I have a Roku tv in our rv and want to be able to sync my library onto a portable hard drive for offline viewing through plex. as the Roku only will read .mkv files and my 2tb of movies are in avi or .flv format, is it possible to point the plex app to a usb device for playing offline?
The only client that I know of which has the ability to sync to an external USB-disk is the Windows app. Afaik, your roku client doesn’t have that ability. So, you would need to get Plex out of the equation and just use the external disk as is to the Roku (and let the native player of Roku read the raw files from the disk). I don’t own nor use Roku so I’m not sure how well that works (if at all).
Getting the files onto the disk and in the correct format is another matter. Potentially, you could maybe use Plex’s media optimizer feature and copy those out. Another option is perhaps to use a script that a fellow member has created, search for cayars conversion script and I’m sure you’ll find it (I’m on my phone now so hard for me).
If you do convert your files, why not keep and use that copy as your original? Avi and flv isn’t very good compared to mp4 and mkv, as demonstrated by your roku. So that’s something I strongly urge you to do regardless, ie, ditch the old formats.
There are other potential solutions, such as syncing parts of your collection to a phone or tablet that then could potentially act as a server for your roku to read from. But that would req WIFI in your RV. Another option that for me would be more feasible is to get a laptop and use that with the Windows app and your external disk (and connect it via hdmi to our tv in the RV). If you search for how others have solved their Plex situation while travelling I’m sure you’ll find other solutions (such as the new Windows based computer-on-a-stick).
