Hello,
I am planning to buy a WD My Cloud Mirror 4 TB 2-bay Personal Cloud Storage NAS primarily to store all of my movies. I currently have an older WD My Book which I connect to my LG smart TV via USB which works fine but I am after a wireless solution.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cloud-Mirror-2-bay-Personal-Storage/dp/B00J97ABZ4
My assumptions are that the My Cloud will work fine with the LG Smart TV that I have and i am happy with the LG’s current interface, my concern is that i have another TV that i wish to stream content to. The other TV does not have an ariel connected to it, nor is it a smart TV (its an older Samsung Flat Screen from 2008).
My requriements are therefore to turn this into a smart TV (Via WD TV Media Player, Amazon Fire TV etc) but i need a device that will be compatible with the WD Mycloud NAS to stream content (generally AVI / MP4 video files) . Is anyone able to advise if this is something i could do, and the best/most cost effective way of doing this?
If the device i use for the TV is also able to recieve Live TV / Catch Up that would be great also.
I am a novice with this and have heard talk of xbmc & plex but unaware if it is compatable with the WD, or if it is even required for my needs.
Another area I have concern is regarding using the WD as a central store for all my music and using it as an iTunes Media Server if possible, that me and my partner could access on a number of devices?
Many thanks for your help
I run a MCM same as you, connecting by wifi to a Raspberry Pi running OpenELEC (one of the XBMC variants - there is also RaspBMC or Xbian) and it works a treat on my dumb 1080p LG TV. The Pi is cheap (£35 or so), with a £5 wifi dongle, a 2A PSU and a couple of cables (micro-USB for the power and an HDMI) which I had laying about.
I’m very happy with it, as it also can be driven via CEC from the TV remote (if your TV uses HDMI and supports it like mine does). Or alternatively you can get a bluetooth or USB keyboard/mouse set-up depending on your needs (or a media remote control and dongle). Plays all my movies (MP4 format) from my MCM without any issues at all.
Another option could be a DLNA dongle(the MCM can act as a DLNA server), but you’ll also need a phone or tablet to act as the DLNA controller.
Last option is a media player such as a Sumvision Cyclone. I have the Micro4 one of those as well (use it for travelling) and that would probably also fit your needs, connecting to the MCM via wifi again and it comes with its own remote control.
Both the above dongle and media player links are just examples (as they’re the ones I own and use) but there are a lot of other variants of both around. So a search using your browser of choice depending on what option you may want to look into.
Plex is a good general solution, but unfortunately there isn’t (currently) a Plex Server plug-in option for the MCM. So if you want to go that route you’ll need a PC or something else on your network to act as the server (with the MCM being just used for dumb storage), at which point you can then use something like a Chromecast as the receiver-end at the telly.
Can’t comment about iTunes I’m afraid as I don’t use Apple stuff - will have to leave that to someone else to comment.
Darren thank you very much for your detailed response. I have heard good things about rasberry pi’s but have no experience of them so will have a look into the solution you mention below.
Interesting regarding the plex and thank you for clearing it up for me that the NAS is simply a dumb device for storage only. I am trying to avoid having anthing else running (i.e Laptop, phone) and ideally want to make the solution as simple as possible with a remote control to access the content. I guess in an ideal world i would just buy another smart TV but will look into the range of dongles that are available and your rasberry pi option. I have seen a lot of positive reviews of the Amazon Fire TV so plan to do some more research into this
cheers
I’d say the key question is whether you want to watch local content (from the MCM), streamed content (from the web) or both.
If you want both, then I can certainly say the Pi can do it as it’s what I do. Mainly the streaming I do is from BBC iPlayer, but there are various other add-ons for XBMC/Kodi which allows streaming from other sources. That’s for the UK of course, and there are other add-ons like TVCatch-up which allow streaming of Freeview. Both of course subject to your IP address, and your network speeds.
