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Smart TVs and streaming

timeless

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found it hard to give this topic a good name however lm looking for information, or more to the point better methods to cast content from my laptop to my TV, currently lm using Windows Media Player, however it doesnt give me much control, ld like to find something a little more controllable that will allow me to play/pause/queue content.

originally l used an Android TV box however rather than copy content lm only going to watch once to an external hard drive every time lm looking for a good software to do the same thing as Media Player does but with a bit more functionality seeing as my TV has a better set of speakers connected.
 
These days I just stick stuff on my mobile and then cast it to the tv over wifi, or plug a usb drive into the tv. The tv needs to support dlna for wifi casting or I fall back on a roku box.
 
My TVs are connected to the house network, so can stream from where ever a folder is set to share.

Biggest issue I have is with a newer generation LG TV, they were tightwads and didnt give it enough RAM, so it regularly stops, flushes memory and resumes the stream. never had this issue with my old LG TVS, and lots of complaints on the LG forums about it.
Anyone know a website giving advice on how/if there is a way to open the beasts up and increase the RAM module sizes ?
 
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to be honest l have no issues casting content, its just that l wanted to be able to access it from the TV directly by creating a media server to remove the need for casting.

and annoyingly while l can get the folders to show up on my TVs media server browser it seems to be missing the files. the other issue with casting is that it seems to push sound through the TV when l want it to go through the soundbar.
 
to be honest l have no issues casting content, its just that l wanted to be able to access it from the TV directly by creating a media server to remove the need for casting.

and annoyingly while l can get the folders to show up on my TVs media server browser it seems to be missing the files. the other issue with casting is that it seems to push sound through the TV when l want it to go through the soundbar.

I understand now; I had a LOT of issues with a famous software streaming program that just wouldnt reliably play with a large number of avi and mpeg4 codecs, to the extent that some folders containing 24 episodes (1 season), of some TV shows would appear to have only 1 or 2 episodes to view, even if they were all coded using EXACTLY the same codec. (I suspect the variable bit option is the issue)

That is the one good thing about the 2 LG TVs I have, neither seems to have any issues fetching or playing content from anything connected to the network, PC, NAS, Router attached storage, USB drive, internet.

Just that irritating buffer issue on the newer (cheaper) one.
 
yeah l read something about that, the one strange thing is if l load the file on a hard drive they work no issue, they just dont get located over the network despite the folder(s) being located.
 
yeah l read something about that, the one strange thing is if l load the file on a hard drive they work no issue, they just dont get located over the network despite the folder(s) being located.

Yep, same here. Files will play if connected to the TV via a thumb drive, etc, but not over the network.

PITA is the expression you are thinking of.
 
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I have an Nvidia shield, my TV isn't very smart so having another device works well. I was using my Xbox One for things like Netflix, but the Shield is so quick that the Xbox has turned into a brick of late.

I use it for BBC Iplayer, Netflix, YouTube and Plex. Can also cast from my phone if my heart desires.

Also have a Chromecast that just now sit's in a draw, due to their lack of power I find such media sticks slow and intermittent. The Nvidia Shield isn't cheap in comparison, but I managed to get a decent deal so keep an eye out as I'm sure they will do that again.
 
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l had an android box that did everything l needed it to, but when l got this TV l was hoping to do away with as much mess around my TV as possible, now granted it does a majority of the job (given it plays stuff on my drives) the problem is some of the daily files that would be a problem to keep disconnecting and reconnecting the hard drive for.

casting at least means less messing about, though l wish the media server thing would work and for that matter the damn soundbar stops working when l cast, always reverts to TV audio and then Bluetooth looses connection, thankfully lm in the process of acquiring optical cables but lm hoping this audio nucense doesnt keep happening.
 
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