Xbmc Android Not Reading My 2tb Hard Drive

I bought an Nvidia Shield (2017 model) on sale for $140 at the stop of 2018 and am amazed by how much this tiny device tin can accomplish. It's connected to our 58″ 4K Samsung TV and became the hub for our family's media consumption, though getting things to that signal was quite more than involved than I would have liked. Here are some notes to maximize your experience while minimizing the hassle to get at that place.

If I were to buy a Shield now, I'd become the 2019 model considering I go on reading that the AI 4K upscaling looks amazing, but everything in this entry should utilise regardless of the model.

ane. Utilize a USB Hard Drive so that Plex Can Scale As a Stable Media Server

In the past I went dorsum and forth between running Plex and Emby on my PC, simply I actually wanted to move that task off my desktop which was 1 of the reasons why I bought the Shield in the showtime place. Shields come with Plex Media Server (PMS) pre-installed, so this is the selection I went with.

PMS works well on the Shield (though in that location have been some Shield-specific bug such as local avails non showing) but if yous take a big library, you do NOT want to ready it up on the feeble 16GB of internal storage, every bit you'll fill that in a hurry with all the media metadata, even if yous plough off video thumbnails in your libraries' advanced settings. I also went through two Sandisk USB keys but the whole thing would ever terminate upwardly flaking out at some point.

What eventually brought sanity and stability to the whole thing was to:

Hook up a USB hard drive to the Shield. I freed upward an old 2TB Western Digital bulldoze I had on my network. The sugariness spot for best price/TB these days is with the 8TB WD Elements hard drive. Adopt it as emulated internal storage.
Install PMS from scratch and move information technology to the external drive (that pretends to be internal) before y'all load media to your libraries, otherwise it takes forever or outright fails.
Then and just then add media to your libraries.

Y'all can as well mount remote drives on the Shield which volition permit you lot load them in PMS.

On the left, the Shield's Root showing *storage > emulated*. On the right, the external 2TB hard drive adopted as pseudo internal storage. Your PMS information (nosotros're *non* talking nearly the media files themselves here) will exist at *\internal\Android\information\com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb\Plex Media Server*

Practice not permit your attached hard bulldoze get completely full, otherwise your Shield volition badly crash. Ask me how I know.

We access Plex via various devices either through apps (east.g. on a 4K Fire Stick in 1 of the bedrooms) or the Plex web app, and of course on the Shield itself. My focus is on using Direct Play on the local network with a few clients, not transcoding to my extended friends and family unit which would require a beefier server.

If you don't like Plex or like researching options until you drib, run across Plex vs. Emby vs. Jellyfin.

2021 update: I moved Plex Media Server to a Docker container on my Synology DS920 NAS as my drove, now at 100TB and counting, had become a strain for the Shield as a server. It'due south great that you lot can have a sizable library managed on the Shield, but expectations should exist reasonable and for huge libraries it's not a substitute for a more powerful device.

2. Plex Library Pro Tips: Movies, TV Serial, Documentaries, Video Tutorials, Sports, And More

This role became and so huge that I spun it off into its own entry explaining how to turn Plex into the ultimate media server. These tips apply to all devices that can run Plex Media Server, not just the Shield.

iii. Media Players: Stick to Plex & Android Apps for Ease of Use While Kodi is Where It's At for Farthermost Customization

I like Plex as a server but the media player is a bit limited. Kodi on the other hand is infinitely configurable thanks to all its settings, skins, and addons, and handles more than content types. Among the most useful additions to cadre Kodi, I recommend:

