Nigel Wilks (aka “Cougar” over on the mediasmartserver.net forums) has released FirePlay for Windows Home Server, a remote media streaming add-in that allows you to play music through a web browser directly from your home server – whether you’re at home or out and about.
FirePlay for Windows Home Server builds on Bo Mellberg’s original Fireplay flash client, and requires Firefly Media Server to be installed on the home server (the HP MediaSmart Server already has this installed out of the box). The add-in automatically configures your firewall and uPnP router to allow you to access your music through a browser session.
As the client is Flash based, only MP3 files can be streamed – this is a limitation of Flash, unfortunately. As the Fireplay client is developed further, the add-in will continue to support new features.
Check it out!
Download: FirePlay for Windows Home Server
14. April 2009 at 4:25 pm
Will this work with a blackberry?
14. April 2009 at 9:56 pm
Neat. Thanks.
14. April 2009 at 11:40 pm
Thanks Terry. I just updated the code to 0.90.05 to work around some of the issues people have with router loopback. It’s now using ASP so is much more dynamic, and you can now choose local or remote (i.e. http://server/FirePlay or http://my.homeserver.com/FirePlay) rather than the fixed external name in 0.90.03
15. April 2009 at 12:04 am
I use ORB now so what is the advantage? Just curious as ORB does audio, video and photos as well as online media.
15. April 2009 at 12:10 am
I use Subsonic media streamer on my WHS for the same thing, and it can transcode just about any format to an MP3 stream as well.
http://subsonic.sourceforge.net/
15. April 2009 at 10:33 am
Great the updated version with local or remote possibilities. I don’t need extra audio formats or video to be streamed so firefly and fireplay are more than enough for my needs. And it is working great
Thank you!
Nic
15. April 2009 at 11:36 am
I’m going to give this a go. Just for kicks
)
(Allready have Orb and Subsonic installed, but it’s fun to have as many options as possible to share stuff
16. April 2009 at 4:03 am
I don’t mean to speak for Nigel, but I will anyway.
I understand that Orb and Subsonic do this and even more, however a primary objective with this add-in is to meet the ease of use requirements of Windows Home Server and make the feature accessible to non-technical users.
Sure, many of you that are regularly on here have the technical aptitude to use Remote Desktop to access the server, install software, integrate it into IIS, configure the firewall, and forward ports in your router. But for those that don’t feel comfortable doing all that, they now have a solution to stream their music outside the home with zero configuration required (assuming they have a MediaSmart Server or Firefly installed and a UPnP capable router).
I hope that clarifies things,
Alex
16. April 2009 at 11:29 am
I’ve to admit the easy install of the add-in. however, the install of Firefly itself had some issues on my side. but it works perfectly well now!
Maybe you could create a better installer for firefly aswell (background download and install or something like that?) and intregrate it into your add-in? I don’t think that should be too hard since Firefly uses a .conf file which should be easy enough to recreate with some form of setting dialog?
I love the add-in pretty much though!
16. April 2009 at 3:02 pm
Thanks. A Firefly Add-In is is something I would love to see, and I am looking into. There was a project doing it a while back, and have asked on the Firefly forums if it’s still progressing. If it’s not I’ll pick it up.
4. May 2009 at 5:48 am
Brand new user here – New to WHS and newer yet to FirePlay! I did get FirePlay to work after a fashion but am seeing issues…
1. The cover art does not change with the NOW PLAYING selection
2. Clicking *anywhere* seems to mess with the playlist.
3. Cannot add a song to the playlist, can only add albums!
Thx
RG
9. July 2009 at 10:48 am
I have a really stupid question, and I have searched for a while now. How does Fireplay know where you music is? I have installed the addin, the URL works remotely, but I dont see any music. Could someone please point me in the right direction ? Thanks