Streaming media from a computer to a tv

[dumdee777]

Ok, so I want to stream media from my computer onto a television while I'm playing games or whatever I'm doing on my computer. What sort of options do I have to achieve this?

I tried the xbox 360, but the file formats I wanted weren't supported.

I don't have a ps3 yet, how's it compare to the 360?

I'm guessing they sell Media Centers specifically for what I'm asking for?
If so, are they pricey? Do they support every file format?

Any info appreciated Thanks.

[Faille]

Originally Posted by dumdee777

Ok, so I want to stream media from my computer onto a television while I'm playing games or whatever I'm doing on my computer. What sort of options do I have to achieve this?

I tried the xbox 360, but the file formats I wanted weren't supported.

I don't have a ps3 yet, how's it compare to the 360?

I'm guessing they sell Media Centers specifically for what I'm asking for?
If so, are they pricey? Do they support every file format?

Any info appreciated Thanks.

Just hook it up to your TV out or 2nd monitor port and use your video driver control panel to see full screen control to it. Means you can start playing a movie, and minimize it on your computer / main screen, and it will still be full screen on the tv / 2nd monitor.

[larseny316]

How about if I'd like to stream content from my pc to a tv in a completely dif section of the house? Tv does have a 360 on it. Wondering if theres any sort of way to pull that off.

Edit: Had some problems with Tversity, but what I ended up doing was just transferring all my media to a portable 250gig hd (about the size of a wallet). Plug that guy into my 360, and have multiple seasons of various shows and movies available on my 360. Works like a charm. What really makes it great is that I can now take my media and watch it on a tv anyplace that has a 360. Only downside would be if I ever lose the thing, but its backed up on the hard drive too, so no big deal.

[prescient63]

The only file formats I'm aware of that aren't supported on the x360 are mkv and typically you can just remux those into an avi, wmv, or mp4 for compatibility. I'm fairly certain that x360 supports all of the major codecs, and streaming can be accomplished through tversity. This is what i do w/ my ps3. If you need to remux files i would look into something like mkv2vob which is a free utility over on the doom9 forums.

[Vvoid]

Originally Posted by Faille

Just hook it up to your TV out or 2nd monitor port and use your video driver control panel to see full screen control to it. Means you can start playing a movie, and minimize it on your computer / main screen, and it will still be full screen on the tv / 2nd monitor.

Not meaning to jump on someone else's thread, but I think it might be relevant to the OP also. So if I just run a DVI cable from my video card to my DLP projection TV, will that work? Or would it need to be an LCD/Plasma? I'd hate to fry my TV doing something like that.

Assuming that works, what sort of quality can I expect? Because I've seriously considered that when my promotional cable TV rate runs out, I might just cancel it and download all of the shows I want if I can easily stream them to my TV.

[Erumaron]

I use Transcode 360 to go from PC -> 360. Only format I have on my PC that it doesn't do is OGC or whatever the one a lot of animes use. I stream divx/xvid all the time though.

Transcode 360 at runtime360.com

[lendarios]

TVersity » Home

[pivot]

MyCast your digital media with Orb 2.0 remote pc access software

[Vvoid]

Ok, but let's say that I don't want to turn on my 360 or PS3 every time I want to watch TV. Can I stream directly from my PC's video card to a DLP projection? And how good is it going to look at 52" from a typical HD capture from newsgroups/torrents?

[Insiderr]

Originally Posted by Vvoid

Ok, but let's say that I don't want to turn on my 360 or PS3 every time I want to watch TV. Can I stream directly from my PC's video card to a DLP projection? And how good is it going to look at 52" from a typical HD capture from newsgroups/torrents?

Honestly don't know anything about DLP but if it has DVI ports it will work. Your computer will just see it as another monitor.

I have DVI cables running from my graphics card to my computer monitor and then another running to my LCD TV across the room and it works great. Only thing to make sure of is that the TV is on the right resolution in your Nvidia control panel.

Honestly I don't know why more people don't have this kind of setup yet, its insanely useful and awesome. I love being able to watch whatever movies/tv/whatever on my TV while grinding in a MMO or something

[brekk]

Originally Posted by Vvoid

Ok, but let's say that I don't want to turn on my 360 or PS3 every time I want to watch TV. Can I stream directly from my PC's video card to a DLP projection? And how good is it going to look at 52" from a typical HD capture from newsgroups/torrents?

