how to watch your computer videos on TV
Lifehacker has a great introductory article on how to connect your computer to the TV and watch your downloaded videos on your TV.
‘You don’t have to watch downloaded video only on your computer screen: hook up your computer to a television to watch video on your hard drive with the big-screen effect.
All you need to do so is a TV out port on your computer and the right cable. Check out the back of your PC or the sides of your laptop for an S-Video port, pictured on the right. (If you don’t have one, video cards with S-Video ports are available for under $100.) Then, check your TV’s inputs. Many TVs have S-Video ports in so you’ll need an S-Video to S-Video cable. If not, an S-Video to RCA cable will work. Connect the computer to the television while the computer’s off and the TV’s on. Then turn on the computer to give your machine the chance to detect it has an external display available.’
This is a great tip – although I must admit that I don’t do it a lot. It just seems a hassle and I usually watch my videos in bed on my laptop (I just realised how that sounds!!)..
Of course the better idea is to have a dedicated computer for this – a media center pc or one of the many linux distros that are dedicated to this role of serving videos and audio content to your TV.
If you have a spare PC lying around, even a old one, then you might want to have a go at setting up your own media centre on the cheap.
MythTv is one such free option – and you can check it out here
Read the full lifehacker article here