Media player suggestions

PascalG

PascalG

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I m looking for a media player to play movie files on non smart TV(s)

I don't care for streaming from online services, only movies archived on a network drive connected to our router.

I ve had a WD live in the past, it was ok but looking at alternatives. I want it to be simple to use so guests can browse and select on their own without having to navigate a bunch of menus and folders.

Any suggestions?
 
"any old computer" w/ the appropriate vid out ( ie: HDMI ) and a network card would do. I'd use a Raspberry Pi, but then I'm a tinkerer.

I assume you want a COTS solution. In which case, I dunno.
 
I've been doing some research this morning and I am leaning towards Plex which I d run on a computer and use AppleTVs or chromecasts on each TVs we want to serve. A little more complex but from what I can see Plex stores the movie posters and metadata locally once matched. At lest that's how I read it. Anyone using Plex?
 
I was going to suggest Apple TV. You can buy a new Apple TV 3 from Apple for $75. An Apple TV 4 might be over kill for your needs. I use AirPlay on my Apple TV to watch anything from my Tivo at home on the boat TV. Plex is a nice addition if you already have a large media collection.

I run an Intel NUC as my Plex server. It's tiny, about 4" x 4", and will hold a 3TB 2.5" drive for storage. An Apple TV/Plex setup should be an awesome setup since many guests will probably have iPhones and be used to the Apple OS.
 
AppleTV by itself will not work as it can not access a network drive. AirPlay is ok by don't find it to be 100% buffer free. Plus we d have to have an iPad to play the movie and send it to the AppleTV Too much network traffic.

Will look up the Intel NUC
 
Come to think of it, I'm not 100% sure Apple TV 3 will work with Plex. Apple TV 4 will for sure. You might want to check before purchasing. I won't have an Apple TV 3 handy until next week or I'd check for you.
 
Plex is a "server" that serves the media files to an app on the Apple TV. Point Plex to the media files on your network drive and the Apple TV will see the Plex server and all the content.
 
No, Plex only works with the latest AppleTV.which is fine becaus rhe price difference is so small it's not worth getting the older one. So one solution is to Sergio Plex on a a computer and then add an AppleTV to whatever TV we need to add access to the library,

Those NUCs are pretty neat but I may just set up a laptop and an external drive. I also noticed the new compute sticks... Hadn't heard of them either, amazing.
 
I still use the WDs with external hard drives at each TV. I keep a spare WD and hard drive on board in case anyone unit goes bad.

The RTI universal remotes we use are programmed to operate the WD media players. It's a simple system that works for us. We have Apple TV too.

I've got around 1000 movies, if you want I can send you a hard drive with my movies on it and we can share/trade movies?
 
Plex transcodes in real time. If you're going to serve several TVs at once, you'll need some computing horsepower to transcode and serve several streams at once. A laptop may suffice but I prefer the elegance of a NUC when hardwired to a router and each Apple TV hard wired to a router. Just my opinion.
 
Bill, I only have about 200 so I m sure you probably have most of the ones I have :) I have a bunch to archive, so when that done, let's get in touch. Where are you these days?

On charmer I only had one WD live with an Ethernet cable to the router, and a WD myBook also hard wired to the router. Worked ok. One issue is that you could only have the movie poster but no description, etc... Unless you had an Internet connection, makes it harder to ice a movie, Plex seems to store the metadata de downloaded.

On the Lazzara I want to expand this to staterooms and the sky lounge
 
You're going to need an internet connection for Plex to acquire the metadata for each movie.
 
Yeah that's fine, I can do thst stateside but when in the exumas I need the metadata to be stored locally.
 
That's what wwe need on a boat and that's what WD live doesn't do.
 
I'm in FLL right now. Going to Cuba in 3 weeks.

Just email me an address and I'll send you a hard drive with the movies on it.

capt (dot) bill111 (at) gmail (dot) com
 
quote:
Originally posted by blue_nova

PleX as server chrome cast on tvs
Plays movies music and slideshows

Click to expand...


Can each TV access any file the user wants?

And can each user open and view a different file simultaneously?
 
In theory yes, multiple users can stream different files, although you may quickly run into bandwidth issues on the network.

Bill, will email
 
Sounds interesting.

But the media player/hard drive in each room works well for us. The quests don't seem to mind looking over an alphabetized list of movies. And I have a printed out folder of the movies on the drive as well.

I sent you the hard drive today. I think it's got over 950 movies on it. But there will be some duplicates.
 
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