3.4. Remote streams
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## 3.4. Remote streams

Remote streams allow you to access most MPlayer stream type from a remote host. The main purpose of this feature is to make it possible to directly use the CD or DVD drive of another computer on the network (provided you have the required bandwidth). On the downside some stream type (currently TV and MF) are not usable remotely because they are implemented at the demuxer level. It's sad for MF but TV stream would anyway require an insane amount of bandwidth.

### 3.4.1. Compiling the server

After having compiled MPlayer go to the `TOOLS/netstream` directory and enter make to build the server binary. You can then copy the netstream binary to the right place on your system (usually `/usr/local/bin` on Linux).

### 3.4.2. Using remote streams

First you have to start the server on the computer you intend to remotely access. Currently the server is very basic and doesn't have any commands line arguments so just enter `netstream`. Now you can for example play the second track of a VCD on the server with :

    mplayer -cache 5000 mpst://servername/vcd://2

You can also access files on this server :

    mplayer -cache 5000 mpst://servername//usr/local/movies/lol.avi

Note that paths which aren't starting with a / will be relative to the directory where the server is running. The `-cache` option is not needed but highly recommended.

Be aware that currently the server is not secure at all. So don't complain about the numerous exploits which are possible through this. Instead send some (good) patch to make it better or start writing your own server.

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