Playing movies stored on HDD with the Amazon Firetv stick

[Amarendra]

Dear members,

Just sharing my experience of using a cheap solution to avoid buying another Nvidia Shield. I run a Nvidia Shield in my primary set up and needed a second one for my secondary set up. However I was reluctant to buy another one given the cost in India. Finally found a cheaper solution on the Net (youtube). I had a 4k firetv stick in my secondary setup. I picked up a Y USB cable from Amazon India which allows connection of a HDD to the FireTV while powering the Firetv at the same time. The Y cable worked out of the box. I activated the developer rights through the "My FireTV" option in the menu and downloaded VLC media player (I am not sure if you need developer option for this). The Firetv stick could not recognize my powered HDD (5TB) nor my non powered HDD (1 TB). However it did recognize my pen drive. As a sample I had copied a movie on the pen drive and the movie could be played through VLC media player without any lag or delay with the encoded surround format. Tonight I will try with an Atmos track and share the result. Using this approach you can even install Kodi but I have never been a big fan of Kodi (no Atmos support?). I haven't tried Plex either since I didn't want to overload the tiny Firetv stick at the outset.
While this may not be a longer term solution, it is one of the better ways to get more out of your firetv stick.

 

[mathan]

You can install Kodi using the developer option in Firestick. However most of the contents have been blocked by the ISP's and almost nothing works.

 

[Love4sound]

Dear members,

Just sharing my experience of using a cheap solution to avoid buying another Nvidia Shield. I run a Nvidia Shield in my primary set up and needed a second one for my secondary set up. However I was reluctant to buy another one given the cost in India. Finally found a cheaper solution on the Net (youtube). I had a 4k firetv stick in my secondary setup. I picked up a Y USB cable from Amazon India which allows connection of a HDD to the FireTV while powering the Firetv at the same time. The Y cable worked out of the box. I activated the developer rights through the "My FireTV" option in the menu and downloaded VLC media player (I am not sure if you need developer option for this). The Firetv stick could not recognize my powered HDD (5TB) nor my non powered HDD (1 TB). However it did recognize my pen drive. As a sample I had copied a movie on the pen drive and the movie could be played through VLC media player without any lag or delay with the encoded surround format. Tonight I will try with an Atmos track and share the result. Using this approach you can even install Kodi but I have never been a big fan of Kodi (no Atmos support?). I haven't tried Plex either since I didn't want to overload the tiny Firetv stick at the outset.
While this may not be a longer term solution, it is one of the better ways to get more out of your firetv stick.

The firestick will not bit stream and hence it wont play Atmos. It supports atmos in prime

 

[Amarendra]

I think this is a better solution than buying the cheap android boxes from Amazon. Atleast here you are sure of quality hardware and software with minimum bugs. Of-course it cant match an Nvidia which does a lot more than movies but for the cost I feel, it does a lot.

 

[superczar]

I think this is a better solution than buying the cheap android boxes from Amazon. Atleast here you are sure of quality hardware and software with minimum bugs. Of-course it cant match an Nvidia which does a lot more than movies but for the cost I feel, it does a lot.

Actually one of the best Kodi boxes are those cheap android boxes.
As long as you get an amlogic905 and swap the OS with Coreelec.

The cheapest yet most effective way to get local content streaming is a s905x for local streaming and a firestick for NF/Prime
The only constraint with the above being No ATMOS in Netflix (as pointed out already ) but you will get ATMOS for local and prime.


Quick Q for OP - Almost everyone has an old laptop/PC lying somewhere , why not repurpose it as a file server on your LAN insead of copying files on HDD and phyically connecting to your streaming device?

 

[Amarendra]

Actually one of the best Kodi boxes are those cheap android boxes.
As long as you get an amlogic905 and swap the OS with Coreelec.

The cheapest yet most effective way to get local content streaming is a s905x for local streaming and a firestick for NF/Prime
The only constraint with the above being No ATMOS in Netflix (as pointed out already ) but you will get ATMOS for local and prime.


Quick Q for OP - Almost everyone has an old laptop/PC lying somewhere , why not repurpose it as a file server on your LAN insead of copying files on HDD and phyically connecting to your streaming device?

Because of the notion that it may consume FUP or data. I have seen that when the internet is down the local streaming on WiFi does not work. I would be happy to stand corrected on this one

 

[superczar]

Because of the notion that it may consume FUP or data. I have seen that when the internet is down the local streaming on WiFi does not work. I would be happy to stand corrected on this one

That should not be the case at all.
Your LAN is a self confined unit - Your local streaming should not be affected by your internet being down.

As for data consumption, if you are not using any streaming app, the only possibility I can think of data consumption is automated updates - but they should not be very frequent anyway.

 

[Amarendra]

Thanks Superczar. Can you test this by removing the LAN/ internet cable from your ISP to your modem and then testing the LAN for transmission/ streaming ?

