We are used to thinking of the console as a simple game machine, but they can become real computers, capable of playing movies, videos and music present on our computer or on other network devices (such as a NAS or a USB disk connected to the modem), without having to physically move them from one device to another. In this guide we will show you in detail how to configure a media server on PC or on any network device that stores videos, films, photos, TV series and music and by reflection which app to use on Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to play content via network at the highest quality. The only requirement is that the console is connected to the same modem (in Wi-Fi via Ethernet cable) in which the chosen media server is present.
How to turn PS4 and Xbox One into a media center
Below we will show you the best media servers that we can use to index multimedia contents on PC, NAS or whatever, thus providing you with the respective apps to be installed on game consoles, so that you can easily interface without having to make too many configurations .Plex
One of the best media servers that we can install on PC or other network devices is Plex Media Server. We first install the server on the chosen device, so that we can index all the folders in which there are films, TV series, generic videos, music and images, making them available on the network to any device that has the Plex app installed, as seen in the our guide Complete guide to Plex, the media player with active transcoding .After preparing the server (remember that the device that acts as a server must always be turned on to provide content), we open the app store of our console and search for the Plex app; direct download links are available here -> Plex (PS4) and Plex (Xbox One).
After installing it, all we have to do is enter the access credentials of the Plex account, so as to immediately view the server already present on the network and obtain, in the app interface, all the multimedia content in our possession, complete with covers, plot, language / subtitle selector and automatic reset in case of pause or interruption.
Emby
As an alternative to Plex we can install the Emby multimedia server on our PC or NAS, totally free and open source. Just like for Plex we will have to install the server in auto-boot on the device we have chosen to index the contents, indicating the folders where the MP4, MP3, MKV, AVI files are present.Once the server has been fixed, just take us to the Xbox One app store, so you can download the Emby Theater app; if we look for the direct download link we can view them here -> Emby Theater (Xbox One).
On Xbox One, just start the app and select the server available on the network; if we do not display it, just add it manually the IP address (also obtainable with our guide Finding the IP address of another computer ) and the Emby port (the base is 8096 ).
On PS4 we can use Emby by opening the web browser, visiting the tv.emby.media website, then following the indicated steps, so that we can add the server to the interface offered by this Web App (which we recommend you bookmark your browser, so you can quickly call her back). The Emby website app works on any other console with a web browser: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Wii / Wii U.
Use DLNA to play content on the network
If we do not want to install anything on our console, we can use the DLNA protocol to play multimedia content via the network, using the players built into the console.Obviously we will have to index the contents with a DLNA server, so as to make the contents visible to any DLNA device; the best we can install on PC are Twonky Server and Universal Media Server, as also indicated in our Guide to DLNA servers .
After configuring the preferred server with the multimedia folders to be indexed, make sure that the PS4 or Xbox One are connected to the same network where the DLNA server is present, then we follow the steps described below:
- On PS4 : open the Media Player, select the name of the DLNA server, open the folder of our interest and start the content to be reproduced.
- On Xbox One : we open the Store app, select Search, enter DLNA as a search term and start the Media Player app. Once the app is started, select the previously configured DLNA server, open the folder and finally press on the content we intend to play.
Using DLNA we can play any video file in our possession (MKV, MP4, AVI) without having to move any files and without having to configure other multimedia servers. The quality of the contents transmitted via the network is good, in particular if we use the Ethernet cable connection for the console; if we are connected via Wi-Fi to the network we make sure to use the 5 GHz network, the best for streaming content as seen in the guide Differences between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks; which is better "> Which to choose between Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo as video game console?
If instead we wanted to build our console from scratch using PC components, we invite you to read our article How to build a game console with PC pieces .