PlexKodiConnect, a better approach than the official Plex for Kodi solution. Behave in heed though that this adds more than GBs of metadata for your Shield to handle, making the external hard drive requirement only more important.
Arctic Zephyr 2: good-looking and very flexible skin. The whole widget / submenu / submenu widget logic takes some fourth dimension to get used to, but it lets you lay out your content exactly the way you want to. Exercise dorsum up your skin settings when yous have something you like, every bit it's pretty easy to lose a lot of work with a couple of operator errors or because of crashes.
Trakt.telly lets you keep runway of what you've watched and liked. You can also access public lists and create your own, which you tin can turn into skin widgets via OpenMeta. Lesser-known alternatives: Tv set Time, Simkl.
The MovieDB helper – details about movies, shows, actors. I use it to load Trakt lists (e.g. stuff that my wife watches past herself).
Library Node Editor – use this if you don't want your stand-upwardly comedy or documentaries mixed with fiction Television receiver serial.
Lazy TV – I utilise this to be able to automatically play the next episode of a series at the end of the 1 I just finished watching. (Similar functionality is built in Plex.)
~~Google Music EXP~~ . Nosotros used to accept a Google Music family subscription which I found was fantastic value for the coin. Of course in their infinite wisdom Google had to mess upwards a practiced matter, and YouTube Music is such equally pathetic replacement it'south not even funny. I only moved to Spotify Premium Family and information technology's unlikely I'll look back. I haven't tried to put Spotify in Kodi, I'm happy to merely use the Android Television receiver app. Spotify works well with a variety of devices via Spotify Connect.
Youtube – I gave upward for the fourth dimension being subsequently Google put some restrictions that killed the default selection. In that location are some workarounds simply I'm fine using Youtube outside or Kodi or via Chromecast.
Google Drive to directly admission cloud content.
Git Browser to install plugins straight from the source.
When things become wrong, you lot'll want to access the logs at:
\Android\data\org.xbmc.kodi\files.kodi\temp

Alarm: practice Non become crazy with addons! Some of them are memory hogs and I slowed my system to a crawl a couple of times until I went through a disabling spree. Install only a few addons at a fourth dimension, keep only those you lot actually use, and monitor your Kodi operation earlier installing more than stuff. Playing large video files requires pregnant amounts of free RAM.

I was able to stream 4K content from the cloud with only occasional, slight stuttering or pausing after irresolute Kodi's AdvancedSettings.xml as described here (though cloud streaming randomly just won't work, which tin can be quite frustrating).

Finally, the following have intriguing possibilities merely in some cases I oasis't figured out how to best utilize them in combination with widgets and submenus:

Peel Helper Service Widgets (URL arguments) and Library Data Provider – Add dissimilar ways to brandish library content.
OpenMeta & OpenInfo – Another fashion yous can load Trakt lists into Kodi, so play selected items from a local library. OpenMeta seems to require a fair flake of memory.
Auto Widget (video) – can let y'all randomize widgets a la Netflix. Haven't used it withal.
Smart playlists – non sure how to utilize them yet but I experience they might help me do some of things I haven't managed to do.
Search lists (video) – ditto.

To fully customize carte interactions, you tin can set up deportment manually by calling built-in GUI functions such every bit as ActivateWindow(), by using a custom item (at the bottom of options for "Action > Choose detail for carte"), like this:

          ActivateWindow(Videos,"plugin://script.skin.helper.widgets/?activity=adjacent&mediatype=episodes&reload=$INFO[Window(Domicile).Property(widgetreload)]")

There are more than avant-garde things I've non been able to do yet, such as:

Setting upwards a widget / widget submenu philharmonic to direct browse movies past actor or director.
Hiding watched content in widgets.
Casting PVR and addons to other devices.
Synchronizing watched status from Trakt to Plex, which y'all want to do in example y'all reset your Plex libraries.
Mimicking in Kodi the Plex player'southward power to play theme music for TV shows. There's tvmelodies and probably a couple like solutions that require y'all to download theme mp3s manually. That'due south also much work!

If all the higher up sounds likewise complicated, start by reading this pare widget setup tutorial.

What'due south the takeaway? Y'all tin go crazy molding Kodi to your unique requirements, just it'south easy to brand information technology unstable and the whole try can turn into a real timesink. If you want something that just works, stick to the Plex UI. The latter has been improving lately with native back up for subtitles and may well meet your needs as is.

And if running a media server is overkill for your needs, MX Player does a skilful job letting you browse a folder hierarchy – including mounted network folders – without whatsoever extra fuss. It'southward probable that your more advanced setup will interruption at some point, and then it's skillful to have a plan B (for Basic) in a pinch. Plex for instance authenticates your local server against their cloud service, injecting several unnecessary external points of failure even when all you want is to play local content on a local device.

four. IPTV: An Entire Universe of Its Own. With Hit-and-Miss Quality and Overwhelming Quantity, Curation Is Recommended.

