Plex/Chromecast content from T4

[Eafywan]

I've done a bit of searching on this topic and haven't been able to find exactly what I'm looking for so wondering if anyone else has done this.

I have 2 TV's, both with Chromecasts. First TV is connected to the T4, second TV is in another room. I have messed around with Plex and can play content from my PC to both TV's through Plex and the Chromecasts but have not found a way to watch T4 recorded content on the second TV, well not satisfactorily anyway. I was able to stream the raw TS file by mapping the T4 HDD in the library of Plex but this is slow, jerky and unwatchable.

Is there a way to do it using the T4's ability to transcode or another way that I haven't thought of? This seems to be something I would have thought to be fairly simple and commonly done prior to attempting it myself but haven't found it to be the case, nor have I found anyone else trying to do this.

Network is wireless N and Youtube HD content streams perfectly to both TV's.

[MrQuade]

The wireless connection could be causing you some issues despite the ability to stream Youtube HD. The T4 recordings are all MPEG2 based which achieves significantly lower compression than the codecs used by Youtube. The average bitrate for a T4 recording will be quite a bit higher than your typical downloaded or streamed content.

Also remember that with your setup, the T4 will be transmitting wirelessly to the Plex server, and then the server will be re-transmitting wirelessly to the other TV/Chomecast, effectively doubling the wireless bandwidth requirement. Youtube only uses the wireless connection once.

The T4 does have its own DLNA server, so it can share content directly to a smart TV that supports DLNA and supports the .ts container format.

Investment in some powerline networking equipment might be worth considering if you can't get a CAT6 connection to one or both TVs.

[Eafywan]

Thanks, but unfortunately the remote TV has no smarts, only HDMI input. By the sound of it the only way will be to copy the content to the PC, transcode and then plex which pretty much makes it not worth the hassle

[Grumpy_Geoff]

How about streaming from the T4 to a tablet (or phone) running WizOs, then casting/mirroring to the TV? Or to a laptop, and casting?
Bandwidth may still be an issue though.

[MrQuade]

How about streaming from the T4 to a tablet (or phone) running WizOs, then casting/mirroring to the TV? Or to a laptop, and casting?
Bandwidth may still be an issue though.

You'd be using the wireless connection four times then T4 to AP, AP to tablet, tablet to AP then AP to Chromwcast.

[Eafywan]

Yep, tried that, as Mr Quade says, it was pretty bad not to mention voice and picture being out of sync!

[Eafywan]

Although, I must point out that the T4 is connected via cat 5 to the router but still, it was rubbish and unwatchable. I'll try having the plex PC connected via cable to the router and see if the streaming via plex works better, that would be taking the wifi out of the equation in one instance.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

You'd be using the wireless connection four times then T4 to AP, AP to tablet, tablet to AP then AP to Chromwcast.

Yeah, but I covered myself - "Bandwidth may still be an issue though." . Do we know how the T4 is connected?
The T4's transcoding ability may reduce the bandwidth requirements, yes?

[Eafywan]

Yes, you are correct and bandwidth was definitely an issue there. The T4 is wired to a gigabit port with a cat 5 patch lead.

I was wondering that with the transcoding ability of the T4, so far I can't see a use for it other than when you are streaming to the webif or the wizos app. Those work fine, just would like to throw it on to the bigger screen if possible.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Buy yourself an early Christmas present - a T2
Job done.

[Eafywan]

Grumpy_Geoff, I wish I had that kind of money lying around, even for a Christmas present!! It was a stretch to fork out for the T4 but I am a believer in buying something that will live up to your expectations even if it means spending a bit more, but no way am I going to be able to get a T2 on top of the T4!

I did some more testing last night, and with the PC connected via patch lead to the router, streaming via plex from the T4 samba share worked nicely. Thankfully the PC is a laptop so I can easily move it to where the router is when required. Skipping and rewinding is slow which is to be expected but still much better than what was happening before.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I think what we have now will work well enough for our needs

[simoncasey]

How about streaming from the T4 to a tablet (or phone) running WizOs, then casting/mirroring to the TV? Or to a laptop, and casting?
Bandwidth may still be an issue though.

You'd be using the wireless connection four times then T4 to AP, AP to tablet, tablet to AP then AP to Chromwcast.

I've used Ipad mirrored to appletv and it works fine.
T3 is hard wired to router but everything else is wireless.

[michaelp2005]

I was able to stream the raw TS file by mapping the T4 HDD in the library of Plex

Hi Eafywan, how did you do this?

I've been trying to get my T3 HDD mapped into a Plex library (NAS) but have been unable to. The library seems to be created, but reports no media found. I was wondering if I had the path wrong, given there are multiple paths to the movie folder in windows explorer.

My network is all wired.

[Eafywan]

Hi Michael, I didn't do anything special, but basically:

1. Map T4 HDD folder as H: drive on laptop
2. Log in to Plex and add H:\movie as a library folder
3. Set Plex to scan library folders for changes

I am a new Plex user so I'm not really proficient with it as yet, I only installed it last Friday and haven't had much of a chance to play around with it.

[michaelp2005]

Hi Michael, I didn't do anything special, but basically:

1. Map T4 HDD folder as H: drive on laptop
2. Log in to Plex and add H:\movie as a library folder
3. Set Plex to scan library folders for changes

I think the difference is you are able to map it to the laptop first......Plex is on my NAS and I was trying to effectively do 1+2 above at the same time which it doesn't seem to like.......

But you've given me the clue I needed. I was able to mount the T3 folder on the NAS and then add the mounted folder to the Plex library - success!

Many thanks.

[Eafywan]

Good stuff, happy to help. I mostly need the help so its good to give back for once