Windows 10: Smart TV's can't access Networked shared drives from Windows

Hi there

I've a Panasonic and LG Tv's which have some built in apps for accessing a LAN and playing media

They have no trouble accessing any HDD on a LINUX NAS - even external USB HDD's mounted on to the Linux NAS provided they are set up in SAMBA

However when accessing Windows on the LAN they can only see LOCAL HDD's (including external USB HDD's) . They don't see any of the drives attached to Windows via the LAN.

However running PLEX (client) from a google chrome device or amazon firestick they see the network shared drives without any problem provided PLEX media server is running on the Windows system.

Any reason why PLEX sees shared drives but the TV's don't themselves see the drives from the Windows system. No problem at all from a Linux NAS -- even when accessing shared drives from Multiple NAS boxes where the HDD's are locally attached to the specific NAS box.

(The whole LAN - including the TV's is on a wired network so no problem with different subnets etc).

Windows Networking after all these years is still IMO a REAL DOG - pity because there's so much decent stuff in Windows these days apart from the sheer convenience of things usually working without a huge lot of effort - but Networking still feels like Black Magic and probably harder to get working than the old Alchemy problem of turning Lead into Gold.

Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

Samsung Smart TV can't access WMP playlists on Windows 10 PC

I have gotten to the point where my Samsung Smart TV can play music from my Windows 10 Media Player library. However I still can't access my playlists. The TV just says "request cannot be completed", and on my PC, the Windows Media Player Network service
is taking up 25% of the CPU on a 4-core system. It's like it's in an infinite loop or something.

Has anyone gotten playlists to work from their Smart TV and their Windows 10 PC?

 

Can't access shared drives between 2 networked Windows 10 PCs (used to work with Win 7/8)

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I do understand your concern however, I suggest you to run the in-built troubleshooter and check if it helps.

• 
  Type troubleshooting on the search tab.
  
• 
  Click on view all.
  
• 
  Choose Home group and then
  Shared Folders.
  
• 
  Follow the on screen steps.
  

You can go to:

• 
  Control Panel
  
• 
  Network and
  Sharing
  
• 
  Turn on Network
  Discovery
  
• 
  Turn on file and Printer Sharing.
  

Do let us know if you have any other queries pertaining to Windows in the future. We will be happy to help.

Thank You

 

I have a Panasonic TV too. Before the free upgrade to Win10 I had Media Streaming turned on in Windows 7 and could browse and play anything in the Media Player's library direct from the TV.

That media streaming option is still available and works the same in Windows 10 - but it's well hidden, Microsoft don't really want you to use the Media Player any more. Apart from 'God Mode' the only way I know to get to the setting in control panel is to type 'media streaming options' in the Cortana/Search box next to Start.

But that's academic now, for Windows 10 I used to have streaming turned on but have now turned it off. I find it's far simpler just to right-click on a media file and 'Cast to...' my Panasonic.

 

Not understanding all technical jargon on this subject
Have an up to date 55" Panasonic TV, with all apps including certain Media etc.
Can obtain full W10 casting from Surface Pro 4 using built in Miracast.
Have purchased from M$ the item shown below to complete the connection, by plugging into TV.

 

Casting from Windows 10 to a TV is fairly straight forward. In fact, I can do that to my Panasonic without the need to buy anything else, just Win10 and a Panasonic TV 'out of the box'. The TV just need to be connected to the network, by cable or (as mine is) its own built-in WiFi adapter. On the TV it's Menu>Network Link Settings>DLNA Remote Control = 'On' to enable casting to the TV.

But Jimbo45 is trying to work it the other way round, not sending thing to the TV, but using the TV itself to ask for things from a device. It's seeing (or rather, not seeing) what's available on the Win10 device that's causing grief.

 

Hi there

That's the problem in a nutshell --If I'm in front of a TV I want to watch stuff recorded already on a NAS.

When you see the built in apps of some of these smart TV's it seems a bit overkill to set up Media Servers on your remote devices when the built in one on the TV should work just fine and the CPU's in some of these devices should easily be able to handle any transcoding problems.

However since all my Windows HDD's are "Shared network" ones from Linux NAS servers apart from the "C" drive I was hoping to be able to get the smart TV to access the Windows system - and hence access the Network drives.

The strange thing is that the TV can access the Linux stuff -- no problems --plus any extra networked drives connected to that Linux system

e.g HDD1 / HDD2 attached locally to NAS1, HDD3/HDD4 network shared from NAS2. So on NAS1 HDD1/HDD2 mounted as local drives, HDD3/HDD4 mounted as shared Networked drives - networked from NAS2.

The TV can see on NAS1 all 4 HDD's which is what I want. I don't need to set up another connection to NAS2 for the TV.

When the TV looks at my Windows system it can only see Disk "C" -- it can only access HDD1/HDD2/HDD3/HDD4 if I run PLEX from a chromecast / Amazon fire stick device - provided PLEXCMEDIASERVERVER is started on Windows.

VLC on Amazon will only see Windows Disk C.

Tempted to Toss Windows in the North Sea next time I'm on the Ferry to Holland !!!!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

Not trying to hijack Jimbo,s post as happy with my present setup.
My TV Viera Plasma VT 30.
My menu setup is exactly set as you state above, but will only work with HDMI to HDMI cable, so the necessity to use M$ Wifi adapter as posted earlier.
The reason could be that having a SKY box connected to Wifi has stopped enablement of M$ with Wifi.

 

Hi there
@dencal

My whole kybosh is connected via LAN so I don't think SKY TV has any problems -- the Q boxes work just fine --however removing them makes no difference ( I know SKY Q creates a 5GHZ internal private wifi mesh even when all boxes are WIRED to a LAN but that normally works perfectly anyway).

What I have is 2 X NAS boxes running Linux as file servers and a Windows desktop (tower) running as the media server .

On the Windows box I have 4 X HDD's available as Networked drives from the NAS boxes and "C" - local SSD for the OS.

Now if I start PLEX as server on the Windows box and PLEX (client) on a Firestick device or a google chromecast one) I get access to all 4 Networked HDD's. Note I'm NOT AT the computer --this is at the TV - well away from the computer hardware.

If I start VLC on the Firestick device it can only see "C" on the Windows computer - but can see all 4 HDD's on either NAS box via the LAN browser.

Using the TV's own media player / server it also can only see "C" on the Windows box but all 4 HDD's on the NAS boxes.

What I really wanted to do was simply use VLC (on the firestick) as it can play 4K video, and doesn't need transcoding.
PLEX still transcodes H265, Avi files and can't play 4K content.

I really didn't want to run a PLEX server on the Windows box as I don't want ANY transcoding - and I was also trying to avoid running PLEX on either of the NAS systems - especially as I don't need remote access (from outside my Lan) except in rare situations where I could start it on the Windows box (higher CPU than the NAS systems - you don't need mega powerful CPU's for file serving - however transcoding video etc requires a bit more !!!).

I think people have misunderstood here -- I am NOT trying to cast video from a phone etc to a TV -these days that just EATS phone battery and isn't usually as satisfactory as using video content directly from a LAN.

Internet streaming isn't an issue here either.

It seems that unless you know some jiggery pokery (must be possible since PLEX does it) how can you SHARE Network connected drives from a WINDOWS box to other devices that don't have access to the "Sharing" system --e.g the NAS boxes.

With an android phone --same issue -- it will only see the "C" drive on the Windows system not the connected networked drives - using es-file explorer. Has no issue seeing the drives on the NAS boxes.

Cheers
jimbo