Watch a video on a TV

Hi all. I’m a fan of NextCloud as much as the next FOSS fan but I’m having some trouble with what feels like it should be a simple use of NextCloud–namely watching a video on a TV.

TL;DR:
How do you all get a video from NextCloud onto a TV (large screen for viewing with others)?

Full Story:
I can watch a video using NextCloud in the browser, that extension works great for what it does (and kudos to the devs for that) :slight_smile: However pushing that video to another device, I’m stuck. The best I can do is open NextCloud in chrome and use the built-in cast tab, but that’s clunky as it requires you to keep that specific browser tab open and uses resources on that device.

If it’s on my home network I can use something like Plex or Emby (completely bypassing NextCloud) to play the video over DLNA–but what if I want to watch one of my movies at a friends house? Obviously I can log in, but even if they have a DLNA server, do I need to download the video–which could take a while for a highres video… Am I missing something? Is NextCloud just not the right tool for this? Or is nobody interested in this idea, just me?

I should note that I have an NVidia Shield hooked up to my TV but I’m curious what other setups people have. Is there something else you use that’s easier to work with (or cheaper)? Again, what about visiting friends/family members house?

I’m curious to see how you all handle this issue! I appreciate the advice/tips.

plex is the right tool for this. Otherwise you have to cast as the apps in nextcloud doesn’t have support for that. Or use a pc connected to the tv directly with hdmi

Thanks for the response. It seems strange to me that NextCloud doesn’t do this, but maybe it’s for good reason?

Let me ask your thoughts on another part of this question…
What if I’m a friends house and they do have a DLNA server. Is there any way I can get that to play my video file (eg: mounting with webdav) or do I need to download the file first and have them add it manually (which is fine for one file but a pain for many files)?

This is mainly a file sharing and collaboration solution and for that this scenario hasn’t been on the map most probably.

You can mount it with webdav on a remote machine that is no problem.

That’s so strange to me. As soon as I saw NextCloud that was one of the first (but not only) uses that came to mind–watching a video of mine outside my LAN/house. I guess it’s useful to know that this is apparently just a me problem and not a problem other people are also facing.

I should also say, I see this as a file sharing problem.

In my mind its plex. That one supports playing videos from home :slight_smile:

And you can see videos remotely. But you can’t cast it to a remote device.

Well it would seem that you are correct :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m just surprised (and disappointed), I suppose…

You can try to share Video by link and in some TVs you have a (good) Internet browser - then it could play your movies. But it works on very limited amount of models.