Divx vids on my TV?

[Mojo67821]

I wasn't sure where to post this so I figured this forum was general enough.

I have 2 questions.

Mainly I want to view a divx file on my tv. So I have a few options but I don't know what to do.

I could burn it onto a DVD, which I'm pretty sure would be compatible with my dvd player... I don't know what application to do this with though. Any suggestions? I've been in need of a general burning app for OSX also, where I could burn mpgs, divx or whatever onto a basic dvd. Nothing fancy.

Also, I was wondering if there was any way to stream from my mac to my television. I currently have an analogue tv with plenty of inputs, and am going to be buying a hi-def tv soon. What is my best option?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Mojo67821]

*bump*. Anyone?

 

[ftaok]

I wasn't sure where to post this so I figured this forum was general enough.

I have 2 questions.

Mainly I want to view a divx file on my tv. So I have a few options but I don't know what to do.

I could burn it onto a DVD, which I'm pretty sure would be compatible with my dvd player... I don't know what application to do this with though. Any suggestions? I've been in need of a general burning app for OSX also, where I could burn mpgs, divx or whatever onto a basic dvd. Nothing fancy.

Also, I was wondering if there was any way to stream from my mac to my television. I currently have an analogue tv with plenty of inputs, and am going to be buying a hi-def tv soon. What is my best option?

Thanks for the help!

Mojo,

You do have a few options.

1. You could burn the divx file to DVD like you said. Try Toast. They've recently updated to version 8. I have version 7 and it can convert Divx to DVD for you. However, I did have one file that lost the audio track. In fact, when playing that file in QT Player, it had no audio. Only VLC was able to play the file with sound.

2. You could burn the Divx file onto a Divx DVD, provided your DVD player can read Divx DVDs. Again, Toast is your friend.

3. You could hook up your mac to the TV directly. The TV would be the monitor. However, with a standard 4:3 CRT, you're not likely to be satisfied. You'll need the appropriate adapters and cables, depending on your model of Mac and TV.

4. If you're getting a new HDTV, consider getting one that is Mac friendly. Most of the new LCD HDTV's have 1080p inputs on HDMI. If your Mac is up to it, you can connect your DVI to the TV's HDMI (or DVI if it has that). Alternatively, VGA works well too. I have a Sharp LC46D62U and have it connected to a Macbook via DVI/HDMI and displaying 1080p. Looks great.

ft

 

[Mojo67821]

Mojo,



3. You could hook up your mac to the TV directly. The TV would be the monitor. However, with a standard 4:3 CRT, you're not likely to be satisfied. You'll need the appropriate adapters and cables, depending on your model of Mac and TV.



ft

Until I get an HDTV I'd like to try it on my analogue tv. I have a MBP15. Is there a hookup that will go from my computer to either analogue or component?

 

[risc]

I could burn it onto a DVD, which I'm pretty sure would be compatible with my dvd player... I don't know what application to do this with though. Any suggestions? I've been in need of a general burning app for OSX also, where I could burn mpgs, divx or whatever onto a basic dvd. Nothing fancy.

Also, I was wondering if there was any way to stream from my mac to my television. I currently have an analogue tv with plenty of inputs, and am going to be buying a hi-def tv soon. What is my best option?

VisualHub can convert pretty much anything to DVD video.

Check out the Apple TV or El Gato's EyeHome 1 may be the streaming solution you require.

Personally I have given up on streaming media or burning it to DVD I bought an 80 GB LaCie SilverScreen multimedia drive and I just plug that in to my HDTV when I want to watch a video.

 

[huck500]

I use my Powerbook's S-video output with my TV all the time, it does the job. Since the MBP doesn't have one, maybe converting from DVI to a format your TV supports is what you need to do.

Here's a DVI to Component adapter, no idea about the quality of something like this, though.

Edit: Oops, didn't look closely enough. "Does not work with Macintosh systems." Sorry...

After a little research, it seems that there is no cheap/easy way to output component video from a DVI Mac. Bummer.

 

[atszyman]

Until I get an HDTV I'd like to try it on my analogue tv. I have a MBP15. Is there a hookup that will go from my computer to either analogue or component?

Wow, so they got rid of S-video on the MBPs?

I have a 15" PowerBook and it has an S-Video output and came with an S-Video to RCA adaptor. I often hook it up to my TV via this and the headphone jack to watch videos from the computer on the main TV.

Of course I'm trying to eliminate this using the Wii and some of the video converters for it. I've had some luck but some vids don't convert properly.

 

[clevin]

there is a app called "burn", which supposedly can burn your divx video to DVD as "DVD" without your attention, altho I never tried.

Connecting your mac to TV using a cable will work for normal display, but seems can't sync video display between mac and tv (it might be my unique situation tho).

 

[Mojo67821]

You know, I never really thought about the lack of S-video port until just now. I guess they figured we're in the digital age and people don't need it. I guess when I get my hdtv (hopefully soon, although I've been saying that for a while) none of this will matter... I just wanted to give it a try.

Although, I can't help but think there must be SOME way to send a signal from here out to my TV.

 

[Mojo67821]

If I want to hook my hdtv up to my laptop, I want to make sure the TV has a VGA connector, right? Just wanted to check, thanks!

 

[aspro]

VGA or DVI (with associated cabling) should be fine.

 

[ftaok]

If I want to hook my hdtv up to my laptop, I want to make sure the TV has a VGA connector, right? Just wanted to check, thanks!

Depends on the TV. If it has VGA, chance are that it'll take full resolution with zero overscan, however, there are still some bone-head TV manufacturers out there that just don't get it and limit the VGA input to 1280x1024.

DVI and HDMI both work well with Macs. Just make sure the TV supports 1:1 pixel mapping so you don't have to screw around with DisplayConfigX or SwitchResX. Also, with DVI and HDMI, you'll need some other cable to run audio from the Mac to the TV. Most DVI inputs have associated audio inputs. However, the same is not always true with HDMI. On my Sharp LC46D62U, I have 2 HDMI ports. Only one of the two have associated audio inputs. So I have to specifically use that HDMI input for my Mac.

ft