch.tv via OBS running under Linux (Ubuntu in my case). But before that, you can see a quick test Ive done earlier with OBS Studio (0.10.1) streaming World of Warcraft to Twitch from Ubuntu 15.04 (there are no video quality settings unfortunately because thats only available for Twitch partners).

For Ubuntu 14.04 / Linux Mint 17.x / elementary OS Freya and so on, youll need to add a FFmpeg PPA because these Ubuntu versions dont provide FFmpeg. Add the PPA and install FFmpeg using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jon-hedgerows/ffmpeg-backports
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

These FFmpeg packages are backported from Ubuntu 15.04 and they dont overwrite libav so they wont break anything.

For Ubuntu 15.04, FFmpeg is available in the official repositories so to install it, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install obs-studio

You can use "Screen capture (XSHM)" instead of "Window capture", but I recommend capturing the window because youll be able to have other windows on top of the game without them showing up in your live stream.

Then, add any other sources youd like, like "Video Capture Device" (webcam), "Audio Input Capture" (microphone), "Audio Output Capture" (the sound you hear through the speakers - it can be the game sound, a music player, etc.), text, an image and so on.

Note that the source order is important. For instance, if youre playing a fullscreen game and the webcam source ("Video Capture Device") is under the "Window capture" or "Screen capture" source, it wont show up, so youll need to move it using the up/down arrows so that the webcam source is above the capture source. The same goes for text and image overlays, etc.

a) if your video colors are incorrect, select the source from the "Sources" list, click "Properties" (its the third button under "Sources") and enable "Swap red and blue":

b) if your computer has a slow CPU and youre getting a low quality / fps live stream, you can try changing the x264 CPU preset to "superfast" or "ultrafast" (default is "veryfast"):

This can be done via Settings > Output > select "Advanced" for the "Output Mode" from the dropdown > on the Streaming tab scroll down and youll find an option called "CPU Usage Preset".

If the performance is still bad, you can try setting a lower video resolution and bitrate (these settings can be found in the same "Streaming" tab as the "CPU Usage Preset" - see above).

c) if you have an old computer and/or a bad Internet connection, you may want to decrease the frame rate (default is 30) or, if you have a good computer and Internet connection and you play something like Arena/PvP, you my want to increase it.

The FPS settings can be found in OBS Settings > Video (you can switch to "Integer FPS value" to use a custom value instead of those predefined under "Common FPS Values"):

You may also want to read the official OBS quick start and overview guides (but note that they are for the old OBS version so the UI looks different and some settings maybe not be available any more, etc.).

Report any bugs you may encounter with OBS, HERE.

I was written a post about Streaming Videos from PC to Android using Emit but recently i am started using ES File Explorer to stream videos from my laptop PC to Android phone (Galaxy S2). For me ES File Explorer works better than Emit. ES streams  the videos faster than Emit. While getting a better package like ES File Explorer for free why we want to go for a premium one ?

In this post I am writing the steps to connect and stream videos from PC to Android using ES File Explorer in both Anonymous and Authenticated ways. To Work both ways your phone and PC must connect to same network or router.

Download ES File Explorer From Google Play

Share desired folder in Your Windows PC

1. In your PC right click on the desired folder you want to share and select Properties.
2. In Properties Window navigate to Sharing tab and click Share button.


3. It will open a new window...select Everyone in the drop down list ... click Add button then Share button finally on the other screen Done button.


Done ...You are shared the folder...Now follow the steps to connect phone to PC using ES File Explorer.

How To Connect ES File Explorer to PC using Username and Password ?

1. Connect Phone and PC to the same network or router.
2. Open ES File Explorer in your phone.
3. Swipe left or click local on top right and select LAN.


4. In LAN page Click New and select Scan.


5. Now it will show your PCs ip address eg: 192.168.2.7 . Long press on it and select Edit server.


6. In Edit Server page... uncheck Anonymous check-box and enter your admin Username and Password and press OK.


7. Now It will open the PCs ip page again...Just Click on the ip ... it will explore your PC with shared folder ...go to directory and select the video you want to play....Done !

How To Connect ES File Explorer to PC Anonymously ?

To connect Anonymously you have to setup some settings in your PC..Follow the steps below.
1.Open Network and Sharing Center.


2. Navigate to Advanced sharing settings and check Turn of password protected sharing radio button.


Done...Now take your phone and follow the steps below.

1. Steps 1 to 5 is same as the Connect using Username and Password method.
6. In Edit Server page... check Anonymous check-box and and press OK.


7. Step 7 is also same as first method.

Thats it ...enjoy streaming.