What type of media player?

lobber

Hi, just looking for some advice on what type player and set up I need. I have a 1tb media player with kids series and movies but I can only play this on my laptop. Hooking the laptop up to the TV is awkward and the sound is on laptop not TV. Just want to find out the best way to watch these on a media player or similar device

yoyo

A Raspberry Pi running XBMC would be my advice. They make a great media player. If you want an "off the shelf" solution something like this should do it.

Nick

lobber

yoyo wrote: »

A Raspberry Pi running XBMC would be my advice. They make a great media player. If you want an "off the shelf" solution something like this should do it.

Nick

Thanks Nick, any useful tutorials on setting up a raspberry pi? Am not very technical!

byte

Perhaps a Chromecast would suit your needs?

They're quite cheap at £30stg on Amazon with free delivery.

Might need a small bit of fiddling with Plex or something to stream local media from your laptop.

Firblog

It's a bit more than a media player, but you might like this

Stone Deaf 4evr

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00CL61A5A?cache=16dd132f26a14d8306f33ff4750b1a9c&pi=AC_SX110_SY165&qid=1401836621&sr=8-4#ref=mp_s_a_1_4


I have this myself, it can be found online for about half the price of the one I linked.

Rucking_Fetard

Pi isin't that easy to set up and not cheap either after you get everything you'll need.

lobber

byte wrote: »

Perhaps a Chromecast would suit your needs?

They're quite cheap at £30stg on Amazon with free delivery.

Might need a small bit of fiddling with Plex or something to stream local media from your laptop.

Was considering a chrome cast but I already have an Apple TV for Netflix.
Also tried to stream movies to my Xbox using windows media centre but I am having trouble with the extender component.

lobber

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00CL61A5A?cache=16dd132f26a14d8306f33ff4750b1a9c&pi=AC_SX110_SY165&qid=1401836621&sr=8-4#ref=mp_s_a_1_4


I have this myself, it can be found online for about half the price of the one I linked.

Does it have storage or would it read files from another hard drive?

BionicRasher

lobber wrote: »

Was considering a chrome cast but I already have an Apple TV for Netflix.
Also tried to stream movies to my Xbox using windows media centre but I am having trouble with the extender component.

Xbox is a very capable media player. It will run Windows Media Center or if you have Plex on your laptop hit the Xbox menu button and Plex will be listed under System Video Player and system music player to play all your files.
Xbox is great also in that it has lots of apps and you will be able to access loads of gaming and entertainment apps, including Netflix, RTE Player, TV3 Player, 4OD, Youtube etc
You can even go in to Youtube on your Android or iPhone and fling the video to your Xbox.

I would start by exploring the Xbox more before you go and buy a new media player

lobber

BionicRasher wrote: »

Xbox is a very capable media player. It will run Windows Media Center or if you have Plex on your laptop hit the Xbox menu button and Plex will be listed under System Video Player and system music player to play all your files.
Xbox is great also in that it has lots of apps and you will be able to access loads of gaming and entertainment apps, including Netflix, RTE Player, TV3 Player, 4OD, Youtube etc
You can even go in to Youtube on your Android or iPhone and fling the video to your Xbox.

I would start by exploring the Xbox more before you go and buy a new media player

Thanks for the info. Have you encountered any issues with the extender component before?

BionicRasher

lobber wrote: »

Thanks for the info. Have you encountered any issues with the extender component before?

I re-imaged my PC a few months back and thats the only time I had an issue as I had to re join the PC and the XBOX again but no major issues really

What types of things are you see or what errors are you getting?

lobber

I will try it again later and send you what it is saying

TimeToShine

Awfully convoluted advice for someone who isn't technical!

OP, why don't you just connect your laptop to the TV via HDMI cable? Use VLC media player or even windows media player, fire it up on the laptop and it'll work on the TV. If the sound is coming out of the laptop then it's easy to fix that!

yoyo

TimeToShine wrote: »

Awfully convoluted advice for someone who isn't technical!

OP, why don't you just connect your laptop to the TV via HDMI cable? Use VLC media player or even windows media player, fire it up on the laptop and it'll work on the TV. If the sound is coming out of the laptop then it's easy to fix that!

op wrote:

Hooking the laptop up to the TV is awkward and the sound is on laptop not TV.

Unfortunately things have to be more technical. A plug-in media player where you plug the external hard disk into is likely the simplest of solutions for the OP

Nick

lobber

TimeToShine wrote: »

Awfully convoluted advice for someone who isn't technical!

OP, why don't you just connect your laptop to the TV via HDMI cable? Use VLC media player or even windows media player, fire it up on the laptop and it'll work on the TV. If the sound is coming out of the laptop then it's easy to fix that!

Would if I could, no hdmi on laptop unfortunately. Also I need something that is fairly easy to use for others in the house!

BionicRasher

TimeToShine wrote: »

Awfully convoluted advice for someone who isn't technical!

What advice are you referring to?

Pretty easy to either connect a media player or similar to the TV. Normally just a HDMI cable.
As for the Xbox that's pretty straight forward also. Seems OP has an Xbox already so I would imagine that it's not beyond them to use it as a media player.