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I use a Roku TV in my travel trailer. Where we camp there is no cell service nor internet so I can’t stream my movies.
Does Plex have the capability to play videos from an external drive? I have an external drive plugged into my Roku TV but from what I can tell the Plex app doesn’t have the option to access a local drive.
Plex app can’t use a local drive alone because it has to talk to the server, but the Roku Media Player Channel can use a local USB drive and playback as long as the files are compatible (don’t need transcoding) and you have a USB port available.
It actually does a decent job too and will show local posters and such. What is supported will depend on your Roku TV model a bit but usually MKV\MP4 with H264 and AAC\AC3 audio and SRT based subs should be no problem. If it’s a 4k TV then H265 and EAC3 is usually fine too.
Bummer. You’ve confirmed my fear that Plex will not recognize an external drive.
The reason I would like to use Plex is because the Roku Media Channel Player does not do as good a job of playing a video as Plex does when it comes to transcoding. RMCP will not recognize audio and will only show video on some of my movies. Maybe I go back to the Roku TV and see if there are any updates that will solve my issue. In any case, I would really like to see Plex create a stand-alone app or added feature within their current app that plays files from an external drive. Especially for Premium subscribers like myself.
Thanks for the feedback. It’s much appreciated.
You’re welcome!
I think AppleTV and Shield do a better job handling local playback with options available there. Shield can do it a bit more natively (and can be Plex server as well as client) and AppleTV works well with the Infuse App which is just a few bucks. I haven’t used either myself but have seen both brought up and checked into the AppleTV+Infuse option a bit.
Another option is to setup an “offline” Plex server you can take with you. There’s a few ways to do that (Shield being the easiest I think as it can be both server and player) and there’s a few threads in the forums about setting that up - particularly for your situation with a camper\camping. That might be worth checking depending on how much you want to invest.
You could install PMS on a RPI, have all your movies / TV shows on USB thumbdrives attached to the RPi, configure PMS libraries to the USB drives. If the RPi & Roku TV have gigabit network interfaces you dont even need a switch to connect them, 1 cat5e cable will do the trick. The RPi cant do video transcoding so all the media would have to be in a native format that the Roku TV can play natively, probably h.264 & AC-3 audio.
Thanks all for the recommendations. Another option that I could potentially try would be a PC Stick and then install VLC as my media player. There is a cost associated with that however.
If there’s a VLC app for the Roku TV then it could possible read directly from a locally connected USB drive.
Yeah, I ran a search for the VLC app on the Roku app store and nothing came up. And, from the research I’ve done they do not have one.
You could also install PMS and a Plex client on there.
Good point. That’s a good idea.
Would I need to create separate login credentials for the install onto a PC Stick or could I keep my current credentials? Wasn’t sure since there would be 2 instances of a Server and Client.
You can have multiple servers on your account. If you want to be able to see this server from other devices, or another server from here, then you should use the same account. If you want this to be a separate stand alone server/client, then use a new account.
If you need HW transcoding on that new device, then you’ll need to use your Plex Pass account, so that might decide which account you need to use.
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