Now on sale in electronics centers and large supermarkets there are many Smart TVs, even at very competitive prices, just waiting to be bought for our living room, in the kitchen or in the bedroom. Once purchased, however, we realize that in order to make the most of it, we should use the apps on it, while if we wanted to send a video or stream from the PC or from our smartphone, we do not know how. In this guide we will show you how to stream video content to a Smart TV, from PC, smartphone and even from websites, using the features integrated in it to be able to manage any type of video stream, regardless of the app or service used . We will thus be able to watch a game in streaming or a movie on the web without having to go crazy looking for it on the browser or among the Smart TV apps.
READ ALSO -> Best apps for Smart TVs Samsung, LG and Android
1) Before continuing
Before we can try any of the systems proposed below, make sure to read the following warnings otherwise it will not be possible to send the content to TV or we may have problems during playback:
- The Smart TV must be connected (via WiFi or Ethernet) to the same network as the devices we intend to use to send videos;
- Some videos may not be compatible with TV, especially if the codecs are very new (H.264 is supported very well, while H.265 (HEVC) is definitely compatible on TVs released from 2017 onwards);
- Some audio tracks included in the videos may not be reproduced correctly, especially if they use advanced audio codecs (AC3 and DTS).
- The best results are obtained by using the fastest connections, i.e. 5 GHz WiFi (for TV, PC, smartphone and tablet) or the Ethernet cable (for TV and fixed PC).
If possible, we should avoid using 2.4 GHz WiFi connections, which are too slow and with too much interference to be effective.
Starting from these assumptions, let's now see how to view video content on a Smart TV starting from a PC or smartphone.
Having a computer or a smartphone it is in fact possible to see anything streaming it on TV, both if you have a normal TV, and if you have a Smart TV that connects to the network .
2) Stream video content via DLNA (" Digital Living Network Alliance ") support.
DLNA is a feature found in most new televisions that allows you to share multimedia content streams between devices connected to the same home network, without the need to store content on both devices. Put simply, if you have a movie on your PC it can be streamed on TV without having to copy it to the TV memory. Another example of DLNA is to hear smartphone music on the stereo speakers. The possibilities are endless, as long as both devices support DLNA.
DLNA is widely supported by all TV manufacturers, although it often has a different name such as: AllShare (Samsung), SmartShare (LG), EasyShare (Philips), AirPlay (Apple).
Those who have a TV with DLNA support can therefore watch videos from the PC on TV (which must be a Smart TV) without buying any other device by following this guide.
Those who don't have it can always watch videos and movies streamed from their PC on TV with the Chromecast, which costs just 40 Euros.
READ ALSO: Guide to DLNA servers
Before starting to discover this new function of your Smart TV, you need to know that there are two types of DLNA devices: a client and a server. The server transmits the content and the client receives it. PCs, Macs, NAS drives, tablets and smartphones can all act as servers while the TV is the client. In order for your PC or smartphone to function as a DLNA server, you need to install a program or app .
On a Windows PC you can find the media sharing function in the Control Panel.
Open the Control Panel, search for " media streaming options " and activate it. From the TV, open the DLNA streaming function and locate the server to open the videos.
The sharing of streaming streams from PC however is very limited, it is therefore advisable to install a different program such as TVersity (already described in the article to watch PC movies from Playstation or XBox) or, better still, Plex Media Player .
Plex is easy to configure and asks to indicate the folder where the movies are saved on the computer.
These films then become shared on the network and visible via streaming from the TV thanks to DLNA support.
The power of Plex is the ability to transcode videos in order to make them all supported even if, in theory, they would not be.
Plex is also available for Android, iPhone and iPad smartphones .
You can also make streaming videos from websites, including flash videos, visible on Smart TV thanks to Google Chrome and the vGet Cast extension (DLNA Controller) .
The extension installs a button to broadcast the site you are viewing on a smart TV connected to the network with DLNA active. In some Smart TVs there may also be DIAL support that allows you to stream videos from Youtube and NetFlix using the "Broadcast" function in the Google Chrome menu. You can do a quick test to see if our Smart TV is found with the Send button, otherwise switch to vGet Cast.
