Connect KD-49XD8305 to PC

[willowozzy1]

We've just bought a new Android TV and I was hoping to be able to view photos stored on my PC through the TV.  Can this be done without using an HDMI cable?  Thanks

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi there

You will need to install a DLNA Media Server such as Serviio : http://serviio.org/

Once setup and running, you can use the Album app on the TV, or alternatively Kodi (available from the Google Play Store on the TV) to view photos, videos etc.

Cheers

[royabrown · Accepted solution]

I suppose the first thing to say is no, you can't use anything but HDMI to view media from your computer over a wire.

As I do; but if you don't have HDMI on the computer, and can't add a card with it on, you need to go the network route.

Which I thought I'd look at, prompted by this query, and got into a world of incomprehensible hurt with.

To handle media, I downloaded Kodi and Plex from the Google Play Store. Not that I thought I needed both at once, but I thought I'd let them duke it out to see what was best.

Pretty soon, I found I needed a Plex server on the laptop I was using as my source - an aging Windows Vista one - and the Plex model was to store all your media in one place. No good to me - my media is where it is, and it just wants fetching when I want to look at it, not shifting round all over the place. And it I wanted it all in one place, I'd put it on my MyCloud, which the Android TV can certainly play video from with no bother, and so probably photos as well?

Kodi seemed better; it saw my laptop, saw the folder I had Shared, and - I got stuck there. I could see the folder, couldn't see what was in it. No way. Kodi just kept offering to password protect the folder. What's that all about?

So I looked at the Kodi help. Reams about the possible difficulties of installing it, and install tweaks you might do; none if it applicable to the straightforward install I'd done. And it all looked like a nostalgia trip for people who had once got a Linux distro running, and about twice as complicated.

But I was past that stage, so I looked in the Kodi help for how to view photos. All the help for which started from the assumption that you could see them 😞

So - what can be wrong - is it that Kodi can't see my files unless I have something like serviio on the laptop to serve them?

Or is it, as the Help hints, that Kodi on its own can't show photos, and needs an add-in to do this for it? Shades of Make, and dependencies resolution...

I mean, I understand what add-ins are from Firefox. But it sounds that if Firefox was like Kodi, you would need a browser add-in before Firefox would work 🙂

 Anyone with some clues for the bewildered? What's the best and simplest way to see photos from the Vista laptop on the screen of the Android TV?

[Anonymous]

@royabrown

Doesnt the WD MyCloud have the ability to setup a Twonky Media Server?  This would negate the need to use a media server on your laptop. 

If you have a Vista Laptop and the files are on the laptop itself, you could enable Media sharing via Windows Media Player - simplest solution?

I have just re-installed Kodi after having it removed for awhile to test accessing my photos from my DLNA server.  First thing I noticed is that Kodi have updated to version 17.0 - Krypton - This version is So much better that 16.1.  Much more polished.  Anyway, I added the network filepath to Kodi under the Photos area, and I do not get any username/password box appear.  I can view photos with no issues.  And I am not serving them via my laptop (as a middle person) by the way. 

Is your Kodi version updated?

[willowozzy1]

Wow, thanks for spending so much time and effort looking into this for me.  I am very new to all this (don't even use a smartphone!).  I will have a go at downloading Kodi and see if I can access them through that.  I have managed to set a HomeGroup which my TV can see under settings, but that is about it!  My main problem is that my PC is a long way from the TV and we have very thick stone walls so at the moment I have 2 sets of plug-in powerline adapters - 1 cabled to my TV and 1 wifi for my tablet.  I appreciate I can upload all my photos to icloud, but they are currently stored on my PC and I thought it would be realatively easy!  Thanks again

[willowozzy1]

Thanks very much for this.  I'll try Kodi first and if I get nowhere with that, I'll try Serviio

[willowozzy1]

No I'm still stuck!  Got as far as seeing my PC (under SMB - is this the correct one?) but also get the username/password bit and can't get any further!

[royabrown]

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@Quinnicus wrote:

@royabrown

Doesnt the WD MyCloud have the ability to setup a Twonky Media Server?  This would negate the need to use a media server on your laptop. 

If you have a Vista Laptop and the files are on the laptop itself, you could enable Media sharing via Windows Media Player - simplest solution?

I have just re-installed Kodi after having it removed for awhile to test accessing my photos from my DLNA server.  First thing I noticed is that Kodi have updated to version 17.0 - Krypton - This version is So much better that 16.1.  Much more polished.  Anyway, I added the network filepath to Kodi under the Photos area, and I do not get any username/password box appear.  I can view photos with no issues.  And I am not serving them via my laptop (as a middle person) by the way. 

Is your Kodi version updated?

---

The Kodi is 17.0 Krypton

The TV can see the MyCloud and play a video from it in the Video app. Does that tell you that it has the Twonky Media server set up on it?

And I have now managed to watch the same video in Kodi, which found the MyCloud by IP address on a Network Search, decided it was /nfs (?), and when searched (manually, but in Kodi) turned up the video, told me all about it, and then played it to me.

But how does all this help me look at pictures on the Vista laptop?

Is there a sensible guide to Kodi anywhere, as I don't understand any of this?

i thought I might try copying  the pictures to the MyCloud, as, if that showed them to me, might help me understand what is supposed to be happening.

But the Vista laptop is trying to download device driver software for the MyCloud, and currently failing to find any.

So perhaps now I have to try this on my Windows 10 laptop?

This is a very steep learning curve....

[rooobb]

If you see the mycloud on video device than twonky is enabled on it. You can fine tuning it accessing the port 9000 on the same ip of the nas. And you will be able to access your photos too via the album app in the same way. Regarding the Vista laptop if you want to access it directly in the same way you should install a dlna server on it ( serviio should have a version for Vista too)

[royabrown]

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@rooobb wrote:

If you see the mycloud on video device than twonky is enabled on it. You can fine tuning it accessing the port 9000 on the same ip of the nas. And you will be able to access your photos too via the album app in the same way. Regarding the Vista laptop if you want to access it directly in the same way you should install a dlna server on it ( serviio should have a version for Vista too)

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Cheers Rooob

So is it expected that, in the absence of a DLNA server, that Kodi can see the folder on the Vista laptop, but not what is in it?

Whats this name/password thing that willowozzy1 and I are getting, but Quinnicus isn't? How do we avoid it?

I turned Windows Media Player on, on the Vista box, but I don't understand its relevance, and it does not seem to make any difference. Should it, and if so, how?

I gave up trying to install the MyCloud drivers on the Vista laptop (though I left the install running) and moved the USB drive with the photos on to my Win10 laptop.

While I was trying to persuade.this laptop to be visible on my network (it isn't yet) the Vista install finished, successfully.

So i can now move the USB drive back to the Vista laptop, copy some pictures to the MyCloud, and see if I can see them on Kodi.

And/or get the Win10 laptop set up correctly.

This is turning into a marathon....