I need to stream my own movie collection on my LAN rather than Internet ?

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Level 1

15 points

I need to stream my own movie collection on my LAN rather than Internet ?

I want to stream my huge movie collection about 114TB of movies spread across 14 drives connected to a Mac mini (late 2012) 2.5GHz Intel Core i5, 16GB Ram Running Mojave OS 10.14.6 (it runs this OS better than 10.15), Anyway It serves as my server for movies as well as my dual 16TB iTunes/Music) server.

I have tried Plex but it doesn't work well "off site" handling of the movies. Is there an app that can stream locally on my network to like my TV and iPhone and iPad as well as other Mac's on the LAN?

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Apr 12, 2025 12:00 AM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

153,862 points

Apr 13, 2025 5:01 PM in response to iBookRevA

Yes. I use an AppleTV to do that. I no longer have any Mojave systems to test but I believe the AppleTV should work with it.

Similar question: How to set up a Mac mini as a music server for home theater system without keyboard or mouse?

It's not clear to me what device you will be using for those movies, but an AppleTV will work with anything that has an HDMI input port.

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,188 points

Apr 13, 2025 9:50 PM in response to iBookRevA

+1 I don’t have the amount of movies you do (my collection is in the 850 range or so) but I use my Apple TV to stream them. Personally I have them stored on an OWC Thunderbay 4 RAID 5 system, I store my movies, photos and movie libraries on it. Been dead reliable for about 5 years now.

I installed my Mesh network to stream using my first Apple TV. My home’s shape (1 story but long) wasn’t good for streaming with my old router, it simply did not have the bandwidth to send a strong signal all over the house. So I upgraded to a Mesh system and now support well over 50 wi-fi devices including now 4 Apple TVs, 3 Macs, 2 iphones, 3 iPads, 8 Sonos speakers, numerous smart plugs (used for lighting and outdoor fountains), TVs, and the list goes on. If I want we can stream a movie to one of the computers outside in our gazebo and then have the movies sound though my Sonos Move (mimics a very high quality center channel) and turn on the gazebo lights with a command to Alexa. Kind of fun and improves our lifestyle.

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Answer 3

iBookRevA Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 14, 2025 6:26 AM in response to John Galt

The server is a Mac Mini 2012 running Mojave

There is attached 14 Had Drives ranging from 4TB to 8TB for a total of 102TB+/-

I want to stream on demand sort of like plex. Plex gets overloaded and then I must pay to get the better streaming.

Plus I do not want Internet streaming.

The devices to be streamed to would be any of 4 Mac Mini's throughout the house depending on the users desire. Also there could also be an iPhone SE 2nd Gen and an iPad mini 4th Gen.

I will try Apple TV hope I don't have to pay for my local network streaming

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Answer 4

iBookRevA Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 14, 2025 6:31 AM in response to rkaufmann87

We started recording on VHS back in 1980 and had tried my best to get the good, clean and decent movies/series of which are no longer available we then copied them to DVD and finally onto Hard Drives in MKV and Mp4 and Avi formats. I have been using VLC app to watch the movies but if I need to do other things or go into another room It would be good to bring that video with me via iPad or even iPhone. The kids would then be able to watch the cartoon stuff and kid movies.

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I need to stream my own movie collection on my LAN rather than Internet ?

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