Best setup for watching movies on tv via hard drive

[World_Breaker52]

I recently got a smart tv for christmas (yay!). I am wondering what the best way to watch movies that I have on a hard drive? Should I get a HDD enclosure for all and connect them that way? Or NAS or should I build a home server and connect that to the TV? What I want is to be able to access the movies from my tv but also from my pc as well that way I can add files from my pc directly to my HDD without having to move it. Thanks for your help

 

[jsmithepa]

OK, I gather you question asks "What's best based on my TV's capability" and not "What's best if I start from scratch."

IMO, the best is a dedicated HTPC (Home Theater PC) as the playback client to ANY TV (doesn't has to be smart since the HTPC *is* the brain) and a NAS. I prefer the HTPC as its user interface is so more flexible, configurable, scalable, much-much-much better in performance (smoother and faster navigation) vs the Smart TV version.

A SmartTV based video playback platform is based on the DLNA model (WIKI for full details). I call it the lazy-man system and it's intended to be a quick way to get things going, and as you will find out, it's kinda limited (unbelievable after you spent what extra dough on that Smart TV right.). For example, my TV's DLNA Interface has NO SEARCH function. What happens when you accumulate hundreds and thousand of videos, how are you going to get to the one quickly?

Anywhoo, enough trashing DLNA. Try it, is already built-in so give it a try, can always upgrade later to a full blown HTPC. What you currently need is a DLNA server, and the quickest way would be via a NAS that has DLNA capability. A Western Digital I hear often. That way you access it via your desktop as desired for maintenance etc.

 

[World_Breaker52]

Thank you for your response. I was fiddling around with it today and I some how managed to connect my pc to the tv via the network. Don't know how I did it since I wasnt trying lol. Now I can just stream it to my tv directly which is great. I am actually still setting up a htpc just to see the difference. Again thank you for your help jsmithepa