As per the title. Most of my video content now, um, appears as MKV files. I’d like to actually watch them on my TV rather than my computer, but my TV is one of those relics that just has RCA jacks (?: the old red, yellow, and white female plugs, anyway) at the back. I’ve got a DVD player with a USB slot, and I can play AVI files through that - but not MKV.
Do little thingamabobs exist that can connect a USB hard drive to the RCA jacks? If so, what are said thingamabobs called (particularly in Chinese), are there any recommended types, approximately how much do they cost, and where can I acquire one?
[quote=“lostinasia”]As per the title. Most of my video content now, um, appears as MKV files. I’d like to actually watch them on my TV rather than my computer, but my TV is one of those relics that just has RCA jacks (?: the old red, yellow, and white female plugs, anyway) at the back. I’ve got a DVD player with a USB slot, and I can play AVI files through that - but not MKV.
Do little thingamabobs exist that can connect a USB hard drive to the RCA jacks? If so, what are said thingamabobs called (particularly in Chinese), are there any recommended types, approximately how much do they cost, and where can I acquire one?
Thanks in advance![/quote]
no, if you TV doesn’t even have an HDMI port, it will not have the framework/decoding stuff needed to directly play things from an USB drive.
what you can do is figure out what video output your computer has. It’s gonna be either HDMI/DVI or VGA depending on how old your computer is. And then get a adapter to RCA jacks (if you don’t have an HDMI port, then you will need one cable for video and one for audio to your audio card). Then you can play stuff from your computer on your TV. If you have one of those video cards that has 2 video outputs, it’s going to make life even easier.
the above would be your cheapest alternative. if you don’t like it, try Chromecast. google.com/intl/zh-TW/chrome … hromecast/ USD$35
Once you’ve set your chromecast up, you can play videos from your chrome browser and cast it to your TV, but wait… your TV doesn’t have an HDMI port… well, you can again get one of those adapter things, but it’s not gonna be pretty. Also, chrome has issues play some AVI formats, darn Microsoft. By the way, MKV is only a wrapper format, so the real encoding inside may still be Microsoft proprietary formats…
If both doesn’t work for you, you might as well get one of those media server thigny. examples:
a. boxee box and other D-Link media players: dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/entertain USD$174
b. XBOX/PS4? USD$300~400
but as you can see media server options is a lot more expensive. which leaves us with…
Thanks! Oh, #5 is definitely on the list, but it’s been on the list for a number of years now. OK, the whole thing sounds about as difficult as I feared.
Thanks! Oh, #5 is definitely on the list, but it’s been on the list for a number of years now. OK, the whole thing sounds about as difficult as I feared.[/quote]
if you don’t mind option 2 and 3, this kind of adapter would work fine for you
Hm. My desktop computer (iMac, about four years old) is far away from the TV, and I certainly don’t want to string cables across the apartment - but I’ve got an old now-unused laptop (Mac, roughly eight years old) that may work for this. Thanks. I’ll investigate further.
I was in the same situation as you before, and I finally just bought a new flat screen TV. It’s definitely worth it, and the prices have come down enough to the point where it’s not so hard to justify a new TV. We ended up giving away our old (functional) TV to a distant relative who needed one, so that was a plus as well.
Yeah, I’ve done that in the past, but the conversion time seems wildly variable (it’s taken a couple of days before), plus there’s usually a marked loss of quality.
I’ll see what happens when the Chinese New Year financial dust settles. Maybe we’ll find enough money for a TV - but I really need to buy a new good bicycle too! Damn mortgaged middle class life … toys were much more affordable when I lived in low-rent hovels.
I recently built an HTPC, using XBMC as the media center. The parts came to about 7500 NT$ (some I already had) and it was completely worth it. I can control it with my (android) phone from the couch, play any media in any format, stream things from my computer(s) and the internet, etc.
If you ever have the cash for it, this is the best solution.
MKV is just a container. It way work to change the container to .mpg or similar. Try MKV2VOB - it’s great software that will change the container with no loss of quality, and it works very fast, too, since it’s not converting the video.
Not guaranteed to work, but it’s worth a shot. I use it often, as I use a lot of MKV files, but they won’t play on my PS3, so I convert them to .mpg with MKV3VOB and they play no problem.
I had an old TV two years ago when I lived in Yilan, which was provided by my landlady. I didn’t have the urgency to buy a new TV so I got a very strange adapter where you could connect a VGA cable from your PC and connect it to your TV using AV cables. I got it at a 3C store in Yilan.