Discussions

[yort]

I have a hard drive with various movies and TV shows connected to my Sharp Roku TV.  Obviously I use RMP to access these videos. The drawback is my video files cannot access metadata like a Plex or Jellyfin server.

I like the simplicity of just a local hard drive and cannot justify running a server 24 hours a day since we don't watch that much TV.  Is there a way to get metadata without running a server all the time? Can Plex or Jellyfin use the local HD and access metadata without setting up a server?

[AvsGunnar]

@yort 

Like you, I have tried to simplify some of the needs over the years of having dedicated streaming servers running all the time.

For the most part, I just have hard drives plugged directly into router USB ports to provide a simple NAS. (these different routers are already running 24/7 so I might as well use them to allow the different Roku devices to access them.)  Depending on their settings, some have simple metadata, others do not.  Most of the metadata shown is directly input/entered into the video file manually (ie. thumbnail, description, etc).  They do not show metadata from internet  automatically.

I run the above using the routers' DLNA or UPnP, and access them using Roku Media Player (RMP).  Similar to how you are using it with your RokuTV, but mine are available to entire network as well. (and will display simple metadata in RMP). With this method, I just have to make sure the video files are compatible with Roku and normally just do a simple demux using FFMpeg for any problematic files.  Very rarely, if ever, do I have to re-encode them.

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I also have started using Jellyfin over the last couple of years since they created a channel/app for Roku. (prior to this primarily used Kodi, but Jellyfin integrates pretty nicely with Roku and seems to use less resources on older machines.  With Jellyfin, you do need to install the server software on a machine. (ie laptop, PC, miniPC/raspberry). 

I have Jellyfin server installed on the various laptops I have, and when I want to broadcast to the network, I just connect an external drive (or use the internal HD) and start up the laptop.  With Jellyfin, you can either use their channel/app  (https://channelstore.roku.com/details/cc5e559d08d9ec87c5f30dcebdeebc12/jellyfin) or use it through DLNA/UPnP and use the Roku Media Player.

Using the Jellyfin server of course allows for more transcoding (if you need this) and allows the metadata to be filled through internet sources rather than manually. (again, if you need this)

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I basically just keep the movies/series/content that I regularly watch on the drives connected to my routers, and then use Jellyfin whenever I want access to my full library of content.  Of course, since the Jellyfin server software is installed on all my laptops, it is also available whenever I power on the laptop and am using it (internet browsing, work, etc).  In other words, you do not need to set up a "dedicated" server and have it running all the time.  It can just run in the background on devices you are already using.

[yort]

I've been using Servio for years to access content from my computer. This has been a great setup because Servio does not require a TV app, I can just access Servio content with RMP. The Servio populates all video files with metadata. However again the computer has to be ON to get the metadata.

To make it simple, I'm wanting the ability to access metadata using the hard drive connected to my TV. Since the TV has access to the internet the "server" portion of the setup seems unnecessary.