 

[Love4sound]

Thanks Superczar. Can you test this by removing the LAN/ internet cable from your ISP to your modem and then testing the LAN for transmission/ streaming ?

As i mentioned earlier i used to set up a local network using my Samsung mobile and stream from pc to ps3 using ps3 media server. You can very well set up a lan and stream contents without consuming your internet data.wat internet connection and modem you use? You can login to the modem and disable your internet but LAN will be up and you should be able to use plex

 

[superczar]

Thanks Superczar. Can you test this by removing the LAN/ internet cable from your ISP to your modem and then testing the LAN for transmission/ streaming ?

Am certain of it
The only data consumption would be metadata in case if you use a metadata enabled player like Plex or Kodi
There will be 0 data consumption if you use a standalone player like VLC

Plex/Kodi/VLC etc use a smb connection (or nfs/afp if your file server is nfs or OS x) to the device that hosts the video files
As long as the device is on the same subnet (i.e. on the LAN side of your network), the entire data flow is on your LAN
In fact you could switch off your modem entirely and there won't be any interruption - of course if you are using a modem/router combo that is also the only switch on your network then playback will stop but that is because the switching layer was switched off and not because the router/modem got off.

 

[Enkay78]

Imo there is no need to connect any USB storage to Firetv 4k.....if you have NAS or a router with NAS function.

I have a Netgear AX8 and connect two HDD to its two USB3 ports.

And use Firetv using KODI/Plex. I recommend Kodi Leia as it has option to decode trueHD etc....and works fine in Firetv 4k

 

[MaSh]

Yes that simple usb cable works great with fire stick. Been using it for a year now. VLC recognises my 1tb and a 500gb drives (via usb hub) and all the formats on it. I do not have an atmos setup, so never tried that.

MaSh

 

[Amarendra]

Yes that simple usb cable works great with fire stick. Been using it for a year now. VLC recognises my 1tb and a 500gb drives (via usb hub) and all the formats on it. I do not have an atmos setup, so never tried that.

MaSh

Hi Mash,

How did you get the VLC player to recognize your 1 TB HDD ? In my case it recognized the smaller pen drive.

Thanks

 

[Srinivasa Rao]

Hi Mash,

How did you get the VLC player to recognize your 1 TB HDD ? In my case it recognized the smaller pen drive.

Thanks

I have been using 1tb, 2tb and even 5tb on my MI box S for streaming through Kodi, VLC and MX player, never had any issues. Not sure about audio output though bcos right now for me audio is through TV speakers. I'm in the process of building a new HT system.

 

[MaSh]

Hi Mash,

How did you get the VLC player to recognize your 1 TB HDD ? In my case it recognized the smaller pen drive.

Thanks

Internal Storage section picked up the drive automatically. Although it takes a few seconds to refresh the contents the first time.

MaSh

 

[Vinay2013]

Can this also work in normal Fire TV which is not 4K?

 

[Amarendra]

I am currently using 3 routers and 1 wifi extender at home. Each has a different ssid and password. As suggested by one of you I connected a HDD to my Asus router which had provision for a USB drive. The Fire TV can now access the files on the HDD provided the firetv is connected to the Asus router. However my Nvidia Shield in another room is connected to a Dlink router. If I keep the same ssid for all routers can the Shield also access the HDD connected to the Asus router ?

 

[superczar]

I am currently using 3 routers and 1 wifi extender at home. Each has a different ssid and password. As suggested by one of you I connected a HDD to my Asus router which had provision for a USB drive. The Fire TV can now access the files on the HDD provided the firetv is connected to the Asus router. However my Nvidia Shield in another room is connected to a Dlink router. If I keep the same ssid for all routers can the Shield also access the HDD connected to the Asus router ?

Unless you are using multiple ISP connections or have a very specific reason to keep separate networks in separate rooms, I am unsure why your network would be setup this way because it sounds deeply flawed.
In a typical house setup, all your devices should to be on the same subnet connected to a single router.

Simply keeping same SSID won't work. The easiest way to fix the situation is to use your best router as the primary . If you have coverage issues, you can set the other routers working in AP mode to broadcast the wifi in other areas of the house

 

[Enkay78]

Unless you are using multiple ISP connections or have a very specific reason to keep separate networks in separate rooms, I am unsure why your network would be setup this way because it sounds deeply flawed.
In a typical house setup, all your devices should to be on the same subnet connected to a single router.

Simply keeping same SSID won't work. The easiest way to fix the situation is to use your best router as the primary . If you have coverage issues, you can set the other routers working in AP mode to broadcast the wifi in other areas of the house

Totally agree to this.

Make the less powerful routers as AP. (Wired).Problem solved.

Or you can make them as extenders. (Wireless)

 

[Amarendra]

Yes I just use 1 ISP connected to my D-Link router. The router to which my HDD is connected is Asus which is an AP. Hence if my Nvidia is connected to the D-Link can it access the HDD connected to the Asus ?