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Advice on connecting laptop to tv wirelessly?

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 vincentvega 30 Dec 2012
How do I go about this so that I can have content from the laptop on my tv screen, including dvd's? Also can it be done in HD? My tv is HD ready and has usb and HDMI port's.
I take it that its more than just a wirless adaptor in the tv's usb port? As this would just recieve my wireless signal and bypass the laptop wouldnt it?
Also whatever it is I need, are there any reccomendations!!?

Thanks in advance

Allan
 Bcrich01 30 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:

You may be able to use something like apple tv if you are using a mac, otherwise I'm sure theres something similar for PC's?
 KellyKettle 30 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega: By far the simplest way, is to hook up the laptop to the TV with VGA/DVI/HDMI cables and control it with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse...
Phil Payne 30 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega: Is your TV DLNA compliant? If so, then you can connect your tv to your network either wired or wirelessly and then stream media to your TV over the network.

If you want to see what you see on your laptop screen on the telly then you will need a wireless monitor adapter.
In reply to KellyKettle:
> (In reply to vincentvega) By far the simplest way, is to hook up the laptop to the TV with VGA/DVI/HDMI cables and control it with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse...

this is what I do and it works fine.
OP vincentvega 30 Dec 2012
In reply to KellyKettle:

Dont want any cables on show.

Cheers

Allan
OP vincentvega 30 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:

From the tv I mean. Its wall mounted.


Cheers

Allan
In reply to vincentvega: Is your TV wireless compatible.
OP vincentvega 30 Dec 2012
In reply to Phil Payne:

I believe it is. I will look into that.

Thanks

Allan
OP vincentvega 30 Dec 2012
In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I think that is what its saying here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-50PK590-Widescreen-Internet-Freeview/dp/B003FMSI...

Cheers

Allan
Phil Payne 30 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:

Yep, should work then as long as your laptop isn't an apple mac.
You need to be running windows media player version 11 to get it to work, but it's quite straightforward to set up.

http://www.samsung.com/us/support/supportOwnersHowToGuidePopupPrint.do?howt...

I just got a new tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab) for Christmas and have been experimenting with streaming media from that to my TV and it works really well.
OP vincentvega 30 Dec 2012
In reply to Phil Payne:

Cheers for the advice and link. That does'nt look to difficukt, even for me!

So all I need is a wireless adaptor in the tv?

Thanks

Allan
Phil Payne 30 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega: If your TV is the one in the link you posted then does it not already have wifi?
 The Lemming 30 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:

I've yet to find a way to get my laptop to display on my TV wirelessly. If there was such a product or method then I too would like to know.

As yet I have been able to connect my laptop, tablet and Raspberry Pi to my TV via cables but not in the illusive way that Apple manages to do. And maybe its not possible for non-apple stuff.

However the best method that I have found is to hook up my laptop/desktop computer to my TV. I then either use my tablet or phone to control the laptop/desktop computer by using gMote.

gMote can either be used as a media server to access all my music, photos and films or I can use my phone and tablet screens to completely control the laptop/desktop computer with the touch screens.

One day I will solve the Raspberry Pi to the point that I can attach it to the back of my TV and have it do everything I want from surfing the web to playing all my media from the comfort of my sofa.
In reply to vincentvega:

What you need to do a bit of research on is DLNA. This is a subset of UPnP (Plug and Play) that has been developed for sharing media (video, music. pictures) around the home.

You need both a source (in this case your laptop with a media server running) and a destination - your TV. Go through your TV's menus to see if there's an option for accessing external content, it's not always obvious.

Assuming that your TV supports DLNA then the two devices need to be on the same network, you've identified that you may need a wireless adaptor but if the TV has an ethernet port then it may be better to use a homeplug (ethernet over mains cabling) as this will give higher throughput. If all goes well then you will be able to browse the contents of the laptop for videos, select one and it should play.

This is where it gets awkward! Depending on how you've encoded your video the TV may or may not be able to play it. For a device to become DLNA certified is fairly easy and not all devices support all formats. You'll just have to try things out. One way round this is "transcoding" which is basically on-the-fly translation between one encoding and another and usually done on the server by telling it which format you wish to use for each destination device.

If your TV doesn't support DLNA then you'll need something like the Raspberry Pi with a DLNA client running and connected to your TV via a HDMI cable.

