Let's say you have a set of videos on your hard drive that you want to play on your TV. Maybe they're home videos of your child's soccer team, or maybe you downloaded every single episode of Mad Men via BitTorrent--we're not here to judge.
The point is, you want to watch these videos on the HDTV in your living room, not on the PC in your office. Here's how to do it quickly and easily. Depending on your home theater setup, you'll either directly connect your PC to your TV, stream the videos over your home network, or use your TV's ports to attach a storage device.
Plug Your PC Directly Into the TV
If you have a laptop or a small PC, you can just plug it directly into your TV. That way, you won't have to buy any new equipment (except for a cable or two), you won't need to deal with codec or networking hassles, and you can use whatever applications you like.
If your TV doesn't have HDMI or VGA, things get trickier. Your only option for HD video is component video, but not all PC video cards support component output without a converter. You might be able to use an S-Video port (1024 by 768 resolution), but you're probably better off looking for another option. Read "From Your PC to Your TV" for more details.
Use Your TV's USB Ports or SD Card Slots
Newer TVs typically come with a USB port or an SD Card slot, so you can plug in a USB drive or memory card and view your photos, listen to music, and watch movies. Often, however, such features are designed with digital cameras in mind, and they may not always support the file formats and media codecs you need to watch TV. You can find out what formats your TV supports in the specs listing or user manual.