3) Send content to Smart TV via Miracast
If we have a recent Android smartphone or tablet we can send the contents reproduced on the screen directly to the TV using Miracast, obviously if the TV is compatible with this protocol. We open our TV and look for the Miracast menu to enable the functionality (if available).
Now that the function is active on our television, we connect the smartphone or tablet to the 5 GHz wireless network (the standard 2.4 GHz one could give too much interference problems) and we use the transmit Google present in the quick menu, swiping in bottom of the top system bar.
If we do not see this toogle we can open the Cast screen or Wireless screen menu in the Settings menu -> Network or Other .
Once the connection with the TV is established, just confirm the connection on the latter to see everything we see on the smartphone screen. We can open any multimedia app, videos on Facebook or Google Chrome and view it (with a slight delay compared to the display) even on our TV.
3) Send content to the Smart TV via Windows 10
If we have Windows 10 on our desktop or laptop, we can send the full desktop screen to the TV by clicking on the Notifications menu icon at the bottom right and clicking Connect .
After a few seconds of research we will see our Smart TV appear among the devices that we can connect to the operating system.
We click on the entry for our Smart TV, confirm the message on it and we will see the desktop appear on the TV.
We open the multimedia content (even a streaming from the Web) and reproduce it without problems through the browser, then let's put it in full screen; so we can also see it on TV with good quality. For best results, make sure to leave the Miracast item activated on the Smart TV.
READ ALSO: Windows 10 as a Miracast wifi receiver to see the screen of another PC and Android
4) Send content to Smart TV via Android smartphone
Instead of using Miracast support, you can also install the BubbleUPnP app on Android devices, the best one to create a DLNA server on Android.
Also for Android you can use the free AllCast app, which works to stream video, music and photos on each receiver such as the Chromecast or the Smart-TV Samsung, Panasonic and Sony.
Alternatively we can take advantage of DLNA and the free app called Web Video Cast, downloadable from here -> Web Video Cast .
Alternatively we can take advantage of DLNA and the free app called Web Video Cast, downloadable from here -> Web Video Cast .
This app acts like a normal web browser, capable of playing all the videos on the Internet.
But once associated with our Smart TV (by tapping on the Cast symbol at the top and limiting the search to Smart TVs or DLNA) this app will be able to retrieve the link to the video source, so that it can be sent to the TV to play it. Since many TVs have a limited memory level, it can act as additional buffering for playback on TV, so you always get smooth, high-quality content on Smart TV. Excellent for playing videos on Facebook, Netflix, social networks and streaming sites without having to download anything or make too many clicks (which often lead to viruses).
5) Send content to Smart TV via iPhone or iPad
If we have an iPhone or iPad and we want to send the videos found on the net on our TV, the only app suitable for the purpose is Video & TV Cast, available here -> Video & TV Cast .
This app works very similarly to Web Video Cast but is perfectly compatible with the Apple environment: a web browser is offered from which to open the sites where the video is contained; as soon as the video has started (it is always advisable to start it on the device), we tap at the top right on the Cast symbol and wait until our Smart TV is visible. Now let's associate it to the app, confirm the warning message that will appear on the TV and enjoy the playback of Web videos on Smart TV. This app is perfectly compatible with the videos on Facebook, on social media, on YouTube and on any streaming site you know.
6) Other methods to send content to the Smart TV
These that we have seen in this guide are the fastest and fastest methods to send video content to a Smart TV starting from a PC or portable device. If we want to use other methods to get the connection between our network device and the new TV, we recommend reading the following guides:
- Watch TV videos and movies streamed from your PC with Chromecast
- How to cast on TV from iPhone and iPad with Chromecast
- Best Android TV BOX to watch movies on TV
Now the only problem is to search for videos and movies on the internet, which you can find on movie rental sites or other sites that I can't really talk about.
