Connecting PC to a TNT box

[Nickd]

Can anyone advise me how I might connect from my PC to a TNT set top box that has a USB port. Am I right in thinking this is possible?

I'm hoping to be able to output films from my PC and see them on the TV screen. Is this the way to do it or, should I be doing something else?

Any advice on this would be most gratefully received.

Best wishes,

Nick

[Quillan]

Here is a clever way to do it and a lot more, you will need the following.:

An old 486 Pentium PC with around 512kb of memory, network card and DVD/CD reader.

A PCI SATA card and a 1TB HDD (about £70)

A copy of Microsoft Home Server 2010 (about £80)

Either an Xbox or PS2 (if you already have one in the family you can nick) or if you want HD then something like a Linksys DMA2100 Media Extender to plug in to your TV (around depending where you buy it £60)

DVD Ripping software, I use Magic DVD Ripper (37 USD).

Once this is connected you can download all your digital photo's, music (MP3 and Apple) and either RIP your DVD's or download films from 'other sources'. Not only this but you can share printers and automatically back up your PC every night, it will even 'wake up' your PC automatically if you turn it off to back it up then turn it off when finished. You can attach your printer to the server and share that as well. The photo's can be watched on your TV, you can listen to your music via your TV and HiFi system (separately or at the same time) and of course watch your films. You can have up to ten devices attached, one PC and nine extenders or nine PC's and one extender, you can play or watch stuff on each extender independantly of others extenders. You can watch Youtube stuff without having your PC on, access Internet TV/radio and a load more. It's really worth looking at and it does not cost a fortune and the biggest plus is your computer is backed up automatically (you can create a boot disk if you want so if you have to replace the HDD in your PC stick the floppy in and it will boot then copy all your software, operating system and data back to the new HDD). Oh yes and things like the Logitech Squeezebox connects to it as well so you can carry your music round the house if you have a wireless router. It's really worth having a look at, its not a well known solution but it is very good and beats buying an expensive dedicated media server.

[Martin963]

If you use the simple approach then I think it's unlikely you'll be able to watch stuff on the TV via the TNT box other than that which the TNT box itself has recorded.

Without the model number one can't say for certain,   but the majority of these boxes with USB ports are designed to work with a hard disk (rather than a computer);   they create a special folder where they record stuff,  with a proprietary indexing system.   They often don't use NTFS either,   at least the ones I know use FAT32,  so any existing HDD may have to be re-formatted (with consequential loss of data).

As I say,   without more details (and a look at the manual) I don't know whether you're going to get anywhere.

[Pierre ZFP]

Another way is to get a VGA to Video converter and bypass the TNT box altogether and just plug into a spare composite or Scart input on the TV

I've been using a cheap VGA-Video box that I got off Fleabay for less than €10.  It's OK but I wouldn't say its great

Or plan B.02,  get an external drive, they're vey cheap these days and transfer your films ect to that an plug it into the USB port.  I use an external drive to my TV via a little Cyclone box (half the size of a packet of fags) and I can get full 1080p HD on my TV.  The Cyclone box was about €20, also off Fleabay I think, or it might have been Ebuyer.com

[Quillan]

This is why I got interested in Media Servers. Basically there are other solutions around but they are all 'messy' in that first you have to RIP and then copy to a memory stick or hard drive then 'sneaker net' it in to another room (if your computer is not in the same room) and plug it in to something else. How much simpler to just RIP it once then be able to view it on your TV or a multitude of other devices. Plus done properly its all backed up so you won't loose it (fire, flood or theft being the exception). You normally get ten login's so you can even watch or listen remotely on another computer or let distant family have access if you wish.

[Nickd]

What a great response - thanks everyone for your impressively swift and informative replies. Plenty for me to think on. One thing is now clear - my original idea of simply going PC to TNT box via USB cable was never going to work.. Well you live and learn - thanks to the folks on the Living France Forum!

Best wishes,

Nick