Desktop to tv

August 1, 2009 3:56 PM

I want to view my desktops screen on my TV. Using my desktop, and laptop connected to my tv.

I want to be able to watch movies i play on my desktops bluray drive on my TV which has my laptop plugged into it. I would much rather go over my home network than stream to the web. I am pretty good at maintaining and working on individual computers but am lost when it comes to network stuff.

posted by dstopps to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Your network is (probably) not going to have the bandwidth or latency necessary to stream high-def (BluRay) content.

Plus, the standard methods of doing said streaming aren't going to work with any of the BluRay software I've seen. I don't think any of them support, for instance, UPnP streaming.

The sorts of solutions that simply relay the entire screen are also not likely to work. If your computer is running Windows, those screen streamers probably won't even capture the video (they'll just get a big magenta box) since the decoding is usually done in hardware. Furthermore, Vista has some pretty annoying DRM around its high-def video playback, which will probably impede your progress.

And, if you can get the screen streamer to see the video, these programs work by compressing the video stream before sending it. You're going to get atrocious quality, as compared to the original video.

Were I trying to watch BluRay on my TV, I'd either move my desktop or buy a firewire BluRay drive for my laptop. However, perhaps somebody else has a more positive answer for you.
posted by Netzapper at 4:19 PM on August 1

You may be able to use a tool like AnyDVD HD to have laptop play the disc/files directly (over a network share) instead of trying to play on your desktop and stream to your laptop. Or you could just rip the BR onto your PC first.

Also you'll probably need a wired connection (N wireless may work but its a YMMV).
posted by wongcorgi at 4:27 PM on August 1

If you have a HD TV and an HDMI out on your laptop, this should be fine. As far as streaming, I doubt it.
posted by k8t at 5:03 PM on August 1 [1 favorite]

blu ray drive could be made external, but I cannot determine if the laptop (dell vostro 1000) is hdcp compatible. Anyone added a HD DVD or Blu-ray drive to this laptop?
posted by dstopps at 5:49 PM on August 1