Connecting smart TV , smart phone,laptop wirelessly

Just sharing my experience with the connecting thing. I have to admit am a rookie as far as technology is concerned and the only way I get along is by reading what all the geeks (god bless them) have shared on the various blogs.

So I have the following gadgets

A Samsung Smart TV (UA40EH5306mXXS) : Point to note : No built in WIFI .  This needs a wireless LAN adaptor to connect to WIFI. Also does not support screen mirror. Cast feature not available in E series of Samsung TV. So if u want to cast u will need Chrome Cast. I checked with Samsung technical services and they wrote back saying this feature is not available in E series.

Nexus 5 : I love this device

Mac laptop : very old one but still am in love with MAC

A 500GB HDD

A router D link with USB pot

My objective was the following

1.       To have a centralized storage for which I choose my HDD and connected it to my router.  

2.       To wirelessly access and write content from and to the HDD from all other devices

3.       To interconnect and access gadgets wirelessly.

4.       To stream content from all gadgets and HDD to Samsung Smart TV

I succeeded in the following

1.       Able to access HDD via Nexus 5 over wifi : Use ES file server. Download and install ES file server on the phone.

2.       Able to access Mac content from Nexus using ES file server. Reserve IP for Mac on the router so that access is simpler every time

3.       Able to access HDD via MAC over Wifi : Directly log into router IP and access the same

4.       Able to access Nexus from Mac using Droid NAS app installed in phone. once you start the server

Devices Access	App used
Access HDD from Nexus 5 over WIFI	ES file server. Use the LAN option
Access HDD connected to router via MAC over Wifi	Directly log into router IPsmb://<router IP> and access the same
Access content on HDD connected to router from Samsung Smart TV using wifi	Not been able to do yet
Access Mac files and folders from Nexus 5	ES file server. Use the FTPàSFTP option. Make the Mac book ip static
Access Nexus files etc from Mac	Either through installing a android file transfer app from play store and use USB. Else wirelessly using Droid NAS app installed in nexus. Once Droid NAS is started. Nexus will appear as a device on the Macbook in finder and can be accessed directly
Stream music/videos/photos etc from Nexus 5 onto Samsung smart TV	Use Zappo Samsung TV app. This is the best app and will stream you tube,flicker,picassa, facebook, local content  on nexus and many more onto the Samsung TV through Wifi. Down load and install Zappo TV Samsung app Problem is since screen cast is not available hence even though am able to access files from HDD but cannot stream them to TV directly without copying them on the SD card of nexus .
Stream music/videos/photos etc from MAC onto Samsung smart TV	I use Vuze bit torrent . Once Vuze is downloaded on mac the TV will appear as  a device and files can be dragged and dropped on this device icon. The streaming on TV is independent and mac book can be used for other purposes simultaneously. On the TV Vuze will appear in All share and will list videos /photos available for streaming. Only issue is in spite of having a .SRT file am not able to play subtitles on my Samsung smart TV using Vuze. Also it does not play .WMV files Other than this,  contents from all gadgets can be accessed by MACbook( also HDD) and files can be draggged and dropped into vuze to stream on TV. But quality suffers

Am trying to find a better and easier (and cheaper) way to do things. Buying a chrome cast will almost solve all problems as it will enable mirroring from Phone and laptop so there will not be any issues and many of the problems will be solved. Am ordering one now. Will update on the same.