Basic question from Newby

[Doug427 0]

Hello, all. New guy here, not very tech oriented. My setup is sort of an oddball. I need my media server to connect to three different TV's wirelessly, and I need to run everything without an internet connection. I will have internet when I set it up initially, then the whole setup will be moved to a location where it will be operated the vast majority of the time without any internet availability. It will be built as such: Nvidia Shield TV Pro connected to either a USB storage drive or a Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra Network Attached Storage. That combo will then hook up directly to the main TV via HDMI cable. That combo will also connect via Ethernet cable to a wireless router for a local only network. Each of the other two remaining TV's will have a Amazon Fire Stick connected (hopefully?) to the local network. I'm hopeful that is possible and workable.

 

Assuming it will work,  I have to choose the software to get all the work done. My choices are either Plex, Kodi, Emby or something else. I hear a lot about Plex, but I've read that Plex is very finicky when operated without an internet connection and requires lots of fiddling, resets, etc when off line. Plex apparently is really made to be used with an internet connection and it's really not happy at all without one and subsequently unstable and unreliable without an internet connection. On the other hand, I have been told that Kodi works much better than Plex off line, however it is really meant for only one client (TV with Firestick, in my case) and doesn't work well at all with more than one client. That leads me to Emby. Again, not being tech oriented at all, and barely understanding most of this, I can really use some advice here. Do you guys who know all about this stuff feel that Emby would serve me best in this case? If not, what would you guys go with? Plex? Kodi? Emby? Something else?

 

As long as I'm here, I could use some advice on this as well.  Would you go with the Nvidia with a USB drive attached, or a Nvidia with a WD My Cloud NAS attached via Ethernet, or is the Nvidia redundant and just go with the WD My Cloud NAS alone? If just the WD MyCloud NAS, there is no HDMI port on it. I guess I would have to get another Fire Stick and then all three TV's would hook up via the local network? What's the best way to ensure that the server can be controlled remotely from the individual TV locations? Will that be through the Fire Stick remote or is it done another way? I hope to have remote server control from each TV location and also at least two of the three TV's able to watch separate programming from the server at the same time. Is all that possible?

[arrbee99 1817]

Ii might (repeat might) be possible to use the free version of Emby server and then put Kodi (or possibly MrMC) on each of your devices, and have that working without needing to access the internet, apart from setting it up of course. It used to be (and hopefully still is) true that you could play stuff from Emby using Kodi via a plugin (interface) in Emby server so that they could talk to each other. MrMC is a simplified Kodi that should also make interfacing much simpler. Its not free, but it is only about $5.

I know nothing about WD My Cloud devices.

As you will probably soon find out, I know nothing about anything I've written.

This feature thing might possibly be of use -

https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001173099-emby-premiere-feature-matrix

 

[vdatanet 1617]

2 hours ago, Doug427 said:

Each of the other two remaining TV's will have a Amazon Fire Stick connected (hopefully?) to the local network.

Amazon Fire Stick requires an active internet connection and Premiere is also a problem, from time to time a key validation is requiered. A NAS with 3 Shields is a good solution but Premiere key validation will be a problem, maybe purchasing an app unlock for the Shields when you have internet.

Edited September 9, 2020 by vdatanet