With the advancement in technology, a lot of smart TVs are available in market which has made it very easier to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. Smart TVs provide good quality HD screen and more option to play with. But what if you do not have smart TV at your home? How one will watch Netflix on his wide inch display screen? Worry not!
Here’s an alternative solution by which you can convert your old PC into a smart TV.
And you know the home theater personal computer (HTPC) is a brilliant option where you can have your smart tv without spending a large amount of money to buy new one.
For novice, HTPC is any regular PC/Laptop which has HDMI and audio outputs. You can link these ports with the one in your TV which will help in receiving audio and video. Spending money to get a new TV just for few features is not that good idea. You can retain your old high definition PC for this purpose.
HTPC is very useful as it not only acts as a computer but also as a Smart TV where you can watch your Netflix and Amazon Prime Videos. As there will not be any requirement for graphic card or huge amount of RAM, so it will not require into large amount of money for its processing. And then of course you can increase the configuration of HTPC as per your need.
All you need is an old laptop/desktop lying in your home which should have HDMI port and RS232 output port. You are blessed if your TV has the same ports available in it. It may be possible that your computer doesn’t have upto the mark resources. So, you can upgrade your Hard disk drive to a solid state and increase your RAM for faster data processing. Replacing the HDD with SSD because it reads and writes the data faster. Purchasing a 240GB SSD will work which will cost about Rs. 2600 and 4GB of RAM will work which will cost about Rs 2000.
Note that, first upgrade your SSD and then run the video. If it’s working, then no need to upgrade Ram for desktop however for laptops you need to update both of them. After this is done, you can install the operating system on the bare metal machine and can install the application you want to stream.
You can then watch Netflix etc. For this you will require a good network connectivity to internet. Any internet connection can be purchased within 1000 rupees. The entire setup will cost around 25000-45000 rupees. You can also build it by buying the parts separately. This will result in very less cost. You can buy Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor, a good motherboard and configuration of SSD as stated above. This will cost around 30,000 rupees.
You can then watch Netflix etc. For this you will require a good network connectivity to internet. Any internet connection can be purchased within 1000 rupees. The entire setup will cost around 25000-45000 rupees. You can also build it by buying the parts separately. This will result in very less cost. You can buy Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor, a good motherboard and configuration of SSD as stated above. This will cost around 30,000 rupees.
You can also opt to connect it to an fta satellite receiver like these ones, so you can connect to tv stations for free. This way, you can enjoy high-quality satellite tv even without paying for an expensive cable plan.
While buying the motherboard make sure that it has HDMI port which is used to provide video output to the television. And also, USB 3.0 and optical output are required. USB 3.0 will help in connecting your computer to any other external media while the later will be helpful in sending the sound signals.
