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Displays Streaming PC output to a TV in another room

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by sotu1, 8 Oct 2012.

  1. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    Hi guys,

    So this has come about partly because of Steam's Big Picture mode and a bunch of my games being more suited to big screens.

    My PC is currently in my bedroom but I'm wondering if there's a way (wirelessly ideally, or via homeplug solution?) to output the display to the TV in the living room.

    At the same time, I don't want to cut off the connection to my PC's normal monitor which i a standard cable set up.

    What solutions are available and has anyone tested them to work?


    Edit: Also, how does the sound set up work?
    Cheers!
     
  2. bdigital

    bdigital Is re-building his PC again

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    Are you hoping to stay in control of the pc while its playing a game in the other room?

    If not you could run a long hdmi to the tv. That would carry both video and audio signal.
     
  3. Picarro

    Picarro What's a Dremel?

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    There are the following options:

    Cabled - HDMI
    Cabled - HDMI over Cat5
    Cabled v. Powerplugs - HDMI over Cat5
    Wirelessly via HDMI - Expensive, might not work well

    The best thing is definitely cabled. All the others can get quite expensive if you need long distance/high quality or both.

    Edit: And then there's of course the control part of it. You might need to run a USB cable alongside, and that requires extenders every 5 meters.

    If you can tell us the distance, and how many walls of what material there might be between you and the TV it would be easier to recommend.
     
  4. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    PC is in my bedroom - TV is in the living room. There's a second bedroom inbetween the two and a cable would have to go via holes in the wall, which this won't warrant the effort for, or a bigass cable via the hallway, which would also have to pass by doors which are then unclosable due to cable thickness.

    It's either wireless or via powerplugs really.
     
  5. Lorquis

    Lorquis lorquisSpamCount++;

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    What about running along joists in floor or ceiling? Or, drill holes near doors, and then have cable running above door frames in the hallway?
     
  6. MSHunter

    MSHunter Minimodder

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    you need mini- 3 Cat5e cables 2 for HDMI and one for USB.
     
  7. scott_chegg

    scott_chegg Minimodder

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    We recently got a wireless HDMI sender for one of the conference suites at work. Have to admit I was surprised how well it worked. Think it was a kfa2 one.
     
  8. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    The following solution can be really inexpensive:

    Here me out fully,
    If you have an old laptop or computer that has DVI or HDMI output and has Windows 7 on, or you can use your XBox 360 (not sure about the PS3), as a Media Center Extender.

    This means you can use the feature in Windows Media Player 12, which allows you to send a video across your network. Simply pick your video, and tell Windows Media Player 12 which computer to play it to in your house.

    Video:
    http://res1.windows.microsoft.com/r...n/571420b3-57b5-4617-9c1e-d8880f46806c_13.wmv

    In depth detail on how it works:
    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/12/media-streaming-with-windows-7.aspx


    A little more complicated to setup and not as reliable, you can use VLC to do that as well, if your other computer doesn't have Windows 7.


    You can even set Media Player 12 to have your movies and music be accessible on the web from another Windows 7 system:
    http://res2.windows.microsoft.com/r...in/d44c5aa6-0ab1-4826-8c16-4bedcdd96ab7_0.wmv
     
  9. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    Sorry mate, this won't happen. No drilling, no holes. Ain't worth the effort to play a few games on a TV instead of Xbox...
     
  10. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    I have a NAS drive which I stream video content from, that's not a problem. I really want this for streaming my PC games. If this will work I'll give it a crack!
     
  11. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    Eh?
     
  12. Picarro

    Picarro What's a Dremel?

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    HDMi over Cat5 requires two cables, and USB over Cat5 requires one.
     
  13. PorkChops

    PorkChops What's a Dremel?

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    Old laptop connected to TV and set up the pc so you can use it via some sort of remote desktop or virtual PC application?
     
  14. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    Remote Desktop doesn't support video play back streaming. It was designed for a very secure 1-to-1 reliable connection with another system. If you play a video (or a game), it will take screen shot at every frame rendered, compress it, send it over the network, to decompress it on the other computer and display. That takes a very long time. The Lag will be so big, that you'll have a hard time closing the video or game at the menu level. It won't catch up. You'll just kill the remote connection and go to the other computer and close it.

    Virtual PC?! I don't think this what you meant.
     
  15. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    Hmmm...seems like noone has a good solution to this?

    :(
     
  16. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    Theres not really a viable solution without the use of wires. Getting a signal to the tv is only half the battle you need to get the USB connection there as well.

    Wireless USB to USB is not something ive heard off. And wireless HDMI is shockingly expensive.
     
  17. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    Exactly. Another problem is input lag too.

    Basically, what you need is what the WiiU uses. And that is definitely not something that ain't intensive to do, and require special hardware.

     
    Last edited: 10 Oct 2012
  18. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    Balls :( Big and hairy ones.

    Someone invent a solution!
     
  19. wess123

    wess123 What's a Dremel?

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    No matter how 'wireless' the world is becoming, I think we still rely on wires mostly :) A proper solution is probably wires which you're trying to avoid. Don't drill holes but pin them up nicely along the corners of walls so they don't look bad. If don't wanna go through trouble them HDMI maybe. Someone up there suggested that it works great for them
     

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