Streaming media at home: Plex + Chromecast?
Discussion
Evening all.
I've been wanting to set up my home so that I can stream my films and play my music between different rooms but I don't have a lot of budget for it and I'm more software than hardware savvy so a home server seems daunting to me.
I recently saw a product called Plex that claims to organise your media collection, stick it online (for a smallish fee) and thus give you access from wherever with their app. This app is available for Chromecast. This seems to give accesible media for ~£100 (I already have a smart TV) and no home server, thus increased electricity bills. As it would be on a businesses server it ought to be reliable, whereas I would not necesarilly know how to fix a broken home server.
It seems to good to be true: what's the catch?
I've been wanting to set up my home so that I can stream my films and play my music between different rooms but I don't have a lot of budget for it and I'm more software than hardware savvy so a home server seems daunting to me.
I recently saw a product called Plex that claims to organise your media collection, stick it online (for a smallish fee) and thus give you access from wherever with their app. This app is available for Chromecast. This seems to give accesible media for ~£100 (I already have a smart TV) and no home server, thus increased electricity bills. As it would be on a businesses server it ought to be reliable, whereas I would not necesarilly know how to fix a broken home server.
It seems to good to be true: what's the catch?
I have been using Plex for a couple of months and think it is an excellent product. I am not totally sure about the ability to host it all online though. I have a media server at home and can sync to other devices from that. From what I understand you sync the files from your media server to a cloud provider you have signed up to such as Google Drive.
https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/2013...
https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/2013...
I hadn't realised that you could do that. I've done a quick bit of research: change a couple of options in WMP, check that the laptop and PC are both connected to a home network, access media library through TV. Is it as easy as it seems? If so, thank you for bringing it to my attention!
Plex makes sense if you are using a device that runs the plex client app. If you are just using the TV's DLNA client, it will be a basic, functional file browser type affair. Works fine though. I regularly stream content to a samsung smart TV from my laptop if i need to use the laptop while watching TV!
The option you want is 'stream' in windows media player. You will probably need to have the TV switched on when you set it up and yes on the same network. The stream box should show the TV and you then give if permission to access your content.
The option you want is 'stream' in windows media player. You will probably need to have the TV switched on when you set it up and yes on the same network. The stream box should show the TV and you then give if permission to access your content.
abbotsmike said:
Plex makes sense if you are using a device that runs the plex client app. If you are just using the TV's DLNA client, it will be a basic, functional file browser type affair. Works fine though. I regularly stream content to a samsung smart TV from my laptop if i need to use the laptop while watching TV!
The option you want is 'stream' in windows media player. You will probably need to have the TV switched on when you set it up and yes on the same network. The stream box should show the TV and you then give if permission to access your content.
I think I'll give this a try when I'm home tomorrow night. It seems ideal as I won't need any new hardware or software and I will be able to turn my laptop/external hard drive on only when I want to watch something from it. The option you want is 'stream' in windows media player. You will probably need to have the TV switched on when you set it up and yes on the same network. The stream box should show the TV and you then give if permission to access your content.
McAndy said:
Evening all.
I've been wanting to set up my home so that I can stream my films and play my music between different rooms but I don't have a lot of budget for it and I'm more software than hardware savvy so a home server seems daunting to me.
I recently saw a product called Plex that claims to organise your media collection, stick it online (for a smallish fee) and thus give you access from wherever with their app. This app is available for Chromecast. This seems to give accesible media for ~£100 (I already have a smart TV) and no home server, thus increased electricity bills. As it would be on a businesses server it ought to be reliable, whereas I would not necesarilly know how to fix a broken home server.
This is exactly what I am doing currently with 2 Chromecasts and think it runs great. And at £30 the Chromecast is a bargain. Originally installed Plex so my housemate could watch my movie collection on a NowTV box as he has no computer (he does and cannot be bothered to sort it out or even give it to me to sort it out. But rants about his lazyness are for another day/thread...) If you have an Android phone or Tablet then you can use the current £4.99 Chromecast Google Play credit offer to pay for the Android Plex App I've been wanting to set up my home so that I can stream my films and play my music between different rooms but I don't have a lot of budget for it and I'm more software than hardware savvy so a home server seems daunting to me.
I recently saw a product called Plex that claims to organise your media collection, stick it online (for a smallish fee) and thus give you access from wherever with their app. This app is available for Chromecast. This seems to give accesible media for ~£100 (I already have a smart TV) and no home server, thus increased electricity bills. As it would be on a businesses server it ought to be reliable, whereas I would not necesarilly know how to fix a broken home server.
FYI - You don't need a paid version of Plex to stream over the internet. Just create a myplex account and add that account to your media server. Go online anywhere on any computer and login to the myplex website... there you will see your server. Choose your media and hit play. Playing via the site will play the media in your web browser.
If you have the Plex app on your phone/tablet/laptop just associate your myplex account with the device in the app settings and off you go.
If you have the Plex app on your phone/tablet/laptop just associate your myplex account with the device in the app settings and off you go.
Well, the Windows Media player streaming seems to have worked. I don't have rewind or fast forward, but I can pause. I don't have a home server and I'd like to only turn my laptop on when we want to watch a film: would Plex bring this level of control? If not, thanks for helping me to stream to my TV with no additional hardware or software costs!
What smart TV have you got? If it's a Samsung then you can probably download a Plex client for it. The Plex client on my Samsung TV is a million miles better than the DLNA server, which like yours didn't even have fast forward or rewind.
Yes you would also need to install Plex server but as has been already said it's very easy and more than worth it for extra features (fast forward, rewind, watch from last location and many more) and nicer user interface.
Yes you would also need to install Plex server but as has been already said it's very easy and more than worth it for extra features (fast forward, rewind, watch from last location and many more) and nicer user interface.
McAndy said:
That's the free Plex server, right? So I'd still only need to boot up the laptop and then control via Plex on the TV (essentially the same as what I've just done but through different software)?
Forgive my ignorance, I really am wet behind the ears with modern media!
Yup, plex server is free. It would work in the way you expect, you just need to let the server scan your media to build it's library.Forgive my ignorance, I really am wet behind the ears with modern media!
All downloads found here https://plex.tv/downloads
McAndy said:
Lovely, thank you! Sounds like an experiment for the weekend.
If I put it on my phone then could I stream to the TV from my phone directly?
The server has to run on the PC that has access to the media files. You can stream from your PC to your phone, if you put the plex client (client, not server) on your phone. Likewise you can put the plex client on your TV and stream to that.If I put it on my phone then could I stream to the TV from my phone directly?
You can also stream from plex server to your TVs DLNA player but you won't get some of the better features that you will by installing and using the plex client.
Plex has become my favourite app. I have the free server software on my FreeNAS server, the Samsung app on my smart TV and I also have the £3 android app on my phone. Plex grabs all the nice metadata to present your media beautifully.
I can watch my media on TV, phone, tablet, browser or chromecast. It keeps track of what I have watched and can resume from where I last watched.
I can watch remotely and even cast to others’ chromecasts.
I can watch my media on TV, phone, tablet, browser or chromecast. It keeps track of what I have watched and can resume from where I last watched.
I can watch remotely and even cast to others’ chromecasts.
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