Connecting a Computer to a TV Ariel Socket

[ten0G]

 

Hi,

I've spent quite a time today looking for Cyber Monday deals on 24" TVs (there seem to be few that are smaller). 

I can't find any with a resolution higher than 720p, but YouTube at least now features videos of 1080p resolution. 

While I'm not so bothered about the monochrome railway recordings from the Fifties and before, I wonder whether 720p will be adequate for the other materials I watch, especially on YouTube and Netflix.   

I'm also puzzled by TVs which have wi-fi, is a co-ax connection no longer necessary? 

This is of course, still a separate issue from choosing a new computer.   

[njee20]

720 will definitely be fine on a TV if that size IMO.

WiFi TVs still need a co-ax input, yes. If you use an external box then obviously it may be HMDI into the TV, but the box needs the co-ax connection. Freesat obviously does away with the conventional aerial. All the WiFi enabled TV means is native support for catch up and streaming services. So you don't need any additional hardware for watching YouTube or Netflix, but still need something plugging in to watch live TV (aside from that broadcast on ITV Hub etc!).

[ntpntpntp]

Ethernet and/or Wifi connections are part of "Smart TV" facilities (and also a feature of blu-ray players).  Wired ethernet is best for playing media at highest resolutions without stuttering, but if you have a decent Wifi router then WiFi is adequate for all but the really high 4K resolutions. 

The two Samsung Smart TV's I've bought most recently have been perfectly happy to stream 1080p over WiFi from my DLNA media server, to the point where I've decomissioned much of the Homeplug ethernet-over-mains network I'd used previously, and now only use that for the more remote parts of the house.

[ten0G]

Assuming it's been updated during its lifetime then the install disks would be fairly pointless anyway as they'd be a lower version of the OS than is set in the firmware. Normally you just download the latest compatible version from the App Store and install it via USB stick. (there's instructions online for how to change the update images into standalone bootable USB installation sticks). Maybe a cosmetic clean up, secure hard disk wipe and sell on as-is

Thanks, I've never come across this before so I'll try it on the iMac at Xmas and see what happens. 

If it's successful and I can do it on the MacBook, I may be able to try re-installing Wine which ceased some years ago. 

[ten0G]

Ethernet and/or Wifi connections are part of "Smart TV" facilities (and also a feature of blu-ray players).  Wired ethernet is best for playing media at highest resolutions without stuttering ...

Thanks, I prefer wired ethernet, but in my case "stuttering" becomes a complete freeze-up of mostly video and audio, sometimes one continues whilst the other doesn't but that's a rarer occurrence now. 

I suspect that the more recent Netflix offerings are higher-resolution ones which cause more problems somehow. 

[ten0G]

720 will definitely be fine on a TV if that size IMO.

WiFi TVs still need a co-ax input, yes. If you use an external box then obviously it may be HMDI into the TV, but the box needs the co-ax connection. Freesat obviously does away with the conventional aerial. All the WiFi enabled TV means is native support for catch up and streaming services. So you don't need any additional hardware for watching YouTube or Netflix, but still need something plugging in to watch live TV (aside from that broadcast on ITV Hub etc!).

Thanks, I've bought a 24" smart TV to see how I get on with it over Xmas. 

This is a big contrast to Japan where TV and internet both came through the same fibre optic socket provided by the company who had the contract with building management.