I'm trying to score a cheap or free old laptop so I can watch Internet programs on TV. (I gave up cable; too expensive and too few channels that interest me. I tried OTA with an internal antenna & got a lot of stations, but what crap!
My Panasonic flatscreen TV is about 4 ? years old and has all those HDMI inputs.
So my question is: What do I require in a laptop that will do the job. Does it need to have the equivalent of the TV? Or...?
TIA
HB
You'll pay a lot less for a compatible desktop than you would a laptop. As for specs, it depends on how much resolution you want to watch your shows with. I don't have any trouble with 720p using a circa 2006-ish box using an AMD 64 socket 939 and an ATI x800 GPU (which has composite output).
From my understanding, you won't gain any better picture with HDMI than you would composite connections, you just need to find a video card that outputs with composite (ATI has a number of models with this feature; the connector is a dongle that plugs into a port on the back of the video card that "looks like" an S-video port, but is their own version of a multi-port that has composite and component in and out).
Don't forget to get a cable to connect the soundcard (1/8" stereo) to the TV (RCA).
Alternately, they have USB to HDMI dongles, but that's too fancy for me.
Jon
That should say, "component", *not* composite.
Jon
The Roku devices or maybe the Chrome would be worth checking out. I have one of the Big Roku devices and there is lots to get. Also for less than $
10 per month you can get access to some regular TV such as HULU Plus.
Thanks, Jon
I see I left out some necessary info:
TIA
HB
Does your TV have the 15 pin VGA port? Most flat screens to.
Just about any PC will work, certainly anything XP or later.
I have had a PC hooked to my TV for almost 15 years, first just for the MP3s and then later for video content as that started coming on line. It does not have to be a lap top.
HDMI won't be any better than the 15 pin VGA port that every PC has, particularly if you have a decent video card. (1280 x 1024 or better)
You can just get another desk top style PC for way less that $100 these days. Get the small format system unit and it won't take up any more room than a lap top. Get the blue tooth adapter and you can use a small keyboard/mouse that will work up to 30 feet away. The TV is the monitor
You can buy cables to pretty much any reasonable length. Long HDMI cables are available on Ebay for a reasonable price, for example. You'll go broke if you buy them at Walmart and try to join them together.
Unless you have improving eyesight, I think you have that backwards. Poorer vision, higher resolution isn't going to make as much difference as it will if you have perfect+ vision.
The video card is in the PC. Depends what you want to do and what form factor you want. You could get a notebook or use a desktop.
I don't have any advice about hardware details, but I would suggest that you find a way to check out your *real* options before spending the money. I get Netflix DVDs by mail. At one point I had a chance to see the Netflix streaming service via Roku. I didn't recognize anything in the first window! When I tried some searches it turned out the things I was interested in were not available. It's an all-you- can-eat buffet, so you don't get salmon filets or scallops. By contrast, this past week I saw the following movies via DVD:
I think we pay something like $13/month for the DVD service.
What I'm saying is that if you think what's available via antenna is junk then you might not be terribly impressed by online fare.
Another aspect I wonder about in the longterm is the general logistics. As streaming becomes more popular, something has to give somewhere. The ISPs are going to want a piece of the action if entertainment streaming begins to dwarf the actual Internet. I don't want to spend time and money today only to find that all the prices go way up 2 years down the road, and I end up with just an overpriced alternative to overpriced cable TV.
