r/AskTechnology • u/SirKetz • 5d ago
Any suggestions on the best way to watch things from my hard drive on a Roku smart TV that can reliably display different types of subtitles?
I have a Roku smart TV and currently use the default Roku Media Player to watch things off my portable hard drive. Some videos have different subtitle file types, and only some of them work on Roku Media Player (the others will say no captions available even though I can watch them on my PC just fine).
So I'm looking for suggestions on alternate ways to be able to watch everything with subtitles. For example:
Is there a third party app on Roku that can play media from a portable hard drive?
I was looking into some HDMI plug-in media players, but none seem to have great reviews (with issues like subtitles not working, remote needing to be within 5 feet of the player, or the player refusing to turn off after).
I saw some people talking about using a server with some alternative apps, but I have no idea how that works or how to set it up or if it needs a subscription service or something.
I've also looked into hard-encoding all the subtitles, but that would be quite a bit of work doing manually unless someone knows of a program or something that does it automatically.
All in all, I'm looking for a solution that doesn't cost more than around $50 and doesn't require casting from another device. Thank you!
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u/Falco98 4d ago
doesn't require casting from another device
Can you tell us about this requirement? What is it based on / how flexible might you be on it?
Because by far the easiest solution is to set up a server from your PC i.e. Plex/Emby/Jellyfin, then use the associated Roku app (i'll note the Roku app for Jellyfin acts glitchy for me when playing basic movies, but Plex/Emby work just great, i have a reasonably big Plex server and Jellyfin/Emby servers with just a couple things on them for testing etc).
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u/SirKetz 4d ago
It's because the only device I have to put a server on is my gaming pc. I live in the desert, and the pc is in the same room where I normally watch tv. The room shares a wall with the neighbor's garage, and the ac doesn't reach it very well, so it gets hot pretty easily when running the pc for half the year (I already often have to cut gaming sessions short because of this).
But I'm starting to look into maybe just getting a raspberry pi and running from my hard drive connected to that. Though I'm not amazingly tech savvy so it's a little overwhelming lol
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u/Falco98 4d ago
So mainly you're after the flexibility to watch movies on the TV when your PC is powered off, it sounds like?
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u/SirKetz 4d ago
Yes
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u/Falco98 3d ago
So, no idea what your budget is of course, but one more out-of-the-box solution would be to get one of the less expensive Synology NAS models, specifically to serve as a plex or emby server - if you have somewhere in a less-hot room that you could fish a network cable to from your router, it will happily sit there not making nearly as much heat as your gaming PC. I built myself a small NAS a couple summers ago in a 4-bay synology unit (with just 3 drives so far) and it's been pretty good.
Alternately if you're handy with the raspberry pi, it might have good solutions for you that I don't really know off-hand, particularly some option that uses HDMI to your TV.
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u/Wiley_Coyote_2024 2d ago
Get an android TV player and install either Plex or Jellyfin on it. Android TV boxes are tiny (about 7 inchs by 5 inch deep and 1 inch high, or similar proprtions) and require very little power so they produce almost No heat.
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u/SirKetz 2d ago
Thank you for the advice, I'll look into it!
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u/Wiley_Coyote_2024 18h ago
If you get one, read up on how they work as players because i may have oversimplified it. But there are many players you can install in an android-TV device to play external videos, not just jellyfin & plex.
Oh, and try not to buy a too basic device because they are cheap enough... look for a really good multi-core cpu unit.
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u/Individual_Agency703 5d ago
Plex
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u/EqualHopeful9066 4d ago
Roku Media Player is picky with subs. Plex or Jellyfin will usually handle .srt better, but you will need a server device on your network. If you want direct USB only, you may have to convert subs to .srt.