I am trying to set up PLEX on a Mac running OS 10.11.6 where the Media I want to see on my LAN TV is recorded OTA TV programs located on a LAN Windows 10 machine. PLEX will be available on a networked ROKU box attached to the TV. It is possible that what I want to do is impossible. I did try to put the address of the Recorded TV file as C:\HPElite\users\public\Recorded Tv and that seemed to be accepted but did not work in the long run. Later I read the address of the media cannot begin with a drive letter.
I do not understand why the media files can be on NAS but not a PC. Bottom line is I don’t really know what I am doing.
So in summary I need to know if what I am doing is possible and if so how to do it.
Thanks!
RAZ
Sounds perfectly ok… you might want to keep an eye on your network though – there’s a lot of “moving parts” that could be impacting your playback experience.
As for the actual setup…
For the Plex Media Server on your Mac to recognize the media from the Windows PC, you’ll need to share the media folder within your home network. You should be able to do that by right-clicking the folder on the Windows PC and click Share. The following dialog should include information how the folder will be named in your network. Usually this should be a combination of the PC’s IP address and the folder name (e.g. \\192.168.0.11\Recorded_TV).
Hint: Make sure in your router that your Windows PC has a reserved IP address so the shared folder remains accessible via the same name/address!
When you’re done with that, switch back to your Mac. Here you’ll need to connect to the shared folder of the Windows PC. Ideally the network drive will automatically show up in the Finder sidebar (network section). If you’ve restricted access to the share, your Mac might ask you to enter the user name and password.
NOW Plex will be able to find the folder. When navigating from within the Plex Media Server, you should be able to find the mounted network drive under /Volumes/Recorded_TV.
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Many thanks for your effort to explain everything to me. Unfortunately, after days of research I cannot get \HPElite\Users\Public\Recorded TV aka \192.168.1.22\Recorded TV aka Recorded TV to be shared from the Properties window. The message “Your Folder Can’t Be Shared” keeps coming up and to put icing on the cake Plex sees no contents in the designated folder. I have set Password Protected Sharing in Windows to “OFF”.
The irony of this is that if I click Connect to Server on the Mac and put in the PC IP address I can see and access each of the following folders on the Windows Machine:
Users
Public
Recorded TV
Recorded_TV
There remains confusion on how to set up Plex. The assumption is that a Library has to have at least one folder and in my case the folder is Recorded TV. Therefore it seems I must create a Library and name it so I did that. I named the library Rec TV. One question is what is the address of that Library?
Then I think I added the folder from the Windows machine. However, the uncertainty enters when Plex keeps wanting to create a folder on the Mac. This may be what is required but that would mean I would have to transfer video files from the PC to the Mac manually and I am looking for a way to directly address the Windows machine from the Mac. I think the real key may be the sequence of actions required in using the PLEX setup. I see what I see but I am not sure I am seeing what should be there.
Generally this is very frustrating and added confusion comes from the Mac being able to see Windows files but Plex does not see those files. The Problem remains, it appears, in the Plex setup.
You don’t have to transfer your files to the Mac.
However your Mac needs to be able to see the files locally – that means you need to connect from your Mac to the PC and mount that folder/webshare. When you do that, the folder will be available in your Mac’s /Volumes/.
This is a prerequisite for Plex to be able to connect to that (Mac) folder.
I think everything is working according to plan now.
Many thanks for your patience.
RAZ
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