My TV doesn’t have a USB port. How do I watch digital media on it?
The HDMI output on my laptop isn’t working well lately, so hooking the laptop to TV via HDMI cable doesn’t really work.
I’ve got a chromecast, but that only lets you stream chrome windows. Can I play video media in a chrome window to stream it to the chromecast?
What are my other options? Is my only option buying a DVD player with a USB port? I already have a blu ray player so I’d rather not buy another one if I don’t have to.
I bought something called a WDTV. It’s a media player that I hooked up to a TV, and can plug a USB stick into it, or over Wifi, it can read files on my computer.
I’ve heard chromecast can stream to your tv, but all I get is a black screen and audio when I try that.
I’ve never heard of WDTV. It runs about the same price as a blu ray player with a USB port though. I’m not sure which is better.
I’m hoping there is a way to do this with my chromecast because that way I won’t need to spend any extra money.
My TV has a WiFi receiver, so because I have a router, the TV gets Netflix, Hulu, VUDU, Youtube, and several other things I’ve never used. You can buy a WiFi receiver that hooks up to the TV so that it will receive those services as well. (Google “Roku device with USB port” for an example) and some of them have a USB port, and maybe a microSD port, because they come in different price levels. They are also available integrated into blu-ray/DVD players.
My son’s personal DVD player has a microSD port, so if I really wanted to watch a movie that was stored on my external HD (I have a dedicated one for movie files), I’d hook it up to my laptop and copy a movie to an SD, then hook the portable DVD player to the TV, but I’ve never been moved to do that.
I have a television that I bought from Montgomery Wards, several years ago. Obviously, it’s a really DUMB TV. I would like to be able to watch these digital channels on my television because the picture is still good and I’m too cheap to replace it until it dies. Is there some kind of adapter I can buy that will help me? Please use small, one-syllable words for your explanation.
I’m not sure what your Chromecast options are if you don’t have a USB port.
There are a bunch of other options, depending on how much you want to spend, and what sort of functionality you need. If you DO have to buy something new, i don’t think i’d get another DVD player with a USB port. You’re better off getting something that offer functions that complement the blu-ray player you already have.
One relatively cheap option that will allow you to play files off a USB key is to get a Raspberry Pi, and install a version of the media player software XBMC, called RaspBMC. This set-up should cost you about 70 bucks, and it will play just about any video or audio file that you could put on a USB key.
One downside to this system is that it’s not just plug-and-play, like a WDTV or a Roku box. You’ll need to install the RaspBMC on an SD card, which then goes into the Raspbery Pi. I have one, and overall it works pretty well, and seems to have no trouble running 720p and 1080p video, and my version is one generation old so it doesn’t have quite as much memory and processing power as the new model. It plays MP4, MKV, AVI, ISO, etc., etc.
If you want to spend a bit more, you can get full Windows functionality in a small form factor computer like this one. While it is currently listed at over $300, i got the exact same model on special just over a month ago for $160. If you’re patient, you can get a good deal. At $160, it’s really not much more than a Blu-Ray player (which you already have), and it’s much more versatile than a set-top box like a WDTV or a Roku. Because it’s a fully functional computer, it’s also really easy to use web applications like YouTube, Netflix, TV station websites, etc., etc. You will need a keyboard/mouse combo, preferably wireless, to go with it.
Another option, somewhat similar to the WDTV, is a Roku box. It has a USB port, and will play quite a range of files, but i have encountered a few instances where it has trouble, especially if you encode your files with 5.1 sound. The video will sometimes play, but without sound. I’ve found that re-encoding those files with plain old stereo sound works. Roku also sometimes has a bit of trouble with the video in some MKV files, even though MKV is listed as a supported format.
All of the above options have HDMI outputs, so you can plug them straight into your TV.
Do you mean how to hook a digital antenna to a tv, or how to watch digital media you physically possess on the TV?
I forgot to add this on my OP, but on the TV in question I also have an
Xbox 360
PS3
PS2
Hooked up to the TV. Can any of those be used to stream digital media? Does the PS3 or 360 have a USB port?
I use the PS3 for watching DVDs and blu rays. So I know I can buy a blu ray player that allows me to use USB drives, but I already have the PS3 as my blu ray player.
