Playing H265 on TV

[Stan the Bat]

paulrockliffe said:

The new Google one will play it I think, it's only £60 and it's really very good.

Sorry, which one's that ?

[Corso Marche]

paulrockliffe said:

The new Google one will play it I think, it's only £60 and it's really very good.

It's not as straightforward connecting an external drive to it as you might hope.

Stan - Have you Wi-Fi at the location where the new box is intended to be used?

If yes, then plug that hard drive into your Shield and leave it there permanently. Then buy the Chromecast with Google TV mentioned above.

You then have two options;
1) Mount the drive as shared network storage through the Shield. You can then access the drive directly from the Google TV using a variety of player apps.
2) Use the Shield as a Plex server, and the other device will stream the videos from the Shield.

I've a Shield running as a Plex server, and it's the solitary TV box (no cable or satellite) in the living room.
It streams our TV and movie catalogue to 2 other MiBoxes in other rooms. The Chromecast with Google TV will work just the same if you set your Shield up as the server.

[Stan the Bat]

Corso Marche said:

paulrockliffe said:

The new Google one will play it I think, it's only £60 and it's really very good.

It's not as straightforward connecting an external drive to it as you might hope.

Stan - Have you Wi-Fi at the location where the new box is intended to be used?

If yes, then plug that hard drive into your Shield and leave it there permanently. Then buy the Chromecast with Google TV mentioned above.

You then have two options;
1) Mount the drive as shared network storage through the Shield. You can then access the drive directly from the Google TV using a variety of player apps.
2) Use the Shield as a Plex server, and the other device will stream the videos from the Shield.

I've a Shield running as a Plex server, and it's the solitary TV box (no cable or satellite) in the living room.
It streams our TV and movie catalogue to 2 other MiBoxes in other rooms. The Chromecast with Google TV will work just the same if you set your Shield up as the server.

Gotcha, but would just like a simple box really as wife has to use it as well

[Corso Marche]

If she's able to use the Shield then any official android TV device will be the same to use, and the Chromecast with Google TV is using the newest interface which is rolling out to the Shield later this year.
So you don't have to worry about that at all.

If she can use Netflix then she can use Plex to watch your video catalogue. It's really that simple.

It's also not difficult to setup. I honestly think it's your best solution. Use what you have as it was designed to be used, and stop physically moving things around the house and using one interface in one room and a different interface in another room.
Simplify....

[Stan the Bat]

Thanks chaps for all the replies.Plenty to go on now

[Mr Whippy]

Pi with Kodi. It’ll likely work on content in 10yrs.

Then you can run pihole or retropie or anything else you fancy later too... unlike half the other solutions which are bin bound in a few years.

[paulrockliffe]

Stan the Bat said:

Gotcha, but would just like a simple box really as wife has to use it as well

I have to contend with both my Wife's lack of tolerance for tech "that never works" and also the kids too. Look at the new Google Chromecast, you get as good an interface as anything out there, you get the hardware to let it work without delays and stutters and you get a very user friendly remote. Press the power button and it will turn the TV amplifier/sound bar etc on and be ready for use in seconds.

On top of that, each user can have their own login, with simple switching between, so your Wife gets a watch next list on the main interface and in Netflix/Amazon Prime/iPlayer etc. Nothing does as good a job of curating across apps/services, though not everything is talking to the home page yet.

Plus voice search from the remote control, integration with Google Home, so you can simply say "Play the next episode of x from Amazon Prime on the TV". And of course it works as a Chromecast, so you can bounce stuff from your Shield to it using any device, so when your wife shouts that she can't get x to play, you don't have to get up, you can just cast it from your phone or the computer you're working at. Plus you can pause etc from any mobile device on the same WiFi network.

There's nothing that touches it for user experience and breadth of options for making it work the way you want.

[Stan the Bat]

There are some great replies here, but I was just originally looking for a box that comes between a hard drive and the TV that plays H265.

The one I have plays everything else but this.

No internet connection required.

I use this one at present

https://www.techradar.com/reviews/gadgets/portable...

