Stream from your Mac via DLNA to your Roku (or any other DLNA capable device)

I have a Mac which is my primary computer. But I also have a Dell XPS with Windows on it. Windows has DLNA built in, so you can stream it to any DLNA capable device such as SmartTVs, tablets, gaming consoles, smartphones, etc. So streaming a video from my Windows computer to my Roku or my SmartTV was a piece of cake.

But ever since I moved to Mac, it’s been a real pain trying to stream from Mac OS to any other DLNA. So I started looking for an option. While doing research online, the only solution most people suggested was to use Apple TV, but I don’t own one, so that was not a good solution for me. So I kept on searching, and then I stumbled upon Plex.

Plex, has a channel on Roku, has an Mac application, even for Android and Windows, but we do not need them since both Android and Windows already have DLNA. So far it seem a really good alternative for streaming. So I went ahead and did all the following:

1. Went to my Roku Channel store, and installed Plex.
2. Went to Plex website and downloaded the Mac app.
   
   
3. Installed Plex on my Mac and moved the executable to the Application folder.

4. I launched Plex on my Mac and it opened a browser window. (cool)

5. Then you add the folder where you have your Video files on

Then you get this screen, you click on Movies:

Plex will now ask you to name the Library that you want to add, you can name it anything you’d like, I named it Movies

Now we are going to select the folder where this Library will be pulling files from…

Then you simple browse to the directory that you would like to add, and done.

After this, then you go back to your Roku or DLNA capable device and scan the local wireless LAC on which both the Mac and Roku are connected to and you should be ready to stream.

If you face issues I recommend the following tutorials:

• https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/202935738-Video-Getting-Started-with-Plex
• https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201198796-Activating-the-Roku-App
• https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201142288-Plex-Media-Server-OS-X

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