How to put media (pictures, music, videos) from computer to TV

This article will discuss how to get media from the internet, transfer it to your computer, process the media files and finally transfer it to your Smart TV. The following procedure applies to Windows computer, LG Smart TV and a Western Digital MyBook Live NAS (Network Attached Storage). The NAS serves a dual purpose to store media files, i.e. photos, music and videos and to stream these files to your smart TV so you can watch and play all your media at the comfort of your couch in the living room.

Note1:
No need to install the WD My Book Live Network Hard Drive setup CD. Just connect the Ethernet cable to your router in your home network and your computer and TV should discover it.

Note2:
All software utilities I use are completely free and yet very effective and excellent product quality. I believe the best things are free!

My Network Places

To display the Shared Network Folders:
   a. Click My Computer
   b. Go to My Network Places
   c. Click Show icons for Networked UPnP devices. Windows Components wizard will configure the components. On Local Network, you will see MyBookLive-Twonky and MyBookLive.
  
Storing Media Files

   1. Open the folder named Public on My Book Live Network Storage (Mybooklive)
   2. You will see four folders: Shared Music, Shared Pictures, Shared Videos and Software.
   3. Put your media on the folders mentioned above to share files to devices such as TVs, laptops, smartphones, and tablets.


I. Utilities for downloading and capturing media
 
   a. Youtube to mp3 PRO converter - Firefox add-on to obtain mp3 (default 128 kb/s) from Youtube
   b. Easy Youtube Video Downloader - Firefox add-on to obtain videos from Youtube
   c. PicPick - Screen capture utility, image editing functions


II. Utilities for processing media

   a. MP3Gain - normalizing (maintaining the same volume level) for all mp3 files (my setting = 96 dB)
   b. iWisoft Video Converter and MP3 Cutter - converts videos to other formats and trims mp3s (Edit > Trim)
   c. FreeFileSync - transferring and syncing files from the computer hard drive to the NAS. (My sync setting is UPDATE).

WARNING:  
Be careful if you MIRROR sync! If source folder is EMPTY, it will DELETE all files in destination folder.


III. Watching and playing media in Smart TV

   1. On the LG Smart TV remote, press Home button
   2. Go to Smart Share
   3. Choose DLNA MyBookLive


*** Plex Media Server can also be used to share and stream files to the LG Smart TV.