what to buy ?

[blitzilla]

ok so heres the deal  my wife download/ stream alot tv series to watch on television ( thrue  screen copy from laptop)

but the laptop is so old and glitchy im looking to upgrade her experience.... i have a few option...

1) buy a new laptop  , small budget ( shes uses a 10 year old laptop atm)

2) make a desktop out of spare parts i already own (  phenom b55 / mobo/8gb ram / 650 ti boost 2gb) i would have to buy a case/hdd/psu/keyboard/desk/chair/ monitor

3) do you see another option?  i already own a gaming rig but its far from where she watches tv, and when she does, im gaming anyway

[Jurrunio]

TV screen resolution?

 

Option 2 is what I'd do, though I would use the TV as the primary monitor and omit the desk and chair.

[Ansger]

get her a chromebook laptop. It's cheap, you can plug it into the TV and she can always take it with her to sorf on the couch or stuff like that. The laptop will give her flexibility the desktop won't. just make sure the chromebook has enough storage to house all her media. 

BOOM. Now she has a device to watch stuff wherever she wants, to browse the internet wherever she wants and to stream movies and series to the TV. 

[blitzilla]

tv resolution is an old 1080p lg tv i think 46" though i might get a bigass tv   in the future

[Ginger_]

Depends on how you like to stream. Personally I download everything at night, and load it up to a NAS/Plex server I built just for that purpose, although any desktop with a decent cpu score will do just fine. From there a raspberry pi is perfect to stream to the TV. It's fairly cheap, $30 from arrow.com or im sure you can find them cheaper used. It's also powerful enough to stream youtube on its own, and other apps. Theres a Kodi OS built for it that works flawlessly.

 

You could go that route, and kill two birds with one stone. Build yourself a gaming rig, and keep plex server running in the background so your wife can stream your downloaded media off it. And if she wants to stream youtube or similar, the Pi is more than powerful enough

[blitzilla]

didnt mention that i wasnt going to spend more than 300'400$ cdn for  the whole setup

[blitzilla]

my gaming rig is a  r3 1200 , 8gb ddr4  2933mhz and soon a 1060 6g 

[blitzilla]

11 minutes ago, Ginger137 said:

Depends on how you like to stream. Personally I download everything at night, and load it up to a NAS/Plex server I built just for that purpose, although any desktop with a decent cpu score will do just fine. From there a raspberry pi is perfect to stream to the TV. It's fairly cheap, $30 from arrow.com or im sure you can find them cheaper used. It's also powerful enough to stream youtube on its own, and other apps. Theres a Kodi OS built for it that works flawlessly.

 

You could go that route, and kill two birds with one stone. Build yourself a gaming rig, and keep plex server running in the background so your wife can stream your downloaded media off it. And if she wants to stream youtube or similar, the Pi is more than powerful enough

 i have to clue whats a rasperry or kudi os and what those device  actually are for..  what shes doing now is hook the laptop onto the tv and stream/watch wathever she downloaded/streaming

[HunterScott]

31 minutes ago, blitzilla said:

ok so heres the deal  my wife download/ stream alot tv series to watch on television ( thrue  screen copy from laptop)

but the laptop is so old and glitchy im looking to upgrade her experience.... i have a few option...

1) buy a new laptop  , small budget ( shes uses a 10 year old laptop atm)

2) make a desktop out of spare parts i already own (  phenom b55 / mobo/8gb ram / 650 ti boost 2gb) i would have to buy a case/hdd/psu/keyboard/desk/chair/ monitor

3) do you see another option?  i already own a gaming rig but its far from where she watches tv, and when she does, im gaming anyway

You could always buy an external HDD and plug this directly into the TV via the USB port. You can watch any downloaded programmes that way also, you just copy across to the HDD and off you go!

[blitzilla]

9 minutes ago, HunterScott said:

You could always buy an external HDD and plug this directly into the TV via the USB port. You can watch any downloaded programmes that way also, you just copy across to the HDD and off you go!

does that work on  2007 tvs? this is not a smart tv

[Ginger_]

Just now, blitzilla said:

 i have to clue whats a rasperry or kudi os and what those device  actually are for..  what shes doing now is hook the laptop onto the tv and stream/watch wathever she downloaded/streaming

This is a raspberry Pi:

 

https://www.arrow.com/en/products/raspberrypi3/raspberry-pi-foundation

 

Basically a mini computer on a single board. Kodi is an OS centered around media playback, you can learn about it here:

 

https://kodi.tv/

 

The interface is similar to a smart TV, just faster, way. way more options and customization, and you don't have to pay hundreds of dollars for it. 

 

 

If you used a raspberry Pi then with Kodi installed, and plex installed in that, It's straightforward from there to stream the media files from your desktop to the TV, or right from the internet using other apps you can load with Kodi.

 

There is a bit you have to learn, but it fairly easy with tons of step by step guides and once you get it set up it its about as maintenance free and easy as you can get

[HunterScott]

5 minutes ago, blitzilla said:

does that work on  2007 tvs? this is not a smart tv

What is the make and model of your television? You don't require a smart TV to access content on an external HDD through the USB port.

