Smackre

I got abunch of movies on my computer. I dont like dealing with the DVD's. So I DL them from mvlib.com and then plug my pc into my TV and play them. Well I want a better method. I gotta take the Laptop over to the TV and hook it up everytime. And it usually takes about 5-10 mins to get a movie going.

I am looking for something either over network or wireless of something of the sort. to hook to the TV that I can either use to play videos over network from my PC.

I know I have seen stuff like this but I searched last night with no real luck.

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shakran

your best solution would probably be to build an HTPC with a tv-out port on the vidcard. I'd put it in a Shuttle or some other small-form-factor case so that it didn't take up too much room in your entertainment center. You can get prebuilt ones, too.

Martian

A good HTPC will replace almost your entire entertainment centre. It's a receiver, DVD/CD/MP3 player, and PVR all rolled into one package. That's your best option by far.

Attach it to the network and you can access remote content on other boxen in the house, or stream video online.

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mrklixx

Depens on how much you are willing to spend. A couple of the easier methods IMO would be an xbox360 or a Popcorn-Hour, both of which will be in the $200 $250 range depending on if you want wireless or not. I have both, so let me know if you want any further info.

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Smackre

I figured a HDPC would be best. Was hoping maybe one of the mini pc's would have hdmi video and audio like the new dell laptops do. Like I have trouble right now because my laptop has DVI output. And I use DVI to hdmi cord. Well the HDMI doesnt have audio on it cuz its coming from DVI. And my TV wont let me connect other inputs to have audio to. So I put it threw my 2.1 sony stereo. I havnt gotten my sound system together.

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ratbastid

I took my old XBox (not a 360--the old one) and installed XBMC, the XBox Media Center. Then I crawled into my crawlspace and dragged some cat5 between my router and the TV center in the corner of the living room.

Now I can stream video across my network in any format, any size, and it'll play on my TV as if it were a video game. Pretty hot.

Until I did that, my solution was to burn DVDs and transport them to the TV via Sneakernet.

Cynthetiq

I have XBMC and I also have a Neuros OSD. I share the Linksys game adapter between the two.

why both? Because the OSD allows me to play more file types as the XBMC is much older and isn't getting as much development.

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shakran

Shuttle sells a purpose-built HTPC with HDMI out, a blu-ray drive, and an integrated 7" touch screen on the case to control the system. Lil' pricey, but it sounds like it does pretty much everything you want it to do:

Shuttle XPC | PC Made Modern

If you want a slightly less expensive option, check out Sager laptops ( sagernotebook.com ). They're coming with HDMI ports now, and you can get one for around $850. The last time I checked you could upgrade to a blu-ray drive for something like $150, so you'd still be about 300 less than the Shuttle.

ironman

I own a PopcornHour and it has to be the best media player out there, it plays everything you can throw at it up to 1080p. It has both Bitttorrent and Usenet clients and it costs just south of $200.
If I didn't own a PCH, I'd go for the Western Digital WD TV HD, it's just $100 and plays almost every codec out there.

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kutulu

Instead of building a separate HTPC, I just took advantage of the dual displays from my video card. I have an EVGA GTX260 Core 216 with two DVI connectors and an HDTV out. I was using an HDMI adapter and running that to the TV but the TV's HDMI ports crapped out. I switched to the HDTV out (component video) and there is really no loss of quality.

The cables run through the attic from the computer to the TV so there are no exposed cables.

yournamehere

Doesn't TiVo have a pay service that will play videos from your computer over a wireless network? I know you can view pics for free - I think you might have to upload them online thru onetruemedia.com. You can share it with friends and family if they subscribe to your "channel."

Or are you talking the kind of movies you might not want to share with your family?

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Smackre

I am talking about standard movies. Last night I watched ironman. But to do it I had to take my laptop and plug it in by the TV and hook it up to my stereo and the TV. Takes about 10 mins to get everything going right.

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Baraka_Guru

If you can get your movies into iTunes on your PC, Apple TV can do it. I'm not sure what the equivalent products would be.

You can also play stuff from YouTube and Flickr, apparently.

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Willravel

Does iTunes play .avi files? The last time I tried to import my movies, Apple got mad.

Baraka_Guru

I think this thing requires mpeg-4. A limitation, sure, but I don't know of alternatives with the same functionality.

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telekinetic

Or just install Boxee on your appleTV. Then you can copy over whatever you want without using itunes, (or play from a NAS or shared folder) and (more importantly) have full access to Hulu...yay hulu!

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Baraka_Guru

And there we have it.

I think I now know what I want for Christmas.

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Redlemon

A TiVo and the free software pyTivo (I use the Mac version pyTivoX) will stream anything from your computer to your TiVo. But I doubt that you would buy a TiVo just to stream from your computer.

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kutulu

If you can connect the computer to the TV I don't see why you need any software at all other than a media player like WM Player or VLC

Willravel

That's true, DVI to HDMI cables aren't that expensive.

