What setup to play my Downloaded Videos to my new UHD tv?

[Game Over]

Setting up a 4k tv in a home gym, looking for best option/s for playing video files to it. Have not used any of the media players so not sure what I am looking for. I do not need streaming capabilities or any of that. I do not mind it being available but I do not need it. Want to use video files from my pc, HD movies, Shows, downloaded Youtube videos, maybe some GoPro footage etc. Looking for maybe something with a hard drive built in or a bay to add my own hard drive rather than having to use something like a flash drive. I would even be cool with using a portable external hard drive to Download video files from my pc to the drive then plug the drive/player into the tv in the gym and be able to play them there.

The Tv is 4K so looking for something 4K compatible. Wondering what some of you might be using and recommendations. Should I be thinking about using an SSD for the player or is an HDD fine? Do I need special cables like HDMI2? I am not looking to spend a fortune but don't want something that sucks or is going to break down in a month either.
Thanks for any advice, I am pretty clueless on the subject.

 

[Davva2004]

If your 4K TV is a Smart one, and most are, it'll have a media player built in. Then you just need to copy your video files onto an external hard drive and plug it into the TV.

 

[Game Over]

If your 4K TV is a Smart one, and most are, it'll have a media player built in. Then you just need to copy your video files onto an external hard drive and plug it into the TV.

Oh cool, Ya it is a smart tv. Any recommendations on what kind of drive I should use?Anything special I should be looking out for or to avoid? I was looking at this one as it is not too expensive and to just get me started.. https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expa...pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1490564375&sr=1-3&keywords=ssd
Not sure if a drive that is good for storage is necessarily good for using as the active drive to watch movies off of or not.
...and thanks for the reply Davva

 

[Davva2004]

Perfect drive that. Movie files don't need a fast drive, they read just fine off a standard USB2 flash drive so that USB3 drive will be perfect.

Just check in your TV manual what file formats it can play, some media players can be a bit funny with MKV files.

 

[Excalabur50]

One thing to watch out for is a lot of tv's dont like unpowered hdd's as the amperage of their usb ports isnt enough to drive them I found that I had to use a powered drive and then everything worked fine,also I don't know about the later gen tv's but a few also wont work unless the drive is formatted to fat32 once again check your user guide for that and as davva said find out the formats your tv can play
If all that is too hard you can also stream to your tv from your PC using Plex TTL hisself uses it and loves it I haven't used it myself so I cant give any guidance on it but there are those on here who can

 

[Game Over]

Nice, thanks guys. I will downlaod a manual for it, Got the TV from an auction, was a display model so got it for like 1/3 of retail. Picking it up tomorrow. I will look into that Plex as well. Will report back when everything is set up.

 

[NickOmega]

One thing to watch out for is a lot of tv's dont like unpowered hdd's as the amperage of their usb ports isnt enough to drive them I found that I had to use a powered drive and then everything worked fine,also I don't know about the later gen tv's but a few also wont work unless the drive is formatted to fat32 once again check your user guide for that and as davva said find out the formats your tv can play
If all that is too hard you can also stream to your tv from your PC using Plex TTL hisself uses it and loves it I haven't used it myself so I cant give any guidance on it but there are those on here who can

I had a few issues playing files on my Samsung Smart TV, give the manual a proper read through and familiarise yourself with what format and file types it will play nicely with.

I too was going to suggest Plex but I don't know how nicely it plays with 4K since it's not something I've experienced and haven't personally used Plex for a couple of years (prefer my Raspberry Pi Kodi setup for home streaming)

 

[Game Over]

Thanks Nickomega, I will look into that streaming setup as well.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Deffo Plex

 

[Game Over]

Crap, just found out only a few tv brands support plex. My tv brand is not one of them. So that is out. Got the tv home and downloaded a short 4k mp4 video to a standard thumb drive then plugged it into the TV. It played great, no problem. I wish plex was working on my TV brand. HISENSE43H7C