[blitzilla]

11 minutes ago, Ginger137 said:

This is a raspberry Pi:

 

https://www.arrow.com/en/products/raspberrypi3/raspberry-pi-foundation

 

Basically a mini computer on a single board. Kodi is an OS centered around media playback, you can learn about it here:

 

https://kodi.tv/

 

The interface is similar to a smart TV, just faster, way. way more options and customization, and you don't have to pay hundreds of dollars for it. 

 

 

If you used a raspberry Pi then with Kodi installed, and plex installed in that, It's straightforward from there to stream the media files from your desktop to the TV, or right from the internet using other apps you can load with Kodi.

 

There is a bit you have to learn, but it fairly easy with tons of step by step guides and once you get it set up it its about as maintenance free and easy as you can get

so i still need a  desktop to   do that? if so , why bother with other things like rasperry and kodi...   when i can navigate with said desktop  while hooked on tv

[blitzilla]

http://www.lg.com/ca_fr/tvs/lg-42LH30-televiseur-lcd

[Ginger_]

5 minutes ago, blitzilla said:

so i still need a  desktop to   do that? if so , why bother with other things like rasperry and kodi...   when i can navigate with said desktop  while hooked on tv

Yes, you need a desktop still to transcode the media files. The main benfit is that they dont have to be near eachother. If your computer is in one room, and your TV in another, thats no issue. As long as your computer is on the same network the Raspberry Pi is, it streams it over your local network. For example my server I built for plex is in my basement just connected to my network. I never have to see it, hear it, or even touch it but any TV, phone, tablet, smartwhatever conencted to my network can stream any of the movies, tv shows, or music stored on it. 

[blitzilla]

from what i see the rasperri looks like a  board you put into a computer 

[blitzilla]

9 minutes ago, Ginger137 said:

Yes, you need a desktop still to transcode the media files. The main benfit is that they dont have to be near eachother. If your computer is in one room, and your TV in another, thats no issue. As long as your computer is on the Raspberry Pi streams it over your local network. For example my server I built for plex is in my basement just connected to my network. I never have to see it, hear it, or even touch it but any TV, phone, tablet, smartwhatever conencted to my network can stream any of the movies, tv shows, or music stored on it. 

i see but that means it will use power out of my main machine while i game so she can watch teen wolf which is a hell no go

[Ginger_]

2 minutes ago, blitzilla said:

i see but that means it will use power out of my main machine while i game so she can watch teen wolf which is a hell no go

True, on a 1200 you might notice a bit of a dip when a new show starts playing as plex starts processing it. Before I had a dedicated build for it, on my 1600x I wouldn't notice a difference though. games don't fully utilize all cores so the leftover ones take care of plex while the the main few running your game never get interrupted. So a cpu upgrade would bump you up into no noticable difference while gaming.

[DarkPlatinum]

Why raspberry pis are awesome.

 

1. Capable of outputting 1080p HD video.

2. Open source MediaPlayers made for them.

3. Can be used as a really cheap desktop. (Will be slightly slow)

4. Can be used as a NAS

5. Low power.

 

[DarkPlatinum]

On 12/20/2017 at 10:18 PM, blitzilla said:

so i still need a  desktop to   do that? if so , why bother with other things like rasperry and kodi...   when i can navigate with said desktop  while hooked on tv

Dont need a desktop. You only need a mouse and keyboard attached to the raspberty pi, and a internet connection as well. which is powered by usb and a HDMI output connected to a monitor or TV. I am currently on planning to make a media server with plex with the raspberry pi.

[DarkPlatinum]

On 12/20/2017 at 10:13 PM, Ginger137 said:

This is a raspberry Pi:

 

https://www.arrow.com/en/products/raspberrypi3/raspberry-pi-foundation

 

Basically a mini computer on a single board. Kodi is an OS centered around media playback, you can learn about it here:

 

https://kodi.tv/

 

The interface is similar to a smart TV, just faster, way. way more options and customization, and you don't have to pay hundreds of dollars for it. 

 

 

If you used a raspberry Pi then with Kodi installed, and plex installed in that, It's straightforward from there to stream the media files from your desktop to the TV, or right from the internet using other apps you can load with Kodi.

 

There is a bit you have to learn, but it fairly easy with tons of step by step guides and once you get it set up it its about as maintenance free and easy as you can get

Two ways to do this mate. 1. Download image an upload to an SD card an mess about to get plex: https://sourceforge.net/projects/openmediavault/files/Raspberry Pi images/

 

2. Download kodi onto raspbian and work from there( much easier)

 

Option 1 can also be used as a media server, which can be accessed from anywhere in the world. (If you port foward)

 

 

[blitzilla]

what i  see when i look at the raspery is  a  sortof  motherboard type  thing,  how do you like a  keyboard/mouse to it... or wireless that is.... kinda doesnt make sense to me atm