Can You Stream Movies Uploaded to Google Drive

Google recently announced some ridiculously low-priced Drive storage options : $US2/month for 100GB or $US10/month for a whopping terabyte. What could you exercise with all that storage space, though? Well, for starters, y'all could plow Google Drive into your own personal media server.

Chances are, if you're into rolling your own media machine, yous've checked out services similar Plex — our favourite media server — that allow yous to stream from one of your devices to some other. This is an excellent solution, but information technology likewise means you lot're express by your own hardware and bandwidth. The neat thing near Drive is that Google handles all of that for y'all. You get your own space on the internet where you can access your media from anywhere y'all want. Yous'll but need a few tools to assist y'all out.

Get-go: Upload Your Files To Google Drive

Before y'all get started streaming files from your Google Drive storage, you'll need to put something in that location. There are a few means you can hands get your media into the cloud.

Use The Google Drive Client

If y'all decided to utilize Google Drive without installing the desktop client, we empathise. While it works a lot like Dropbox, the syncing customer was slower and less reliable than Dropbox when it first came out. All the same, if you desire to upload your files en masse, it's a pretty like shooting fish in a barrel option. Yous tin can also add Google Bulldoze to your right-click card so information technology's even easier to send files to Google's servers.

Salvage Files Directly From The Spider web To Google Drive

If y'all detect files on the web yous'd like to add to your collection, you can use Google's own Relieve to Google Drive extension to move files directly from websites to your storage. You tin use information technology for individual files or images of whole web pages.

What About Music?

For storing video or photos, Google Drive is the way to go. Still, for music, y'all also have the option of uploading your music to Google Play. The upside to using Play Music is that yous can store upwards to 20,000 songs and they don't count against your storage limit. The downside, though, is that you're pretty much limited to Google'south own app.

Google Drive offers yous a center basis. By storing your music in a Google Drive folder using the client mentioned above, you can sync your media to other devices or access it from the cloud without being shoehorned into an app you might not like. You can utilise your ain local music histrion and just betoken information technology to the Bulldoze folder.

View Your Files

So, hours later, you lot have the unabridged Marvel Cinematic Universe uploaded to your Google Drive storage and you need to become your Avengers on. Depending on how you want to view your videos, you take a wide variety of options to cull from.

Watch Your Movies in XBMC

If you're using XBMC on your HTPC, you can use the gdrive add-on to connect your Google Drive account. Load up the add-on and yous'll get a list of all the videos uploaded to your storage and click on them to stream them over the cyberspace. You can check out our guide on XBMC add-ons for installation instructions here.

To brand it a little bit easier to access your Drive storage, you can add a shortcut to the Videos sub-section of the chief menu. To enable this:

1. Go to Organisation > Settings.
2. Select "Appearance".
3. Under "Peel" select "Settings".
4. Select "Addition shortcuts."
5. Under "Home Page Videos Submen" select "Improver ane".
6. Select the "gdrive" improver.

Notation: Depending on your custom skin, this option may exist in a different location or might behave differently. These instructions are for the default "Confluence" peel.

Now, from the principal bill of fare, y'all can select the gdrive improver from the Videos section at XBMC's main menu and play your videos right away.

Stream Your Videos To Chromecast

The Chromecast started out as an OK streaming device. Now that the app floodgate has opened, though, there are lots of things you lot can practice with information technology. One of those is streaming your video directly from Google Bulldoze via Koush'southward AllCast app. In addition to streaming local media from your telephone to your Chromecast, you lot tin can also pull up videos, photos or music from Google Bulldoze (or Dropbox, if you adopt).

Transport To Your Gaming Consoles/DLNA Telly

One of the most versatile ways to send media between devices is DLNA. With a DLNA streaming service, you can send your media to your Xbox, Playstation or any number of supported televisions. To exercise this, you can utilise Plex Media Server — which, combined with Google Drive, will let you lot stream videos from your Bulldoze storage correct to any device in your dwelling house.

To use Plex to stream your content, outset you lot'll need the premium service Plex Pass ($iv/calendar month or $US30/twelvemonth). Once you have the upgraded account, open upward the Plex spider web server and create a videos library (click the + button next to your server proper noun and follow the wizard to add together at least i binder from your computer). One time that's done, hither's how to add your Google Bulldoze content:

1. Go to Plex.tv and log in.
2. Click your Username in the tiptop correct corner.
3. Click Cloud Sync.
4. Authorise any accounts you want to access via Plex (for this article'south purpose, Google Bulldoze, but Dropbox is likewise available.)
5. Click "Launch" to open up the Plex/Web server.
6. Open 1 of your video libraries in Plex/Web.
7. On the left side of the screen, click Sync.
8. Select "Deject Sync" from the "Choose Destination" box that pops up.
9. Cull a title for this collection and click "Sync".

At present these videos will be added to your Plex library. This means anywhere you could stream your other media to is now a target for your cloud media. The procedure to stream content to your DLNA-enabled console will depend on the device. At the start of this section, yous'll run across a video on how to stream to an Xbox 360, but you tin can cheque out our full guide on turning your video game console into a streaming media center here.

Mind To Your Music (Without Google Play)

Equally stated before, if you want to employ Play Music for your music library, all y'all need is the Music Director app and Google's ain services. However, if you lot elected to go the Google Drive route, there are a few apps you can use to admission your music remotely without having to sync your entire library.

DriveTunes for Chrome allows you lot to play all the music tracks in your Drive storage in a proper music player app. This would exist particularly handy if yous want to utilize an app like MusicBee for your dwelling library, but withal use Drive sync to your laptop without taking up extra infinite. Android app Beat (not to be confused with anything past Dre) can similarly stream music stored in Google Drive.

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Source: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/03/how-to-turn-google-drive-into-your-personal-media-server/

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