File sharing/streaming with LibreElec and Windows

1st Official Post

    I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding the difference between sharing your media content though a file path that points to your hard drive (adding source) and through the designated folders via "libreelec" under "network, computers". Is the only difference that you can stream/control the content when you add content to the libreelec network location (from the PC)? How do you have it set up?

    I'm just trying to understand the difference between the two as well as the potential advantages/disadvantages of using one over the other. I apologize ahead of time for my ignorance.

    • Official Post
    Quote from ElpisofChaos

    designated folders via "libreelec" under "network, computers"

    Those are the folders located locally on the Kodi client.

    A source reference (for video or music) can be a local, a LAN or a WAN location.

    But 'streaming' is not the word I would use here. It's more about "playing" files directly from a internal HDD or USB stick, or files via a local/home network. Streaming is more what video services like Netflix offer.

    That makes a lot more sense, but when I observed the the amount of storage space prior and consequent to adding a 3 GB movie to one of the folders, there was no difference. I suppose that's what threw me off.


    So the Kodi under "Media Devices" just connects you to a Kodi server that allows you to play content that is either on Kodi or shared with Kodi?

    • Official Post

    One other thing: Kodi is not a server application. It can share via UPnP/DLNA the video and music files that are scraped into Kodi's databases. LibreELEC also has a simple Samba server option. But Kodi is not an outright server application. It's meant and designed primairily as a client application, playing local files and via a network.

    Quote from ElpisofChaos

    when I observed the the amount of storage space prior and consequent to adding a 3 GB movie to one of the folders, there was no difference.

    Then you apparently stored the 3GB in a different location. Files take up storage, big files even more so.

    Quote from ElpisofChaos

    the Kodi under "Media Devices" just connects you

    'Media devices' is probably a Windows 10 thing, right?

    I stopped using Windows almost a decade ago now, I only use it in rare cases :)