When Dish and the local CBS affiliate decided to argue about fees, etc., we couldn't get our most watched network. All of the shows we watch were available the next day on the CBS website. So, I streamed them to may little Dell laptop, which has an HDMI port. It was a royal pain. First, my 3 meg DSL could barely keep up. I found that it worked a little better with a wired network connection rather than wifi. Second, every time it would freeze, you'd have to get up and restart the stream. Luckily, it would pick up close to where it froze. Sometimes it would run good for an hours show, sometimes it would freeze multiple times. I found completely dropping the connection and starting over seemed to help. Third, you have to watch their commercials. And because there seems to be a rather low number of commercials, you see the same one over and over and over ... you get it. I know there are ways to record a show and skip the commercials (a PC based DVR), but who would have thought CBS would be dark for almost 5 weeks. This Dell laptop processor is only 1.2Gig, so that might be a part of it. Streaming to my desktop, with more horsepower, was much better. With this same 3 Meg DSL, I can stream baseball games to the TV directly, but it is herky-jerky. The TV app for MLB.com doesn't have any way to reduce the resolution. Now with MLB.com to the same laptop or tablet, it is a little reduced in resolution and it works pretty good. I can then plug the laptop or tablet into the TV (HDMI) and get ok results. The laptop app for MLB has some auto speed thing. I think the tablet is similar. BTW, I think the Dish/local affiliate standoff is most the local affiliate's want to grab as much $$$ as possible. If Dish or any cable company, just gives in and pays, our cable/satellite bills would go up rapidly once they pay on provider ... they'll all want it even though we still have to watch the commercials. And maybe they see the fact that eventually everything will probably be streamed. Sorry for being so long winded.
Do you need a laptop at all? The new Google Chromecast "adapter plugs straight into your TV to stream YouTube, Netflix and BBC iPlayer" says
Hi, You need a laptop which has HDMI port, Usually HD video/audio card. Then you can real time stream TV scenes or any other HD multi media program like You tube thru one cable, the HDMI cable. Even new ones won't cost much now. IfIs your TV 1080P compatible? You set up the video card for dual display primary one being laptop and let TV clone the laptop display. Card feature has that allows flexibility to configure that. What's to watch on TV any way? For me only news and sports event, that's about it.
Composite out put? That's analog signal with poor resolution. And audio? just analog 2 channel? Even on 2 channel, digital audio carried by HDMI cable sounds better(say Dolby for example?) HDMI one cable vs.
3 caables carry inferior video/audio......
Hi, Component is still analog signal plus you have to match it with TOS link or digital coax audio cable 3 wire cumbersome video cable with one more either digital audio cable. HDMI is for simplicity! Now it'll carry Ethernet signal and USB signal altogether pretty soon. If you don't like HDMI, blame Sony who brought about HDMI.
Hi,HDMI can run even 100 feet w/o any trouble. You can't run analog signal cable that long. video/audio card is peripheral controller for PC. Usually now in PCIe slot.
The site you linked says so...
"Googles Chromecast is a small dongle that plugs into a spare HDMI port on your TV to stream media from the internet to the living room screen using your smartphone, tablet or computer as a remote."
Ummm, it doesn't appear to say that you need a laptop. It apparently needs a "remote" to operate it and that can be a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Which makes sense. I can use my smartphone to control my Tivo for example.
As was mentioned before, the *simplest* solution would be to purchase a Roku. Cost: approx. $100.
The *cheapest* solution would be to purchase a Chromecast. Cost: approx. $35.
You can also connect a laptop to your television, as you mentioned. That's more expensive and takes a bit more dicking around to get it up and running. The link provided upthread on how to set it up has useful information. If you choose to do this, look for a laptop running Windows 7 (unless you're familiar with Win 8, there's a learning curve there that would just make it harder for you to use it). Select a laptop that has an HDMI output. The guy who is going on upthread about composite cable is wrong about the quality issue, and going with composite cable would only create more work and aggro for you. Keep it simple, stick to HDMI, the single-cable solution. Then purchase an HDMI cable, find a place to set your laptop, connect it to the tv with the cable and get work setting it up per the link upthread.
I use all three approaches. I use my laptop to play video files I own that are in formats that Chromecast and Roku can't handle. However, when all I want to do is stream content from the Internet onto my television, I use the Roku. The Roku is designed to make the process pretty darned simple. Seriously, if I were you I'd buy a Roku and try that before going with a laptop setup, *unless* there is specific content online you want that you know can't be accessed via Roku.
Here's a video on setting up and activating a Roku.
And here's a video on connecting a laptop to a tv via HDMI:
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