Streaming video from PC to TV

Araysar

Loser Araysar

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I have a 4 TB external HD with a bunch of torrents connected to my Desktop PC. I want to watch them on my TV in the next room. How do i make this happen without running cables or buying a playstation? I want to be able set up something similar to the PS3 wireless media server
 
Void

Void

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There are multiple solutions (Roku, Boxee, etc.) but Chromecast and PLEX would do it the cheapest. Wireless you're pretty much limited to 720p no matter what solution you use, so Chromecast/PLEX is probably your cheapest and easiest choice, with the added bonus that you can keep the files in any quality you want and let PLEX convert them to 720p.

If you absolutely need 1080p, you'll have to run wires or bring the files physically to the TV somehow. Regardless of resolution demands, depending upon which TV you have, there is a chance it could play the movies directly from the HD via USB. If that doesn't work (which it probably won't, as typically you'd need to have formatted it FAT32, among other complications), you could copy the movies to a USB stick if it will play the formats (or convert what you have to something it will play). I am assuming you don't want to do any constant moving of the HD or copying to USB sticks though, which leaves you with wireless.

Something like a Boxee or Roku would cost more, but I know you don't typically worry about a few hundred bucks, so it would depend on what you find most comfortable to view with. Chromecast is going to require you to use your phone or tablet, whereas the others will have remotes of varying effectiveness.

Sidenote: I'm talking an older Boxee Box, not the new one (I forget the exact name). The new one is practically worthless to be honest, so you'd have to find an old Box as leftover stock or used or something. Never used a Roku, but that's probably easier to get now and supposedly just as good or better.

There might be better solutions depending upon your TV (I believe Samsung has some sort of native streaming thing in their new TVs) or something I'm forgetting, but Chromecast for $35 + $5 PLEX app on your phone is going to be tough to beat I think.
 
Araysar

Loser Araysar

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Yeah, I was thinking Chromecast too. Just wasnt sure if anything better came out recently. I really dont want to spend too much money on electronics anyway so i think this is the best solution for me.

Thanks a ton, Vvoid.

I'd plus you, but.... you know
 
Void

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Sure, glad to help.

Someone else might chime in with something I've forgotten or not aware of though. If you're looking to keep it cheap though, I'm pretty sure that's the best solution.

If you need any help setting up PLEX, just ask. I'd be happy to help, and I know a lot of people here are much, much more familiar with it than I am. I got help when setting up mine too, and it made it a lot easier.
 
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Picasso3

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I've used Samsung allshare shit and it fucks up in the middle of movies etc. I thought I had steamed 1080 before wireless before though are you sure that's impossible?
 
ShakyJake

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A guy at work claims to stream 1080p video. I think he has a Wireless-N set up.

I use a WDTV-Live to stream from my PC. It just uses a simple network share (can also connect to the PS3 media server software). I wouldn't really recommend the WDTV as I think it's a piece of junk and there are certainly better devices out there today.

I thought Chromecast was limited to service-based streaming (Netflix, GoogleTV, etc) and that you can't stream your own stuff?
 
Grimmlokk

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Has anyone had any experience with thePlair 2? It's a slightly more expensive($49) alternative to the Chromecast, but it supposedly lets you stream local content right out of the box.

What about CheapCast? Never heard of it until 5 minutes ago when trying to find the name of the Plair.
 
Araysar

Loser Araysar

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ShakyJake_sl said:
I thought Chromecast was limited to service-based streaming (Netflix, GoogleTV, etc) and that you can't stream your own stuff?
Click to expand...
I was under the same impression, can anyone clarify?
 
Araysar

Loser Araysar

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I tried a couple of my videos (AVI) and that didnt work at all. They start downloading instead of streaming. Back to the drawing board.
 
Crone

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With Plex App now being on Chromecast, there's no reason at all to worry about using your browser tab to play video files. Seriously. Plex is the best.
 
