Watching bitorrents on TV via my pc?

[Tiggsy]

Two questions....will normal size bitorrent films look grim when played on my 50" plasma? And assuming they will be viable (i only bitorrent stuff i'm not fussed about seeing so doesnt need to be stunning) is it easiest to just plug my lappy into the TV? (laptop has an HDMI out and AMP has an HDMI port on the front so easy enough) or is there a better way (streaming or something? tried it via the 360 and it couldnt play the files??) - this was on my old TV though.

[911DM]

There are a few ways of doing this. I set this up a while ago and hardly ever use it now.

I have an external network hard drive plugged into my wireless router in the study. All files are on here. This negates the need to boot a pc to view a file yet means that files can easily be copied over hard wire from the pc/Internet.

I then set an mvix wireless media player up in the living room, connected to my av receiver. While the media player does accommodate a hard drive I purely use it to stream to the tv. The media player and network drive are of course networked up. Simple.

Quality wise it depends on the quality you download. SD streams perfectly over wireless. You may have trouble streaming HD due to the standard bandwidth but try wireless N and that should he more than adequate. The newer mvix has hdmi ports etc. They aren't expensive and there are plenty of similar devices out there.

Don't forget you could always have the hard storage in you living room to avoid the need to stream. Media pc or other media storage etc.

[rsv gone!]

The 360 has recently(!) had an update to allow it to play more movie file types

[Scraggles]

laptop onto the tv is the best way, dvd flick will convert to dvd format, friend of a friend seems to have no problem converting for other friends to watch on tv

[Tiggsy]

may consider some sort of media player then.

[Scraggles]

find it easier to play off the pc or in op's case the laptop

[AdeTuono]

I use Azureus Vuze as a bittorrent client, which allows you to stream or drag and drop the files wirelessly to either PS3 or 360. I D&D, and then copy direct to the PS3 HD.
Even a 700mb AVI file looks OK-ish on a 55" display.

[Nimbus]

If you just want to use your laptop, might I suggest installing this to a cd or better, a USB stick.

http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=XBMC_Live

will play anything, great interface, and its free..

[Tiggsy]

AdeTuono said:

I use Azureus Vuze as a bittorrent client, which allows you to stream or drag and drop the files wirelessly to either PS3 or 360. I D&D, and then copy direct to the PS3 HD.
Even a 700mb AVI file looks OK-ish on a 55" display.

!!! Just had a proper look at vuze (which i use to d/load my torrents) and realise it does that!

Now....i getthe streaming bit...what about the D&D ???? and putting it on the PS3...how do i do that?

[AdeTuono]

Tiggsy said:

AdeTuono said:

I use Azureus Vuze as a bittorrent client, which allows you to stream or drag and drop the files wirelessly to either PS3 or 360. I D&D, and then copy direct to the PS3 HD.
Even a 700mb AVI file looks OK-ish on a 55" display.

!!! Just had a proper look at vuze (which i use to d/load my torrents) and realise it does that!

Now....i getthe streaming bit...what about the D&D ???? and putting it on the PS3...how do i do that?

Depending on how you're configured, on the left side of the screen, there should be a 'Devices' heading. You can add your PS3/360 to devices. Then, just drag whatever file you want from your library to the device. You'll then be given an option of standard or Hi-Def, so chose whichever you need from that. Then, when you open your PS3, it should detect your PC, and there should be a Vuze section, from where you can watch/copy the file. Same for music files.

Hope this helps.

[Tiggsy]

Perfect....so when i get home from work with my torrents downloaded and dragged to the ps3 on vuze....i get the ps3 to "see" the laptop and copy the film over.....then, after tea!, shut down the lappy and watch the film on the ps3 when i want? how cool!

[Tiggsy]

just wanted to say...this is VERY cool!

last night we wanted to watch some rescue me episodes so dragged them to the PS3 on Vuze, coppied them to the PS3 and then watched them!

tried it with a few other things and it's perfect! Only isue i had was one movie that lost the audio on the ps3....so dropped it to the 360 and that was fine!

Long term i think we'll get apple tv (which vuze also supports) as that will sort itunes as well...but for now it's perfect. Not sure how they will look on a 50" plasma but on the 36" crt it was as it would be broadcast (to my eye)

Only issue we ever get with torrents is audio syncing at times.....but my new yamaha amp has a sync adjust to sort that