Can I connect my Ubuntu laptop to my HDTV wirelessly?

Question

There are some devices that allow to connect laptops to High Definition TVs. One good example is Intel WiDi device. The problem is that most of them do not support linux/ubuntu.

It would be nice to stream movies, pictures, etc... from my coffee table to my TV without using a long HDMI cable.

I was wondering if anyone knows a similar device that supports Ubuntu.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Many TVs support DLNA. You can install "minidlna" on your computer.

sudo apt-get install minidlna specify the folders in /etc/minidlna.conf edit /etc/init.d/minidlna.conf as shown below so that minidlna is run with your user privileges (this is a hack but I didn't find an easier way to get it working).

# Run as minidlna' if USER is not specified or isroot'
if [ -z $USER ]; then
  USER=minidlna
fi


# If no group is specified, use USER
if [ -z $GROUP ]; then
  GROUP=$USER
fi

USER=myusername  # <-- your username here
GROUP=myusername  # <-- your username here

Answer 2

If your device has Intel's WiDi interface, it may be possible, though I can't find any evidence of Intel supporting this at the kernel level.