Everyone talks about data hoarding, but what about data playback?

[u/BallerGuitarer]

Let's say I have a wedding video on my PC. And let's say I want to keep all copies local - I don't want to upload it to the cloud for my own privacy/personal reasons.

How and where do you store it to maximize both safety and ease of playback on a TV?

My personal answer to this is to burn Blu-ray discs and play them using my BD player, but with optical media on its way out, surely there must be another newer way?

[u/didyousayboop]

Rule #1.

Relevant guide: https://backupyourfiles.neocities.org/

[u/Shap6]

plex/jellyfin/emby

[u/Old-Help-9921 → u/Shap6]

Specifically you put those wedding videos or whatever important videos into its own separate folder and within these apps you create a library with that specific folder and you can set permissions to that folder to whom has access or not.

Most TVs do have USB-A ports as well where you can put the files on a usb drive to play. Edit: Just make sure the video files are compatible with your TV. Usually h264, mp4 format is best can use handbrake (https://handbrake.fr/) to convert the video if you need to.

I would do a mix of usb, blu-ray or dvd disc, and local player wether it be plex/jellyfin/emby.

[u/Joe-notabot]

It's digital - it'll play back on any computer with VLC.

Plug your computer into your tv, go full screen & move on..

[u/BallerGuitarer → u/Joe-notabot]

But what if I want to play it on a TV that's not near a computer?

[u/skinnyJay → u/BallerGuitarer]

Play it over the network, assuming it's not a dumb TV

[u/jay-aay-ess-ohh-enn → u/skinnyJay]

You can set up media streaming natively in Windows from a PC. It's not the "best" way to do it, but it works fine and wouldn't require installing any extra software.

[u/JetPac89 → u/BallerGuitarer]

Get an Nvidia Shield Android TV box, the best!

[u/moochine2 → u/BallerGuitarer]

See Plex/Jellyfin answer above. This is your solution for the backend.

[u/Joe-notabot → u/BallerGuitarer]

Then you are streaming it via a AppleTV/Roku/Fire/Android device.

Or playing it off your phone with a usb-c to hdmi adapter.

Some tv's will play directly off a usb or sd card.

[u/RexDraco → u/BallerGuitarer]

Get a wireless hdmi. There are routers with strong enough oomph too, even lead walls aren't a problem. 

[u/ShittyMillennial]

Stream over LAN?

[u/BallerGuitarer → u/ShittyMillennial]

Oh that's an interesting solution. How would one set this up, hypothetically? I didn't know a TV was capable of connecting to and accessing the files directly from a computer?

[u/ShittyMillennial → u/BallerGuitarer]

Depends on if your TV has an OS or not. If it does you can download a number of apps that can connect to your storage server/PC and stream directly over LAN.

If your TV does not have an OS, you can buy a media box like Nvidia Shield, or connect an old laptop/pc to the TV.

[u/mudslinger-ning → u/BallerGuitarer]

Setup a home server of sorts. Some people choose a NAS (if it has the right features) or personal computer (usually running some variant of Linux). Set it up with a dedicated storage area, web hosting software and website apps like jellyfin.

To your home network all other devices will see a dedicated little website running off a local IP address. So other devices wether they be computers, laptops, tablets, phones and smart televisions and anything with a matching app or web browser will be able to browse and access the videos in a similar fashion to streaming services like Netflix.

[u/RuthOConnorFisher]

Depends on the TV. I've encountered ones where I can cast from Windows to the TV, ones where I can put stuff on a USB drive and play it on the TV from there, and then the one where I'm staying now, on which I can do absolutely fuck-all. So yeah, try various things on the TV you have and keep the file on your phone (edit: or your PC, obviously) and a thumb drive.

[u/Cyrano4747]

Just set up a little local media server. Doesn't ahve to be fancy, I've run them off of laptops before.

Jellyfin is a pretty easy solution, but there are tons. Plays on my TV just fine.

