DracoFelis
Premium
join:2003-06-15
edit:
February 17th, @07:30PM
| [How to] TVoIP on an actual TV
FYI I started this new thread (from »NetFlix streaming ), as this really seemed like a different (more general to TVoIP) topic than the previous thread was:
said by pintnight  :Are you streaming the data to your TV? Not yet.
At this point I've only gotten as far as streaming the data to my laptop. However, I do have tentative plans to convert the data so that I can view TVoIP streams (and other multi-media) on my TV (ideally all the TVs in the house, not just the one nearest the computer).
said by pintnight :Is so, how did you that? Given my work schedule, I'm only working slowly on this project. However, my long term (tentative) plans are to do this is phases:
1) Get the streaming working on my chosen computer. In my case that is my laptop, as the CPU is "fast enough" for this, and the laptop uses less electricity than a desktop (not to mention less noise), so I'm less concerned about leaving the laptop on for a long period of time. (The initial work here is done, although I suspect that there will always be an ongoing task of adding legal TVoIP links/steams to the list over time.)
Still to do:
2) Get the computer's (in this case the laptop's) video/audio converted to something a (single) TV (near the computer) can use. This comes in two sub-parts, converting the audio and converting the video.
2a) Converting the audio is trivial, as my laptop (like most computers) has a headphone out jack. So all I need to do to "convert" the audio, is get/use the proper audio cable to convert the headphone jack into the dual audio-jacks that TVs use these days (i.e. no actual protocol conversion is needed, just a cable with the correct jack/plugs to do the conversion). And even if I can't find the proper cable around the house (and I'm pretty sure I do have that style cable lying around in my misc cable parts), I can easily buy the cable for a few bucks at someplace like "Best Buy".
2b) OTOH the video conversion is a little more work, as my computer doesn't have a direct TV video out interface like some computer's video cards do (some computers have either a "composite video" and/or and S-Video out option). As a result, my current plan is to see if I can convince the "scan converter" I got a few years back (for another use, that is no longer needed around the house) to convert the VGA output plug of my laptop into a TV "composite video" signal. If so, it should be a reasonably trivial matter to play with the screen resolutions/settings, until I can get video that is reasonably centered on the TV. And if my old device doesn't work (for this task), I'll consider if some other VGA=>TV video converter would be cheap enough to buy and use (and if so, go with that "plan B" way of converting the video out of the PC).
NOTE: At that point, I should have a setup where I can watch streaming media on a single TV that is physically near the PC viewing the streams. And keep in mind that I should be able to setup the stream, switch to the PC's external video output, and then close the laptop's case (to protect it, and keep from wearing out the backlight of the laptop), allowing the stream to continue (yes, I've already setup the laptop's controls, so that the laptop doesn't "sleep" when you shut the case, but does turn off the laptop's display in this event).
3) The next step would likely be to feed the signal into the coax "cable TV" cables around the house, so that all the TVs (in the house) see the computer's output as a new "cable channel". This will require an RF filter (to prevent the signal from leaving the house via the cable company's coax) and a stereo modulator (to convert the video/audio into a custom "cable channel"). I'm not going to bother buying this equipment until I get the previous (working with one TV) stage working satisfactorily, but I have priced the equipment and I can do this stage for around $100. If I were to do it today, I would probably buy these two items (links below) from "Smart Home", but I'll reevaluate which products look like the best fit for my needs if/when I get this far:
»www.smarthome.com/7780s.html and »www.smarthome.com/7822b.html
NOTE: At this point, the video/audio should (in theory) be watchable via any TV in the house. And since I would likely put the modulator's output on the input side of my cable amplifier (I do already have a video distribution amplifier on my home cable TV), there shouldn't (at least in theory) be problems with sending this signal to multiple TVs at once (assuming people wanted to watch like that). In fact, each TV should just see the computer's output as if it was a new cable TV channel (it's just that the RF filter, above, would limit the new "channel" to my home cable wiring). However, at this point, we would still need to physically be at the PC to control the streams.
4) Which brings us to the last step, which is installing "remote control" software (I'm currently thinking of using the freeware VNC for this), so that the I don't have to be physically near the media/streaming PC to (for example) pause the play while taking a break. Instead, the PC can be "remotely controlled" by any PC on my LAN. In theory I could probably control the streaming from any PC on the internet (such is the power of remote control software), but (for security reasons) I'll probably setup my LAN firewall to limit the remote control to just PCs on the LAN.
In any event, that's my current thoughts about this plan. I'm sure there are many other ways to view TVoIP streams on actual TVs in the home. However, FWIW that's my current thoughts about how to accomplish this in my home. And since this is really just a hobby/toy now, I'll probably "take it slow" about getting this all done (and do it in stages, as mentioned above). However, in theory this approach should all work to (when done) make TVoIP available to the whole house.
Edits: Fixed a few typo's... |
