Best setup for watching LEGALLY pirated movies and shows on a TV?

Unarmed Gunman

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May 2, 2007
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Obviously I have Googled this shit, but I've seen a few different approaches so I figured I'd ask the collective braintrust of WF what works best.

I just want to be able to watch The Wire, Sopranos, Shameless, Game of Thrones, Dexter, Breaking Bad etc. on loop all day long on my office TV but I have no desire to burn thousands of episodes to DVD. So ideally I just want to grab a small (form factor, not capacity) external hard drive, load all my 100% legally pirated shit onto it and be able to scroll through and pick what I want. The TV has an HDMI connector, but I've read of people having issues getting the shit to show up on the TV correctly. Maybe they were just idiots, I dunno.

Looking for advice from people that have already worked the kinks out.
 


buy apple tv for 99 bucks
visit iseri.es on phone or ipad
load show
hit square with triangle button to push to apple tv

or visit barwo.com and do the same with movies.

endless entertainment for the cost of one apple tv
 
I don't really want streaming. I literally just want the closest thing to what I have now which is go into my movies folder, find what I want and click play, except on my TV not on one of my monitors. I should probably mention that I am a lazy motherfucker so if the solution involves too much work I'll just watch Oprah reruns.

Also, fuck Apple with a rhinoceros dick.
 
Just build (or buy) a PC with hdmi connector. Hook it up to TV (it will be fine, whoever said that is an idiot) and then either a wireless mouse and keyword or just setup teamviewer to remote desktop to it. Click the movie/tv you want to play and full screen it. close teamviewer. done.

protip : if you build the computer yourself get as little fans as possible (no fan cpu just heatsink, etc) and the fans you get spend the extra $10 for the stealth ones. Plus like $50-$100 on sound dampening. Like rubber screws, rubber mat, etc. It is worth it. I hate listening to a loud pc when watching tv/movies. Although it might not be a problem if its just for your office and you always have your work computer on. Or you can also get sound dampening for that.
 
I don't really want streaming. I literally just want the closest thing to what I have now which is go into my movies folder, find what I want and click play, except on my TV not on one of my monitors. I should probably mention that I am a lazy motherfucker so if the solution involves too much work I'll just watch Oprah reruns.

Also, fuck Apple with a rhinoceros dick.

Then go w/ my suggestion. There is a reason everyone and their brother has a Roku. Plex will manage your "content" and act as your server from your computer to your roku. You simply add a movie folder and a tv folder put your content in the appropriate folder (on your comp), tell plex where it is. Then you will add the Plex channel to your Roku (click a link) and you're watching your content.

With all that said my last box was a WDTV box and instead of Plex I was able to use XBMC which in my opinion is a much better media server but oh well.

It's really not that difficult and if you can login to WF you can set this up. If you need any help either post it here, or you know where to find me.


EDIT: The box you pick prob doesnt really make much difference. Roku, WDTV, Apple, ect. Some have more restrictions than others, but it's fairly easy to get around them.
 
I don't really want streaming. I literally just want the closest thing to what I have now which is go into my movies folder, find what I want and click play, except on my TV not on one of my monitors. I should probably mention that I am a lazy motherfucker so if the solution involves too much work I'll just watch Oprah reruns.

Also, fuck Apple with a rhinoceros dick.

just get one of these usb video players that connects via hdmi to your tv - [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Micca-Speck-Full-HD-Portable-Digital/dp/B008NO9RRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371758757&sr=8-1&keywords=micca+usb+video+player]Amazon.com: Micca Speck 1080p Full-HD Ultra Portable Digital Media Player For USB Drives and SD/SDHC Cards: Electronics[/ame]

you can then get a big hard drive and connect it via usb to the above device and it comes with a remote and you can watch all your movies on your tv now. probably the easiest and cheapest method for what you want. i use that device in my stores to play demo videos but, i load them up on flash drives since i don't need as much space, and it automatically loops through all the videos, all day. i have no issues with it at all, works great and the usb video player is a 1080p full hd device so quality is not effected.
 
you can then get a big hard drive and connect it via usb to the above device and it comes with a remote and you can watch all your movies on your tv now. probably the easiest and cheapest method for what you want. i use that device in my stores to play demo videos but, i load them up on flash drives since i don't need as much space, and it automatically loops through all the videos, all day. i have no issues with it at all, works great and the usb video player is a 1080p full hd device so quality is not effected.


