Affordably add my video files to my TV

[Reverend Conehead]

I'm using a TV with Roku and I can't complain. It's good as far as it goes. I watch mainly Netflix and Youtube. However, I also download plenty of videos, stick'em on a thumb drive and plug'em into the TV to watch. That's all wall and good, but it would be really cool to be able to copy these videos to a networked hard drive that's hooked into the TV and then just choose what I want to watch from a cool interface on the screen. The USB stick in the TV ain't bad, but it doesn't save my place like Netflix does.

I use a Kubuntu Linux PC, and I just downloaded the Kodi app. There interface looks pretty cool. What I wonder is if there's some kind of device to plug into my TV a lot like Roku that will have its own large hard drive that is on wifi and I can just drag and drop my video files to and then the Interface is either Kodi or something like Roku. Can I somehow hook such a thing up, but keep using my Roku?

I've found this device, but I'm not sure if it does what I want:

??? Edit: My link disappeared. It's to this on Amazon: MXQ TV BOX Android 4.4 Amlogic S805 Quad Core 1G/8GB Kodi (15.2) Fully Loaded Wifi, 1080P, 4k Streaming Media Player
A friend at work recommended getting a Raspberry Pi, but I'm not sure if that would be the deal either. Could Kodi run on a Raspberry Pi and then I just copy my videos over to it as a shared wifi drive and I'm good? I did think those devices were weird by having exposed components and no case around it. What the hey?

 

[Kevinicus]

I use a Dune media player with four 4 TB hard drives attached for all of my movies, and then use the Zappiti interface. I have all of my blu-rays on there.

 

[CyberB0b]

I'm using a TV with Roku and I can't complain. It's good as far as it goes. I watch mainly Netflix and Youtube. However, I also download plenty of videos, stick'em on a thumb drive and plug'em into the TV to watch. That's all wall and good, but it would be really cool to be able to copy these videos to a networked hard drive that's hooked into the TV and then just choose what I want to watch from a cool interface on the screen. The USB stick in the TV ain't bad, but it doesn't save my place like Netflix does.

I use a Kubuntu Linux PC, and I just downloaded the Kodi app. There interface looks pretty cool. What I wonder is if there's some kind of device to plug into my TV a lot like Roku that will have its own large hard drive that is on wifi and I can just drag and drop my video files to and then the Interface is either Kodi or something like Roku. Can I somehow hook such a thing up, but keep using my Roku?

I've found this device, but I'm not sure if it does what I want:

??? Edit: My link disappeared. It's to this on Amazon: MXQ TV BOX Android 4.4 Amlogic S805 Quad Core 1G/8GB Kodi (15.2) Fully Loaded Wifi, 1080P, 4k Streaming Media Player
A friend at work recommended getting a Raspberry Pi, but I'm not sure if that would be the deal either. Could Kodi run on a Raspberry Pi and then I just copy my videos over to it as a shared wifi drive and I'm good? I did think those devices were weird by having exposed components and no case around it. What the hey?

I use an Asus Chromebox running Lubuntu as a torrent server. It is directly connected to my TV and runs Kodi headless. I have a couple of 2TB HDs plugged in. I Remote Torrent Adder on Chrome to send the torrent directly to the box. I have a Samba share running, so I can access the files from any device in my house. I configure everything remotely through SSH.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Cool, thanks. Gonna check those things out.

 

[speedkilz88]

A Rpi3 (newest one with built in wifi) should work. Although it is a card, you can buy little plastic shells to make a box for them via china. On ebay auction you can get the box as cheap as a dollar.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Thanks for the tip. Another person recommended a Raspberry Pi. Those looked cool, but it had that same issue of no enclosure. I'd bet one of those enclosures that you recommended

I've been reading up on a bunch of different devices. The big surprise to me is that not many of them have large hard drives. One of them had a bay where you can install a hard drive. I would think that it makes more sense after you've already downloaded a video file to have it there locally on the device's hard drive to play so that any potential issues with a network slowing down would be moot. Do you guys usually keep a wireless drive with all your videos on the network and just stream them from there? Or stream from a computer where you've downloaded the stuff? Am I making a big deal out of an internal hard drive that I may not need so much?

 

[Kevinicus]

Thanks for the tip. Another person recommended a Raspberry Pi. Those looked cool, but it had that same issue of no enclosure. I'd bet one of those enclosures that you recommended

I've been reading up on a bunch of different devices. The big surprise to me is that not many of them have large hard drives. One of them had a bay where you can install a hard drive. I would think that it makes more sense after you've already downloaded a video file to have it there locally on the device's hard drive to play so that any potential issues with a network slowing down would be moot. Do you guys usually keep a wireless drive with all your videos on the network and just stream them from there? Or stream from a computer where you've downloaded the stuff? Am I making a big deal out of an internal hard drive that I may not need so much?

Depends on the device's and your network's speed. If gigabit, you could keep them wherever and stream. If not, it's not as clear cut. I have one hd inside my dune, and 3 attached via USB docks.

I rip my files to my computer upstairs and then send them to one of the hds over the network and they're ready to play after that.

I thought of having a NAS setup that would stream to different devices around the house, but the cost was more than I wanted, and I eill generally watch things in my theater.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Depends on the device's and your network's speed. If gigabit, you could keep them wherever and stream. If not, it's not as clear cut. I have one hd inside my dune, and 3 attached via USB docks.

I rip my files to my computer upstairs and then send them to one of the hds over the network and they're ready to play after that.

I thought of having a NAS setup that would stream to different devices around the house, but the cost was more than I wanted, and I eill generally watch things in my theater.

