Answer to: Video from computer to TV and video player +

1019 Views 10 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Jabber Wocky, Jul 22, 2018

Steve_S

Discussion Starter · Feb 23, 2018

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 !

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Jabber Wocky

· #11 · Jul 22, 2018

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.

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