Help Setting Up Network Storage Linked to TV

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Dionasaurus

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#130808 28-Sep-2013 20:07

Hi all,

Just registered here so this is my first post. Whenever I google technical curiosities I end up on these forums, so I thought this would be a good place to hopefully get some help.

Today, I finally got set up on Telecom VDSL. I've recently moved house and got a new TV and home theatre. Here's the situation:

With the Telecom VDSL, I have their new Ultra VDSL modem with 4 ethernet ports and one USB port (even though I think the manual mentioned 2?). I also have a Sony Bravia EX63 and a Sony BDV E2100 Home Theatre.

I can plug my hard drive into the TV and view / listen to my videos and music, but the ultimate set up I want is a hard drive plugged into the modem that I can drop new videos / music onto via wifi access then access these on my TV or home theatre system. Is this possible with my current setup? Do I need anything else?

Is it possible to plug a hard drive into the modem via ethernet (do they have hard drives like that?) then use the hard drive USB port to connect it to the USB port in my TV or home theatre so I can access it as a 'External HDD'?

Hopefully this is enough information! I want to add new media to my library wirelessly and watch it on my TV without having to plug and unplug things all the time!

Thanks very much,
Dion

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#904313 28-Sep-2013 20:42

I'd suggest getting a NAS instead... I have a Synology NAS box that has a built in torrent client as well as media player (amongest other things). I have all my music on it also and can control the whole thing with iPhone apps that Synology make available for free. I have the NAS in the study and everything streams wirelessly to the living room. Also use it for displaying photos and my iPhone backs its pictures up automagically.

The box itself is very quiet and unobtrusive and ticks away quietly in the corner. Maybe worth a try?

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sonyxperiageek

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#904325 28-Sep-2013 21:27

Then get Plex! :)

Sony

JimmyH

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#904329 28-Sep-2013 21:42

Easily done and not too expensive.

A single bay NAS Box can be had in roughly the $200-300 range, depending on capacity. I have a 3TB Mybook Live, which costs about $340 at the moment, and has built-in DLNA server etc set up and ready to go. Honestly, it's pretty much a "plug and play solution".

Plugs into the router using ethernet. Appears as a network drive to my Desktop, laptop and tablet. Appears as a DLNA server to the media players connected to my TVs, and should appear that way to a smart TV as well. Can stream the content on it to any of those devices.

wellygary

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#904335 28-Sep-2013 21:48

JimmyH: Easily done and not too expensive.

A single bay NAS Box can be had in roughly the $200-300 range, depending on capacity. I have a 3TB Mybook Live, which costs about $340 at the moment, and has built-in DLNA server etc set up and ready to go. Honestly, it's pretty much a "plug and play solution".

Plugs into the router using ethernet. Appears as a network drive to my Desktop, laptop and tablet. Appears as a DLNA server to the media players connected to my TVs, and should appear that way to a smart TV as well. Can stream the content on it to any of those devices.

+1

I set my folks up with a mybook live connected to their modem, all the TVs are on the network and can play content via the DLNA server on the drive.

the bravia's ange of file formats is not huge, fairly sure they wont play mvk, but if you stick to vanilla mpeg4 you will have no problems

Dionasaurus

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#1326812 17-Jun-2015 21:16

So I'm back again after creating this thread forever ago. Unfortunately, while I'm feel very close to solving this one I'm still not quite there.

I know I could buy a NAS and use it to stream my videos, but that's not what I'm trying to do. (and my fiance isn't about to let me spend more money on random electronics she doesn't understand).

Currently, I copy all my files (photos, music and videos) to a very organised external hard drive by plugging this external hard drive into my laptop's USB port. Then I plug my little external hard drive into my Sony Bluray Player (which it lives almost permanently) so I can flick on my TV and access my 'media libray' whenever I want. No DLNA required as it plays the videos locally (and the Sony Bluray Player can handle basically any media file I throw at it).

What I would LIKE to do is use my laptop to connect to the Bluray Player, access the external hard drive and then COPY new files wirelessly to it like a network drive.

As I said, I feel like I'm really close as I have set up media sharing on my laptop and can use my Bluray Player to browse shared folders and play content that is stored on my laptop (DLNA I guess) but when I use my laptop to wirelessly browse the folders on the external hard drive (when it is connected to the Bluray Player), all the correct folders are there but they appear as empty - the files do not display. Also, I am unable to copy a file from my laptop and paste into the external hard drive in this way.

Is there a specific limitation that is preventing me from copying files to this network drive? Permissions or settings?? Someone please help! I feel like I'm on the edge of finally getting this all set up!

davidcole

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#1326832 17-Jun-2015 21:44

Can your bluray player either access the network, or share the connected hard drive? Then you vivid remove the step where the Gard dr e must be moved from laptop to bluray player.