Araysar

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Crone_sl said:
With Plex App now being on Chromecast, there's no reason at all to worry about using your browser tab to play video files. Seriously. Plex is the best.
Click to expand...
Uh, can you dumb it down a shade for me?
 
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Kinkle_sl

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Basically, you can host any TV/movie/music on your PC using an online service called Plex. Chromecast just added support for Plex, so you can now access your media from any tablet/smartphone/pc that's connected to your home network and cast it to the chromecast. I've got a chromecast and a Roku, and while I like having a controller with the Roku, Chromecast is already the more versatile option.
 
chaos

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Plex is legit, I just moved all my stuff from boxxee over to plex and chromecast. I only had one issue with the transcoder process in plex hogging all the cpu and I fixed that easily.
 
Crone

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Sorry... So basically Plex is a "channel" you can install on a Roku, an app on Chromecast, or an app on any iPhone or Android device.

But the above are useless if you don't have a Plex server running on the computer where all your media is stored. Let's be honest, the only reason this exists and is so popular isn't because we all have mass home videos we want to show to all our friends. No, we have TV shows, and movies, etc that we need to play on our TV. I'm sure many are like me, and I don't actually subscribe to any TV service.

Now the Plex server isn't exactly difficult to setup, but takes a little time. Might be a little over the head of Grandma and Grandpa, but it's not that difficult. You set it up, tell it where your TV shows are stored, tell it where movies, music, etc are stored, and you are off and running. I have it set to update and rescan whenever it detects changes. So with my setup, whenever I get a new TV show or movie it's updating, so that I can always watch whatever I just got.

Now, forgive me if this is a little wrong, as I've not heard anyone really talk about the step of needing to setup the Plex server on the PC first. As far as I know this is still required if you want Plex to work. After that the Plex channel or App will work great!
 
chaos

chaos

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I found actually setting up the server to be very simple, anyone who can operate google should be able to do it. Renaming all of my media was a pain in the ass, but worth it for the auto indexing etc.
 
Araysar

Loser Araysar

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Crone_sl said:
Sorry... So basically Plex is a "channel" you can install on a Roku, an app on Chromecast, or an app on any iPhone or Android device.

But the above are useless if you don't have a Plex server running on the computer where all your media is stored. Let's be honest, the only reason this exists and is so popular isn't because we all have mass home videos we want to show to all our friends. No, we have TV shows, and movies, etc that we need to play on our TV. I'm sure many are like me, and I don't actually subscribe to any TV service.

Now the Plex server isn't exactly difficult to setup, but takes a little time. Might be a little over the head of Grandma and Grandpa, but it's not that difficult. You set it up, tell it where your TV shows are stored, tell it where movies, music, etc are stored, and you are off and running. I have it set to update and rescan whenever it detects changes. So with my setup, whenever I get a new TV show or movie it's updating, so that I can always watch whatever I just got.

Now, forgive me if this is a little wrong, as I've not heard anyone really talk about the step of needing to setup the Plex server on the PC first. As far as I know this is still required if you want Plex to work. After that the Plex channel or App will work great!
Click to expand...
Ok that sounds simple enough. I had a wireless media server with a PS3 a few years back so im sure i could get this working

Chaos is scaring me with the "renaming all your media" stuff. I just checked and I have close to a 1000 torrents

Thank you for your help, Crone
 
chaos

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I didn't try it without it so I don't know how it operates without renaming your media. But they say on their site they want you to rename all of your files to something like "Movie Name(Year).avi" and tv shows to "Show Name s1e1.avi" so that they can correctly index, apply metadata, etc. The worst that could probably happen is if you don't do that you won't get thumbnails and metadata about the movie. And tv shows will probably be all out of order and shit unless you use their naming convention/directory structure.

I renamed about 2-300 normal movies and 4-500 kids movies in about 2 hours, would have taken less time if I wasn't watching tv.
 
Araysar

Loser Araysar

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I'm afraid that if I rename the files, it will screw up my torrent uploads
 
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