Apple's AirTime is a similar but incompatible system. I.e. you need Apple kit at both ends However you can get DLNA compatible media servers for the Mac so all is not lost.

If you've got lots of DVDs then it may be worth your while putting everything on a NAS drive on your network running a media server so that multiple devices can stream content and you aren't relying on your laptop being switched on.

Good luck!

ALC
 The Lemming 30 Dec 2012
In reply to a lakeland climber:

And this is where my brain goes pop. My NAS device is supposed to be a media streamer but I don't know how to make this work. Most probably user stupidity.
In reply to The Lemming:

Which NAS, which media player? Some don't play well with certain TVs.

If the NAS is connected to your network then go to your router's admin pages and look for the devices it has issued IP addresses to. One of them should be the NAS. What you need next is a network aware media player - you should be able to point it at the IP address and begin to explore it. Depending on how the NAS has been set up then there should be a public folder from which you start. (A lot of shoulds in that lot!)

DLNA servers advertise themselves over your network so simply starting up a DLNA client which will automatically look for those advertisements will get the system set up (allegedly). So far I've found this to be the case, it's what happens after that is when things get interesting. (That's interesting from an engineering perspective not a consumer one)

ALC
 The Lemming 30 Dec 2012
In reply to a lakeland climber:
> Depending on how the NAS has been set up then there should be a public folder from which you start. (A lot of shoulds in that lot!)

This is where I may have screwed things up. I know bugger all about NAS boxes and only got mine to work with trial and error by clicking here, there and everywhere as well as providing permissions all over the place.

Straight out of the box, my arse!

I've got an iomega ix2-200 box with 4Tb storage mirrored, in the vain hope that this will protect my data if something goes wrong.

The funny thing is that I can get my Win 7 and android devices to work with it but for some reason I can not get a single Linux distro to see the NAS let alone access it.

Strange, but there you go.

http://www.cnet.com/network-storage/iomega-storcenter-ix2-200/4505-3382_7-3...

 SARS 30 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:

There is a simple device which consists of a UBS dongle for your laptop and a wifi receiver for your tv which you plug into - for example - an HDMI slot. I can't remember the name, but it cost me GBP50 from Maplin. That will stream anything from your laptop to your TV - e.g. movies.

When I get back to my home - in 2 to 3 days - I will post the manufacturer details, if that would help.
Kipper 30 Dec 2012
In reply to Phil Payne:

The 'Amazon' link is very confusing. It doesn't look like this model has integrated wifi. There also seems to be some speculation that you can't even use a dongle with this model.

OP vincentvega 31 Dec 2012
In reply to Phil Payne:

Im not sure!I dont know if that means it can recieve a wirless signal as it is? It wont find my network so im not sure.
I will speak to LG about that as I need to know how to find a network first!

Cheers

Allan
OP vincentvega 31 Dec 2012
In reply to SARS:

Yes, that would be appreciated!! Just trying to see what options I have, so the more the better.

Thanks

Allan
 SARS 31 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:

I remembered what it's called. It is Q Waves Quick Link.

It's on sale here for £150, but I picked it up from Maplins for around £50.

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/17249184/678453096/Q-Waves-Quicklink-TV-Wirel...

It seems there is also a new version which can handle HD.

I initially bought it to stream Excel to my tv - so I could see my financial stuff up large (sad I know)... but I now use it when I want to stream eg iPlayer to my tv.
OP vincentvega 31 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:

Right, spoke to LG, and I can get a Lg wifi dongle, plug that in the tv's usb and I have a wireless connection to my tv.

Still not solved the issue though!

Allan
OP vincentvega 31 Dec 2012
In reply to SARS:

Thanks, looks good. I will see if I can also pick it up for a smaller cost!

I certainly dont want to be seeing my finances up large, infact id rather not see them at all!

Cheers

Allan
 vark 31 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:
you need to set up a DLNA server. There are a variety of free and paid ways of doing this.
Once your TV is networked you should then be able to see the DLNA server via your TV and play videos (assuming you network speed is up to it).