4.1. With Some Work Yous Tin Create Your Own Cable Filigree: Tivimate, m3u, EPG

On the frontend side, hardcore IPTV users seem to prefer the divide TiviMate app rather than Kodi. I started using it recently and like it and so far. It does experience more responsive than Kodi so information technology's a good pick if you don't mind using separate frontends to access your media library vs. the PVR/IPTV side. TiviMate is reasonably customizable and has a dedicated subreddit. A few observations after giving it a spin:

Some of its options are hidden at outset sight, y'all'll want to long press on the remote and motility your cursor effectually to display the contextual media player bar and the side card.
You can record programs with TiviMate, either live or scheduled via Custom Recording, though there's no way to make information technology recur (PVR Live has support for "series recording").
Different TVIrl or EPiG, with Tivimate Android TV integration remains on the wish listing and so the app'due south content won't show on the Nvidia'southward home screen or Play Next section.

Any IPTV player is of course only as good every bit the IPTV source(s) you feed into it, i.e. stream playlists (typically m3u) and program guides (EPG) to match the streams to a programme grid similar you'd have on a cablevision set superlative box. Reliable IPTV providers are a bit like Fight Club, and so I won't mention annihilation here, instead focusing on what to do in case you do find skillful sources, as it'due south but part of the equation.

Putting together a convenient IPTV experience becomes even more complicated if you'd like to picket Idiot box from multiple countries and in multiple languages. In that case, you'll really want to curate the many channels you're interested in – leaving out everything else that you don't treat – into a clean, well-organized guide. When sitting on the couch you don't want to have to wade through the hundreds of local network affiliates bachelor in the The states alone. This initial selection and arrangement work is all-time done on a computer where you can preview channels (I recommend MyIPTV as VLC doesn't load EPG files) and manage what to do with each one using a third party tool such as:

m3u4u: a gratis "m3u editor with EPG as a bonus feature. Epg must be used with its associated m3u4u playlist, not in isolation equally a master source of EPG."
EPG.Best – costs between 1 and iv euros per month to consolidate up to 1,000 channels into up to 7 m3u files. Their pitch is that it will save you the hassle of looking up and assigning TVG-ids manually to fill upwards your program grid. It does wait like a real time saver in some cases, though simply some people will have a demand for something like this. One option I like is to tell apart or outright filter out VOD serial and movies, which I find useless for my ain purposes as I've built something vastly superior in Plex.
XMLTV.se – free, not sure how comprehensive it is. vProfil XMLTV is similarly gratis only it'due south merely a partial listing that'due south mostly listing European channels. I'one thousand sure there are others like these out there.

I want my, I want my, I want my EPG (80s synth solo)

four.2. What Almost IPTV in Plex?

Plex used to support IPTV via plugins just they no longer piece of work. In that location are some workarounds though.

Showtime, you could feed the .ts files recorded by TiviMate back into Plex if y'all wanted, though the results are likely to be messy because the resulting file names have a date and timestamp, but don't feature episode or season numbers like favored by Plex agents, and all files are dumped in the aforementioned main folder. I retrieve TiviMate Premium supports up to 5 devices with a single purchase, but that'south notwithstanding constraining vs. dumping recordings in a Plex library. Even if the metadata indexing is going to be express, this at least gives y'all the ability to do rudimentary catch upwards Television receiver in Plex.

The 2d, more sophisticated option is to road your playlists via a proxy like xTeVe or Telly. This does work with the Live Television receiver/DVR functionality coming with Plex Pass, as if you were running an actual DVR such as HDHomeRun. Read this guide for details. I might give this a spin as a docker container on my NAS at some point as the ability to merge m3u files could come handy, as well as restreaming.

There'due south another style to alloy IPTV with Plex by using dizquetv to turn Plex libraries into pseudo live Tv channels. I have zero interest in using this myself, but it's funny to come across what people come upwardly with.

Spoof Plex into playing IPTV streams equally if coming from a physical tuner

4.3. Other IPTV Options: Kodi, Android Apps, Plex

In comparing, many Kodi addons seem to exist a huge waste of time, with transient content and/or low-quality streams that can't compete with a curated drove of quality encodes from the elevation private torrent trackers. And similar torrents, the good stuff seems to exist somewhat hard to find past blueprint. Nonetheless, I found a couple useful options that are readily bachelor either as Kodi plugins or separate Android apps:

IPTV Simple Client to emulate channel surfing with program schedules and summaries.
Catch-Up TV & More than – the best IPTV source I've found for Kodi so far, particularly for francophone content. You tin set it up for alive TV.
Rai Tv set: Italian content.
RTP: Portuguese. They also have a decent Android app.
Xumo: has many complimentary English-speaking channels, including Bloomberg, though a lot of that is cable junk.
Ditto with Plex' live Idiot box, it's quantity over quality, but possibly there'south something in there that scratches your itch.

