Streaming from PC to TV

[r.bartlett]

hi guy's

I am looking to stream play music, films and football (and soon to be F1) streams from my PC to my TV. Sadly I am a bit out of date with my kit which consists of a Linn Classik DI (the one with optical in) and a 42" Panasonic plasma TV. Scart and Component only
I have previously streamed music via an Apple airport express with good success but that is now serving the kitchen hifi via a laptop.

I am in no particular rush to change either Tv or Linn but whatever I purchase would ideally bear in mind that this stuff is old tech and come prepared for the day when the Tv goes bang or the Linn does (I know which I have my money on)

can be wireless but we use a Nintendo Wii which streams BBC Iplayer and the quality is pretty poor. In fact very poor: so I guess it may be better to hard wire??

if browsing the web how do you control the pc etc..
Advice and recommendations most welcome

Richard

 

[Richard C]

I looked at streaming a while ago. It’s a constantly changing technology & there are many different solutions, some of which will cost you a fortune. In the end I bought an internet enabled Sony Blue Ray DVD which communicates wirelessly with my PC. It will stream most of the internet TV sites & all video/audio on your PC using Nero wireless network. The music is OK as are still picture albums but video streaming quality is average. I also have BT Vision which uses mains plug adaptors connected directly to the wireless hub & picture quality on this is excellent, but it doesn’t stream from the PC. The biggest problem with wireless video streaming is quality & I don’t think affordable PC based technology has quiet caught up.

By far the best option for music is to directly connect an iPod; I bought a 160GB Classic which holds all my (considerable) music library (still got 60GB left). This lives in a Sony iPod dock in the kitchen but I plug it directly into a Dennon anp which is the basis of a high end A/V system in my lounge. It also means I can take my music anywhere I want & play through most setups using the right adaptors.

 

[ericmark]

I have two LAN hard-drives the MAXTOR will stream to my Blu-Ray player but the other one does not have that option.

The computer running XP was also a problem so down loaded program from http://www.serviio.org/ which seems to work very well.

 

[digdilem]

I love my Popcorn Hour. Stupid name but really clever bit of kit.

All my tv is recorded on a computer elsewhere (via mythtv), and I can view any of this along with films etc by laptop, desktop and with the PCH, on the big telly.

Needs a wired connection to the network (or wifi router next door) and works with every format I've thrown at it for the past four years or so. Replaced a homebuilt media pc that was way more faff than pleasure to use.

 

[r.bartlett]

Thanks guy's

I am still unsure if these units can browse the net and stream direct ?

 

[ChrisFrost]

If you want something to surf the net just like you do with a PC then you really need a PC.

Some media players have the necessary bits of software to stream from iPlayer, UTube or dedicated places on the web (media portals) that attempt to group playable content together. These players generally don't have a full PC operating system and web browser to make sense of company web sites or forum sites such as this. More basic players need the content to be stored on your PC or some sort of network attached storage device (NAS drive).

Streamed quality very much depends on how much compression was used to get the video online in the first place. Then it's a question of how fast the content can be streamed via your web connection and the wired or wireless connection from the router to the media player. Bear in mind that there's a lot of stuff originated at basic video quality (640x480 pixels) or even lower resolution because it's designed to play in a small window on a desktop or laptop screen. Blowing it up full screen won't be pretty. That's rarely the fault of the player though.

If I were looking for a media player I'd shortlist those that use a wired connection and that support the biggest range of media types.

 

[gblades]

I have the WD Live TV which is very good. Plays practically everything via DLNA, windows file share, or either of it's two USB ports. I tend to play most stuff off a portable hard disk but I can watch stuff from my archive over the network to my nas box. I have a wired connection but you can also plug in a USB adapter into one of the ports.
The range of built in apps is pretty poor though.

If you want a web browser then maybe an actual pc would be your best bet. An apple tv combined with an iPad would allow you to extend the iPad screen onto the tv via wireless but that's an expensive option.

 

[digitaly]

If you on budget buy a dreambox dm500 for 30 40 quids and stream using videolan...

Or popcorn hour as suggest before or if like satellite too get azbox elite that is popcorn hour plus satellite.. check it out... when you upgrate tv you can get true 1080p out of it....

there are many other option as your tv might have vga in then pop you monitor cable there and attach some speakers to your pc...

 

[Diyisfun]

My new laptop has hdmi out, so it can be plugged into the tv, prior to that it was connected by ? another pair of cables 1 carrying video the other for sound.