How to get web video onto your TV

[AARPRachelA]

Since we are all at home more, check out this handy guide on how to get web video onto your TV. Hopefully, you find it helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know!

[fffred]

@AARPRachelA 

Thanks for the tips!

One of my fave pastimes is listening to music on YouTube, either at/on my computer or while sitting in the living room with my wife. In the living room I will "cast" YouTube to our Roku device attached to the television. I can do this from my iPad, my Windows 10 laptop, and from my Android phone. Any one of them works.

It's really nice to queue up a dozen or two YouTube songs and listen/watch them on the large screen with good sound. These may be audio tracks lifted from LPs, CDs, etc, with only a photo of the album cover displayed, or may be actual "music videos" from back in the day (of not so long ago), or may have scenes from the performer's life or acts, or related scenes, or scenes from a movie, etc. Many are done quite professionally.  

For "television" type entertainment we just use Roku to access services we subscribe to, etc.

Oh!   I have taken some videos family members recorded of memorable events or people, all involving family, and uploaded them to YouTube myself. Such videos can have access restricted in case we (or you) don't want others to access them. It is really fun to share these videos via YouTube with family spread across 3 countries, and they can be viewed any time, on any hardware device that can access YouTube (eg: a smart phone, tablet, any personal computer with a web browser, etc).

[sc10]

I am not sure it had been mentioned, but if you don't have a smart TV, you still can get contents from the internet or what you have your cell phone or computer on the big screen. All you need is a streaming device to hook up to your TV and turn it into a smart TV. But you need to have hdmi port input on your TV. One of my favorite stream device is the Roku stick. You can get a lot of streaming subscriptions like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Now on Roku with an app. The are apps for free contents too like Youtube (no need to cast), Roku channel, Plex, Pluto, Crackle. If you have video or photo in you computer or cell phone, you can cast to Roku and display on the big screen. One thing about casting, your computer, cell phone and Roku must be connected to the same router network (internet connection is not required).

[MsStretch]

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@sc10 wrote:

I am not sure it had been mentioned, but if you don't have a smart TV, you still can get contents from the internet or what you have your cell phone or computer on the big screen. All you need is a streaming device to hook up to your TV and turn it into a smart TV. But you need to have hdmi port input on your TV. One of my favorite stream device is the Roku stick. You can get a lot of streaming subscriptions like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Now on Roku with an app. The are apps for free contents too like Youtube (no need to cast), Roku channel, Plex, Pluto, Crackle. If you have video or photo in you computer or cell phone, you can cast to Roku and display on the big screen. One thing about casting, your computer, cell phone and Roku must be connected to the same router network (internet connection is not required).

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I am still using my first gen Chromecast with my iPhone and/or Android tablet.  I can use with computer too, but have to use Chrome browser.