Smackre

because I cant get the sound to work. If you use the HDMI on my TV you gotta input audio threw HDMI. no other way. So i try and input video threw hdmi and sound threw normal cables and it doesnt work. Plus I dont like lugging my laptop out everytime I want to watch a movie.

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kutulu

True. When you use HDMI as the input you need to switch the audio output from analog to digital (SPDIF). Alternatively, you could use an HDMI to DVI adapter.

Smackre

i am using a dvi to hdmi adapter

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Smackre

I played my first HD video on my TV from my laptop. It was a 720p video from mvlib. some reason every few mins the video would lag for alittle bit but the sound wouldnt. And then it would play really fast till it caught up. It was a 4gb file in format .MKV. I used windows media player to play it. Do I need a computer with more ram to make this work right?

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tcp

Your hardware would be an issue if it was full 1080p. In this case, you can probably increase the cache size of WMP so it buffers more of the video into RAM. Try Media Player Classic (which comes with Combined Community Codec Pack), VLC, Smplayer, or Zoom Player.

If you upgrade your best bet would be a PS3 which can play streaming video over your local network. Or a HTPC capable of Blu-ray. You can build it yourself for cheap. I never tried a Slingbox but I don't like proprietary systems like that.

Smackre

Well I decided to work up at HTPC. I was wondering these new motherboards with hdmi output. Does that do audio and video? or only video. What about these video card that have hdmi output. do you put audio onto the hdmi to? Ya I figured out that I should get a pc with more ram and a video card that has HDCP support. I have herd that takes aton of strain off the rest of the pc.

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Latenter

I also a fan of my PS3, with a UPnP server my my computer to play over the network. I am interested in getting an Ion based nettop with HDMI out, especially once Adobe adds GPU support to flash so HD Hulu/youtube will work on the crappy Atom processors. Low power, always on media/file/web/DB/torrent server with VNC, plus basic gaming /1080p movies, all for ~ $400.

Hanabal

My PS3 works flawlessly for this. Just install PS3 media server on the PC and then you can play files that even the PS3 don't recognise natively. The bonus of a bluray player is a great addition to the media possibilities.

One thing I found is that although streaming media over wireless is possible, heavy action scenes can slow down. I would recommend a wired connection to ensure smooth playback.

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kutulu

My last step for my computer was to get a wireless mouse and keyboard so that I can load movies and control the media player. For a while I was considering getting a remote control but I couldn't find one that worked well with VLC media player and even then the functionality is very limited. Why spend $100 on a remote when I could just get a wireless keyboard/mouse for half the price? I bought a combo that was supposed to work up to 30 feet but it didn't work very well near the TV. It is pretty close to that 30 ft threshold and is also blocked by a wall.

I did some research and came to the conclusion that the easiest thing to do would be to just extend a USB cable from the computer to an area near the TV and I can plug the wireless reciever into that.

I went to Fry's electronics to get what I needed. The guy that works that department tells me I either need to get powered USB hubs and connect them with 3 meter cables or to get a kit that converts the USB to CAT5 and run a CAT5 cable over the distance (about 40 feet if I go through the attic). The powered hubs are like $20 each and the cables are $6 each ($84 total). The USB to CAT5 converter is $40, and a 50-ft CAT5 cable is $20 (this option probably isn't USB 2.0 compliant either). Another option would be to buy a wireless USB hub and a router. This would have been well over $100. I decided to do more research because that all sounded ridiculous.

So I do some more checking and on monoprice I found 5 meter USB repeaters that act like hubs and regenerate the signal after each connection. They can be chained together for a max length of about 150 ft. Even better, they are only $8 each and if you live in AZ, overnight shipping is only $8.50 (vs. about $6 for USPS priority mail). I got them this morning before I left for work and they work perfectly.

Thanks for nothing, Fry's. Again, monoprice kicks ass.

/I also got a 0.5-m SATA cable for $0.82 vs about $3 at Fry's and there was no additional cost for shipping.

telekinetic

Kutulu, if you want a more media-center-like experience, you should get a USB IR reciever and run girder, then you can program it to use your universal remote. I do essentially the same thing on my Apple TV...I programmed my remote to think I have XYZ brand DVD player, and then trained my Apple TV to accept the IR codes the remote outputs for that random device.

I also run boxee remote (specifically for boxee) and g-mote (more generally for any application) on my G1, which gives me keyboard and mouse inputs when I need them...but that's essentially cheating

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kutulu

I'd rather treat it as a second display than as a media center. I wanted to be able to use file browsers and web browsers effectively and you can't do that with a remote. I can also plug my controller into the USB hub and run my games on my TV.

MexicanOnABike

tversity and a ps3 will do it. look into it.

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Latenter

From what I've seen there are some pretty crappy wireless keyboards, but a few good ones too. You might check this one out, it seems to work really well:

Vidabox HTPC Wireless Keyboard