Using Late 2015 iMac - as TV

[polyphenol]

Got an Intel iMac:

macOS Monterey
Version 12.7.6
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
Processor 4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core 17
Memory 24 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

So quite a decent spec. Nice screen. Works fine.

However, not really needed to run macOS as the owner has a new iMac and a fairly new MBP.

One use would be as a second TV. There are two locations where it would be nice to have this option but not worth going out to buy a TV.

In the UK so browser access via BBC iPlayer, ITVX, C4 app, etc., would seem to be one possible route. But being stuck on Monterey there is concern about whether that will stop working at some point. (If it does now? I am not in a position to check right now. I know they work on Apple Silicon.)

Another would be to remote onto the new iMac from the same other rooms so as to be able to use a large screen rather than the MBP. (Eyesight makes the larger screen at a greater distance appeal.)

I'm personally relatively new to Apple computers. I've never really got into what is, and is not, possible, how to achieve things and what can crop up to blow ideas out of the water. I'm aware that there are various options involving Linux, etc. but would like to just leave the machine as a functioning Mac.

 

[theluggage]

In the UK so browser access via BBC iPlayer, ITVX, C4 app, etc., would seem to be one possible route. But being stuck on Monterey there is concern about whether that will stop working at some point. (If it does now? I am not in a position to check right now. I know they work on Apple Silicon.)

I think the brutal truth is that, if you want something to "just work", you should just go get a TV. The big problem with an iMac is that there's no HDMI port that you could just stick a firestick or AppleTV into. On the other hand, if there's nothing good on TV, trying to get streaming or PVR software to work on old hardware is great entertainment...

For any of the major streaming apps/websites you'll probably be tied to recent versions Chrome or Safari and, hence, recent operating systems. iPlayer, for one, only promises to support the latest browsers. Safari isn't getting updated on Monterey any more, and Chrome looks set to drop support for Monterey. The future for such a Mac is probably installing Linux instead of MacOS.

You should also be able to use Airplay to cast from an iPad, Mac or iPhone to the iMac.

One way of getting off-the-air live Freeview TV is from a little "HDHomerun" box (I think there's one model still available, or try second hand) which sits on your network, connects to an aerial and can stream live TV to the HDHomerun app, a HDHomeRun add-in for Kodi or a PVR application like NextPVR (Kodi and NextPVR are both available for Mac and Linux). If you can get that running it should stay running (although Freeview might not be around forever...)