question about Plex for WD My Passport Wireless Pro

General Discussions
1

I like the idea of having a mobile plex server without WIFI availibility,

  1. how can you view on HDTV (non smart) though?
  2. can I connect this via USB to a Ps3 (access plex server via DLNA
2

  1. it’s a server not a client. but maybe i am misunderstanding your question. if you are talking about access to the Web app your device needs a web browser ( you need a web browser to connect to the devices own WD management too )

  2. DLNA has nothing to do with USB. it is a network protocol for sharing over a local network. If you connect it to a PS3 over usb it is like connecting any drive and the PS3 will see it like any other USB drive. it will just be looking at it like a normal drive.

3

@BigWheel it should probably be made clearer the limitations of this devices, some people are under the assumption that they’ll be able to get their plex experience without an internet connection and that’s not exactly true, especially for those in a plexHome

4

thanks for the quick reply BigWheel and random.server,
Big Wheel you answered questions #2 - which might be my way of accessing videos wihtout WIFI (albeit only in a normal drive format)

with regards to number #1 my understanding of the Passport Pro is that I can view on my tablet, phone etc… without wifi as long as I have a plex client on those said devices. That is nice and all but what I really would like is a portable media server away from WIFI, right now the NVIDIA shield seems to be the only option.

I can connect the shield (and shield remote) on the road via to any HDMI TV to access Plex.

5

There is an FAQ here https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/221104248-Western-Digital-My-Passport-Wireless-Pro I did not realize it wasn’t included in the blog article.

6

@northdegree said:
with regards to number #1 my understanding of the Passport Pro is that I can view on my tablet, phone etc… without wifi as long as I have a plex client on those said devices. That is nice and all but what I really would like is a portable media server away from WIFI, right now the NVIDIA shield seems to be the only option.

you need Wifi. that’s how you connect to it. The WD device makes an adhoc wifi network ( basically its own local network via wifi ). say you are taking a cross country trip via RV with no other networking equipment or internet connection ( routers and such ) on the RV. devices like your phone etc can connect directly to it via wifi like if you were just on your local network.

( to be clear if someone else reads this, some of our player apps like our Smart TV and game console apps need internet connection to load the player app itself )

anyway hopefully the FAQ clears somethings up

7

@BigWheel - more and more often I hear people referring to Internet access (particularly away from home and mobile) as WiFi. I suspect the OP is using the term to mean internet, not WiFi as we know it.

8

@drinehart said:
@BigWheel - more and more often I hear people referring to Internet access (particularly away from home and mobile) as WiFi. I suspect the OP is using the term to mean internet, not WiFi as we know it.

you may be right. i blame hotels, airports and starbucks for that. Drives me nuts many hotels do not offer ethernet anymore.

9

So unless something’s changed about this version of the pms, I’m curious to how anyone is going to connect to it over WiFi without Internet unless there’s no authentication set (and the user doesn’t belong to a plexhome). It doesn’t that help that on WD’s faq, they say without Internet you have to use the wd pro app.

10

@“random.server” - when did OP ever mention needing those settings? There are ways to make sure internet is not needed. If you are trying to make a statement about disagreement with the need for internet access, this doesn’t seem like the post to do so.

11

@drinehart you said it yourself, the OP probably meant internet instead of WiFi. And being able to connect a HDTV or Playstation or any device can be very dependent on actually having a internet connection. Now mind you from the OP’s bullet points, they really don’t need this at all, more likely a plain ol’ WD media box or DLNA server.

12

@“random.server” - yep. Something new, must have at times. It is a little misleading because you can read OPs statements both ways (WiFi or Internet). And yes, some clients will require internet to be used at all, so lots of possible ways to be left with a less than optimal Plex experience these days.

OT - That being said, I am beginning to see a possible use for this in that it could be used to “sync” some content (robocopy or something to that effect, not sync in Plex parlance) to use it as a backup plex server at home when needed and also a good traveling Plex server for car use. I will be curious to see how this works and what the performance of the hardware (CPU, WiFi) are and may make a purchase myself. I like the battery-powered aspect of the device for mobile use. If it did HDMI out I might really be in the market. Next gen maybe.

13

@drinehart If you go this route, it’ll be interesting to see what comes of it on your end. I have a testing account that would fine with this as I moved the other family accounts into PlexHome a couple weeks ago (after the outage this week, I need to update my plex.tv spoofer to reflect this). If this device was able to transcode audio, I’d find it much more useful on my end.