[Steve_S]

Hi folks, I have seen questions semi related to subject so I figured to post a separate thread for it, hopefully this will help others.

All modern LED TV's have HDMI inputs and usually more than one even. You can get an HDMI Video Cable and run that from your computer video to the TV & just change which input your using on the TV's remote and use the TV as your screen. Then you can download in various video formats, AVI, MP4, DivX, MKV etc and use a player like VLC which can play & convert video formats too plus and watch your videos etc on your TV. In fact I use an LG 47" LED "TV" as my computer screen this way for several years (has never actually been hooked to Cable or antenna) and it's nice to have it that way. There are also settings in the TV's if your using them for a computer screen so you can tweak & optimize if needed. Also if connecting a computer to a TV via cable, windows PC's and Mac's as well (Linux likely too but not sure) will recognize & identify the TV make & model and setup accordingly.

Wireless HDMI is also available which will send the video & audio wirelessly to your TV from your computer if a cable is not an option. Here is a recent review of some, many others are out there too but stick to name brand known products. https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-wireless-hdmi-video-transmitter/

VLC Media Player:
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

There are many "Video Players" out there and with various features, I have tried several but VLC is free, open-source with regular updates and generally has more features and capabilities beyond even commercial retail software and has never been a problem.

Another good item to keep in your Video Toolkit for downloading videos is a "two piece" kit.
Part-1 is YouTube-dl which is a commandline utility capable of downloading videos from numerous sites. nothing illegal or nasty about it, it simply uses the stream channels and saves the video for you. Their Site: http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

Part-2 is a nice graphical interface, making it easier to use is youTubeDLFrontEnd (for windows) which is also a free utility provided by Cresstone https://cresstone.com/apps/youtubeDLFrontEnd/ I don't know if there is a similar front end for Linux or Mac but likely there is.

I am not a Mac or Linux user so I can't help there but VLC & YouTubeDL are available for Mac, Linux etc... there may be other options too but these two tools have a long running good history and quite capable of doing what they are intended to do.

Good Luck & hope it helps out !
Have a Marvelous Day ! ​

 

[Gary in ohio]

our making the assumption the compute has HDMI out.

 

[Steve_S]

The vast majority of computer's today, be they lappies to desktops have HDMI out with video/audio. All current & recent TV's from LCD to LED have HDMI input(s) and usually more than one port as well. If your computer does not, there are adapters (and some LED TV's / Projectors also have SVGA inputs too) that can be used, or simply changing the video card to new standards (if the computer you use is less than 5 years old) and not a laptop with a fixed video system. There are also VGA to HDMI adapters which do work but that's a stopgap to extend the life of out of date hardware.

 

[motdaugrnds]

Thanks for the information. I'm thinking of downloading all 3 of those you mentioned above. Will they work with my new "Microsoft refurbished" Windows 10?

 

[Steve_S]

I was an early adopter of Win 10 and yes, these products, including RealPlayer & RealConverter work perfectly well on Windows 10. I used RealPlayer for a while but found it limited as to where it would download videos from, whereas YoutubeDL does most all streaming videos and it is faster, but the extra interface software YoutubeDl FrontEnd is not as "pretty" as it could be, it's clean & efficient and once you get the hang of it (quite simple) it's a treat.

I have also done a lot of video format conversions and most are pretty, many are tediously slow and that varies depending on the format, say DivX converting to MP4, so I set on just using VLC to convert which is fast and efficient. *TIP If you have an SSD hard drive, that's the drive to put your videos on for conversion, it really makes a difference because of the constant read, write and buffering.

I have a personal library of some 3500 movies alone, plus 1000 or so documentaries and then tv-series' which I have collected over the years... thank goodness they make Terrabyte Drive for cheap !

 

[motdaugrnds]

Steve_S Thank you so much for the information. In looking over this new Windows 10 I found I had the VLC free video. It is "VLC media player 2.2.6 umbrella made by VideoLAN community. It uses its internal codecs, words on essentially every popular platform and can read almost all files, CDs, DVDs, network streams, capture cards and other media formats!"
Is this the same as "Real Player"?
I did not find the other items mentioned in that other thread where I initially was inquiring. These are:
Part-1 is YouTube-dl and the Part-2 YouTubeDLFrontEnd
If the VLC is not the same as Real Player, should I uninstall the VLC and get the "Real Player" then get those two as well?

Sorry my understanding of all this is obviously showing; so please be patient with my learning.

 

[JoeBuffaloWing]

Actually there's not much need for plugging your computer into an HDMI input on a TV anymore since most BD/DVD players for the TV come with a USB port for plugging in a thumbdrive. So nowadays you can just put your movie files on a thumbdrive and just plug that into the USB port on the BD/DVD player.

 

[mnn2501]

We've had a laptop hooked up to our TV for years now via HDMI cable.
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, You Tube all come in just fine by themselves with no additional program.
You just need to change the input device on your TV.

 

[RoBlaine]

I use Linux, Linux-Mint with the Mate desktop style. I've used it since 2012 and other builds of Linux since 2007. I'll never use Microsoft for my own use ever again. My wife also decided to switch to Linux from Vista in 2008 and has not had any need or desire to go back to Windoze. She watched over my shoulder and loved how easy and stable it was, compared to her brand new Vista. She's actually using a newer version of Mint than I am right now!
I have a Netflix account and its super-easy to hook up to any TV with a HDMI connection or any other monitor. Its simple plug and play. VLC is one of the standard media players that are included in the software package when installing most Linux-Mint versions. I can either download YouTube videos or go online and play them, and videos from other sources through a TV as well. I have Youtube-dl. I don't have the graphical front end for it, I use it through the command line.
A couple of years ago my one brother-in-law passed away and I put together a 'PowerPoint' presentation with Libre Office: pictures and a mix of his favorite music. I hooked right into his church's AV system and played it on their screen and speaker system during the early part of his funeral. Then at the end I played the most haunting audio of 'Amazing Grace' on bagpipes. Again, it was simple plug and play. I did tweak the video contrast just a bit.
Several years ago there were some coins that needed to be closely examined. I hooked up a webcam mounted over a table with non-glare overhead lighting, ran that through a Linux program called 'Cheese', a webcam handler. I hooked to a large screen HDMI TV and then enlarged the video stream with another Linux program, a screen magnifier called 'KMag'. We zoomed in and could more than easily make out the grooves and scratches inside the scratches on the coins and could have gone larger yet. KMag also has settings that simulate the major types of color blindness, so in effect, I could also 'stain' the video stream to bring out other details. And of course, screenshots and desktop session video recordings are a breeze. That was a microscope setup limited only by the quality of the webcam.

 

[frank b]

"Actually there's not much need for plugging your computer into an HDMI input on a TV anymore since most BD/DVD players for the TV come with a USB port for plugging in a thumbdrive. So nowadays you can just put your movie files on a thumbdrive and just plug that into the USB port on the BD/DVD player."


I don't have a USB port on my DVD. How can I play movies save to a thumbdrive?

 

[Jabber Wocky]

There is a much easier answer to this: Chromecast.

https://store.google.com/product/chromecast_2015

Setup is really simple. After setup, you basically "cast" the video you want from your computer/phone to the chromecast plugged into the tv you want the video to play on. This works with all Windows (7 / 8 / 10) and Android Phones and iPhones. Been using one for several years now.