- Jan 20, 2014
- 15
- 0
- 0
An argument stands between my friends and I regarding streaming media to your TV. Alot of people I know are constantly being being recommended to buy a Roku (or similar) and run Plex, so they can watch media from their PC on their TV?
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Plex for streaming content. Why should you have to run server software to transcode video, when your operating system is capable of running a simple Samba server?
I have a WDTV Live Player connected to my TV (which supports every codec under the sun), and I just have my movie folder on my PC shared over the network.
I also have it setup the other way too. I have a 1tb USB drive connected to my WDTV, and my WDTV runs a Samba server (a shared network folder, in Windows-language), and I can dump movies from my PC onto the WDTV over the network.
And if you don't like WDTV, a simple Android dongle/box is also capable of grabbing content from a Samba/windows shared folder.
I can understand when people already own a device like a Roku or Chromecast, Plex is the cheapest solution to use the hardware they already have. But hear lots of people suggesting buying a Roku, and running Plex as being the goto solution to stream media to their TV.
My contention is that a simple task does not need such a complex solution.
Why is Plex such a highly recommended solution? What do you guys use?
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Plex for streaming content. Why should you have to run server software to transcode video, when your operating system is capable of running a simple Samba server?
I have a WDTV Live Player connected to my TV (which supports every codec under the sun), and I just have my movie folder on my PC shared over the network.
I also have it setup the other way too. I have a 1tb USB drive connected to my WDTV, and my WDTV runs a Samba server (a shared network folder, in Windows-language), and I can dump movies from my PC onto the WDTV over the network.
And if you don't like WDTV, a simple Android dongle/box is also capable of grabbing content from a Samba/windows shared folder.
I can understand when people already own a device like a Roku or Chromecast, Plex is the cheapest solution to use the hardware they already have. But hear lots of people suggesting buying a Roku, and running Plex as being the goto solution to stream media to their TV.
My contention is that a simple task does not need such a complex solution.
Why is Plex such a highly recommended solution? What do you guys use?