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#3810416
Need a decent media player for my TV, it needs to play movies from my NAS drive via dnla, I've found a cheap one on eBay for £30 or looked at the WDTV live as both do what I want, any other ideas? I'm sick of using my PS3 as it only plays half the files I've downloaded,

Also I want it cheap as possible, it's literally only going to be used for playing downloaded files on my Tv, not too fussed about loads of other features as long as it works and has a remote etc...
#3810426
b0t13 wrote:Need a decent media player for my TV, it needs to play movies from my NAS drive via dnla, I've found a cheap one on eBay for £30 or looked at the WDTV live as both do what I want, any other ideas? I'm sick of using my PS3 as it only plays half the files I've downloaded,

Also I want it cheap as possible, it's literally only going to be used for playing downloaded files on my Tv, not too fussed about loads of other features as long as it works and has a remote etc...
Rpi or maybe chromecast will be so the trick
#3810515
Evostance wrote:
b0t13 wrote:Need a decent media player for my TV, it needs to play movies from my NAS drive via dnla, I've found a cheap one on eBay for £30 or looked at the WDTV live as both do what I want, any other ideas? I'm sick of using my PS3 as it only plays half the files I've downloaded,

Also I want it cheap as possible, it's literally only going to be used for playing downloaded files on my Tv, not too fussed about loads of other features as long as it works and has a remote etc...
Rpi or maybe chromecast will be so the trick
Already checked them, but they require another device to be run ipad/pc/phone etc, or the RPI was just clunky and began to get expensive with wifi options case keyboard etc..

I want something independent that I just turn on and it connects to NAS and plays files
#3810519
b0t13 wrote:
Evostance wrote:
b0t13 wrote:Need a decent media player for my TV, it needs to play movies from my NAS drive via dnla, I've found a cheap one on eBay for £30 or looked at the WDTV live as both do what I want, any other ideas? I'm sick of using my PS3 as it only plays half the files I've downloaded,

Also I want it cheap as possible, it's literally only going to be used for playing downloaded files on my Tv, not too fussed about loads of other features as long as it works and has a remote etc...
Rpi or maybe chromecast will be so the trick
Already checked them, but they require another device to be run ipad/pc/phone etc, or the RPI was just clunky and began to get expensive with wifi options case keyboard etc..

I want something independent that I just turn on and it connects to NAS and plays files
Even if you get something like an Apple TV etc, you're still going to need something like a remote to control them, why not use your phone. My advice is not to buy any cheap unbranded crap from eBay, it's crap.

My only suggestions, without looking at what they can do would be:
- Chromecast
- Apple TV
- WD TV
- Roku
- Amazon TV
- Now TV (Roku)

All will need a remote
#3810577
Most of them I've checked and don't do what I want, all the processing/transcoding/playing needs to be from the device just pulling the file from the network, without the extra device Inbetween running such as phone etc as it'll be crappy over network
#3810597
smartie wrote:The phone is just a remote to pick what you want to play.
So I can run chrome cast and select what film to watch from network/server via iPhone app, then close app/phone and chrome cast will pull and play the file from server without intervention/reliance from phone?

Basically can I run chrome cast without having phone app running once it starts?

Edit: never mind it needs more than just a media player to be running to work correctly, not what I need really
Last edited by b0t13 on Tue Dec 09, 2014 4:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#3810598
b0t13 wrote:
smartie wrote:The phone is just a remote to pick what you want to play.
So I can run chrome cast and select what film to watch from network/server via iPhone app, then close app/phone and chrome cast will pull and play the file from server without intervention/reliance from phone?

Basically can I run chrome cast without having phone app running once it starts?
no.... chromecast is just a connector to the device - you need the iPhone to host the media and stream through the cast

EDIT - unless there is another device that is doing the hosting and the iPhone is just remote controlling that
#3810599
Chromecast goes direct to source for anything that is compatible - e.g. YouTube, or as above, Plex; The Plex phone app is just a remote that controls the Chromecast getting media from the Plex media server.

If you cast something from an Android phone/Chrome browser that Chromecast doesn't know about, it'll "stream" via that relay source.
#3810603
Imagine the NAS is just a shared hard drive/ no installing of software on it etc, I need something to access it and play the files it has, my PS3 does it currently but doesn't support many file types

Other than what I've mentioned, most of the 'options' don't actually do what I want without messing around with 'middle' HW

For example I can stream files from my PC to the PS3 via software, but I don't want the PC on constantly to do it, just a direct route from file to player/tv
#3810627
smartie wrote:Chromecast does that, just need a ui on the phone. most of the above do that too.

Though might not handle MKV without a transcoder, that's the general pirated HD format. So perhaps one of the other boxes if you have lots of MKV stuff.
So the chrome cast can pull the file and play it by itself?, with the phone only being used as a remote, which can be turned off for example once the movie starts?

I was under the impression the phone had to be on and running as the file was played on the phone then 'mirrored' to the chrome cast !?
#3810629
Yeah I can load plex on the phone, pick a movie/TV show, play it on the chromecast and kill the app. Still plays.

Not sure how a dlna source handles MKV though as I think my server (with plex on it) transcodes MKV. Something with native MKV support might be better.

Hard to find the perfect streamer that supports all formats which is why I use Plex.

Depending on the NAS you may be able to use some media software which solves a lot of these issues.
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