This seems to be more legitimate :)
 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/IncrediSonic-Ultra-Play-IMP150-Flashdrives/dp/B006FNCWSY/]Amazon.com: IncrediSonic Ultra Play IMP150 - HD TV Digital Mini Media Player HDMI - 1080p - Play any file from USB HDDs/Flashdrives/Memory Cards, RM/RMVB/AVI/DIVX/MKV/MOV/HDMOV/MP4/PMP/AVC/FLV/ VOB/MPG/DAT/MPEG/H.264/MPEG1/2/4, WMV Player: Electronic[/ame]

+

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-Storage/dp/B006Y5UV4A/]Amazon.com: WD My Passport 1TB Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 Black: Computers & Accessories[/ame]
 
Just build (or buy) a PC with hdmi connector. Hook it up to TV (it will be fine, whoever said that is an idiot) and then either a wireless mouse and keyword or just setup teamviewer to remote desktop to it. Click the movie/tv you want to play and full screen it. close teamviewer. done.

protip : if you build the computer yourself get as little fans as possible (no fan cpu just heatsink, etc) and the fans you get spend the extra $10 for the stealth ones. Plus like $50-$100 on sound dampening. Like rubber screws, rubber mat, etc. It is worth it. I hate listening to a loud pc when watching tv/movies. Although it might not be a problem if its just for your office and you always have your work computer on. Or you can also get sound dampening for that.

This but use Windows media player and a remote as well. Have the system set up and have 1000s of movies and TV shows. I use remote desktop to add shit to it. Also have a satellite card and watch sat tv through it as well.
 
Does your TV have a USB slot? Most decent TVs have a few. For the longest time, before I built a HTPC, I used a 32gb USB stick and loaded my shit onto that and stuck it into the TV. The TV should be able to play back most formats from the stick. Grab a 64gb or 128gb stick and you should be able to stick many a season of your favorite shows on there.
 
Get any device that will use run XBMC. For example a G-Box costs ~$90 and will connect to your network via wifi.

XBMC will stream off a UPNP server (your laptop, desktop, etc..) This is VERY easy to do, and XBMC supports a ton of protocols, including UPNP, NFS, SMB, SSH, etc...

Use your phone as a wifi capable remote, meaning you can change videos without looking for a remote; just use your phone. There are tons of options here https://play.google.com/store/search?q=xbmc+remote&c=apps

Optional: Get a NAS and use it as your torrent/usenet.
 
This is my setup:

NAS/Torrent Downloader: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Attached-DS213/dp/B008U68UHG/ref=pd_cp_e_2"]Amazon.com: Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS213: Computers & Accessories[/ame]

Media Player (XBMC): [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Companion-802-11n-Ethernet-Official-Sponsor/dp/B0088IGPM8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1372799274&sr=1-1&keywords=pivos+xios"]Amazon.com: XIOS DS Media Play ULTRA SLIM Smart TV Companion w/802.11n Wifi, Ethernet, USB, HDMI. The Official XBMC Sponsor: Electronics[/ame]

I flashed the pivos to run Linux XBMC (smoother experience than android and it boots right into it)

XBMC also has loads of 'add-ons' so you can run netflix, hulu or any other online streaming site through it
 
There is probably a much more efficient way to do it (which is the case with pretty much everything I do) but I just have an external HD hooked up to basically a slave laptop that sits under my TV stand that is connected to the TV via HDMI. I just use VLC player and watch the shit out of all kinds of stuff.