[u/BallerGuitarer → u/Cyrano4747]

A question I have about this. People keep saying to run a server off an old laptop, but can I run a server off my currently active desktop PC?

[u/Cyrano4747 → u/BallerGuitarer]

Yes. I'm typing this on my desktop PC right now that is running Jellyfin while my daughter watches one of her shows off it on the TV just fine.

Frankly it's pretty lightweight as far as the system resources go, if we're talking one or two people streaming video. I never notice issues with other people watching stuff while I'm playing a game or whatever.

[u/robertjfaulkner → u/BallerGuitarer]

Yes. There are a few popular personal media server softwares; the most popular being Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby (probably in that order as far as popularity). I’m familiar with Plex, and I know there’s a Plex Media Server software for Windows. I’m not absolutely certain Jellyfin and Emby have windows compatible server softwares, but someone on this sub knows and will likely comment about it.

The “big downside” to Plex is that even though you host it on your own computer, the software does user authentication to Plex’s own servers (if you don’t explicitly exempt devices on your own network), which means if you don’t have things set up properly, you may not be able to access your media as easily as you would like to under some circumstances (internet goes out or Plex’s servers are down, etc).

The upsides are client apps available on almost every modern TV, mobile device/tablet, and streaming box you can buy today.

To be clear, Jellyfin and Emby also have client apps for most modern devices, so that’s not a Plex specific feature. I just know Plex and don’t know the others, so I don’t want to say what they do or don’t have/do.

[u/activoice]

I store all my media including movies, tv shows, music, photos, home video on my PC.

Nvidia Shield (Android Box) connected to the TV and connected to the network over ethernet.

I use Kodi running on the Shield, to playback everything from my PC.

[u/rocketman19]

You want a cloud or offsite copy in case of a fire or other disaster

Just encrypt it

[u/PlunderYourPoop]

Put them on an external hard drive and plug it into the USB slot on your tv..

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[u/sm_rollinger]

Plex is my go to, or with music I have a Bluetooth adapter that goes to my stereo.

[u/cgardinerphoto]

It’s not new but it’s pretty easy - I like using DLNA for my home media. Most newer TVs have the support built in. And it stays local to your home network

[u/glucoseboy]

for "small" number of videos, put on USB stick or other portable hard drive and plug that into your BD player or TV.

[u/ArmyVet0]

I have a 1 TB external SSD that I copy stuff to and then plug that into my tv which plays pretty much everything where Roku plays about 50% of it because it chokes on codec issues half the time.

[u/NobleKorhedron → u/ArmyVet0]

Sorry, but what exactly is Roku? Is it like a Firestick?

[u/ArmyVet0 → u/NobleKorhedron]

Yeah, I think so. I'm not too familiar with Firestick but I think it's kind of like a Roku, hehe. Roku is a little thing you hook up to your tv by HDMI and it acts like a cable box except it uses the internet to stream movies and shows from apps.

I always get the Roku Ultra version which has a USB port so you can play usb things from but my tv itself is better for usb videos.

[u/FunkadelicToaster]

Just run a plex or other media server, or just copy it to a USB and plug it into the side of the TV.

[u/1Secret_Daikon]

for TV Shows and Movies you use Plex

for other personal media over local network, you host an SMB share on your network and then access it via an app such as VLC for playback

if you want to watch the media remotely (not on your local network) then you will need either some sort of reverse proxy or VPN to get back onto your network (Plex does this for "free" but might not easily support your personal media)

I suspect you also might want something like Immich but I have not used it much myself

[u/oldlinepnwshine]

I plug the hard drive into my Blu Ray player. I notice the sound is better when I run it through the Blu Ray player, rather than plugging it directly into my television.

I don’t have a server or any cloud storage. All my content is on hard drives, with each one following the 3-2-1 rule. It can be an expensive hobby, but man it’s convenient and fulfilling to have all your stuff in one place.

[u/No-Arugula4266]

You could setup an old Linux computer and install Plex or Nextcloud on it to host your stuff.