I have just gone through this process. Father Christmas brought me a Western Digital My Book Live NAS which has Twonky media server built in (about £150 for 3TB). In theory it should have simply been a case of connecting this to my network. Unfortunately the version of Twonky installed was not compatible with Samsung Tvs so I had to update it. If you are going to buy anything a quick google should throw up any compatibility issue. However now i have all my media in one place and accessible via all of the TVs, computers, ipods etc in the house.

Prior to this I just had all of my films on a USB hard drive plugged directly into the TV. This worked better than the NAS in some ways mostly because it was faster than Wifi. If you do not need access around the rest of the network this could be an option.

The only big hassle in all of this has been ripping all of our DVDs to the NAS it is a slow process however you go about it but has now freed up a load of space.
Kipper 31 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:
> (In reply to SARS)
>
> Thanks, looks good. I will see if I can also pick it up for a smaller cost!
>

If you get the LG dongle, and it works, I don't think you'll need anything else. It looks like the TV is DLNA equipped so once connected with the dongle you should be able to stream to it from , for example, Windows Media Player.
In reply to vark:

Yep, been there Samsung TVs and WD NAS - you'd think that being compatible with one of the world's largest TV manufacturers might be high on your feature list when coming up with a new product.

If I was purchasing all our stuff again I'd do a lot of reading of reviews to ensure full compatibility, it's not always obvious what works fully with other kit.

Ripping the DVDs is best done in batches then do a copy once you've got a few done. I found that ripping took around 30% of the run time, so a 2hr movie would take 40mins. Copying takes at least that long and seems to slow the ripping down a little so I only do the copying when I don't have to monitor things.

ALC
 vark 31 Dec 2012
In reply to a lakeland climber:
I was doing it this way but have had to swap to MacX DVD converter pro which will do the the whole rip and convert in one step. Its is producing decent quality copies with no intervention once it is running each disc.
I can't face ripping Blu rays. Life is far too short.
OP vincentvega 31 Dec 2012
In reply to Kipper:

Ah ok, so windows media player 11 is a DLNA server and my tv will be the client, so should work?!

Brilliant Cheers.

Allan
Kipper 31 Dec 2012
In reply to vincentvega:
> (In reply to Kipper)
>
> Ah ok, so windows media player 11 is a DLNA server and my tv will be the client, so should work?!
>

Just fired it up, and it picked up my TV straight away.
 The Lemming 01 Jan 2013
In reply to vark:
> (In reply to vincentvega)
> you need to set up a DLNA server.

I'm confused by the whole concept of DLNA and what it can do. Even after reading the 'Which What is DLNA?' I still don't understand

http://www.which.co.uk/technology/tv-and-dvd/guides/what-is-dlna/

At the moment I have several computers and a phone all hooked up to my NAS box and I can stream what ever I want between them. Does this mean that I have DLNA up and running without realising or intentionally going about setting it up?

I haven't thought about networking my Printer yet because there is no need.

As for ripping DVD's, I have discovered a hassle free process. Quite a few years I decided to transfer all my movies, photos and music onto hard drives to create space in the house along with having a central access point for it all. All this data is now on a NAS box which feeds my media where I want when I want.

When I started ripping my DVD's I'd amassed just short of a couple of hundred DVD titles. I then had the tricky choice of choosing what format to use. But there is a simpler and quicker way which is to let somebody else do the work for you and you just download the film off a torrent site. And before anybody screams 'Pirate', what you are doing is all ready within the grey area of personal backup/pirating to keep lawyers in business for decades.
In reply to The Lemming:

It is actually *quite* simple, it's just that there's a lot of acronyms and pointless technical terms when there's no need for them.

Basically you have sources of media and media players. So your NAS, and possibly your computer are sources and your TV, tablet, smartphone, computers are players. However what you need to get your head around is that something like a computer may be both a source and a player, as what really makes something a source is a program running on it (a server) to send the media over the network.

A DLNA player (client) has software that finds sources on your network and allows you to play them. It's nothing more complicated than that. As you say, if your computers and phone can see the NAS and play content from it then you have DLNA set up.

The law about personal copying is due to change so that it's more in line with common practice - while technically it's illegal to make a personal copy (for backup or whatever), I doubt that anyone has ever been prosecuted for it - you have (hopefully) just one set of ears so whether you listen to the purchased LP/CD or a tape you've made of it then you are unlikely to be listening to the other copy at the same time.

ALC

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