What's the best solution for streaming media from Win7 to a LCD TV without DLNA?

bradavon78

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I've got a Windows 7 laptop, LCD TV, PVR, Blu-ray player and Receiver. Except for Windows 7 obviously, none have DLNA capabilities.

Is there a device I can plug into my TV to give it DLNA? It wouldn't need to be particularly fancy, just have a remote control and have some type of navigational menu on the TV.

Currently I'm burning DivX files to DVD and then playing them on my Blu-ray Player, which is cumbersome and seems outdated.

Thanks
 
I've thought of that but it's not a very elegant solution. The laptop is often used around the house too. I've done that in the past. Thanks though.
 
You can install DNLA server software (if you havent already) onto the win 7 machine. Then any dnla compliant media streamer can then see the content offered by your dnla server. Such as the Popcorn hour A-210 and others
 
Thanks.

Doesn't Windows 7 support DLNA out of the box? Via Windows Media Player. I thought it did. Isn't there something a little smaller and cheaper? Like some kind of small box that can just be plugged into the TV, no?

I'm planning eventually to get something like the Humax FreeviewHD PVR, which has DLNA but not planning to get that any time soon.
 
If all you want is to stream divx files, then a good solution for you is Western Digital TV Live which you can get for ÂŁ77 on Amazon. There are cheaper streamers out there, but if you want something that works really well and is affordable, then the WDTV is the way to go, IMO.

Hope this helps.

Nuno
 
Windows Media Player 11 provides a DNLA server on XP (and presumably on Vista and W7).
Windows Media Centre on Windows 7 definitely provides a DNLA server.

The PS3 plays back TV recorded by MCE on Windows7 - the interface isn't as pretty and you can't fast forward as elegantly but it works. I found I needed to use a wired connection to playback recorded Freeview on either as my 'g' wireless wasn't fast enough.

If you're running Media Center on the PC then you can connect an xbox360 as an extender and get a complete mirror of the interface on the TV complete with a media remote for ÂŁ10 from Play.com. That's what I've done between my two viewing rooms - again I needed wired connections.

I'm also looking for a super cheap option for DNLA playback of MCE recorded TV on the bedroom TV. It doesn't get used enough to warrant sticking a games console in there!
 
Get a WDTV Live or AC Ryan POHD Mini 2, both are cheap and capable media players with a wide range of codecs supported, plays media from SMB network shares on the PC so you don't have to deal with the mess that is DLNA though you can use DLNA if you want to.
 

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