Run Media Browser from external drive

[KarenLorr 1]

Hi Experts (I hope)

I have just over 300 films and many TV series loaded onto an external drive (5TB).
 

This works fine when I watch films through Media Browser when I plug the drive into my laptop (I have MB on this machine).
 

But, here’s the question.
 

Is there any way to load Media Browser onto the external drive?
 

I am trying to come up with a way to play my films through media browser on a machine that doesn’t have it (it would be on the external drive)
 

Basically I’m looking to plug in my drive and for Media Browser to start up and then I can watch films on any computer.
 

Is this possible
 

Thanks
 

Karen

[gcw07 347]

Unless your external drive is also running an OS, no there isn't.

[KarenLorr 1]

The problem is that the laptops I have are company ones and we can't load programmes onto them.  I spend a lot of time working abroad and would like to be able to watch a film now and again.  I can only carry one laptop so I can't take my personal one.

 

Would it be possible to store MB on the external drive but use the laptops system to run it, or something like this

 

 

(There MUST be a way - there always is, I hope)

[gcw07 347]

Not that I know of. Maybe someone else does. I'd suggest setting up the server on your home machine connected to the internet and give it access to the outside world. Then using your company laptop, just use the browser and access your server where ever your at and stream them to your computer. That is probably the best solution unfortunately.

[Pelon 203]

I know that this is not what you want to hear, but if you have the movies in the external HD and they are in a format that Windows Media player can handle without codecs, then you don't need to install anything to watch the movies, just open the files directly.

[hedgehogg 104]

Set up an external address (IE No-IP) for yourserver then use IEetc to watch from MBS

[KarenLorr 1]

Oh well, I guess it's back to using Windows Media Player.  I have tried to use Windows Media Center but (to put it bluntly) it is the worst thing MS have ever pushed out.  It simply does not work very well.

I would have prefered to use MB as I like the layout.

Thanks for the replies everyone

Edited December 13, 2013 by KarenLorr

[Marc_G 95]

One thing to explore:

 

I believe Media Player Classic Home Cinema can be run without truly installing it... as in, run standalone just from a folder (which could be on your hard drive, with settings saved to an INI file there). I used to do this in the old days to allow it to run on a laptop which would not allow me to install stuff.

 

If current MPC-HC can still do this, then you could use it to play any non-DRMed file from your external hard drive.

 

IT's not the Media Browser experience, but it would allow you to play content of various formats beyond what WMP allows, without installing anything.

 

Marc

[WWWestern 94]

Yes, there is a certain class of applications called "portable". But they tend to completely contain all of the executable code, opposite this in our situation, MBS, MBC, MBT rests on the .Net platform (for MBC need MCE). On different PCs may not be the right version of the .Net. Portable client should be totally different client. I doubt that anyone will create cumbersome application that need quite a limited number of users.

[streetlife 2]

I have a need for this too. The only option I have seen is to download "portable" version of Emby and install to my HDD. I uncheck the run at start up option and run manually. The host machine always has the .NET framework installed.

[bluemonkey07 590]

Use kodi in portable mode. Done

[Happy2Play 9780]

Well you can copy the Emby-Server folder to your external hdd and run it on any windows system you connect it to, but don't know how well it will run.

 

I copied the Emby-Server folder with only the system folder to another computer and it launched just fine.  Doing it this way will allow you to reconfigure everything.  Note updates don't appear to work doing this though. 

[bluemonkey07 590]

http://kodi.wiki/view/Windows_FAQ#Portable_mode

[KarterJK 35]

Not sure what your storage capacity must be.   But one option would be to simply create a USB OS Flash Drive, it is an operating system that runs from the flash drive.   This you can plug in anywhere, fire it up (if your settings are correct in BIOS) and boom, your good to go.  You could transfer your files onto the drive, or read them from your laptop.

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/191054/how-to-create-bootable-usb-drives-and-sd-cards-for-every-operating-system/

 

If you create a USB operating system flash drive, I strongly suggest making sure it is a usb 3.0 (they have blue on the connector part).  usb 2.0 will work but can be a bit slow.  It will run identical to your operating system.

 

In any case you could just carry that around in your pocket and plug it in anywhere.

Edited November 28, 2015 by KarterJK

[streetlife 2]

If Emby can be configured to use relative paths instead of absolute, running it from an external hard drive should work (provided other system dependencies are installed)