Buying a mini computer, installing Windows 11, and streaming movies online

Jay Chapel · Apr 20, 2024

Wisewiz said:
Something like this would meet all your requirements for attaching to your TV and hiding the PC itself. And it's also useful as a computer if you need it someday for something other than streaming your movies.

Amazon.ca

Thanks. I wil put it on a list. It seems to have the necessary inputs for bluetooth, tv and modem, (I probably will run an ethernet cable as it's already there from a previous need)

RD Mercer said:
I just run an HDMI cable from my video card out of my PC, to an HDMI into the back of my tv. This way I can go to any free tv or movie site on my PC and watch the video on my tv. Places like The Flixer has lots of new and old free tv and movies. I watch a lot of the old tv shows, Wagon Train, Rifleman, etc. but they have lot of great movies also, and the ads, are not that bad at all, they work great for a men's room break.

I also have a nice big Samsung 4K monitor if I just want to sit at my PC desk and watch the same, but laying on the couch, is a lot more comfy. I have a nice 1080 older model Samsung smart tv, that I'm hooked up to, and really, there's not hardly any difference "if any" in the picture on my Samsung 4k monitor, and my tv, mostly because I don't watch many 4k or even see many 4k tv shows. So for now, I'll just stick with my Samsung 1080 smart tv.

You got what I want. But I want a dedicated computer because my main computer is a long way from the tv I want to use. And I don't want to use a laptop computer that has many uses, some work so the data is sensitive and someone might be using it when we want to watch a movie online. What I need is a "small" computer with enough memory and speed to use Windows to find a website, cashe some data and stream away. I don't recognize most of the brand names and don't really know if I am missing something in the evaluation and installation of the unit. And of course I would love to bring it home on a small budget.

Jay Chapel · Apr 20, 2024

Josey Wales said:
I am using an Intel NUC 13 and it runs great on LInux, I had Win 11 on it and it also ran good. I know that Intel is not building any more and they turned it over to ASUS. But one can find deals on them, another good one is Minusforum or some such name. It is quiet as a mouse.

Thanks, I looked them up and both are a magnitude over what I am hoping to spend. I am hoping to find something that can give optimum performance for a single task, only one tab, service: stream a movie.

badrobot · Apr 20, 2024

Amazon Firestick or Google TV should be enough for your purpose. You can add wireless/bluetooth keyboard and mouse to it for browsing.

antspants · Apr 20, 2024

Jay Chapel said:
. I want to go online, find a website that streams classic films and watch it

Try tubi (website, yes it’s legitimate.)

Josey Wales said:
I hope you get better soon.

Thanks Josey that was nice to read this morning, feeling a tad better, cheers

Winuser · Apr 20, 2024

I'm almost totally exhausted so I only read down to the suggestion that you need a monitor. That depends on how you set it up. On my setup I use the HDMI output from my Beelink Mini-PC to a HDMI input on my TV. It's only used when I need to access Windows. For the keyboard and mouse I use a small Wi-Fi Keyboard/touchboard combo. For the Wi-Fi streaming I use a streaming program called Mezzmo on the mini. There's a free version and a paid version. With the paid version you can stream over the internet. I only stream locally so the free version is all I need. On my TVs I use Roku and the Mezzmo app. I have Mezzmo setup on three TVs and it works great. My son has basicly the same setup except he uses Plex.

Wisewiz · Apr 20, 2024

Jay Chapel said:
What I need is a "small" computer with enough memory and speed to use Windows to find a website, cashe some data and stream away.

I still think what you need is a Lenovo Tiny refurb. They're almost always from businesses, and well taken care of, and you won't be able to tell the diff between a refurb and a new one. Again, though, watch to make sure the model you choose has an HDMI port.

Porthos · Apr 20, 2024

Amazon.com

BamaInArk · Apr 20, 2024

What I did was buy a refurbed mini HP desktop on Amazon. I chose one Win11 compatible so cost a little more for the higher CPU. What to look for is something like the HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini with a i5-9500T intel. Comes with an NVMe M.2 slot plus an added Sata slot for 2nd drive support. I have that setup at my main tv for streaming viewing. Currently the one I purchased can be had for $205 and had a 256 NVMe drive, 16 GB of memory and Win10 Pro which can be upgraded to Win11. Integrated graphics via the iGPU.

Winuser · Apr 20, 2024

Jay Chapel said:
we have Roku on a tv in a bedroom but are there is no way one can go online

The TV doesn't have Wi-Fi? For legal content you can watch online or download and save on your computer, do a search for public domain movies and TV shows. If it doesn't come up in the search, archive.org is a good site for free content.

Wisewiz · Apr 20, 2024

Porthos said:
Amazon.com

That's a beauty, and I'd love one, but it has no HDMI ports, and that's critical for the OP. DP-to-HDMI links don't work very well for TV's.

Winuser · Apr 20, 2024

RD Mercer said:
Places like The Flixer has lots of new and old free tv and movies.

Edge Canary doesn't seem to like Flixer. For example, When I click on movies, sometime I can load the first three pages. Other times I get a connection not secure error.

Any Member · Apr 20, 2024

PC
keyboard
I prefer Win10 for HTPC

Porthos · Apr 20, 2024

Wisewiz said:
That's a beauty, and I'd love one, but it has no HDMI ports, and that's critical for the OP. DP-to-HDMI links don't work very well for TV's.

Well, this tiny has one and more.

RD Mercer · Apr 20, 2024

Winuser said:
Edge Canary doesn't seem to like Flixer. For example, When I click on movies, sometime I can load the first three pages. Other times I get a connection not secure error.

No problem here at all, with Chrome and AdBlock.

RD Mercer · Apr 20, 2024

Plex, is another great place for free TV, it has a lot of the old TV shows. I'm up to season 4 of "All In The Family" Archie, "was" one unique individual. :winkt:

Winuser · Apr 20, 2024

RD Mercer said:
No problem here at all, with Chrome and AdBlock.

I tried it with Edge Canary, Edge Dev And Firefox and all are doing the same thing. When I tried it on my computer that uses Eset, Eset blocked the site. I know is probably a false positive but I think I'll skip trying Flixer.

RD Mercer · Apr 20, 2024

This is the Dell 3060 Micro.

Winuser · Apr 20, 2024

Winuser said:
I tried it with Edge Canary, Edge Dev And Firefox and all are doing the same thing. When I tried it on my computer that uses Eset, Eset blocked the site. I know is probably a false positive but I think I'll skip trying Flixer.

@RD Mercer, I was going to give up but decided to give it one more try. I scrolled down the search page and clicked on theflixer.show link and it's working. The first link, theflixertv.to is the link that gave me trouble.

RD Mercer · Apr 20, 2024

Winuser said:
I tried it with Edge Canary, Edge Dev And Firefox and all are doing the same thing. When I tried it on my computer that uses Eset, Eset blocked the site. I know is probably a false positive but I think I'll skip trying Flixer.