question in relation to casting content to TV

Currently lm using media player mainly because its the only thing lve found so far, however after accidentally touching my mouse and ending up at the beginning of a file again unable to seek 40min in leaving me frustratingly having to watch most of the file again, lve decided to ask if there was something a little better that will allow me more control, the main reason for casting is that my laptop speakers are pants and that its a pain disconnecting and reconnecting my connected external daily.

basically put if l cant get Audio Video Sharing working (l did try it, but it doesnt locate my files over the network just the folders) then casting is the only option l have since l can get the audio to go through my soundbar, but l really want to be able to have more control over the playing file without having to turn my TV into a monitor if that makes sense. any help would be gratefully appreciated.

its already installed, lve been using it to cast to TV but after accidentally mousing away from the player l lost 45m that l had to rewatch as l couldnt skip to where l was.

lve been browsing the past few hours to find another way seeing as l couldnt get my TV to locate files on the network via Streaming options (followed a tutorial l saw here), lve been reading up about Plex, lm thinking it might do what l need it to, which is allow me to access my content via the network with the added ability for me to execute it from my TV meaning audio goes through my speakers which has also been a pain as it changes my default audio device

l wasnt getting that level of control with the remote to skip parts of the file and such. and only very few files even allowed me to do anything with the slider. though my audio seemed to change to default to the TV which was becoming quite annoying as ld have to go through all the settings to default it back to the laptop.

it seems Plex does work for what l want it to do, l originally tried using the streaming service on Windows Media Player but files werent being located over the network (just folders) whereas files are being located over the network with Plex, whats better is that l control the files and what l access from the TV rather than cast it, and it seems on certain files there are subtitles auto added (obviously the subs have to exist for the file but quite interesting) as for the pay features, they are things l can live without after all l just wanted a media server to show content over a network, and the bonus is that because l control what l watch from the TV now, all audio goes through my bluetooth soundbar (before casting would just go through TV speakers and disconnect my soundbar but now that isnt an issue though l am in the process of of switching to a optical connection for sound, just waiting on a better quality cable than the one l have).