poll: Is your computer conected to your TV? *poll inside*

[george graves]

Do you have your PC/MAC so you can watch tv/movies online on your TV? What are you running? MS media center? Apple TV? X-box? How is it working for you?

Discuss....

[kronus]

PC connected to 36"ish TV with S-Video cable that's way in the other corner of our dorm room.

My video card recognizes the TV as a second monitor, and I'm able to extend my desktop onto it, drag a media player window over there, maximize it, and watch movies. Media Centery type stuff serves a slightly different purpose - to have a dedicated media PC and an interface that's easy to use with the crap resolution TV's put out (640x480 if you're lucky). It works awesomely, if I invest in a wireless keyboard, I can pretty much control everything from the couch if I feel like it. We also just put down a deposit for a 56" widescreen flatpanel, so movies and video games will be a whole lot larger :D

(Cause that's what I go to college for, clearly)

Media players I use to do this: Zoom Player, VLC.

[Sean]

I do at school, watch movies like kronus. It's sweet. Chicks dig it, and it gets me in their pants!

[nosignal]

Yep, got an old Gateway P4 I scored from work hooked up to my living room TV for DVR and downloaded stuff. Just running Windows XP, Media Player Classic and a cheapo TV Tuner with a wireless keyboard/mouse for now. Works great.

I need to upgrade the capacity soon (80GB is quickly disappearing), but for a total investment of $10 (for cables) I'm pretty happy. :D

[Sean]

Yep, got an old Gateway P4 I scored from work hooked up to my living room TV for DVR and downloaded stuff. Just running Windows XP, Media Player Classic and a cheapo TV Tuner with a wireless keyboard/mouse for now. Works great.

I need to upgrade the capacity soon (80GB is quickly disappearing), but for a total investment of $10 (for cables) I'm pretty happy. :D

80 gb?! Holy crap, I have almost twice that in movies and almost that in music alone. Not to mention, xbox games...TV shows.

I'm using probably...lets see....close to 500-600 GB total just between my two computers and Xbox. lol

I use my xbox a lot now, just load movies off my computer thru the network. Works really well.

[avus3]

i got my Titanium PowerBook G4 connected to my 32" Flat screen via VGA. Dual Screens, wireless keyboard and mouse. i have the laptop sitting on a rolling desk as a mobile station.

the hinges are busted on the PowerBook and are held by hand clamps. i was thinking of ditching the laptop screen and use the TV as my Monitor full time.

maybe get a DVI to HDMI cord for the TV.

[WillisE30]

I have a 52in Samsung DLP hooked up to my Media Center based PC. I don't have room for a monitor in my appartment so it works out well. Wireless keyboard and mouse of course.

[nosignal]

80 gb?! Holy crap, I have almost twice that in movies and almost that in music alone. Not to mention, xbox games...TV shows.

I'm using probably...lets see....close to 500-600 GB total just between my two computers and Xbox. lol

I use my xbox a lot now, just load movies off my computer thru the network. Works really well.

Yeah, not only that but it's actually two seperate 40GB drives. I've had the thing hooked up for about 3 weeks and I'm already nearing capacity. Can't complain too much since it was all free, but I will definitely need to upgrade soon.

I have a seperate external 250GB with all my music that I keep at work and VNC into when I need stuff at home/on the road...eventually I plan on having everything at home on that single media machine.

[E30 Cabrio]

I do at school, watch movies like kronus. It's sweet. Chicks dig it, and it gets me in their pants!

You watch movies about wire cutters? (Kronus is a well-known brand of wire strippers/cutters)

[Sean]

You watch movies about wire cutters? (Kronus is a well-known brand of wire strippers/cutters)

Hell yea! Doesn't everyone?!

[StereoInstaller1]

I have a couple of small case HP PCs from the Verizon kiosks.

3.0Ghz P4 duo core, 1GB DDR2, 80GB SATA, 2X PCIe slots (16X, 4X), 3 PCI slots. 450 watt power supply, too. I only pay $150 for these...smoking hot deal, IMO.

Only room for 1 HDD, 1 optical drive and I have to find "low profile" cards, but whatev...

Currently I am experimenting with a Pinnacle HD/DVR, looking for an adequate cheap video card (256MB "8 series" NVidia in low profile with no fan) and am going to be building 3 of these, plus use my old 1.3Ghz P4 Gateway on RAMBUS with 2 SATA cards in an old server case to install "Linux MCE" in my home.

So on top of the hassle of finding a low profile video card, I need a LP sound card with S/PDIF, either optical or co-axial and a gigbit ethernet card.

So, yeah, its coming, but not yet.

Luke

[Eric Giles]

In my theater room, I've got a PC I built with an AMD X2 6000+ CPU and an ATI Radeon HD3870 running Vista 32 Ultimate. This is connected via HDMI to a Mitsubishi 4900 1080p LCD projector that projects on a 110" screen. Since I jumped on the HD-DVD bandwagon when it was released, I have a spare Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive connected to the computer using PowerDVD Ultra. It runs full 1080p to the projector and looks as good as any standalone player out there.

I do have an older Happauge analog TV tuner in the box that is hooked up to my cable feed, but I rarely use it. Standard definition at 110" looks, well a bit grainy at times-even if it is being upconverted.

[5spoke]

I just rip all my DVDs as mp4's and store them on my 320 GB external HD. Then I either plug it into my computer if I want to watch it there, or plug it into the usb slot on my xbox 360 and watch it on the tv. Works out pretty good.

[NC325iC]

our plasma has a pc input so we hooked up my brothers old vaio to it, dont use it a whole lot, its good for parties and watching youtube though, kinda slow

[einstein57]

4 year old HP hooked up to my 42" plasma. Love to have speed channel PC split screen.