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 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!
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.
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! 
Plex installed on Samsung smart TV and laptop. Now watching classic Top Gear "Revved up" as Sunday morning TV is tosh.
Set up was fairly straight forward. I have no need for expensive options as I don't take media out of the house with me (bar Google Play for music). I now have fast forward and rewind.
Looks lovely and beats the pants off just browsing folder structure as I was previously.
Set up was fairly straight forward. I have no need for expensive options as I don't take media out of the house with me (bar Google Play for music). I now have fast forward and rewind.
Looks lovely and beats the pants off just browsing folder structure as I was previously.
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