[Cialug] Computer to TV

[Eric Junker]

On 4/3/2010 9:56 PM, Todd Walton wrote:
> What's the easiest way to see the media I have on my computer on my TV screen?
>
> I don't have a "media center" set up, and my computer doesn't have a
> TV card in it.  Though maybe that's what I need, that and a really
> long set of RCA cables.  I have a Roku, and I love being able to
> stream Netflix to my television.  I've seen this thing called xbmc,
> which is media center software for Linux.  It'd be nice if I could use
> media center software on my computer to be a server, and have a
> channel on Roku that pulled from it.


If you have an HDTV it probably has a VGA connector and/or an HDMI 
connector. I connect my netbook to my TV using a VGA connector and the 
HDTV acts just like an external monitor. Also some HDTVs have USB ports 
that allow you to play media from a USB flash drive. And I've also seen 
HDTVs that support DLNA streaming which means you could stream media 
from your computer to your TV over the network.

Before I had an HDTV I used the S-video output on my video card and fed 
it into an RF modulator which then modulated the signal to channel 3 or 
4. The modulator connected to my TV via coax. You can get an RF 
modulator for about $20.

If you like XBMC then you should also take a look at Boxee. 
http://www.boxee.tv/ and the soon to be released Boxee Box hardware 
http://www.boxee.tv/box

I also have a Roku box. I haven't done it yet but there are several 
people on the Roku forums that have ways to stream media from your 
computer to the Roku box. Here are some links to more information:
http://roksbox.wikispaces.com/
http://netguy204.github.com/roku_media_server/

Eric