Need some advice on streaming/play video from external source to an old tv

by KouKayne

Good day fellow redditors,

my father has a very old smart TV (probably so old it doesnt even support apps, or at least i havent found any, but its got a browser) and increasingly often it wont be able to decompress video codecs, either not being supported, or just cause the tvs cpu just cant handle it.

i was looking into some "easy" kind of fix, like an upgradable dongle that can read pen drive/external hdds (you know, to not have the same problem in like 5y) or a streaming-like service from his PC (i saw many online, but they look hard to actually set up) that arent at 300$ like most, at that price hed just get a lappy for 250$ and call it a day, but its actually a waste of money and gear, since he only needs to see media on his TV, and nothing else.

Thanks for your help

foundfootagefan

All you need to do is buy a good, cheap box like the Onn. 4K and then just stream the files from his PC through a shared folder via SMB over his home network. You literally don't need anything else. (Although it helps to have a good router connecting all these devices together)

https://www.howtogeek.com/191116/how-to-share-files-between-windows-mac-and-linux-pcs-on-a-network/

Then just use a player like Kodi, Nova, or VLC to play video directly from his PC to the box which displays them on the old TV.

AlXBG

The Chromecast should do the job. It's not too expensive and plays/streams most content. They're also hackable, so there are some additional benefits there

pawdog

So he has his own media files? What is he using now to play them. Also what country is he in. He can do what you sem to be usbscibing for around $80 US or less.