Roku setup

[Imemine]

I used to be really good with computers a long time ago I used to have a Western digital streaming device that you could connect a flash drive to and play anything books whatever you wanted how do I hook up my media player to my desktop. I'm already hooked up via HDMI but how do I have my Roku media player find my stuff on my desktop? Thank you in advance

[MrXxx]

A long time ago may be long enough that you’ll need to use a different server setup. Roku supporst DLNA servers. Two that I use are Subsonic (requires a low cost subscription) and Serviio (only requires a paid license if you want to access it over internet). Both are easy setups. Both work on Windows and Mac. You shouldn’t even have to move your files. Just point the new server to them.

[atc98092]

You have to install the Roku Media Player app/channel. It's not there by default. Once that is installed, it sees any media server on your network automatically. It will not see your home media when you are outside your network, for example if you're traveling.

What RMP is seeing is a DLNA server on your network. There are many types available, such as some routers have them built in, many NAS devices have them, and there's a multitude of available software that can be downloaded and installed on a computer. There are also non-DLNA media servers that have apps available for Roku devices, such as Plex or Emby. 

Windows has a built in DLNA server, but it's not very functional compared to what is available for free on the Internet.

I recommend Serviio as a fairly easy to use DLNA server. Disclaimer: I am the author of the Roku profiles that are included with Serviio, but I am not an employee or compensated in any way by Serviio. I am a moderator on their forum. Serviio will transcode your media if necessary, and if desired it will add closed captions into the video stream if your media has captions that Roku devices don't support. This however does require a bit of computer power, so isn't always feasible on some computers. 

[Imemine]

Yes the media player is already installed on my device but it does say that I have to make sure my media server is online which it is but probably not visible at this point. I used to use a different kind of streamer that had a place to plug in a thumb drive. I wish Roku had that ability. I have so many movies saved on a external hard drive I would love to play some of those. 

[atc98092 · Accepted solution]

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@Imemine wrote:

I wish Roku had that ability. I have so many movies saved on a external hard drive I would love to play some of those. 

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Only one Roku player has a USB port, and that's the Ultra. However, the Express 4K+ supports adding a USB dongle that will support adding a USB drive as well. But just remember that the files on the USB drive must be in a completely supported format, meaning the container as well as the audio and video codecs are supported by Roku. They only support a very limited number of containers and codecs, so using a media server to transcode the media into supported formats is quite useful. 

[Imemine]

Thank you for the information.