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ddove
Newbie

Playing media from my pc on my roku 3

I used to be able to play media files from my PC on my Roku 3 which is connected to it by a wired connection but now am unable do do so, using Roku Media Player which is not finding my PC. I tried Plex but it is not recognizing my media file. Any guidance would be very welcome. Thanks.

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2 REPLIES 2
RokuTakashi
Community Moderator
Community Moderator

Re: Playing media from my pc on my roku 3

Hi @ddove,

Welcome to the Roku Community!

Thanks for sharing this information with us, and we'd like to help you with this. Kindly perform a system restart to see if it resolves the issue. To do this, navigate to Settings > System > Power (skip if no sub-menu) > System Restart. After this, kindly check to see if you notice any improvements.

Let us know how it goes.

All the best,
Kash

Takashi O.
Roku Community Moderator
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atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Playing media from my pc on my roku 3

First let me caution you that your Roku 3 is now approaching eight years old, and it's always possible that something internal might fail. 

Does the Roku still work with other channels/apps? We want to ensure your network connection is working correctly. Assuming it's working correctly with other apps, then we need to look at your PC. If this is a Windows PC, it's entirely possible that Microsoft issued an update the closed the computer firewall to permit access from other devices. They've done it before. 

What are you using on your computer as your DLNA server? Is it the built in Windows Media service? You could check the Services app and make sure it's in the running state.

Plex should permit streaming any sort of media, so I'm very puzzled why it's not being recognized. Just be aware that the file extension (MP4, MKV, AVI, etc.) is simply a container type, and the media within the container can be in a variety of codecs. Since RMP used to play it, the file is likely in a supported container with supported codecs, or it's one of the few that Windows Media is able to transcode to a supported format. Windows Media is a terrible media server (in my opinion) but since it's included with Windows it does the (basic) job. But there are better (and free) options, with Plex being one. I personally use Serviio (disclaimer: I wrote the Roku profiles included with Serviio, but am not an employee), but Emby is also a good product. 

Overall I suspect Windows has blocked your network from seeing the media server. Since RMP isn't even seeing your PC, but it does see Plex (which I assume is on the same PC), that points to a firewall block.

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

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