Okay, thanks. The devices with internal hard drives were a lot more money. We're talking 300 bucks versus 50 bucks. If external hard drives tend to work well, maybe I'll just get one of the more affordable TV streamers and plug the external drive into it. Of course then I would prefer the external drive to be wirelessly on the network and then I wonder if it might conflict with the TV box. Gotta bunch of research to do before I decide what i want to do. Really appreciate you guys' input.

 

[CyberB0b]

The problem with RPi is that it runs off an SD card. Not very reliable. Very susceptible to data corruption.

 

[Denim Chicken]

I'm using a TV with Roku and I can't complain. It's good as far as it goes. I watch mainly Netflix and Youtube. However, I also download plenty of videos, stick'em on a thumb drive and plug'em into the TV to watch. That's all wall and good, but it would be really cool to be able to copy these videos to a networked hard drive that's hooked into the TV and then just choose what I want to watch from a cool interface on the screen. The USB stick in the TV ain't bad, but it doesn't save my place like Netflix does.

I use a Kubuntu Linux PC, and I just downloaded the Kodi app. There interface looks pretty cool. What I wonder is if there's some kind of device to plug into my TV a lot like Roku that will have its own large hard drive that is on wifi and I can just drag and drop my video files to and then the Interface is either Kodi or something like Roku. Can I somehow hook such a thing up, but keep using my Roku?

I keep everything on my my external HDD, plugged into mu PC and use PLEX to stream to my TV.

Just download Plex to your PC and on your Roku and you're ready to go.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I keep everything on my my external HDD, plugged into mu PC and use PLEX to stream to my TV.

Just download Plex to your PC and on your Roku and you're ready to go.

I think I'll go this route. I just found this late last night, and I've already got all the hardware I need. There's a Linux version of Plex, and I have an extra laptop that I rarely use. I found some Youtube videos on how to do this, so there ya go. If this works, I won't have to buy any new hardware. I'm a bit disappointed that Roku doesn't support Kodi, but this Plex thing looks all right.

 

[hairic]

Cheapest long term is building a HTPC. A Roku can hardware decode certain formats (h.264) from a local network, but it'd be easier to have plex do your transcoding if it's not h264.

Samba or NFS is the protocol you'll use to share files if you go with multiple devices.

Plex route:
Install Plex server on your PC
Download Plex app for Roku
Plex app should be able to find your Plex server automatically, assuming you aren't blocking network discovery protocols or are on different subnets.

 

[Doomsday]

I have a network attached storage, that has Plex running on it and it is a good solution.

Works well with my TV, phone and tablet.

It also does a really good job of downloading cover photos, descriptions, IMDB ratings and will even pull in a link to a trailer.

My only complaint is it doesn't work with separate subtitle files (.srt) with my Sony TV

 

[65fastback2plus2]

I keep everything on my my external HDD, plugged into mu PC and use PLEX to stream to my TV.

Just download Plex to your PC and on your Roku and you're ready to go.

nailed it...beat me to it lol

 

[Ranching]

I still play Pong on my Atari, so I can't help any, sorry.

 

[Denim Chicken]

My only complaint is it doesn't work with separate subtitle files (.srt) with my Sony TV

Weird. I don't see why the TV would matter. Works on my Vizio.

Is the app on your TV or through a device?

Edit--seems an known issue with Sonys

 

[Doomsday]

Weird. I don't see why the TV would matter. Works on my Vizio.

Is the app on your TV or through a device?

Edit--seems an known issue with Sonys

Yea, it is a well known issue with the Sony Bravia TVs. Took me 4 months to figure out it was the subtitle files that was breaking things.

I would get 27 to 32 minutes into a movie and some of them would error out. Talk about frustrating, but Plex was good about trying to help me, I finally figured out the issue on a Sony forum.

The app on the TV.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I have a network attached storage, that has Plex running on it and it is a good solution.

Works well with my TV, phone and tablet.

It also does a really good job of downloading cover photos, descriptions, IMDB ratings and will even pull in a link to a trailer.

My only complaint is it doesn't work with separate subtitle files (.srt) with my Sony TV

That's bad news about the srt files because I watch a lot of foreign films. Will it play the subtitles if they're part of an mkv file, in other words if they're embedded in them?

My TV is a Samsung, btw. Maybe it will play them. I'll let you guys know after I've installed this stuff.

 

[Doomsday]

That's bad news about the srt files because I watch a lot of foreign films. Will it play the subtitles if they're part of an mkv file, in other words if they're embedded in them?

My TV is a Samsung, btw. Maybe it will play them. I'll let you guys know after I've installed this stuff.

The issue with the srt files is specific to Sony Bravia TVs, so you should be good.

Also, yes you can burn the files into the movies, that is what I do for some specific movies like the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series etc.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Hey, guys. Good news. I got Plex working via Roku on my TV. I'm streaming over content from my Linux PC just fine. The subtitles work on my TV. I had to name the subtitle file the same as the movie file name, but it works. It didn't work until I hit * on my Roku remote and chose the subtitle file, but we're good.

I've run into some glitches. All my Dallas Cowboys games are not coming up. At first only one game came up (the most recent one against the Commanders). I read online that you should name the files like a TV show, so I renamed them all "S56E01 Dallas Cowboys", "S56E02 Dallas Cowboys" and so forth. However, only games 2 through 10 have shown up. I changed to from "TV Show" to "Video" and they still don't all show up.

My TV show from Switzerland, (21 Minutes), wasn't showing up as long as I had the files in their as a TV show. After I changed them to "Videos", they showed up.