Viewing downloaded films on television.

[styley]

Can anyone tell me of any options available to me that would allow me to watch a movie on the tv that I've downloaded onto my computer. Is there any sort of a lead that does this or scart transmitter receiver device?

[markysngc]

If you have a modern lcd or plasma you may have a standard pc monitor port on it, in which case you can simply use it as your monitor.

otherwise you need a graphics card with either a s-video or composite output on it, check next to where the monitor plugs in on the back off computer and see if there are either a little round yellow socket or a black one that looks a bit like a mouse or keyboard socket.

The yellow one is composite, the black is s-video, if you have either of these you already have the correct outputs and just need to sort out a lead.

Have a check to see if you have either and say which and i'll point you in the direction of correct lead

[styley]

The only 2 points on the monitor are the power and a nine pin lead coming from the computer. The tv only has a scart and aerial inputs. The DVD player has scart, video and s video inputs.

[markysngc]

no I meant on the back of your computer

[markysngc]

if you have the make and model number of the computer post that back

[styley]

Its a Dell model no. E177FPb. But as I say there's only 2 inputs on it, one for power and one in from the PC, which looks to be a 9 pin serial lead and no other connections.

[markysngc]

Dell model no. E177FPb is a monitor not a computer

The computer is the boxy thing that everything else plugs into

[styley]

Sorry, totally misunderstood you there. The computer is a Dell Dimension 3100.

[markysngc]

that model has no outputs for connecting to a tv, (strange as it is sold as a media pc!) it also has a very limited capacity to upgrade the video card due to only having a PCIe 1x connector on the board.

There are ways you could connect it to a normal television but they are going to be either expensive or of a low quality

You can either purchase a PCIe graphics card which has a composite or s-video output install it and then also purchase the correct leads to connect to your television or purchase a converter box that will convert your current 15pin vga to a signal that is suitable for connection to a television, the second option would also require you to either unplug your monitor from the back of the computer each time you wanted to watch films on the TV or to also get a vga splitter to enable you to run two video outputs from one

If anyone else can suggest another way please jump in

[Huderon]

ummm ... Well before I say any more, I don't know how these gadgets actually work, though I'm sure if they are daft suggestions someone will be along in a moment to explain why ... and they may be a bit expensive for what you want too

Maplin (and no doubt other places) sell a (and I quote from their offers leaflet) multimedia player/recorder network hard drive enclosure which it says allows you to play back from your PC onto your TV. Does a few other things too, like reording from the TV or other AV kit, but it's �69.99 so may be too much. They also sell a mini wireless audio/video sender so you can send digital TV from say a freeview box to a TV upstairs. The blurb says it's compatible with most video sources and includes PCs in the list, so I guess you could hook it up to your PC and send to the TV. That runs at �24.99

[TEAK36]

I have a media centre like the type mentioned by huderon. Basically, it is a 500GB external hard drive that is plugged into my laptop and I download my movies/music,etc onto it.The drive is also connected to my tv via scart, and comes with a remote control, and when I want to watch something I just switch my tv over and use the remote to select which movie I want to watch. it's a great bit of kit and I could'nt do without it.

The only downside is that when you want to watch some thing, the drive cannot be connected to the laptop,but all I do is just pull out the USB cable on my laptop, and then plug it back in after I have finished watching the movie.

[styley]

Thanks. Looks like I'm gonna have to invest in some sort of a device. I kind of thought that there may have been some handy little USB gadget that would have worked a little miracle but guess not. Time to get out the savings book?

[fo3nix]

Here's what I do:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000G2Y59E? ie=UTF8&tag=ny-21

Cheap DVD player that is easily made multiregion, and crucially plays divX files. (Or indeed, XviD.)

If the downloaded file is already a .avi, it may just play by burning the file to a CD-RW or DVD-RW. Just put it in the player and see if it works. Usually it does.

Else, you'll need to convert your downloaded file to a DivX file, using something like Videora (free converter). Then burn that file to a CD-RW and watch.

If you don't fancy the messing about with DVDs, and have a wireless network at home, you could invest in an Apple TV (�200), that will play your stuff for you.

[markysngc]

you could also keep you eye out for a cheap new or decent priced second hand laptop with either a composite or s-video output, which most do have and use that as your video player, you would also then gain the benifits of having a leptop for other uses too.

[TEAK36]

Another option, and this is what I used to do before I got my media hard drive, is to buy a cheap DVD Player with a USB port, and transfer your movies from your pc to a USB pen drive.

[styley]

I didn't know that would work. Can you put divx onto a pen drive and play it?

[fo3nix]

If the player supports DivX (the model I linked to above has a USB drive that supports DivX).

However, there is an issue here. The throughput of USB1.1 (what they all come with) isn't quite enough as desired, so you may see some slight stuttering of the video.

(DVD has more throughput so it's still better to just burn a DVD�RW with lots of avi files on it.)