Giving your HD TV a brain

Favi's Smart Stick plugs into your HD TV via a HDMI cable and wirelessly connects to your WI-Fi router and then your 'Home Media Centre' (where all your movies, music and pictures reside. Or.. it will connect to the internet to give you Netflix, Spotify or HBO Go to name a few channels.

Click below:

 

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/12/favis-android-packing-smartstick-finally-shipping/

If you don't have a 'Home Media Centre' just install 'PLEX' one of your pld PC's. Plex will work on Linux, Mac's and even Windows PC's. Or you can buy a 'NAS' (network accessed storage) device which acts as storage, backup and media centre.

Click here if you want to learn about checking your Wi-Fi speed.

Stop the Press.

I have just tested the bandwidth necessary on a home Wi-Fi network using a Netcomm router rated at N150mbps. I use a Sony Playstation 3 to connect the HD TV to the Plex Home Media Centre on a Lenovo G560 Ubuntu laptop using only Wi-Fi.

First I played a 720p video file stored on the Laptop and it works very well. No hiccups there. I then opened the Plex 'Channels' on the internet and found Vimeo, opened the channel list, picked a video from the 1000's availabe to watch. That works at 720p with a few stutters. At 480p no stutters plays smoothly.

Now just think... the packets go from the Playstation to the Router to the Laptop, back to the router, to the internet and then back again along the same path. All without any tangles. Impressive.

I'm Happy!