It seems possible to hack your mode into loading several URLs into Kodi'south PVR merely I oasis't pursued that. Similar functionality is built in Tivimate, which solitary might make the case for information technology beingness the better option. In the terminate if you're willing to invest fourth dimension and maybe spend a bit of money, editing your own m3u and epg files gives the best result. A Television receiver guide full of "no data" blocks defeats its purpose.

Across that, there's a slew of options to tape shows from your own Boob tube tuner (including with Plex Pass), simply that's outside of the scope of this entry and non something I'm interested in doing.

five. Misc Useful Apps

Since the Shield is an Android device in that location are thousands of apps you could install just these few are must-haves:

X-plore file director.
Sideload Launcher.
Private Internet Access – or other VPN – will exist needed to meet those IPTV channels that geoblock (a do I fiercely despise).
OpenSubtitles.

six. Remote Admission Files & the Shield UI

There are a few means y'all can command your Shield remotely. You lot will demand to go back and forth between your Shield and other devices for authorization purposes, so some of that stuff may best be done with a smartphone or tablet while sitting in front of your TV.

Y'all can share the Shield's internal and external storage on your network, I mounted the USB bulldoze connected to my Shield as a drive on Windows for convenience. Make your life easier by assigning a fixed IP address to your Shield, either in its settings, or even improve, via DHCP reservation on your router.

I actually wanted to be able to control the Shield's UI from my PC, which turned out to be its own side quest. I first tested TeamViewer, got information technology to share the screen, but couldn't become clicks to register. I then tested Vysor which did handle clicks just the resolution in the free version is actually blurry. I finally gear up up scrcpy equally explained in this video, which like Vysor relies on enabling ADB network debugging after you've turned on programmer fashion in the Shield (Settings > Near, coil down to Build, click on information technology 7 times). This is very responsive at a expert resolution, is free, and you can even re-create/paste! The main limitation is scrcpy doesn't forward sound, and I haven't institute how to practice a long press (keyboard shortcuts).

Finally, Kodi has a spider web interface to change its settings remotely.

7. Gaming: Android, Cloud, Emulation

You tin can stream games from yous PC, including your Steam library, using either the native GameStream app or Moonlight. Since it'due south the type of setup that requires back-and-along authorizations between your Shield and PC, remote control can save you lot running upward and down the stairs similar I've had to do many times in the by!

Geforce Now is a letdown for us because they don't accept servers in Chile and the 150+ms ping to Northward American ones is a deal breaker. Other than that, seems like a expert option.

In that location are also all-encompassing emulator options but my son turned out to exist much less interested in them than I thought, so I've merely dabbled with this. It does have some time to fix it all up. See:

RetroArch (guide, video)
ArcBrowser
Cores: PPSSPP, Dolphin, Recast, Mupen64Plus

Of course you could always run Android games.

8. Ancillary Hardware: Mobile Devices, Remotes, Voice Assistants, Home Automation

viii.1. Remote Options

Similar many users I'm not a fan of the Shield's remote. I bought a Rii i25 air mouse remote / keyboard combo (like product on Amazon) which I'1000 satisfied with as I hate typing via an on-screen virtual keyboard. Earlier that, I used a Logitech wireless keyboard too as Nvidia'due south mobile app, merely I never constitute either option to be as "couch friendly" as a concrete handheld remote.

Many people rave nigh Logitech's Harmony but I'm not a fan of their pricing. I approximate that might exist the way to go if you have a fancy A/Five setup and a projector, which is something I program on somewhen buying but is non a priority.

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to control our Shield, Television set, DVR (somehow my wife still uses it), and sound bar with this $7 universal remote from Philips. So unless someone needs to type whatsoever long string, that'due south the default remote.

Speaking of managing your Shield from a mobile device, besides the aforementioned Nvidia app, hither are the main options:

Plex – evidently limited to any is in your Plex library. Includes Chromecast.
Kore – the official remote from Kodi. Decent, cypher too fancy, works, no Chromecast.
Yatse – on paper the paid version does does a lot more than than Kore, cheers to its power to cast Kodi to other devices. Unfortunately I oasis't been able to become streaming to piece of work reliably.
Wako – Trakt meets Kodi remote, but the ads are intrusive and the lifetime contribution a bit steep (and no, I'm not going to subscribe to a mobile app).

