Movies to TV?

[theeldergeek]

I have a 'few' AVI's downloaded off the net that I would like to be able to play on my TV.

I have burned the AVI's to DVD, but the quality is a bit 'jerky', so I thought I'd go down the direct route of playing them 'electronically' to my TV.

I store the AVI's on my network at home, so ideally, I want something that will hook up to my (basic) TV and allow me to play from the network.

My TV has 2 SCARTS (both in use) and a spare phono input (Red, White and Yellow connector.

Buffalo do a Linktheater which looks to do what I need (basically, play films that are in electronic format) but I wondered if there was anything else?

I don't have a huge amount of money to throw at this, but if there is an all-in-one box solution rather than a 'million' more cables and connectors, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

TIA

[Quackers]

If you have an old Xbox you can turn them into a Media Center

XBMC //

You can get them second hand for less than 40quid in places like game station.

[MyDejaVu]

I would suggest you try and get information from somewhere else , that sort of topic is not discussed in here, Moderators might rise this to you.

[Hightower]

I would suggest you try and get information from somewhere else , that sort of topic is not discussed in here, Moderators might rise this to you.

What do you mean not discussed? Nothing has been said out of line in my eyes?

I'd say go down the Xbox route. Other than that, can you not get a decent video card with s-vid out or something and plug that direct to your TV?

[ninjabeaver]

I use my XBox 360 for that at home. Works a treat. I have just got a manualy switchable SCART box as well, and run the sound through my amp into the surround sound system. Works good and looks quite flashy to,

There is a Unix based Media Centre out there as well which looks rather nice, but I've not had the time to try it.

[MyDejaVu]

when someone refers to "'few' AVI's downloaded " what sort of videos would you think we are talking about in here...? if you search through the forums you will see that advice for any activity which would be considered dubious regarding legality is not encouraged within edugeek.

[Gatt]

Erm.. i think what MyDejaVu may be trying to imlpy is whether these "AVI's" are a source of Copyright Infringement or not (IE have you paid for them?)

[Hightower]

Is that any business of EduGeek though? This chap is asking for a solution and as far as I am concerned they are something like holiday footage he has taken with a camcorder.

Anything past that is not my problem or worry.

[somabc]

The question of whether or not the avi files are copyrighted is irrelevant, let us assume that they are not.

I have been down this route before.

You can connect your PC to your tv via S-Video / SCART but this will look like s**t. (Cost=£10-20 for cables)

You can use an external box as a substitute for your PC ie an old Xbox with XBMC, this will look better but again probably not as good as you would hope. (cost = £50+ for Xbox)

You best bet is to get a TV that supports VGA or HDMI (DVI) input then you can hook your PC up to the TV and enjoy proper HDTV. (Cost = £200+ for new TV)

[srochford]

I'd guess another question to ask is if the files look OK played on the PC? If not, then whatever you to do connect to the TV is going to make it worse just because you've got a much bigger picture.

[localzuk]

I simply have a s-video cable that goes from my PC to the tv and plugs into an s-video to phono adapter.

As my GFX card already had TV out, it only cost me about £20 in cables and an adapter.

[LeMarchand]

I just use the video out from my video card (composite video) and plug it and the sound into a SCART adapter and then a SCART switchbox, but you could just use your existing sockets. Assuming your card can do this and your PC isn't too far away from the TV - total cost about a fiver for the lead, up to £20 if you need adapters and switch boxes. Always looked OK to me.

You could also get a cheap DivX compatible DVD player (£20-£30) and burn your files as data or if you have a spare HDD lurking you could get a media enclosure.

[Michael]

I have burned the AVI's to DVD, but the quality is a bit 'jerky', so I thought I'd go down the direct route of playing them 'electronically' to my TV.

So if you play the AVI's directly on your PC the quality is ok, but when burning/converting to DVD it appears jerky? It could well be the conversion process and/or software you're using. I've used WinAVI which is very good and can recommend.

And regarding the issue of piracy, it isn't illegal to download AVI's, but what you're downloading may be copyrighted. Just like many believe Bitorrent is illegal, it isn't. It's what you download which can be illegal. Let's give Tx2online the benefit of the doubt

[theeldergeek]

I would suggest you try and get information from somewhere else , that sort of topic is not discussed in here, Moderators might rise this to you.

I wasn't aware I had to divulge what I do in my own home or make a declaration my activities weren't in any way illegal before posting?

If I had said "I want to watch pirated films I've downloaded via BitTorrent" then you would have been right to say what you did. But I didn't, and I don't, but thanks for the integrity check!

For the sake of brevity, the films are - in the main - training type films of video editing packages from sites such as Wrigley, along with footage obtained from other videographers which we review from time to time. I am a wedding videographer in my spare time, FYI.

We want to play these films to a more wider, non-paying audience than can be gathered around a laptop screen, namely my TV in my living room. As this is an ongoing 'project', I want a more permanent solution.

The training videos themselves are freely available for download from sites such a Wrigley, so I doubt there is any copyright issue, at least, not in the way you imply.

I don't even know what they will look like on the 'big screen', but they play OK on the laptop, so the hunch is that they will be OK on the TV. I'm not too fussed about quality if they don't.

As for going down the Xbox route, I'll investigate, but I think I'd prefer a retail 'off the shelf' option as I don't have a lot of time to give up to get this working if the Xbox option is in any way time consuming.

Thanks to all.

[CyberNerd]

I use tovid to make dvds from avi's.
no jerkyness problems.
s-video works too.

when someone refers to "'few' AVI's downloaded " what sort of videos would you think we are talking about in here...?

you have a dirty mind