streaming video to TV ?

streaming video to TV ?
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pfschim @ 25th Oct 10:21PM:
streaming video to TV ?

I have UVerse 3 way service (phone, Max 18 internet, and TV). I would like to be able to view a video stream from my wireless connected laptop on the TV. I could also stream the video from a desktop machine that has a wired connection to the home network.

It seems like I should be able to do this somehow. All the devices in question are connected to the same home ethernet/wireless network.

as I type this, I recognize that the TV is really not "connected" directly to the network, it is only linked via the DVR.

So, does anyone have a solution for this that does not require me to buy a ton of new gear ?

Thanks
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gdm @ 25th Oct 10:41PM:
Re: streaming video to TV ?

Not going to happen right now. The dvr/stb is what's decoding the signal so you can watch it. Down the road it may change.
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Ken @ 26th Oct 02:02AM:
Re: streaming video to TV ?

said by pfschim :

I would like to be able to view a video stream from my wireless connected laptop on the TV.

Since the software on the DVR/STB is Microsoft's it is possible that at some point they could make the boxes act as Media Center Extenders, but I don't believe that is possible at this time. Without that functionality you would have to buy something else that can act as a media center extender (ie Xbox 360,PS3, another PC) to hook to your tv and could pull media from your laptop.
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NormanS @ 26th Oct 01:46PM:
Re: streaming video to TV ?

I know nothing about Uverse STBs. But I am able to do just that using either a DirecTV DVR receiver, or a D-Link device. You can usually find a "Media Center Extender" from one of the major router manufacturers for upwards of $199. I don't think you actually need a Media Center computer for some of them; an application like TVersity should suffice.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum
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pfschim @ 1st Nov 02:54PM:
Re: streaming video to TV ?

thought I would stop back and close this topic by saying that what I ended up doing was to simply connect my laptop to the TV by way of a good old VGA cable and streamed the video from the web that way. We ran the sound from the laptop through a decent pair of stereo speakers I use for music. The video quality was much better than I expected, particularly when we were able to select an HD source to stream.

Background - FWIW
My wife and I are not regular TV viewers, but have taken to watching various shows (i.e. Sopranos, 30Rock, Mad Men) long after their real-time schedule . In past cases we were able to simply rent or borrow the DVD's for these shows from beginning to end, and watch them when we had the time.

In this case, we were only able to rent the DVDs for the 1st 2 seasons of a particular show, and in the mean time the show had moved on to its current 3rd season. So, we were caught up on the available shows (seasons 1 and 2), and can use the DVR function to grab the current schedule/story line, but needed to catch up by viewing the episodes from this season that we have missed.

My son told me about streaming sites where we could view the episodes we missed in the current season, but I needed to figure out a way to connect the laptop to the TV (mission accomplished). So, this weekend we had a bit of a marathon and are all caught up.

whew, so much trouble for a TV show ;)
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