You can run video cable directly from video card to TV input. should work fine. Ive done S-Video output to CRT many times.

Biggest issue I see for you is TV location. I'm gonna make a guess that DVI cables are not designed for longer distances. Not to mention that if its in a different room you'll have to get back to where the computer is to make any adjustments, pause, fast forward, etc. You'll also have to deal with sound cables running to where the TV is.

Your best bet is an Xbox360/PS3 or make a simple media PC near your TV (won't need to be powerful) and network it to your main computer with all your media files.

[Eomer]

Personally I've got an old PC in a HT case and that's what I use. It works pretty well, although never to my expectations (mostly because of TV tuner issues). But I don't watch a lot of TV or video, so it's not a big deal.

You may want to look into a Slingbox: Sling Media - Slingbox

I've never done any looking in to on them, so I have no idea what they're capable of or even what they do, really. It might be the reverse of what you're looking for, actually.

As far as DVI cable length goes, I'm pretty sure that it's not too much of an issue so long as you're not getting up over 60+ feet. It's a digital signal so it won't degrade as much over distance is say, S-Video or Component. I think.

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by dumdee777

Ok, so I want to stream media from my computer onto a television while I'm playing games or whatever I'm doing on my computer. What sort of options do I have to achieve this?

I tried the xbox 360, but the file formats I wanted weren't supported.

I don't have a ps3 yet, how's it compare to the 360?

I'm guessing they sell Media Centers specifically for what I'm asking for?
If so, are they pricey? Do they support every file format?

Any info appreciated Thanks.

I tried to do this last year, and there were a ton of solutions. I ended up going to Best Buy, and finding a DVD player/upscaler that can read computer formats. We tried to run a cable from the graphics card to the TV, but found out the picture quality was much better with the DVD player. We spent $100 on the player, so it was a good deal. You just burn your DL'd movies onto a DVD and go. I had too much of a problem with TVersity media, and there was too much pixel shredding with a direct feed from the PC to the TV.

[prescient63]

Wiki on HDMI cable length, and this should pretty much apply to dvi as you are probably going to end up using a dvi => hdmi adapter (assuming no dvi inputs)

The HDMI specification does not define a maximum cable length. As with all cables signal attenuation becomes too high at a certain length. HDMI specifies instead a minimum performance standard and any cable meeting that specification is considered compliant. Different construction quality and materials enables manufacture of cables of different lengths. Higher performance requirements must also be met to support video formats with resolutions and frame rates higher than standard HDTV formats.

Signal attenuation and intersymbol interference caused by the cables can be compensated by using Adaptive Equalization.

HDMI 1.3 defined two categories of cables: Category 1 certified cables which have been tested at 74.5 Mhz (1080i/720p) and Category 2 certified cables which has been tested at 340 MHz (1600p) to reduce the confusion about which cables support which video formats. A cable of about 5 metres (~16 ft) can be manufactured easily and inexpensively to Category 1 specifications using 28 AWG. Higher-quality construction (24 AWG, tighter construction tolerances, etc.) can reach lengths of 12 to 15 metres (~39 to 49 ft). Active cables or extenders that use fiber optic and single or dual Cat-5 or Cat-6 cables instead of standard copper can also be used to extend HDMI to 50 meters for 1080p and 100+ meters for 1080i or less. Long cable lengths can cause instability of HDCP and blinking on the screen due to the weakened DDC signal on which HDCP is based. HDCP handshake signals must be multiplexed with TMDS video signals to be compliant with HDCP requirements for HDMI over single UTP extender. Some HDMI extenders strip off the HDCP encryption to reduce the cost. These kinds of HDMI extenders are illegal to import and use in the countries that adopted the HDCP standard.[22][23] Some companies offer amplifiers, equalizers, and repeaters that can string several standard (non-active) HDMI cables together. Due to accumulation of signal skew and clock jitter, however, the total cable length is limited to around 40 meters and no more than two equalizers and repeaters for 1080p.

[Kaio]

Originally Posted by Lyrical

I tried to do this last year, and there were a ton of solutions. I ended up going to Best Buy, and finding a DVD player/upscaler that can read computer formats. We tried to run a cable from the graphics card to the TV, but found out the picture quality was much better with the DVD player. We spent $100 on the player, so it was a good deal. You just burn your DL'd movies onto a DVD and go. I had too much of a problem with TVersity media, and there was too much pixel shredding with a direct feed from the PC to the TV.

What cable did you use?