7h ago

Substitutes for a TV?

Not sure a good discussion place to post this. I just want some brainstorming.

Looking for ideas on how to set up a faux-TV in the living room using a computer. I want to put an entertainment center across from the couch and have a place to watch media. But I have no interest in paying for cable/satellite/public broadcasts. (Why pay to be advertised to?)

I have a good collection of shows and movies on external hard drives. I figure I could buy a big monitor and plop it up there with a laptop attached. I could do a makeshift mouse using a game pad and Steam.

I just wanted to check if anyone had alternatives in mind. The mouse situation is suboptimal. Having to get another laptop is also suboptimal. The "TV" would also be about 200cm (6.5ish ft) away from the seating area, so I wonder how expensive an appropriately sized monitor would be. But I can't think of any other way! Any ideas or have I pretty much figured it out?

24 comments

I bought one of those mini PCs for a little over 100 bucks. Used an old laptop before. Hooked it up to a TV (I don't connect the tv to internet). And have a logitech wireless keyboard with trackpad for about 30 dollars.
- $130 for a setup like that sounds pretty awesome. What kind of TV and sound system are you using? Are you mostly just watching locally stored media?

Since you've mentioned you want a single computer to play media you already have, forget Plex. Sure it can be used in this manner but it's overkill. Plex, and other software like it, are best used for streaming from server to client(s).
Building on the Ras pi suggestion, I'd say take a look at osmc on an rpi. (If you go the rpi route, I'd also suggest dropping a lil more cash to have it boot/run from something other than an SD card, ext hd and nvme SSD are both better boot drive options. SD cards have a tendency to bite the dust after a while in single board computers)
Also, since you mentioned being unaware of the steps you should follow to get something like this running, here's a quick guide on how easy it is to get osmc running: https://learn.littlebirdelectronics.com.au/guides/create-a-htpc-media-centre-with-raspberry-pi
- I also endorse the RPi+OSMC route. Another thing to mention about controlling Kodi [the underlying software used by things like OSMC or LibreElec] is that you can generally use any input method you prefer.
  it supports a directly connected keyboard, mouse or controller
  when using a RPi and connected to a television via HDMI, usually CEC will allow you to use your normal remote control - but if your particular TV isn't supported there's also things like Flirc you can plug into a USB port and then customize for your remote
  you can use a web browser from any computer on the network
  there's a bunch of different apps for your mobile phone. On Android the official (free) one is Kore, I prefer the extra features provided by Yatse but after migrating away from using Google Play Services I've had issues keeping the purchased "pro" features unlocked; but it's still a better experience even without them.
  And it's not an either/or scenario, you can use all of the above simultaneously without changing any settings.
- oh that looks like a great guide, thank you! man, something about reddit wikis, i wish they could speak on this level
  
  I wish I could say I was surprised. I remember several great, extensive wikis on various subreddits but no one ever used them, and a lot of others that for which wikis should've been a great feature failed to utilize them properly, if at all. .

there are these hand mice made for giving presentations. They generally use trackball type things but some are gyroscopes and you just move it around in the air.
- oh nice! ive definitely seen those in meeting rooms, usually malfunctioning lol, but i hadnt considered one for home use

I blocked my "smart" TV from the Internet and just had a Raspi hooked up through hdmi. Another comment mentions putting your media library on an old laptop and hiding it in a closet, out of sight. Then you can run Plex/Jellyfin/Web browser on the Pi, with whatever keyboard/mouse you want to control it.
- Interesting! Never heard of Raspberry Pi before. Wow, these things are so cool. Just tiny computers? So you use a television for a display, and you use Raspi for a simple PC that connects to the TV via HDMI? And all you've got on the Raspi is something like Plex?
  
  Yup. You get the Jellyfin server installed on a "real"computer, hooked up to whatever storage you need, then you install a client app on the Pi, or even use a web browser to connect to the server.
  The benefit of keeping them separate;
  you don't have to look at the server and array of hard drives
  you can use any device with a web browser to talk to the server; phones, tablets, even the Amazon fire stick has a Jellyfin client app

