{"id":12104,"date":"2009-09-28T11:28:44","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T16:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=12104"},"modified":"2009-09-28T11:28:44","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T16:28:44","slug":"techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"TechBite: Stream Movies from Your PC to Your TV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/stevewp.jpg\" alt=\"stevewp\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"attachment wp-att-7654 alignleft\" \/><\/p>\n<p>By Steve Bass<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watching Downloaded Movies on Your TV<\/strong><br \/>\n  &quot;Watch movies on my PC? No  way.&quot; I was talking to one of my cousins, not one of the brightest bulbs  in the family. It took me a few minutes to explain how he could send downloaded  movies &#8212; as well as other Internet content, such as TV shows &#8212; to the TV in  his living room. <\/p>\n<p>For the last few months, I&#8217;ve  tried two devices that sit near your TV and grab video content from your PC. Even  in this dreadful economy, neither one I tried is terribly expensive &#8212; and  there are no monthly charges. <\/p>\n<p>Over the next couple of weeks I&#8217;ll  explain how these media streaming devices work. To help you decide if you want  one, I&#8217;ll talk about the pros and cons of how each model works, and some of the  setup hurdles. I&#8217;ll also show you where to get movies and other video content,  both legal and &#8212; hold onto your seat &#8212; illegal. <\/p>\n<p>This week I&#8217;ll cover the  hardware; next week I&#8217;ll tell you where to find movies and TV shows on the  Internet. I&#8217;ll also tell you about a MediaGate portable media player. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Making the PC-to-TV Connection<\/strong><br \/>\n    I tried two devices: Sling  Media&#8217;s $200 <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.slingmedia.com\/go\/slingcatcher\" target=\"_blank\">SlingCatcher<\/a>,  and MediaGate&#8217;s <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mediagateusa.com\/mg800hd.html\">MG-800HD<\/a>,  about $<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mwave.com\/mwave\/skusearch_v3.asp?scriteria=AA48090\" target=\"_blank\">240 discounted<\/a>. I&#8217;ll have specs and descriptions for you in  a minute. Of the two, the MG-800HD is the hands-down winner.<\/p>\n<p>The two are roughly the size of  an external hard drive and come with remote controls with the usual array of  features; the MediaGate includes bookmarking and fast-forward to speeds of 16X.  Each device connects to your TV using component, composite, S-Video, or (if you  have a hoity-toity big screen) HDMI inputs, and each supports both standard Pal  and high-definition video, up to 1080i.<\/p>\n<p>Audio-out is a typical left-right  stereo or (if your TV has it) coaxial or optical digital. Each device has USB  and network inputs, and supports Windows XP and Vista. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" name=\"c\" id=\"c\"><\/a>Connections: Pros and Cons<\/strong><br \/>\n    Understanding the five ways these  products&#8211;and others like them&#8211;push a movie from the PC to your TV will help  you understand which one is the best fit for you. <\/p>\n<p><strong>External Hard Drive:<\/strong> Copy the video files onto an external hard  drive or Flash drive, and connect it to the device&#8217;s USB port.<br \/>\n<strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Positives:<\/strong> About the  easiest method &#8212; literally plug and play. The movie starts almost immediately.  The hard drive can store lots of movies; the size of the Flash drive limits  you. <br \/>\n  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Negatives:<\/strong> You&#8217;ll need to buy an  external drive, or Flash drive, and schlep it to your computer to delete movies you&#8217;ve watched and refill it  with new movies; the drive can be noisy. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Internal Hard Drive:<\/strong> Install a hard drive into the device.<br \/>\n<strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Positives:<\/strong> Installing the drive isn&#8217;t difficult; again, the drive can store lots of movies  and the movie starts almost immediately. It&#8217;s handy to take the device with you  to, say, a hotel, or a friend&#8217;s house, and connect it to their TV to watch  movies. (You can do this with an external hard drive, too, but it&#8217;s not as  convenient.)<br \/>\n  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Negatives:<\/strong> You&#8217;ll need to buy a hard  drive&#8211; mine is 40GBs; detaching the device from the TV and bringing it to your  PC to load more movies is a hassle; the drive, and small fan in the device, can  be noisy. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Hard-wired Network:<\/strong> Movies are sent from your PC or server over your network, hard-wired  from your router, using standard network CAT 5 wiring.<br \/>\n<strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Positives:<\/strong> You don&#8217;t  need an extra internal or external hard drive; all file management is done on  your PC; with a network connection, and access to the Internet, you watch  YouTube and view other content directly from the Internet.<br \/>\n  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Negatives:<\/strong> You&#8217;ll need to have a  network cable running from your router to the device at the TV. Configuring the  device to recognize the network ranges from a five-minute job to being lengthy and  challenging. You&#8217;ll also need to have an available port on your router. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Wireless Network:<\/strong> Movies are on your PC or server and beamed over  your wireless network.<br \/>\n<strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Positives:<\/strong> You don&#8217;t  have to crawl under the house to lay cable; as with the wired network, you  won&#8217;t need an internal or external hard drive; all file management is done on  your PC; access to Internet content. <br \/>\n  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Negatives:<\/strong> Like the hard-wired  option, setup can be difficult &#8212; or surprisingly easy &#8212; depending on your  computing skills and the complexity of your network. Streaming can sometimes  stutter if the distance between your Wi-Fi router and the device is great, or  if there are walls blocking the signal. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Screen Capture:<\/strong> Whatever is displayed on the PC&#8217;s monitor is  captured and streamed to the TV.