Laptop for Netflix?

[BWG707]

First of all I have little experence with computers. I want to know how to connect my laptop pc to my HDTV and AVR so that I can stream movies from Netflix. I want to be able to run the audio thru my 7.1 HT. If it helps I have a HP G62 (it has a HDMI connection) , an Onkyo 606, and my HDTV has HDMI. Any and all advice would be helpful, I don't even know where to start.

 

[m_vanmeter]

well, the obvious first step is to try an HDMI connection to your TV.

Get an inexpensive HDMI cable at Wal-dump and see what happens. You may have to do some graphic card driver settings, or you may not. Depends on how capable the graphics chip is at determining what the external "monitor" is.

If the HDMI test works, then consider a longer HDMI cable from http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240 say 15' or 20' so the computer does not need to sit next to the TV.

Let us know how the experiment goes so we can help with problems, if they appear.


I did this with my Dell Studio notebook, and it "just worked". However, now I have both a Rolu HD-XR box for one TV and a Western Digital TV Live Plus for the other TV to stream Netflix and other internet content. Hooking up and un-hooking the notebook from the TV turned into a pain....and wifey was not about to fool with it, so the streaming boxes ended up the better choice.

 

[BWG707]

Well I connected the laptop to the tv and got everything working, sound thru the tv and picture. Now my problem is how do I connect things so that I can get sound thru my onkyo 606?

 

[j_garcia]

Netflix currently only streams stereo so no matter how you have it connected, that is all you are going to get from the PC to the receiver; you will have to apply a matrix decoder to get surround.

 

[BWG707]

Do I need to connect the laptop to the AVR via HDMI to use the AVR's speakers instead of the TV's speakers. Are there any other connections that need to made? Excuse my ignorance but I'm very new to computers.

 

[j_garcia]

I can't say that I've seen a laptop with HDMI. To get sound from the AVR you need to go to the AVR first and then to the TV.

 

[BWG707]

From what I've seen most of the new laptops come with a HDMI connection. So I have to go from the laptop via hdmi to avr to tv? That makes sense to me. I'll try it with those connections as soon as I can get around to pulling my HT euipment out to give me some working room. Thanks for all the help.