I have a projector hooked to a Win10 computer in my living room. I also have another computer on the network stuffed full of music and videos. I've shared these media folders as read only on the network. I use a small wireless keyboard and trackpad to drive it (Logitech K400). I play the video files in VLC. The music I usually just use winamp. Super simple.
In the past I'd tried using the media center servers like MediaPortal, Plex, etc. They're pretty, but I found them to be more problematic than just browsing files in directory. I also watch youtube stuff from time to time so I just open a browser on the WIn10 computer.
The girlfriend sometimes gets a Netflix account for a few months at a time and we watch via a browser instead of using a smartTV app.
I've been doing this for years and it works well for us.
- That sounds ideal! The projector would be hard to set up for how my house is organized, but that's the general idea I'm talking about.
  Also, a little shy to admit this, but I've never had any luck sharing files through the home network. Dunno why, never cared much to look into it. You'd think the best way to get files onto a laptop connected to wifi from a desktop connected to ethernet would be to just share them over the router but it wasn't that easy and I wasn't that determined for a solution. Maybe I should look into that... it's probably as simple as checking the right boxes somewhere.
  
  Sharing files isn't that hard. I'm using Win10 pro so it's as simple as right clicking a folder, selecting properties, selecting the Sharing tab, clicking the share button. Then select the user and the rights they have. Since it's just media files over a local network I usually select "everyone" but only give them read only permissions.
  I use to give read/write permissions but I've accidentally deleted files using the trackpad on the wireless (fat fingers). I figured read only is fine.
  The added plus side to this method is I also have a monitor and computer in the bedroom (I'm an insomniac). From there I can access the same shared files on the "media server" computer.
  To find the files on the network, open Run and put name-of-computer and hit enter. A list of the shared directories will open and you can map these (right click and you'll see the menu option) so they show up in "my computer".
  The only other thing you might have to deal with is the firewall in Windows. But there is a pretty easy option to allow file sharing in the local network.
  And yeah, you need the right space for a projector. Start with an appropriate size monitor and upgrade as needed.
  Also, the Win10 computer I'm using in the living room and bedroom are just really basic computers. They don't need much power since they're only playing movie and music files and sometimes a browser. You can find Lenovo ThinkCentre computers for dirt cheap and they're tiny. These work really well.
  My media server computer is actually one of my older desktop PCs with a hardware raid card and a bunch of drives in RAID1 array. RAID 1 is two drives mirrored so if one fails you don't lose anything. I've been collecting moving and music files for 20+ years so I figured it was nice to have a little redundancy on my collection. But you could use anything and upgrade over time.

I'd look into the HTPC (home theater PC) community. Many of your problems have already been addressed. "htpc keyboard" on Amazon pulls of plenty of options for you to consider
E: If you've got the money to spend, there's no reason to do something as unsightly as external HDDs>laptop>>HDMI>monitor when Plex exists and is plug-and-play. Throw your laptop and drives in a closet or a backroom and put a Roku (or Shield) on the "TV." Much neater and you can navigate with the remote too.
- cool! never heard of it. anything like that around lemmy or must I drege back to the spez heap?
  
  No idea on Lemmy tbh because my interaction with tech community is "something broke and I don't know how to fix it"/// I don't lurk because I have nothing to useful contribute lol
- Damn and they just say "We will not support Laptop Screens or PC Monitors as Home Theater display devices" end of story. Where's the wiki page on "Here's how to connect a CPU to a TV" because I don't even know whether that's possible or not. I swear sometimes ppl who know a lot about tech really don't understand how to talk to people who dont know a lot about tech
- Hmm about Plex, never heard of it before, but it seems like it's just another streaming service? Seems like Roku is the same kind of thing.
  To clarify, I'm not looking to stream from any paid services. No amount of cables or devices are as unslightly as advertisements!
  Also I looked up the HTPC reddit community and yikes their "basic" support is just a bunch of links to standalone CPUs -- that's way over my head!
  
  Plex kind of has to advertise itself as that because it's real product is sort of in the grey area, legally speaking.
  Essentially, a Plex server allows you to stream locally stored files from your computer to any clients running the Plex app. A lot of people use this as a way to watch pirated media.
  For example, I run my server (desktop) in my home office and have several drives attached to it and in one of those drives is "Pride.and.Prejudice.2005.mp4" and because I have my Plex server attached to that file, I can go to my TV and watch Pride and Prejudice (2005) on my sofa. The movie file "moves" through my hard drive into my desktop, then goes through my router and gets streamed into my TV. (A bit of a simplification but it gets the point across.)
  So, no payment necessary to stream media you own through Plex. There is a paid tier but the features it enables are nothing someone wanting to watch movies on their sofa should worry about, all the essential stuff is in the free option.

Book
- not a great way to entertain guests. read the post.

24 comments