[dudleybloke]

That android box I linked to will do everything you want, mine has 2x4tb drives plugged in and easily copes with anything I can throw at it, largest film I've played was over 85gb and it didn't glitch once.
If you buy this airmouse it becomes a lot easier to use too.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-4GHz-Fly-Air-Mouse-T2...

[Stan the Bat]

dudleybloke said:

That android box I linked to will do everything you want, mine has 2x4tb drives plugged in and easily copes with anything I can throw at it, largest film I've played was over 85gb and it didn't glitch once.
If you buy this airmouse it becomes a lot easier to use too.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-4GHz-Fly-Air-Mouse-T2...

Yes, that is the type of thing I want, although don't need the ethernet connection.

[Corso Marche]

Stan the Bat said:

Yes, that is the type of thing I want, although don't need the ethernet connection.

The world is full of boxes like that, so you've lots of choice.

But why? Why buy an unsupported fork of android when an officially licensed and supported version is available at the same price? It'll do everything those boxes do, but with security, updates, and a properly developed user interface.

I've used lots of those boxes, but can never fathom why I'd want to even consider one over an officially licensed and supported device which is much nicer (read easier) to use.
My Shield is 6 years old next month, on the latest version of Android TV, and will receive the new interface from Google TV later this year. Ditto the two MiBoxes I have, albeit they are 5 years old, rather than 6. I bought the MiBoxes on separate occasions, but they were circa 50 notes each at the time. I bought one at first to see how it held up against the Shield, and how it coped with playback on our own internal network.

All those other boxes offer for me is further complication and shorter lifespans.
But we're all different, and entitled to make different choices.

[Stan the Bat]

I've got a shield and an Amazon Fire TV for all internet stuff on different tvs.

I have a sumvision box which is great except it wont do H265.

Just want a simple box to plug an HD in.

The shield does it perfectly but I dont want to move it .

Would buy another shield, but a bit overkill for what I want.

Dudleyblokes box seems ideal.

Edited by Stan the Bat on Saturday 6th March 11:34

[Corso Marche]

The HD plugged into your Shield and playing back in the other room over a Chromecast with Google TV, or MiStick, Fire TV etc is cheaper and will be supported for many years to come. All with the same user interface and stuff in both rooms. And the entire video catalogue available to any device in the house, in any room. That's how it was designed to work. You leave the Shield where it is, plug the HD into it, and plug the other device into the TV in the other room.

For me, it looks as if you're paying more to get less of everything. I'm only speaking as somebody who was in your exact situation and looked at all these options in the past.

But the decision is not mine, all I can offer is advice. You're free to make your own decisions.

[Stan the Bat]

Corso Marche said:

The HD plugged into your Shield and playing back in the other room over a Chromecast with Google TV, or MiStick, Fire TV etc is cheaper and will be supported for many years to come. All with the same user interface and stuff in both rooms. And the entire video catalogue available to any device in the house, in any room. That's how it was designed to work. You leave the Shield where it is, plug the HD into it, and plug the other device into the TV in the other room.

For me, it looks as if you're paying more to get less of everything. I'm only speaking as somebody who was in your exact situation and looked at all these options in the past.

But the decision is not mine, all I can offer is advice. You're free to make your own decisions.

How does the other device see the shield ?

[Corso Marche]

My earlier post above mentions it.

The Shield was designed to operate as a Plex server.
So you configure the Plex server through a web browser on another device, point it at the folders containing all your media, and the Shield will scan them all and collate them into a nicely arranged catalogue.
From then on you just open the Plex app on any other device, or even in a web browser, and choose what you want to watch.

There's also a second option available, where you mount the HD as a network shared drive through the Shield, and configure apps on other devices on the network to access it. That's more involved, and 'techy', but still easy enough. It's just not as polished to use.

Don't buy anything for now. Setup Plex, and access it on both your Fire stick and the Shield to see how you get on. It'll be the same interface on both.

1) Plug the HD into the Shield
2) Find the Plex app and launch it
3) Follow the on-screen instructions to register an account
4) Follow the setup instructions on-screen - you'll need another device with a web browser

If you have issues post up here.
The first setup and cataloguing takes time, depending on the size of your media collection. Ensure your files are arranged neatly in folders, and named correctly e.g. StanTheBat s01e01.mkv etc

[Stan the Bat]

Thanks