I have my computer upstairs, and a TV downstairs. I would like to be able to view video files, movies, and the like on the downstairs TV easily. I’m not worried about games (my upstairs computer has a TV attached via HDMI), so lag is not an issue. My computer is connected to the wireless router via Cats-5 cable, so won’t be sharing bandwidth, and there is a wired access to the router via cable not too far from the TV if needed.
Worse case, I don’t need input access, I can always start a movie upstairs and run downstairs while the kids watch it, but of course that is a big bonus.
So, is there a good device I can attach downstairs that does what I want? I would appreciate and suggestions that y’all might have.
If it’s only for media playing (not actually using the PC for word processing and such), then you need a small media player.
There’s quite a few out there: Amazon FireTV devices, Rokus, etc.
I use a FireTV Stick for this. I have to sideload Kodi* separately, but once set up, I can browse the file system of a computer on the same network and play files on it.
We watched two videos from the basement server last night via Kodi on the AFTV Stick.
This is much simpler than running a cable, figuring out the remote control, etc.
Note: If you have a TiVo attached to your TV, then you can install TiVo Desktop on a PC or Mac and transfer files from the computer to the DVR to watch. Several variations on this theme exist.
This How-To makes it seem harder than it really is. E.g., you no longer need/want an app launcher like Llama to run sideloaded apps on the newest OS.
Chromecast is probably the way to go. It is a dongle that plugs into an HDMI port on the TV and communicates through wifi to devices like smart phones, tablets and computers.