Netflix functionality for Hard drive movies?

[danno410]

I have several hard drives full of movies and a cabinet full of players and streamers. What I am looking for is a interface that will remember when I stop a movie and resume play the next time I turn it on. I am not the only user of my home theatre and I hate FF-ing through a film to find where I left off. I don't have a dedicated PC for the TV but that is not out of the realm of possibilities. Most of my movies are IOS, MKV, MP4.

 

[poofyhairguy]

What you want is called Kodi. Add in your sources and it will even give you metadata like netflix (aka art, descriptions, etc.):

http://kodi.wiki/view/Adding_video_sources

It fact it is the best interface like that on the planet, you can skin it to make Netflix look like a kid's app.

It can be controlled by any Windows Media remote, which means it can be controlled by a Harmony. Also there are many good mobile apps to control it.

The issue is you need though is a device to play it on the TV after you play around with it on a computer. Right now a Asus Chromebox is the premier Kodi device.

 

[Binky]

What devices do you already have? Roku? Xbox? Smart TV? Smart DVD player? If you already have one of these, you may be able to use it. If none of these, do you have a budget? The typical budget for a media player could be $50 - $300, depending on what you want it to do.

Are your movies available to the desired TV location by at least a strong wifi signal?

 

[master_shake_]

xbmc will do it.

 

[LoveMachine]

I don't remember if Plex remembers where you are in a movie across multiple devices, but it likely does, and has apps for many streaming devices. It's probably the easiest to get running on a smorgasbord of gadgets, but Kodi/XBMC (the interface) with a MySQL server (app that remembers where you are in a file across devices) provides a better quality and experience. It does need more specialized hardware, though.

PS, I have learned a lot from that Poofy guy above, so I'm just filling in some things that he left out. I run both Kodi and Plex. Kodi does work/look a lot better, but Plex is more flexible.

 

[danno410]

Thanks for the quick action:

Hard wiring isn't out of the question but I would prefer to use wireless, I have tried to use ChromeCast but its too choppy. I am checking the other posts for the fine points of WiFi settings and speeds.

 

[velillen]

I use mediabrowser3 myself. It's just what I'm used to. But it accesses right through wmc so it's nice for using wmc for live tv too. But it remembers where you stopped. If you have two htpcs or devices it'll even let you stop on one machine and resume on another.