In the age of Smart TVs, sending content completely wirelessly through our mobile devices is tremendously convenient and useful. Although it is not the only way we have to watch our favorite videos, movies or series, since the PC can also be a powerful ally in this sense.
In this article we wanted to show you the easiest ways we have to send content through the local network to our television from the PC, either through Chromecast, or any device or technology that supports streaming.
Via browser
When we are playing any type of multimedia content in our browser, it is possible to send it to other devices in the house as long as they are on the same local network. Of course, we have to take into account that our television to which we want to send content, must have Chromecast integrated, or any other DLNA technology. If not, we can always purchase an external device to play streaming content.
The steps are very simple, though the ideal would be to have a browser like Chrome, Edge, or any other based on Chromium. Below these lines we leave you with the procedure to follow:
- Install Chrome or any other Chromium-based browser if we haven’t already.
- We enter any website with multimedia content.
In Chrome we click on the icon ‘Share’ located in the upper right corner, and select ‘Send…’.
- We choose the device to which we want to send the content and that’s it.
The best part of all this is that the browser also supports modifying the source of our content, which means that we can also share our desktop in real time or a multimedia file. To do this, simply select the option ‘Sources’ in the same section mentioned.
Keep in mind that, if we select a file as a source, We can only send items in the following formats: .ogm, .webm, .ogv, .mp4, .m4v, .opus, .flac, .weba, .wav, .ogg, .m4a, .mp3, .oga.
Selecting any multimedia file on our PC
If we have any image, video or audio on our computer, also it is possible to send this content to a television via streaming. Through third-party applications we can achieve this in a very simple way.
In our case, we have used the always reliable VLC, although there are numerous other applications for playback. To send content with VLC from the PC to a TV, just follow these simple steps:
- Install VLC or any application that allows the sending of streaming content.
Select the file we want to send and open it with VLC player.
In the settings bar, we go to the tab ‘Reproduction’ and we select ‘Processor’.
Here we select the device we want to send the content to.
Once the device is chosen, content will play automatically. This alternative comes in handy if what we want is to send a single file to the television, although we can also create playlists so that they are shown on the television.
Through Plex, Kodi, or any application that allows the creation of local servers
Local servers are a great tool for those who like to enjoy all the multimedia content they have on their computer and in a unified way. In this way, through services such as Plex or Kodi, among others, we have the possibility to send content via streaming of any file that we have from our computer to another device, including a TV.
In Engadget we have talked on several occasions about how to create a server with tools such as Plex, Kodi, or even through DLNA through Windows 10, so we are not going to dwell on it too much. The requirement is to have the application downloaded on your television, and the server on the PC where we want to send the content. Once this is done, on the server we will have to select those files that we want to have available whenever the computer is on.
The advantage of creating a local server is the possibility of having all our files organized in a visually attractive interface. Once the server is configured on the computer, You only need to access this content through the respective apps on the TV..