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How can I play videos downloaded from my computer on a TV without network connectivity features? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 day ago by BinzyBoi@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Sorry if this doesn't belong here, more than happy to be pointed in the right direction if it doesn't.

I wanna do movie nights with friends where we watch movies together in the living room on my TV. I have a DVD player and VCR I got from the thrift shop as well as a few movies for both. However, I was thinking it would also be fun to expand the options available by downloading a bunch of public domain movies to play on the TV. Only issue is figuring how I'd work that all out.

The TV lacks any network connectivity features. While it has a USB slot, it can literally only detect pictures and set them up for slideshows. Even tried putting some video files on to test and it won't detect at all. Also because my computer is a desktop, connecting it directly to the TV from the other room is a no-go.

Is there some sort of device that serves this kind of purpose? Like something I can download videos to, and then connect it to my TV in a similar sense you would a DVD or VCR and be able to choose the content on the device using a remote? I'd really appreciate the help and pointers if this is something that exists.

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[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 21 hours ago

I have a few devices that serve this purpose. The one I'd recommend is Kodi. This is a non-commercial media center program that has one purpose in life: play media files on the TV.

IIRC you can buy some commercial devices that come with Kodi pre-installed, with a USB port. You could also set up a shared network folder. I haven't researched any of these.

What worked best for me was a raspberry pi with libreelec installed -- an operating system that makes it easy to run Kodi. You can even control it by default with the TV's remote control, just through the HDMI connection. Make sure you have a good quality power supply.

The other thing I've used is a steam link, but it is a little clunky to get it to play smoothly over the network.