Sharing media....
Sept 20, 2016 1:33:00 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2016 1:33:00 GMT
On my computer there is an enormous amount of video, photographs and media. Its a variety of stuff, quite a lot stuff from the UK that the children like to watch, stuff from here, stuff from our system in the US, from Brazil, our own photos etc. etc. It brings its challenges living foreign!
Anyway, the point being, a ton of video on my windows PC which we wish to view elsewhere. I am NOT interested in streaming it outside my home.
There is an assortment of equipment in my house in Chile;
I want anyone at end of any of the above devices to be able to stream from my computer.
Let us assume no security concerns.
Pretty much everything is networked to everything else although its all a bit Heath Robinson and unreliable. Its fair to say that none of it works easily.
Nobody really needs to stream the same film concurrently, but they may well be streaming from the same disk.
There's only 4 of us, so that's the maximum number of concurrent users.
I have tried; (amongst many others)
Plex.
Quite good functionally but a shitty attitude. Desperately seeking to nail you into paying. I object to paying to stream my own stuff, but I might pay for a reasonable cost. However, they go by the number of devices not the number of concurrent users so its more than I will pay. Also, if I am honest, their attitude irritates me. The functionality is quite good, though it is a hell of a resource drain. It might be the answer but wired streaming only. Wireless streaming involves money.
Kodi
A bit unreliable, but ok. I'd have stuck with it but it flat out doesn't work on an XBox One. (As an aside, if you're thinking of an XBox one its very clever, technically whizzy, and totally not worth the money. Don't buy it. Nasty, restrictive, controlling, proscriptive POS). I'll probably end up with Kodi if nothing else works and just studiously ignore the XBox One..
ES Explorer
Aimed at the Android devices. Totally rubbish for Chromecast. Hard work and the UI is a pain. e.g. you have to re-add the server IP & access credentials every time any device restarts.
WMP/WMC
It was ok. Painful UI, reasonable functionality but now its not very well supported by the Windows devices or the XBOX One and its useless for everything else.
I have a different solution in every place. It was kind of interesting and fun to set it up, but its boring to maintain and just a pain.
I am clearly in need of new thinking as much as new apps, and I am right off the idea of investing any money in services or software. I might just be able to stomach hardware investment. I shall have to do something about the LAN anyway, its groaning. As well as all the crap above, half of No. 2's musical instruments seem to require networking as well! Don't ask me, I just get told. Bloody arty farty stuff. Its been a long time since my opinion mattered around here. I'm just in charge of being wrong.
I would welcome your thoughts, any approach considered.
Anyway, the point being, a ton of video on my windows PC which we wish to view elsewhere. I am NOT interested in streaming it outside my home.
There is an assortment of equipment in my house in Chile;
- Games consoles plugged into TVs
- XBox One
- XBox 360
- Playstation 4
- (some worthless stuff like a Wii, PS3 and other garbage which don;t matter)
3 other Smart TVs
3 other TVs with networked Media streamers
4 Windows computers (laptops & desktops)
- 4 Android Tablets
- 2 Apple Tablets
- 4 Android smart phones
- Chromecast in No. 1's bedroom.
I want anyone at end of any of the above devices to be able to stream from my computer.
Let us assume no security concerns.
Pretty much everything is networked to everything else although its all a bit Heath Robinson and unreliable. Its fair to say that none of it works easily.
Nobody really needs to stream the same film concurrently, but they may well be streaming from the same disk.
There's only 4 of us, so that's the maximum number of concurrent users.
I have tried; (amongst many others)
Plex.
Quite good functionally but a shitty attitude. Desperately seeking to nail you into paying. I object to paying to stream my own stuff, but I might pay for a reasonable cost. However, they go by the number of devices not the number of concurrent users so its more than I will pay. Also, if I am honest, their attitude irritates me. The functionality is quite good, though it is a hell of a resource drain. It might be the answer but wired streaming only. Wireless streaming involves money.
Kodi
A bit unreliable, but ok. I'd have stuck with it but it flat out doesn't work on an XBox One. (As an aside, if you're thinking of an XBox one its very clever, technically whizzy, and totally not worth the money. Don't buy it. Nasty, restrictive, controlling, proscriptive POS). I'll probably end up with Kodi if nothing else works and just studiously ignore the XBox One..
ES Explorer
Aimed at the Android devices. Totally rubbish for Chromecast. Hard work and the UI is a pain. e.g. you have to re-add the server IP & access credentials every time any device restarts.
WMP/WMC
It was ok. Painful UI, reasonable functionality but now its not very well supported by the Windows devices or the XBOX One and its useless for everything else.
I have a different solution in every place. It was kind of interesting and fun to set it up, but its boring to maintain and just a pain.
I am clearly in need of new thinking as much as new apps, and I am right off the idea of investing any money in services or software. I might just be able to stomach hardware investment. I shall have to do something about the LAN anyway, its groaning. As well as all the crap above, half of No. 2's musical instruments seem to require networking as well! Don't ask me, I just get told. Bloody arty farty stuff. Its been a long time since my opinion mattered around here. I'm just in charge of being wrong.
I would welcome your thoughts, any approach considered.