8.2. Phonation Assistants & Home Automation

I put a Govee Wifi backlight behind the TV, non essential merely it is a dainty touch and information technology responds to Alexa about of the time. Allow'due south be honest, all these habitation widgets work every time, 60% of the time.

Speaking of Alexa, one of many abandoned side quests was to use this: Kodi Connect – Alexa. It's an involved process that failed for me half-mode through but this reportedly works well… when it does. There's something similar for Google Assistant.

PlexKodiAddon supports Alexa, though it'south a scrap more cumbersome to utilize considering you have to say "Alexa, ask/tell Plex to…" instead of using Alexa's native media support. But Alexa proceed losing track of the Plex server and can't discover other players such every bit our Samsung TVs or Fire TV Stick 4K even though they're supposed to be supported devices. I e'er experience "so close yet so far" with vocalisation assistants.

I'd as well like to chain Plex and Govee instructions through an Alexa routine for extreme laziness but didn't get that quite working to satisfaction yet.

Jeff Flemming in the comments beneath suggests settings up a Home Assistant server, which has many integrations including AndroidTV, Plex, and Kodi, and may send ADB commands to launch specific apps on the Shield via the ADB – Android Debug Bridge. It'due south on my backlog to set it up on my NAS. See for case: Alexa to Plex: Resume TV series with no remote buttons (node red).

A Time to come Project: HomeAssistant in a Docker container managed via Portainer

If you want media players in other rooms that don't need the total-fledged Shield experience, I've had a good experience with:

Amazon's Fire Stick 4K, it'due south a good $l selection as a Plex client with an Android-like interface, though yous do get some ads.
TCL TVs with almost-stock Android Goggle box. In the U.s. market TCL used to by and large pushed Roku, but there's now regular Android Television too like in the rest of the earth.
I have two Samsung TVs where the Plex player is installed just in case, only I'm not fan of the Tizen UI itself as I hate all the ads they cram down your throat.

nine. Say No to Forced Ads On the Homepage!

Nvidia stalled on the latest AndroidTV "Find UI" changes but they eventually started to roll out to Shields. I consider such forced ads to be malware, which thankfully my Shield hasn't been infected with (yet?) as I don't live in one of the target countries. But if/when you get that update and don't desire your abode screen to exist hijacked by ads for services y'all don't even subscribe to, setting up a custom launcher is the answer. The drawback is that you'll lose the "Play next" functionality.

10. Conclusion: You'll Go Out of It What Yous Put In It, But Selection Your Battles

To summarize my recommendations:

Get the core storage right or you won't take a sustainable solution.
Ditto with networking: cablevision your home with Cat6 Ethernet cablevision if you can or become good wifi routers if you can't.
Plex and selected Android TV apps such as TiviMate are where it's at for reliable, responsive behavior.
Kodi can unlock a world of customization at the cost of spending a lot of time getting there. This is not the spouse/kids-friendly option.
Abode automation is fun merely like Kodi, it's never as simple equally it looks. One time I figure how to become Alexa to set all lights just right and launch the latest TV episode of my choice in i incantation, I'll allow yous know!
In the end at that place'due south no perfect solution, accept that in that location are tradeoffs.
If you don't desire your family unit to incessantly mock y'all because your awesome media server is still again borking, cut back on the cutting-edge experimental stuff and train them to utilize bones apps like MX Player every bit a fallback solution!

Getting the Nigh Out of Your Synology Networked Fastened Storage: Did You Know It Tin Do That? You'll learn how to run Plex and its friends (Sonarr, Radarr, Overseerr, Tautulli, etc.) in Docker and much more. This is the way to become if/when y'all outgrow the Shield as a server.
How to Bend Plex to Your Will to Handle Complex Libraries Without Losing Your Mind. If you like your media collections to exist organized just correct, this is the entry for you.
Home LAN + NAS Administration & Security 101.

Annotation: Amazon links include an affiliate tag. A lot of try went into this entry, if you lot find information technology useful I capeesh your support.

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Source: https://www.oliviertravers.com/nvidia-shield-tips-tricks-media-control/