How to play HD/Bluray movies from laptop to HDTV?

GSDog

GSDog

GSDog

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My Panasonic TH-37PX80B arrived today and it looks stunning, but unfortunetly haven't got a bluray disk to try out yet.

I am very new to all this HD/Bluray/PS3 stuff and I am still not 100% sure how to play HD/Bluray movies from my laptop to the Plasma.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 9400, the graphics card is an nVidia 7900GS, with DVI output.

Am I right in thinking I would need a DVI > HDMI adapter cable to play HD/Bluray movies from the laptop to the TV?

I have a PS3 which I will be using to watch Bluray DVD's, but I would like to sometimes download Bluray movies/trailers onto my laptop and watch it on the TV.

As I don't have the DVI>HDMI cable yet, is there a way that I can somehow transfer a HD/Bluray movie/trailer from the PC onto the PS3 until I get myself a cable?

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
Your laptop on its own won't be able to play much, some HD trailers yes but they have fairly low bitrates.
Google for ps3 streaming for playing media via the PS3, considering your slow laptop the hassle of setting that up is worth it. TVersity is one popular media server.
 
Your PS3 will play most files you can download. There is a variety of ways of going about this, from streaming it to the PS3 using something like WMP or TVersity, or physically putting the files on the PS3. To do this you can either use an external HDD or USB dongle thing, though it must be formatted as FAT32 which means you cant have files over 4GB in size. There is a variety of software that can split video files into smaller chunks. You could try transferring it via a media server such as HFS or Redkawa. You can even use mkv2vob to demux MKV files so they play too. Or you could try downloading the files on the PS3 itself, skipping the PC out altogether!

But yes, all you need is a DVI>HDMI cable, like these, to get your PC on your TV! You can get them for £5 or less.

EDIT: Don't listen to the above poster though, your laptop will play any and all HD videos!
 
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dbmzk1 said:
EDIT: Don't listen to the above poster though, your laptop will play any and all HD videos!
Click to expand...

I noticed he has a 2Ghz C2D 9400 (I know someone with a 9400 but it's a slow Core Duo so I assumed they'd be the same) so it should play just about any encode but it won't manage BD.
 
AbsenceJam said:
I noticed he has a 2Ghz C2D 9400 (I know someone with a 9400 but it's a slow Core Duo so I assumed they'd be the same) so it should play just about any encode but it won't manage BD.
Click to expand...

It's a 2GHz Core 2 Duo, with a 7900 GS. It will play BDs just fine... well it would do if he had a BD drive anyway!

That's not what the OP asked though, so lets not take his thread further OT :)
 
Yea people think you need massive cpu power to decode HD material, you only need massive CPU power for badly encoded material. For x264/mkv use CoreAVC to decode and youll be fine.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I have ordered a DVI to HDMI cable today and also had a play with TVersity.

I followed the instructions here;
http://www.ps3forums.com/showthread.php?t=75081

And have pretty much got it all working. I can see the media server and the sample Bluray movies via the PS3, but when I play them with the PS3 they seem to keep pausing/freezing every 2 seconds or so.
Sometimes they play OK for a few minutes, then it starts again...

Do you have any idea what could be causing this? Could it be because the PS3 is using wireless (54Mpbs)?

It's very annoying because it looks stunning, but keeps pausing every few seconds. :confused:

Also, in the TVersity settings I am unsure what the video resolution and image resolutions should be set at. At the moment the video resolution is 1280x720 and the image resolution is 1280x1024. I am not sure if that is correct.

Any help would be appreciated.

P.S) My laptop is the 2.0Ghz C2D, 2GB ram and 7900GS version.
 
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I just tried it on the wired network and it still keeps pausing every 2-3 seconds, very annoying. :(
 
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