Stuffed an old gaming laptop under the TV, ideas?
Discussion
I've just replaced a gaming laptop bought in 2020 (Ryzen 7 4800H / RTX 2060) with a tablet as it was a pain in the arse to use as a general purpose machine, so I've now stuffed it under the TV in the living room.
I'd like some ideas of what I would like to do, and wondered what you techheads would suggest, as I've been out of the loop for a long time. The last time I did anything like this was at least 10 years ago with XBMC on an old desktop (again under a TV).
What I would like to be able to do is:
Fire away!
I'd like some ideas of what I would like to do, and wondered what you techheads would suggest, as I've been out of the loop for a long time. The last time I did anything like this was at least 10 years ago with XBMC on an old desktop (again under a TV).
What I would like to be able to do is:
- Provide an interface for watching the films I've stored on the laptop rather than go through File Explorer, like a set top box, kind of XBMC style back in the day, but presumably things have moved on by now? Something that can handle cover art instead of dicking about downloading files and manually assigning them.
- Provide an interface for listening to music, ideally offline and on. If it's got WinAmp style visualisations, all the better, instead of going through a web browser and YouTube, or resorting to WinAmp which frankly is awful to use on a TV.
- The gaming interface, I guess, is covered by Steam, but it would be nice for Mrs to launch it easily. I guess I'd just access the various interfaces via taskbar links anyway. However, there might be a better option as a game launcher?
- Suggestions for best 2 player, 1 screen games. We have a large TV we've never used for games in the 7 years I've owned it.I am an ex gamer, she is not a gamer at all, so something accessible. We like 8 Ball Pool on the tablets at the minute, and used to like the Wii Sports games. I'm also going to try get her into Worms (fnar fnar); I've given her a quick demo tonight and I think she'd probably like it once used to it. Any other suggestions welcomed.
- To be able to share the file storage area with our tablets and phones (I have a Samsung S24 Ultra and Tab S9 Ultra and she has an iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPad Pro 12.9). Probably more important to me so I can transfer files to and from, she's unlikely to do this.
- To be able to stream films, music, photos and videos to the phones and tablets, both at home and when out and about.
- General tips to make Windows better at handling all this stuff. So far, I've enabled the passwordless logon, so it boots straight into windows, I need to disable the lock screen etc, but if anyone has any general hints and tips to make Windows a more TV friendly OS, then I'm happy to learn.
Fire away!
Edited by TameRacingDriver on Tuesday 3rd September 21:27
Would an install of SteamOS work for you? It looks to support playing of media files and assuming it behaves like the steam client, could be put into Big Picture mode or whatever the equivalent is to make it nicer to browse and pick games/media rather than being truly desktop style.
I don't use it myself, but as it's Linux based I don't know if there would be any game or hardware compatibility issues that might limit what you can do with it, but could be worth a look.
I don't use it myself, but as it's Linux based I don't know if there would be any game or hardware compatibility issues that might limit what you can do with it, but could be worth a look.
For media have a look at Kodi, Jellyfin or Emby, all free alternatives to Plex. You could also look at Plex if you don't mind some cost.
These all support music as well as TV and movies.
Do you have some sort of wireless keyboard mouse device?
You need some sort of big screen launcher, like steam bigscreen, or https://www.launchbox-app.com/ where you can add games and other apps.
Adding parsec will allow you to remote control it from anywhere from another pc or tablet.
You should be able to network share a directory on the laptop and connect to it from all the devices, it might need an app on some devices.
https://www.makeuseof.com/how-network-file-share-w...
These all support music as well as TV and movies.
Do you have some sort of wireless keyboard mouse device?
You need some sort of big screen launcher, like steam bigscreen, or https://www.launchbox-app.com/ where you can add games and other apps.
Adding parsec will allow you to remote control it from anywhere from another pc or tablet.
You should be able to network share a directory on the laptop and connect to it from all the devices, it might need an app on some devices.
https://www.makeuseof.com/how-network-file-share-w...
I've given Jellyfin a try, a mate swears by it.
Very impressed with it so far. Does exactly what I want in terms of streaming to my mobile devices, but equally, it also supports Chromecast and Firestick so the Mrs can watch stuff on the TV without faffing about with a computer. It wasn't too bad to set up either and the way it pulled down all the art and stuff was very impressive, considering it's a free product.
It even looks as though it'll support streaming over the internet but not 100% sure on doing that yet given a previous computer I used as a server got hacked with ransomware and I had to rebuild it, but I'll have a think.
Very impressed with it so far. Does exactly what I want in terms of streaming to my mobile devices, but equally, it also supports Chromecast and Firestick so the Mrs can watch stuff on the TV without faffing about with a computer. It wasn't too bad to set up either and the way it pulled down all the art and stuff was very impressive, considering it's a free product.
It even looks as though it'll support streaming over the internet but not 100% sure on doing that yet given a previous computer I used as a server got hacked with ransomware and I had to rebuild it, but I'll have a think.
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