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HDMI Port is no longer necessary

X60/X61 and X60t/X61t Series
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E350
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HDMI Port is no longer necessary

#1 Post by E350 » Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:11 am

One of the intriguing things to me about the X62 (which I am still interested in), is the possibility of streaming video files to a television. While the T61p has a DVI output which can be converted to a HDMI input to a modern tv, the X61 has neither a HDMI output nor a DVI output to convert to a HDMI input.

I use my X61 for work and really for everything computer or web related. And although my wife and I do not "watch tv" we do rent and watch movies on Amazon. And I have music videos which were downloaded from youtube.com on my X61 which we play in the background while working around the home.

I had previously thought about building a media center computer for streaming video content to our Samsung tv, but didn't want to have to copy video content to the media center computer from the X61 to stream to the tv from the media center computer.

A media center computer is apparently not necessary, because to my surprise, the Samsung tv, which is ethernet connected to the TP Link C7 Archer router, IS the "media center."

From the Samsung remote, I can access my video folders on my X61 and play them on the Samsung tv. Simply fantastic.

No need for an HDMI output on the X61.

No need for a media center computer.

Rather, the Samsung tv IS the media center, and it treats the X61 as just another storage device (i.e., as a NAS) on the network.

Easy, Peasy.
Last edited by E350 on Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

ctoph0
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Re: HDMI Port is no longer necessary

#2 Post by ctoph0 » Wed Jul 26, 2017 9:39 am

This is great if youre at home, but in a corporate or university setting streaming is very limited or not existent
Past: A22M T61P X41T X200 X201
Present: X201 X220 X61s T420
Future: Upgrading the present!

axur-delmeria
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Re: HDMI Port is no longer necessary

#3 Post by axur-delmeria » Wed Jul 26, 2017 9:45 am

Not to scare you, but Smart TVs have some nasty vulnerabilities, like this one: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/0 ... -required/

Dunno if it could be made to work with ATSC though.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

dr_st
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Re: HDMI Port is no longer necessary

#4 Post by dr_st » Wed Jul 26, 2017 9:51 am

Everything has nasty vulnerabilities... The main problem with Smart TVs is that they are not as versatile, and ultimately you will find some formats that they cannot play or other glitches. Plus, the web-browsing interface is typically atrocious (unless it can accept an external keyboard/mouse). But Smart TVs have been getting consistently better and better. Heck, my own TV is not even "Smart", is ~6 years old and still plays most of the files I ever try, so I rarely need to connect a PC to it.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

axur-delmeria
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Re: HDMI Port is no longer necessary

#5 Post by axur-delmeria » Wed Jul 26, 2017 12:54 pm

Another issue is the firmware not getting updates when the manufacturer abandons the product (or goes out of business). Components like the web browser will be stuck with older versions, which will be vulnerable to future exploits, like outdated Android phones.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

E350
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Re: HDMI Port is no longer necessary

#6 Post by E350 » Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:25 am

Fascinating! Using radio waves to hack an over the air tv broadcast signal to hack the tv to gain access to all the devices in the home network!

axur-delmeria wrote:
Wed Jul 26, 2017 9:45 am
Not to scare you, but Smart TVs have some nasty vulnerabilities, like this one: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/0 ... -required/

Dunno if it could be made to work with ATSC though.

E350
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Posts: 288
Joined: Sat May 07, 2011 10:22 pm
Location: Sacramento Delta, CA

Re: HDMI Port is no longer necessary

#7 Post by E350 » Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:33 am

The web-browsing interface IS atrocious!
In fact, I browse Amazon video by the X61 then add movies we want to watch to my Amazon "Watch List" on Amazon's server then go to the Samsung tv and browse my Amazon Watch List, and then select the movie to watch.
dr_st wrote:
Wed Jul 26, 2017 9:51 am
Everything has nasty vulnerabilities... The main problem with Smart TVs is that they are not as versatile, and ultimately you will find some formats that they cannot play or other glitches. Plus, the web-browsing interface is typically atrocious (unless it can accept an external keyboard/mouse). But Smart TVs have been getting consistently better and better. Heck, my own TV is not even "Smart", is ~6 years old and still plays most of the files I ever try, so I rarely need to connect a PC to it.
Browsing might be better with a keyboard rather than the tv remote.

Anyone got a recommendation for a backlit wireless home theater keyboard?

E350
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Location: Sacramento Delta, CA

Re: HDMI Port is no longer necessary

#8 Post by E350 » Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:38 am

Just a head's up. We had an opportunity to play some music video on the Samsung tv off the X61 this weekend. This time it didn't work. Although, the tv could see the X61 as part of the network, the tv said "no content." When I went into the tv's settings, I found that now the only way for the tv to play video content on another networked device was via USB (either a USB drive or a NAS, attached to the tv via the tv's USB port).

I was pretty grumpy. Apparently Samsung has been screwing with their software on my tv.

So I called them. And escalated my concern when the first level tech said "Just hook up the tv via your laptop's HDMI port."

Long and short of it, Samsung has just MAILED me a USB drive which will flash the tv's software back to what it was before so that the tv will be capable of playing video content through the network on all network devices (not just through devices hooked up to the tv's USB port).

They promised me that once I update the tv's software from their USB drive that future automatic updates will not over ride its "capability to stream video content to the tv through network devices."

We shall see.

Assuming that this gets the tv back to how it was working when I started this thread, I really, really, really like it that I don't need an HDMI output port on my X61 to play its video content on our Samsung tv.

This Samsung tv capability in effect lengthens the life span of my X61. Which I use for practically everything.

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