[Hidden-tech] large screen for watching movies on Netflix?

[Richard "Casey" Danek]

In my first reply to this thread, I explained how I used a large screen 
TV as my monitor. I did this to demonstrate that everything you wanted 
to be done could be, more or less. However, you had stipulated that you 
didn't want a box anywhere, so I avoided making this suggestion; I'll do 
it now.

Depending on if your laptop has an HDMI output, you can connect it to 
the HDMI of your TV. Set up your laptop so that it either mirrors onto 
the TV or extends your desktop. I think mirroring would be preferred. 
You can then see whatever your laptop sees on the TV.

For convenience, you can get a wireless keyboard and mouse and control 
the laptop from you couch/chair. (It's how I do it but I use a PC 
instead of a laptop.)

Make sure you set up your laptop so that it doesn't go to sleep when you 
close the lid and you can then close it and you'll see your desktop on 
your TV without a laptop screen distraction.

Now, you can run Netflix and Hulu and many of the other streaming 
services. I actually have set up an inexpensive Chromebook to do this on 
another TV monitor elsewhere in m home...remote keyboard/mouse and all.

So, you don't need a separate streaming device like a Roku. You control 
things through your keyboard. You don't have to Chromecast anything.

As long as you have a fairly modern laptop, you'll have no trouble with 
the playback. I have a 10+ year old Mac Mini with an older, slower 
processor and I don't like the playback through it. My cheap newer 
Chromebook outperforms it for video.

On 9/28/2020 8:08 PM, Jan Werner via Hidden-discuss wrote:
>
> You haven't said what kind of laptop you have, but I gather it is 
> connected to the router through an ethernet cable.
>
> To send the computer screen video to a TV you need to connect the 
> laptop directly to the TV with an HDMI cable, not ethernet...