A mate of mine gave me a bunch of movies put on my external hard drive which I can look at on my laptop no problem, but I want to watch them on my flat screen TV. My laptop has 3 USB ports and I believe a VGA and a square looking port beside the VGA one, I believe I need some sort of converter? And I would like to buy local if possible oh, the sound through the telly or stereo too!

Thanks guys






                                       Mmick

There are a few option, maybe even more...however here some

One option is to get a Multiable Media Center / Player or the like from Dick Smith / Harvey Norman etc.
There are a few types:

For option 1&2 is to get a Media Center or the like from Dick Smith / Harvey Norman etc.

http://dicksmith.com.au/product/XH1208/wdtv-hd-live-media-player   (No Hard Drive)

http://dicksmith.com.au/product/XM1270/wdtv-live-hub-1tb-media-drive  (1Tb Hard Drive)

1) Has a internal harddrive which you save your movies/photos/music etc to, then it connects to your TV like a video/DVD player etc, and has it's own remote control

2) Same as above, however it is just the convertor, you plug a external hard drive / usb into it, and it plays (handy as if the hard drive die's, you just plug a new one into it)

For option 1&2 is to get a Media Center or the like from Dick Smith / Harvey Norman etc.

3) A TV converter for your PC (a little out dated now) though they have some very funky wireless versions now

4) If it is a newer digital/ plasma/LCD TV it should  have a PC input, and a funky cable which plugs into your monitor out port on your PC, you will then also need to use another cable to connect your speaker output to a input on your TV/DVD. however you will need to start/stop/pause movie from our PC, and if you have a screen saver that kicks in automatically when a movie is playing it tends to drive you to  

Quote from: cabron on August 18, 2011, 08:28:06 PM
There are a few option,

Go and buy the bloody movies Mmmmmmmmick, you tight ars      

If your tv has usb ports on the back, just plug your external usb hdd into the back of the tv with a usb cable! FREE nothing else needed.

then just use your tv remote control "input selector" (ie: tv, av1, av2, usb) and select whatever corresponds to your USB HDD and select movie, press play!

(geek note: depending on the codec's used to encode the movies and brand of tv, some movies may/may not play, some movies may play but no sound, or sound outta synch. Then the cheapest option then would be to use option 4 from cabron)

Quote from: monstermick58 on August 18, 2011, 08:13:44 PM
A mate of mine gave me a bunch of movies put on my external hard drive which I can look at on my laptop no problem, but I want to watch them on my flat screen TV. My laptop has 3 USB ports and I believe a VGA and a square looking port beside the VGA one, I believe I need some sort of converter? And I would like to buy local if possible oh, the sound through the telly or stereo too!

Easiest way is to figure out if you have a VGA port (most laptops do) and buy a 10ft VGA cable that'll go to a composite video input. Then buy another 10ft cable for stereo mini to stereo television input (e.g. mini jack to red/white cable connectors). You can grab all of those from http://monoprice.com on the cheap.

Send me the model of your TV and will point you in the right direction of what you will need.

Cabron 's point 4 is the one to go for as the cheapest option.

Thanks Nick,
     I cannot find the manual (found other manuals for equipment we dont have) but I have the invoice.

    Toshiba 40CV550 102cm HD LCD TV





                         Mmick

Ok Mmick, had a look. All you will need is a standard Vga cable with mini jack audio. The LCD panel's resolution is 1920x1080, which the PC may or may not deliver, depend on it's age. If it's a it older, a simple trick is to make sure it's only sending video to either the internal or external display, not both. You can set the PC to a different resolution, but it will loom the next at the LCD labels native resolution..

With regard to the cable, here's somewhere for you to get a reasonable cost one:

http://www.dueltek.com.au/store/products.asp?T1=1&T2=3&T3=1&Brand=

Quote from: goldFiSh on August 22, 2011, 06:39:52 AM
http://www.dueltek.com.au/store/products.asp?T1=1&T2=3&T3=1&Brand=

Goldie... Surely an audio industry professional, such as yourself, would only recommend a premium quality cable which feature "high speed" analogue signal technology.   
http://www.monstercable.com/digital_life/categories/vga.asp
http://www.monstercable.com/home_av/audio_cables/1_8_inch.asp

Mick another option is popping down to the local computer shop and grabbing a VGA cable and a separate audio cable.
http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf
5m M-M High Definition VGA Cable A-Power -- $8
Ritmo For iPod - DC3.5 Male Input Cable / Audio Cable -- $3 or $7  (you're just after a 3.5mm male stereo <--> 3.5mm male stereo connector.. surely one of these is it)


The following is from page 30 of your TV's User Manual.

mick by max_hobbs, on Flickr

Let us know if you're stuck... I can grab you the bits you need on Thursday and give them to you on Thursday night if you're coming up?


Cheers,
M

Youse blokes are tops. 

             When I can get into town I will grab these cables.





                                    Mmick

Quote from: cabron on August 18, 2011, 08:28:06 PM

One option is to get a Multiable Media Center / Player or the like from Dick Smith / Harvey Norman etc.
There are a few types:

For option 1&2 is to get a Media Center or the like from Dick Smith / Harvey Norman etc.

as both dick smith and gerry harvey are lobbying pretty hard to reduce the import free threshold to zero (the greedy bastards) i for one have decided to shop elsewhere.
just food for thought

Max, in all seriousness, I would not bother going to that length with a short haul cable, and by that I am talking 5 meters or less, which is the likely scenario for an adhoc (not installed) analogue connection.

Very different story for digital connections, by the way..

And in terms of quality cable, I would point you in the direction of Extron cables or similar.. Cables of known design and manufacture used in professional applications; well regarded and supported..

Then integrated cable was a suggestion based on the best functional outcome over technical, list a lot easier to loose 2 cables than one. Anyway, your suggestion of cables from msy or similar will also work!

Quote from: Wells on August 22, 2011, 03:51:35 PM
Goldie... Surely an audio industry professional, such as yourself, would only recommend a premium quality cable which feature "high speed" analogue signal technology.   
http://www.monstercable.com/digital_life/categories/vga.asp
http://www.monstercable.com/home_av/audio_cables/1_8_inch.asp

You know those frauds sent a nastygram to TOB claiming we were infringing on their "Monster" copyright a bunch of years back? It was decisively ignored and we never heard back from them...

Quote from: bigiain on August 23, 2011, 05:34:20 PM
You know those frauds sent a nastygram to TOB claiming we were infringing on their "Monster" copyright a bunch of years back? It was decisively ignored and we never heard back from them...

that's pretty funny!

Oh big, while I remember, I'm soon to be the proud owner of a Baratza Virtuoso Prescio and Essato combination - should be here today! <end threadjack>

Quote from: goldFiSh on August 25, 2011, 01:59:29 PM
that's pretty funny!

Oh big, while I remember, I'm soon to be the proud owner of a Baratza Virtuoso Prescio and Essato combination - should be here today! <end threadjack>

Sooo, we will have to come visit 




                                        Mmick