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AppleTV, PLEX, External HD, & Wireless Router?

E

e34guy

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 21, 2010
66
0
Just got an AppleTV 2 (4.4.4), jailbroke it and now am running PLEX (amazing UI btw) as of now I can only stream content that I have on my laptop to my AppleTV via PLEX.

My question: Is it possible to hook up my external HD to a wireless router and THEN stream the content from my external HD to my AppleTV via PLEX? If not through PLEX is there any other way to get a setup like this to work?

Thanks in advance!
 
e34guy said:
Just got an AppleTV 2 (4.4.4), jailbroke it and now am running PLEX (amazing UI btw) as of now I can only stream content that I have on my laptop to my AppleTV via PLEX.

My question: Is it possible to hook up my external HD to a wireless router and THEN stream the content from my external HD to my AppleTV via PLEX? If not through PLEX is there any other way to get a setup like this to work?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Just connect your external to your laptop and select that as the library location for the media server and presto done!
 
I think OP would like to stream without having the laptop turned on.

If the router enables the external drive to be visible on the network then you should. PLEX requires a server to be run so it won't work, but I think XBMC can play from a network drive.
 
you can place plex's library on a network drive, but your laptop would still have to be running for you to get anything on the aTV.

XBMC will play the files directly on the aTV, but depending on the quality and format of your content, it may not play well.
 
e34guy said:
Just got an AppleTV 2 (4.4.4), jailbroke it and now am running PLEX (amazing UI btw) as of now I can only stream content that I have on my laptop to my AppleTV via PLEX.

My question: Is it possible to hook up my external HD to a wireless router and THEN stream the content from my external HD to my AppleTV via PLEX? If not through PLEX is there any other way to get a setup like this to work?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

You can but not with plex, (plex need a Plex server to be running somehwere, while some router can run plex server, they are usually very high end), you can use XBMC and them you could read the share drive directly.
 
So to make this work I need XBMC and a router that I can attach a storage device to right? Anything else? Thanks you guys!
 
e34guy said:
So to make this work I need XBMC and a router that I can attach a storage device to right? Anything else? Thanks you guys!
Click to expand...

Correct, if you are looking into getting one, depending on your budget you can look into getting something like readyNAS, they will run PLex server and they go for about what a high end router will go (~$200 - $250)
 
Last edited:
XBMC supports SMB, UPNP, AFP, FTP, and a number of others.

That linksys router I linked supports SMB, UPNP, and FTP, which means that I can actually stream my library off my external harddrive through FTP in an outside network.
 
I have that same setup. I use xmbcc. My router only does 54mbps but it's still VERY good.
 
OP, I can tell you that I am able to connect my normal Ext HDD using USB to my router and see it on my network. And I am also able to play movies on my laptop off the network connected drive using Plex. I don't have an Atv2 so I wouldn't know how to get them to play on that from your networked connected HDD.

The point of my post is that you don't necesarily need a specific HDD (Like a NAS) to use it as a network drive, but a router that is capable of doing what you need. I Have a DLink 655.

Also how is the Plex Client UI on the ATV2??? I have the regular Mac Desktop version and love the way it looks with the ability to use different skins. But from what I've seen, the ATV2 version looks just like the apple Front Row UI, which I am not a fan of... :confused:
 
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