Apparently if you hit ctrl+o you can open a media file in a chrome screen. So I am doing that but there are problems. There is a lot of lag and failure in the chrome streaming, plus it doesn’t seem to stream anything higher than 720 frame width. At least if I try higher (some of my files are higher quality), I am getting a black screen
Quick Google search shows that both the Xbox and PS3 have USB ports. Didn’t even bother to look up the PS2.
Moving to IMHO, since it’s asking for advice.
Apparently I have 4 different ways to do this with my current setup and none are working. The HDMI cable causes a lot of problems (my PC is about to kick I think). The chromecast is ok as long as the video isn’t in too high a quality, but it skips and pauses and cuts out a lot.
The PS3 recognizes the USB drive but says it is empty and the 360 recognizes the drive but says it cant play the files (avi and mp4 format). This is fun.
As far as the PS3 problem goes, how is your USB key formatted? I believe that you need it to be formatted as FAT in order to work. If it’s formatted NTFS or any other file system, it won’t work.
As for the AVI/MP4 problem, the 360 should play them, but because AVI is just a container, there are myriad possible codecs that it can use, and you can’t always be confident about every single file.
I haven’t used the Chromecast, but I do have the similar Amazon FireTV Stick. (Amazon also makes a larger, more versatile FireTV box.)
I can watch all sorts of Amazon videos. If you have Prime, there’s several free ones. I did a trial Netflix subscription when I got it, and that works. (But the selection is crap.) There’s also apps for various networks and such. E.g., I do PBS, CBS News, etc.
It allows sideloading apps, so I have Kodi (formerly XBMC) to stream stuff from my server. You can also stream HBO, Xfinity on demand, etc. if you are a subscriber. But some of this stuff requires setup and pairing with a Bluetooth keyboard. The original remote is really basic and the onscreen keyboard … isn’t ready for primetime.
(Remember: it is a little Android device on the inside. People out there are running ROM emulators on them and playing classic games and other interesting things.)
No tablet or anything else required. In fact, the Android remote app for the FireTV is a useless joke. But going to Amazon in a browser and selecting apps, videos to add to watchlist, etc. is much easier on a real computer.
Use search to look up “R O K U with USB port.” Find one for $ you can pay, and go buy it.
If your TV is not HD, this may not work out well for you. Ask nice man at store.
A decent DVD player or blu ray player (there is no reason for someone with a 20 year old TV to buy a blu ray player though) will do all those things. It will play amazon prime, netflix, pandora, etc. and it will have a USB port.
With roku you need a roku 3 to play a USB drive. And the roku 3 only has an HDMI port, no RCA ports. Only roku 1 & 2 have that. I’m assuming medstar has a TV that only has S-video, coaxial or RCA inputs.
We have a dumb old standard-def tube TV that gets Netflix through a Nintendo Wii. The Wii is old enough that it had a cable that worked with that TV with the RCA outputs.
I think they make (or did make) Roku with RCA outputs, too.
I’m assuming you are talking about media files that are on your pc or hard drive when you say “digital media”. And yes, you can stream video files using Chromecast, but it looks like you’ve figured it out from your quote below.
Another option would be to use a DLNA server software which will stream content from your laptop to Xbox360 and PS3 for sure, and maybe to your TV and Blu-ray player, depending on their make and model. There are many free options which you can google.
If Chromecast is skipping and pausing, it sounds like you have bandwidths/signal issues with your Wi-Fi. You might have the same issues with DLNA since that depends on your Wi-Fi network, as well.
So I can get some videos to work but not others. I wish the HDMI cable worked, that was very convenient.
Which brings me to my next idea. I have a long ethernet cable (thank you ladies). Can I use a CAT5 cable to connect my laptop to either my xbox 360 or PS3 and stream video from my laptop to my TV that way?
The videos I am finding online are about connecting my PS3 or 360 to the internet by hooking them to the laptop. I’m not interested in that, I want to see if I can stream my laptops screen onto my TV thru my PS3 or 360 using an ethernet cable.
Download Plex on your computer and it will be able to cast to your Chromecast. The computer software is free. For a small fee you can purchase the app to act as a remote so you don’t have to run to the computer to start the media. You can just use your smartphone or tablet. I’ve yet to run I to a video file it won’t run. As a bonus it downloads the meta data for TV shows/movies so it makes it easy to navigate through your collection if you are keeping the files long term.
So far this seems to be working. Thank you. I am getting some files I couldn’t get to work via chromecast or USB to work via plex. This is more convenient than copying to USB and plugging the USB in anyway.