Failing that I think your original idea of plugging the hard drive to the router should be possible if it's not been locked down by your ISP. But then you still need your TV or bluray player to be able to see the router/hard drive over the network to read the content off.

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Jase2985

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#1326837 17-Jun-2015 21:52

how is your Blue Ray connected? does it have a network port? can you connect it to your network? i see it has wifi as well have you tried connecting it via wifi?

try a program called serviio, its a media server that runs on a PC, so you just tell it where the files are you wish to share and it will share them. Then you use the media player on the Blue Ray to find the share on the network (DLNA) and then browse the shared files and play them.

its pretty much all in the manual
http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/4446734151.pdf

JimmyH

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#1327995 19-Jun-2015 18:25

You are trying very hard to hammer a square peg into a round hole.

Your Blu Ray player almost certainly wasn't designed to mount hard drives and make them accessible as writable network shares.

As far as I can see, you basically have options here:

1. Sneaker-net, keep unplugging the USB drive and connecting it to your computer to transfer new material, then re-connect it. Cost: free
2. DLNA server, keep the hard drive plugged into the laptop and (assuming the BR Player has a DLNA client) run a DLNA server on your computer. Cost: not sure, there may be free DLNA servers out there.
3. NAS, buy a cheap NAS, as per my earlier post. Cost $2-300.
4. Media Player, connect a media player to your TV in place of the BR Player. It will almost certainly work better than the BR player, and something like a WD live has wireless connectivity and will let you write to an attached USB drive over the network. Cost: $169 if you go with a WD Live, there are similar other options out there.

Unless you are really cash strapped, I would go with option 3 or 4. Actually I would go with options 3 AND 4, which is what I used to have.

robjg63

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#1328033 19-Jun-2015 18:59

If the TV has an Ethernet port and DLNA support, then you need to get your tv hooked up to your network (router).
A couple of power line adapters maybe - assuming the router is not near the tv.

I have a sony TV of that vintage at work and had it hooked up to the network.
I installed serviio on a pretty ordinary pc. Set up a folder of videos. The TV could see the serviio server quite happily and played video very nicely.

Your other option is to get a wireless media player and hook that up to your tv.
WDTV, OR raspberry pi with openelec (kodi)installed OR amazon first with kodi sideloaded onto it would all work fine.
Then just share as folder on your PC - let the wireless media player access the share and you are away.
Raspberry pi and possibly WDTV allow full HDMI-CEC control, so the TV remote will work the media player box.

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MileHighKiwi

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#1328086 19-Jun-2015 20:14

Get a Roku and install Plex.

Jase2985

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#1328093 19-Jun-2015 20:29

MileHighKiwi: Get a Roku and install Plex.

why? the blue ray supports DLNA

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robjg63

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#1328101 19-Jun-2015 20:59

On...didn't see the bluray player had WiFi and dlna.,..

Just install serviio on your PC then.
Page 33 of the manual. Job done. Cost $0

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Jezza

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#1328402 20-Jun-2015 17:07

As per poster above, Serviio is good.

Or look at using Plex. I have two external Hard Drives connected to my main PC with all my media. My Sony Bravia 55' is about 20m away. Simply set up Plex on your PC, set it up on your TV (if you have newer TV) and link them together. Takes less than a minute to get the connection up and running. I used to stream it wireless but there's a bit of buffering so now I've got it wired. I get the odd bit of buffering but extremely rarely. Once a month if that and we watch movies quite often. You have a beautiful interface, no NAS you need to find space for and it does the same thing.

Jase2985

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#1328474 20-Jun-2015 20:05

only reason i use serviio over plex is, plex ended up using 12gb of my hard drive space for its media libary (it had 150,000 files in the library for about 7000 physical files), and there was no way to customise the folder stricture to remove ones you dont use.

Serviio uses bugger all space, your able to customise the folder structure and it displays all the media. its also easier to use

Yes plex offers more functionality but most wont use everything thats on offer.

Dionasaurus

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#1329249 22-Jun-2015 13:24

Hey guys,

Thanks a lot for all your feedback!

Unfortunately I'm not really considering a NAS setup right now, though.

My Sony Bluray Player actually does the whole DLNA thing just fine - it can connect to my laptop and stream media, or if I plug a hard drive into it directly it will play any file I can throw at it. But the key thing I was aiming for was that the hard drive that I already own would be permanently connected to the Bluray player, and therefore I'm just looking for some guidance on whether or not it's possible to change a setting or something to make it so I can COPY files wirelessly from my laptop to the hard drive and play them directly when I want to. It's more of a storage solution than looking for a way to stream media.

I think JimmyH may have hit it on the head, pointing out that there very well may be limitations on writing to a hard drive mounted to a bluray player...

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