<br \/>\n<strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Positives:<\/strong> The device  doesn&#8217;t need codecs, so you can watch <em>any<\/em> video that displays on your PC&#8217;s monitor &#8212; YouTube, Windows Media Player  output, Netflix streaming video, and even PowerPoint presentations. (For  details on codecs, read <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.techbite.com\/newsletter\/1\/techbite-steve-bass-a-fix-for-my-video-wont-play\" target=\"_blank\">A Fix for &quot;My Video Won&#8217;t Play!<\/a>&quot;). Installing the  device is straightforward.<br \/>\n  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Negatives:<\/strong> You&#8217;ll need to have a  network cable running from your router to the device at the TV; Wi-Fi isn&#8217;t  available. Poor-quality video on the PC looks worse when displayed on the TV.  The PC has to be turned on and you have to start capture software from the PC;  it takes a while to get used to the interface. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" name=\"h\" id=\"h\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aweber.com\/b\/14KGw#w\" target=\"_blank\">How Well Do They Work?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>TechBite&#8217;s columnist Steve Bass and PC World Contributing Editor publishes a free weekly newsletter with commentary on the technology products he loves, the strategies for getting the most out of them,and the gotchas that can cause computing misery. Sign up for the newsletter <a href=\"http:\/\/techbite.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/techtalk.pcpitstop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/stevewp.jpg\" alt=\"steveb\" class=\"attachment wp-att-7167 alignleft\" \/><\/p>\n<p>By Steve Bass<\/p>\n<p>Watch movies on my PC? No  way.&quot; I was talking to one of my cousins, not one of the brightest bulbs  in the family. It took me a few minutes to explain how he could send downloaded  movies &#8212; as well as other Internet content, such as TV shows &#8212; to the TV in  his living room. <\/p>\n<p>For the last few months, I&#8217;ve  tried two devices that sit near your TV and grab video content from your PC. Even  in this dreadful economy, neither one I tried is terribly expensive &#8212; and  there are no monthly charges. <\/p>\n<p>This week I&#8217;ll cover the  hardware; next week I&#8217;ll tell you where to find movies and TV shows on the  Internet. I&#8217;ll also tell you about a MediaGate portable media player. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":66012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[157,2587,2588,2589,278],"class_list":["post-12104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-techbite","tag-external-hard-drive","tag-hoity-toity","tag-sling-media","tag-standard-pal","tag-steve-bass"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>TechBite: Stream Movies from Your PC to Your TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Steve Bass Watch movies on my PC? No way.&quot; I was talking to one of my cousins, not one of the brightest bulbs in the family. It took me a few minutes to explain how he could send downloaded movies -- as well as other Internet content, such as TV shows -- to the TV in his living room. For the last few months, I&#039;ve tried two devices that sit near your TV and grab video content from your PC. Even in this dreadful economy, neither one I tried is terribly expensive -- and there are no monthly charges.  This week I&#039;ll cover the hardware; next week I&#039;ll tell you where to find movies and TV shows on the Internet. I&#039;ll also tell you about a MediaGate portable media player.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TechBite: Stream Movies from Your PC to Your TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Steve Bass Watch movies on my PC? No way.&quot; I was talking to one of my cousins, not one of the brightest bulbs in the family. It took me a few minutes to explain how he could send downloaded movies -- as well as other Internet content, such as TV shows -- to the TV in his living room. For the last few months, I&#039;ve tried two devices that sit near your TV and grab video content from your PC. Even in this dreadful economy, neither one I tried is terribly expensive -- and there are no monthly charges.  This week I&#039;ll cover the hardware; next week I&#039;ll tell you where to find movies and TV shows on the Internet. I&#039;ll also tell you about a MediaGate portable media player.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PC Matic Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-28T16:28:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Bass\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Bass\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Bass\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/840d4a46894845cda5ff692010eebbf3\"},\"headline\":\"TechBite: Stream Movies from Your PC to Your TV\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-28T16:28:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1066,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"keywords\":[\"external hard drive\",\"hoity toity\",\"sling media\",\"standard pal\",\"steve bass\"],\"articleSection\":[\"TechBite\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/\",\"name\":\"TechBite: Stream Movies from Your PC to Your TV\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/techbite-stream-movies-from-your-pc-to-your-tv\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-28T16:28:44+00:00\",\"description\":\"By Steve Bass Watch movies on my PC? No way.&quot; I was talking to one of my cousins, not one of the brightest bulbs in the family. It took me a few minutes to explain how he could send downloaded movies -- as well as other Internet content, such as TV shows -- to the TV in his living room. For the last few months, I've tried two devices that sit near your TV and grab video content from your PC. Even in this dreadful economy, neither one I tried is terribly expensive -- and there are no monthly charges. This week I'll cover the hardware; next week I'll tell you where to find movies and TV shows on the Internet. 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This week I'll cover the hardware; next week I'll tell you where to find movies and TV shows on the Internet. 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No way.&quot; I was talking to one of my cousins, not one of the brightest bulbs in the family. It took me a few minutes to explain how he could send downloaded movies -- as well as other Internet content, such as TV shows -- to the TV in his living room. For the last few months, I've tried two devices that sit near your TV and grab video content from your PC. Even in this dreadful economy, neither one I tried is terribly expensive -- and there are no monthly charges. This week I'll cover the hardware; next week I'll tell you where to find movies and TV shows on the Internet. 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