Streaming Movies - My Upgrade to 2009
Posted by: endlessnessism on 14 November 2016
I have recently upgraded from a 2005 Pioneer 720 Plasma to a (second-hand, obviously) 2009 Pioneer 1080 Plasma. I like plasma, and Pioneer in particular, and although they stopped making them in 2009 I still don't think I have seen anything since that looks so natural, especially flesh tones. (4K gives me the creeps - like looking at one of those magnifying mirrors and seeing all your blackheads and open pores).
Anyway I would now like to gather opinions on the best way to stream movies to my "new" telly - probably something that you all mastered years ago. Well, I have been doing it too but I'm sure there are better ways. I'm not so interested in Netflix and LoveFilm, etc and prefer the stuff you can get on Curzon Home Cinema.
The possibilities seem to be the following:
To date I have simply connected a laptop with an HDMI output to one of the HDMI inputs on the telly. It seems to do the job but it's a bit inconvenient and the laptop sometimes whirs away irritatingly. Also, unless you want the image on two screens, you've got to configure the laptop so you can close the lid and it doesn't go to sleep; and unless you go to the trouble of plugging it in it can run out of juice at a critical moment. But the picture is good.
One of my sons has put me onto Chromecast, which is a breeze for convenience, either from the laptop (without having to move it from where I normally keep it, connected to a docking station) or from an iPad; but I'm not convinced the picture is as good.
Our house is hardwired for ethernet. The Pioneer telly has an ethernet input that I have successfully configured for our network but I can't see that it allows me to do very much. I can access stuff stored on other computers and NAS drives in the house but I can't see how it can let me stream movies from external sources.
We have a Sony BDP player which is on our home network and has access to the internet. It has built-in access to sites like Netflix but not Curzon Home Cinema. I can access Curzon Home Cinema via the BDP but the interface is awful (it's via the remote control and you have to use the number pad to designate letters and spell-out words). I may investigate to see if it's possible to connect a mouse and keyboard.
And that seems to be about it. Chromecast is by far the most convenient, and it's also as cheap as chips. Maybe there is something like it that does a better job of rendering the picture? Maybe there's a wired solution that takes advantage of all our ethernet cabling? Or maybe I'm already onto the best and cheapest solution by simply hooking-up the laptop?