Playing video on TV from computer

[rwatson119]

Is there any device out there that can send AVI or any other video file from my PC wireless or hard wired to a device that is hooked up to my TV. I know apple came out with APPLE TV but I think it only plays things from ITunes.


thanks

Ron

[j1d10t]

There are some wireless transmitters that will transmit the video/audio from your computer (what you see on your monitor) your TV, but I've heard they don't work very well. Another option is to get a video card that has an s-video or composite video out, then run the cable to your TV.

[bits]

Is there any device out there that can send AVI or any other video file from my PC wireless or hard wired to a device that is hooked up to my TV. I know apple came out with APPLE TV but I think it only plays things from ITunes.


thanks

Ron

Yes there are quite a few; Linkplayer2, Buffalo Linkplayer, TVIX (Dvico), Ziova, Media Box and so on...Google 'Networked Media players'

IMO do not even attempt wireless...plan on and go wired for robust trouble free video streaming.

The AVS forum is a good site to troll and get information.

I have been streaming commercial free video (1080i HD ts/mpeg2/avi/DivX/HD DivX/mp4/DV avi) to an I-O Data Linkplayer2 for nearly two years now and really enjoy it. Added another HD TV recently and I am going to purchase either another LP2 or TVIX4100 or Ziova CS510 in the next month.

BTW I semi-automatically cut the commercials, my preference, but you could leave them in (takes up 30% more HDD space) and just FFW through them.

[edong]

[/quote]
I have been streaming commercial free video (1080i HD ts/mpeg2/avi/DivX/HD DivX/mp4/DV avi) to an I-O Data Linkplayer2 for nearly two years now and really enjoy it. Added another HD TV recently and I am going to purchase either another LP2 or TVIX4100 or Ziova CS510 in the next month.
quote]

I'm not very familiar with video streaming setup. Do you think I can stream Blue-ray and HD DVD from Sony PS3 and Xbox360 to our HDTV? Whenever we rent these high definition movies, my son will bring down from his bedroom upstairs the game console and connect it to our HDTV. It's a lot of work. I'm not ready yet to buy a stand-alone Blue-ray or HD-DVD player.

This video streaming looks promising for my purpose. Also, I am saving my HD-mpg2 (home video) on DVDs. Perhaps I can stream this also from the laptop wirelessly instead of connecting the camcorder to HDTV. I am interested in this Buffalo Link Theater(without the DVD player). I wonder if you know how good is this product. Thank you.

[evol4pm]

Also, I believe PS3 has the capability as well as long as you have a UPnP server on your PC. I personally use the Nero mediahome, one of the cool app i found in my Nero package, and it works great with my PS3.

there are other DMA products available on the market from those networking companies such as Netgear, DLink, KiSS, etc.

[Video Head]

"Another option is to get a video card that has an s-video or composite video out, then run the cable to your TV."

Or get a video card with HDMI/DVI or component HD video out and run the cable(s) to your TV

[ebenton]

Xbox 360 works very well wirelessly with Windows XP Media Center 2005, as well as Vista Home Premium. I don't know how well it works, if at all, with any other uPNP servers. All of my video files are saved on my PC hard drive, and I am not sure if I even have the capability, without hacking, of connecting to the internet with my XBox 360 to see if I can stream anything.
I can rent HD movies from Xbox Live marketplace and play them on my XBox 360, but they only have 720P available. As it is, it takes an hour or more before I can begin to watch an HD movie while it is downloading, due to the size of the movies. Technically, this is streaming, I guess, but it's only with WMV files. I am using a 6000 Kb/s DSL connection and an 802.11g home network.

[hulinning]

There are many network dvd player on the market right now that allows you to watch movie from PC using ethernet. You can go to http://www.mpcclub.com to pick out the best network dvd your money.

But they are all facing the problem that the unit will be obsolete at some point when new video format or new encoding coming out. Even right now, they cannot support all video and subtitle formats.

To me, it would be much better to have a PC such as GX280 2.8 GHz or better and a good video card such as ATI Radeon HD2600 XT or NVIDIA 8600GTS that would support HDCP and hardware acceleration. It would cost about $500 to have a good enough PC that you can play all video formats now and in the future. You might just need to update software only.

My PC is GX280 P4 Mini Tower Desktop with 512 MB only and running on Vista 32 Ultimate Edition. I can play any SD/HD video without any problem. In addition, all of my video sources are from a different PC served as a media server. So, basically I just use this to output the video signal through dvi-hdmi cable to my hdtv set 720P.

My media pc is Dell 650 Dual Xeon 3.02 GHZ with 1.25 GRam and running Windows XP SP2 Pro.

As long as the source of your movie is good the video playback is also good just as you play from a DVD or HDDVD devices.

Thanks

Thanks