[kaml20]

wanted to surprise my Indian parents and recently bought them a 60 inch plasma, and then realized they really don't watch much US tv shows to begin with. I know they'd like to watch Indian television and possibly some movies. I noticed that you can watch live streams and that a lot of people have set up xbmc to do just that.

here's my question:
they have a brand new computer running windows 8 connected by Ethernet cable to the network, a 60 inch smart lg plasma screen tv connected by Ethernet cable to the network, and a high speed connection. I wanted to know how to use xbmx to allow them to stream programming in the most user friendly way. Would you suggest a raspberry pi loaded with xbmc or just upnp stream to the tv and if so how would I go about this? what I ultimately want is them to be able to watch programs without feeling intimidated about updating or even starting the programs up and without me leaving lengthy instructions that they'd find confusing. they've been around so they know how to use computers, read write etc, but for some reason when it comes to computers and technology if they do one thing wrong they get frustrated and anxious and it seems to drive them crazy (they start convos off with "I broke the ____.... I hate this")

thanks ...

[whitebelly]

It really depends on which streams you are intending to watch. If they are streams that are already available via XBMC addons, then you may want an XBMC device directly connected to the TV. A raspberry pi might be sufficient, or some other low cost PC setup. In this case, you would not be streaming from the existing computer.

For starters, just install XBMC on the existing computer and see if it suffices for your needs. If it does the trick, get a dedicated box for the TV. If you have downloaded content that you want to stream to the TV, consider PLEX media server on the existing computer, and explore whatever options PLEX has to offer.