Streaming from wireless hard drive to TV

Chris Davies

Chris Davies

Chief PESsimist
Staff
14 May 2003
UK
Tranmere Rovers
I bought the folks a wireless hard drive for Christmas, purely so that I could fill it with things to watch on TV that they could then stream to the TV (which is armed with a Chromecast from a couple of Christmases ago).

I bought a Seagate Wireless Portable Hard Drive to do this with, after having read up on the Android phone app that you can get for it, which supposedly makes selecting the content and streaming it via Chromecast a piece of cake.

Except, it doesn't.

75% of the stuff that's on there won't play because of codec issues, even when I've downloaded the likes of VLC, LocalCast etc. to the phone and tried to use those apps as the "players".

So...

What's the most foolproof way of getting all of that content, with all the different codecs, to play on the TV (short of doing it through a PC or a console which isn't an option, or converting it all, which would take until the end of time)?

Any suggestions out there ?

Thanks guys...
 
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Just looked into this and can see codecs being a massive issue without the codecs being available it could be an issue.

I use Plex as the PC then trancodes the files so it is then streamed in a recognised format to the device, but this doesn't really help you.

I suspect the HD and the ChromeCast probably require the files to be of a certain codec in order to work correctly.

I found this online for supported codecs:-
https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media

You may need to convert some files.
 
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Try installing Kodi and see if that will play the files? And/or use MX Player Pro to play the video files http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/mx-player/sticky-mx-player-chromecast-t2725253 it's what I use on my Android media box and previously on my Amazon Fire.

They can also get free video streams that way ;)

Edit: It's possible Chromecast doesn't support that stuff, sorry it is pretty shit, I have one, get them an Amazon Fire it's waaaaaay better!
 
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Thanks fellas, I'll try those suggestions. Good spot on finding what the Chromecast supports bsmaff, I appreciate that!

I was thinking that maybe buying a DLNA Bluray player (they don't have one and they're not too expensive) such as the Sony BDP-S5500 (£80) might help.

It looks like that will support more formats than the Chromecast (MKV, AVC HD, MPEG, AVI, MP4, MOV, WMV, LPCM, XviD - but NOT DivX) - I'm just wondering...

A) If that will cover most of the videos (I'll have to check tonight), and...

B) If the Bluray player will pick up the hard drive as a media player (it broadcasts an SSID as opposed to belonging to the internet connection's wifi network, due to there being no computer to connect it to, and due to there being no USB connection for HDD sharing on the router).

I'm assuming I could hook the HDD up to the USB port on the Bluray player and do it that way, too - but again, it's whether that codec list is long enough (I don't know what the popular ones are nowadays, and not supporting DivX is a bit of a kick in the knackers)...

EDIT: Okay, so the hard drive isn't DLNA certified, and apparently plugging it into the USB port won't work because it's not a flash drive and it may not like the fact that it's 500gb.

Fffffuuuuuucccccckkk.
 
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Kodi sideloaded into an Amazon Fire will allow you to play content over the network or from a USB hard drive, I do this with my Amazon Fire TV (the more expensive box currently £64.99 on Amazon) but should also work with the Amazon Fire Stick (currently £34.99 on Amazon).

Kodi will play everything.

http://liliputing.com/2014/11/install-xbmckodi-amazon-fire-tv-stick.html
http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Install_Kodi_on_Fire_TV
http://www.htpcbeginner.com/install-kodi-on-amazon-fire-tv/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STZL8wo48EU
 
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I've not heard of Kodi before - hm...

When you open the media using the Seagate app (as a sort of remote), you can select which player is used to then stream the content to the Chromecast. I wonder if Kodi would do that? Worth a go - if not, I think you're onto something...
 
Kodi was previously XBMC (Xbox media centre) you may have heard of that.

Its an amazing program.
 
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I have heard of that, I used to use that all the time!

On Android, does it act as a media server, or do you need to have it running on a PC to connect to it using the app?

I was trying to download it and try it out yesterday but I kept getting a "couldn't install" error from the Google Play store, might have been the flaky wifi though...

They wanted a Bluray player so I've bought the one mentioned above and I'm just hoping that if I format the drive as FAT32, I can just hook it up to the USB and play through that. (If I'd bought them a DLNA-certified wireless drive, I wouldn't be in this mess...)
 
I don't know mate I've never had a Android device.

I've got the IOS app though and that connects to Kodi on the PC.
 
Placebo said:
Does the chromecast have enough room for it (and any other apps?).
Click to expand...
It was downloading it for the phone rather than the Chromecast that I was struggling with (to then stream to the Chromecast), I don't think you can "upload" apps to the Chromecast like you (seemingly) can with the Amazon Fire!

Just an update: I bought the Bluray player I mentioned, plugged in the hard drive via USB, and thankfully it plays (almost) everything on there (there's a few MKVs it doesn't like, but I don't know why, the files play perfectly on my machine but they must be encoded in some funny way).

That'll do!
 
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