From what I can see on the net I think the Fire TV is only for streaming, it won’t be able to play your local content from the MCM (at least out of the box). Same goes for a Chromecast, except via the Plex route, which isn’t available on the MCM (it is on some other more expensive and higher power NAS boxes from other vendors, but not the MCM). There may be ways and means via rooting etc to do local media playback on those devices, but I’ve no experience there. To be clear I don’t own either a Fire TV or a Chromecast, so this paragraph is solely based on web-readings.
If you only want local media playing, then I’d recommend a media player like the one I linked to above as it’s simple, small, self-contained and at least for me does the job fine. I use mine connected to a WD MyPassport via USB when I’m travelling abroad and want something watchable on the TV. There are others around like the Roku, but again make sure that they can play local media from your network as well as internet-streamed stuff as many don’t/can’t.
If you don’t want to add another device (phone, tablet etc) then the simple DLNA dongle option is out, as you’ll generally need a controller device as the dongle I linked is just a receiver.
Thanks again Darren. I’ve done quite a bit of reading up on the raspberry Pi and It certainly does look excellent and with a nice simple interface. I think it would be the perfect device to complement the WD mycloud mirror for streaming video to my TV.
I know this has gone a bit off topic, but is it simple to watch live TV / catchup also? I see that you can add TV tuners etc, don’t know if these are required (I am based in the UK btw) I also have sky, with a sky go account so don’t know if this can also be utilised?)
In terms of the remote control, thinking about it I think I will just use the iPhone app? And see how I get on from there. Am I right in thinking the below is all the hardware I would need to get me going?
Many thanks again for all your help!
Raspberry Pi B+ Starter Kit - £36
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00LU2FDG8/ref=pd_aw_sbs_1?pi=SS115&simLd=1
WIFI 150MBPS WIRELESS ADAPTOR 802.11 B G N LAN NETWORK MINI USB DONGLE ADAPTER - £3.39
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00FV5S3X0/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1418078275&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165
Mike
Ps. Forgot to mention I already have a spare HDMI cable 
Mike,
Yes, something along those lines will do nicely. I bought something quite similar, except in my case I didn’t bother with the case or PSU (had the latter already, and the former my kids built from Lego). I think mine was from the same seller as your links.
The wifi dongle should be fine, although if you are streaming Blu-Ray rips or full HD content you may be better off with a faster one or by using the Ethernet wired connector on the Pi itself. But in my case I stream DVD rips from my MCM via my 150Mbps and also from iPlayer without issue. But it’s one of those that I’d try first given the price, if it works fine and if not upgrade to a more expensive and faster one.
For remote control, yes you can use something like Yatse (I use that from Android, I think it’s also available for iPhone) or the official XBMC app (which isn’t so good). it’s just you said you wanted to avoid additional devices on the system. You can also stream to the Pi via Airplay (at least so it’s reported on the forums), but I must admit I’ve never done it myself as I don’t own any iDevices, so I can’t personally guarantee that. And as I said before, if your TV/remote supports it you can control it via CEC, or any wired or bluetooth keyboard/mouse if you prefer.
As to TV/catch-up, there are apps for BBC iPlayer, Sky Go and TVCatchup (plus numerous others). I can vouch for iPlayer working, but I haven’t tried the other two as I don’t have a Sky account and I don’t need Freeview as my TV has a built-in tuner for it, as does my PVR also connected to the TV. But I use TVCatchup on other portable Android devices and it works fine there.
In that kit the NOOBS card (New Out Of Box) contains software which will let you set the Pi up in a number of ways, one of which will be as a media player (using either OpenElec or RaspBMC - personally i prefer OpenElec but try both and see what you prefer).
If you’re going this way and get stuck I’m happy to help out if needed, or there’s forums for the Pi and for Kodi (XBMC is renaming to that in the upcoming new version, to lose the old linkage with XBOX) plus for specifically OpenElec and RaspBMC. But it’s not too difficult, and you also have the option if you want to run the Pi with Raspian (the Pi’s version of Debian) and to use it as a lightweight Linux PC too…
