Wifi at Home & Old TV

[Cypress]

I have cable TV from Charter Communications. I have a basic plan and it's been enough for me. However, I'd like to ditch TV and change to internet connectivity with wifi. I want to keep cost reasonable so don't want TV and Internet. Can I hook the Laptop to my TV for when I want to watch TV over the internet? The TV is older but in good condition with better sound.

The wifi at home might allow for dropping data service from my iPhone. My iPhone allows 1 G of data only.

I want to use laptop for Skype. So I need connectivity. I've got an Italian friend I wish to practice language learning.

[kib]

This is what we do. It really depends on what kind of input ports you have on the tv. Ours has an HDMI port, which is a newer thing that works easily with the laptop. I googled "can you connect an old tv to a laptop" and came up with a bunch of stuff, so it appears the HDMI port is convenient but not necessarily essential.

[Miss Cellane]

When you say you have an older tv, does that mean you don't have a flat screen?

If you have wifi at home, you don't have to hook your computer up to the tv. There are a number of devices that can easily stream video to your tv--Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Google Chromecast. Here's a link that describes a lot of them: http://www.cnet.com/topics/media-streamers/best-media-streamers/

Just do some research and figure out what you want to watch, and which gizmo will stream that. It is possible to get adapters to use some of the devices, even if your tv doesn't have digital hookups. Roku does make at least one box that works with analog tvs.

Also check the equipment you already have. Some game systems can connect to the internet, as well as many Blu-ray players.

[SteveinMN]

I sense some confusion among terms here. Though there is interaction between them, Internet connectivity and WiFi are separate things. You could have Internet sent from the Charter cable modem to your laptop through a wire. You could (as I did many years ago) install wires to each room of the house so you could plug in whatever and have it use the Internet. No wireless involved. You also could have a home wireless network without Internet connectivity though most people would find that fairly useless.

What it comes down to for you is if you use your computer in only one place and have no other wireless devices, you could get by without the complication of WiFi. (But more on that in a couple of paragraphs.)

Be aware that, while you can connect your laptop to the Internet and either download or stream video content and then relay that to your TV, either through a wire or WiFi (depending on how old everything is and how much you want to spend), as yet there is no live version of, say, PBS or NBC or the History Channel available for when you might want to use your laptop as a real-time TV. You likely will encounter a delay of a day or more before shows are available on TV-network Web sites or sites like Hulu (though they sometimes show up earlier on YouTube if they're not taken down by YouTube). So if it's important to be able to watch that last segment of the mini-series the night it runs, what you're proposing won't quite work.

I don't know who your mobile carrier is, but they may not let you drop data service from your iPhone (or any smartphone). They may let you go to a tier of service with less data (and lower cost). But most carriers are pretty resistant to letting people use smartphones on talk/text-only plans. Now if your iPhone is your current WiFi hotspot, then by getting Charter Internet you essentially will replace the iPhone as your WiFi router. On the other hand, your iPhone could use your WiFi router for "free" Internet access, saving you on data charges if you mostly access the Internet on the iPhone at home.

Another possible gotcha: we have Comcast, not Charter. But it actually is cheaper for us to have Comcast's lowest "Limited Basic" cable and Internet than it would be to have just Comcast Internet. Comcast gives customers with Internet service a discount for having cable TV, too. In our case, Limited Basic costs less than the discount by $5-10/month.

I know this post became a book, but I hope it has some useful information for you.

[ToomuchStuff]

Here, having basic cable, even though it isn't hooked up to anything, with the internet, saves something like a penny (last time I checked).
There was an option by some companies, that their modem/router (combo in some cases), provides wireless (so you could choose to use the wireless rather then the phone data connection). Be aware why you do this for home, in some cases I have talked to people who ended up using their data more on the road (thus raising their costs), after they were "spoiled" by the connections.
With a laptop and a portable device (phone), I understand why you want wireless over wired.
We need more information about your hardware. What does your tv have for connections? HDMI (Bluray)? RGB like old VCR's? DVD style connections or just the connector for cable/antenna? In some cases you will need an adapter, in others, you will need to think about upgrading your equipment (look for a used tv, for the amount of use, etc). What connections does your laptop have?

[Cypress]

I have a flat screen telly about 15" that does have an HDMI port. I am a minimalist with gadgets. There is the flat screen TV, the DVD player, and a descrambler box from Charter Cable. It's a "freebie" for two years that lets me watch digital TV on their cable. Without that descrambler, can't see anything.

I am actually outside the USA now on vacation. I bought an international use plan from Verizon Wireless for the trip. For $40, I have 100 minutes of talk, 100 text messages and 100 mb data. That data is very small. But, every where I go, has wifi. My laptop and iPhone find it, I may or may not have or need a password and I am able to send back pictures, go on-line and have complete freedom of access. I pay for the use at the B&B as part of the bill. Not sure how shops and restaurants do it but the wifi over here is great. No weak signals at all.

I just want to not make another bill. I don't want a TV and connectivity bill. I am not a big user of either. I do watch PBS programming, some news and that's about all. I just want what is available at my local public library at home. I want to Skype with my Italian friend and be able to work on my writing. I am a freelance writer part time so, I need access to my blog, photos, videos, etc......

I just think to make another shift in technology and go with no more cable TV but move over to internet for news and entertainment. I thought to use my TV for watching TV as it's a bigger screen and better sound.

[kib]

We have internet through an old telephone line - is that "broadband"? No telephone service, but it uses the same wiring. That incoming signal connects to a wireless router which sends a wifi signal throughout the house. $36 a month for the internet.

I've found that the easiest thing to do is just wire the tv to the laptop using the HDMI port, but that does limit me to solely what I can watch on the laptop, no gadgets to add content. If you have a wireless keyboard you can sit wherever you like and for all intents and purposes it's as if the tv itself is a giant computer.

My cell phone plan is $10 a month with Republic Wireless, it benefits tremendously from a good wifi signal.

That's it for my media bills.

ETA: if your laptop has a dvd player, then the separate one you have is one more gadget you can put in the closet.

[Cypress]

Grazie Kib, the other reason to move over to Internet connection only, is ability to watch RA1 on line. My cable outfit does not offer Italian channel at all. If I want to keep up language learning it's more and more a better option for me. I'll follow up on Google searching too.

[freshstart]

could she try something like Google Chrome stick or Amazon's Fire stick and easily be able to watch laptop things on the tv? These aren't too expensive.

Or would Roku or Apple Tv help? I have tivos so we already get Netflix streamed but if these other devices stream things like Netflix, Amazon or Hulu and make it visible on tv would be great.

[JaneV2.0]

I recommend www.beelinetv.com, a site that offers TV in a dizzying array of languages--including Italian--aside from whatever else you end up with.

[SteveinMN]

could she try something like Google Chrome stick or Amazon's Fire stick and easily be able to watch laptop things on the tv? These aren't too expensive.

Or would Roku or Apple Tv help?
All depends on what Cypress wants for content. I sense she also has to make a decision on who is providing her WiFi. Video in particular is an intensive user of WiFi and her 1 GB iPhone allotment won't go far at all. I would recommend staying with Charter for high-speed Internet access, use the iPhone over the home WiFi whenever possible, and see if she's better off going completely without Charter cable TV or whether a vestigial plan (as a bundle) saves some money. Most everything she seems to want is on her laptop; she just needs the bandwidth to see/use it. From that perspective, a FireStick/Chromecast/Apple TV does not add programming ability -- it just makes it easier to move what she sees on her laptop to her TV when she wants to do that.