Use your laptop as a smart TV.
A laptop with a browser plays everything a smart TV plays. What makes a smart TV pleasant is the remote: you sit back and choose from the couch. For YouTube, Venfy gives a laptop that part. Open venfy.app/tv on it, link the YouTube app on your phone once, and you cast to the laptop as you would to a TV. An old laptop is enough, and so is a desktop PC.
Free · Nothing to install ·
Set it up
Ten minutes, most of them spent finding the cable.
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Put the laptop where the screen should be
On the coffee table, it is the screen. Plugged into a TV, a monitor or a projector with an HDMI cable, that is the screen. Venfy works the same either way.
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Open venfy.app/tv and press Start
In any modern browser. Use the full screen button so the page fills the screen. While it is open, Venfy asks the browser to keep the display awake.
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Link the YouTube app, once
On your phone, tap the Cast icon in the YouTube app, choose Link with TV code (Add a device, in some versions) and type the code from the screen.
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Sit down and tap Cast
Pick a video on your phone, tap Cast and choose Venfy.app. The laptop plays it. The phone is the remote.
What a laptop already has, and the one thing it lacks
A smart TV is a screen, a small computer and a remote. A laptop is the first two, and a better computer than the one inside any TV. Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and the rest all have websites, and a browser plays them.
The remote is the missing part. A keyboard and a touchpad are made for a desk, an arm's length away. From the couch you get up to pause, or you balance a mouse on a cushion.
Your phone is already a good remote. It only needs a screen that listens to it.
An old laptop is enough
Nothing here is demanding. If the laptop runs a current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave or Safari and plays a YouTube video without stuttering, it can be the smart TV. A cracked screen or a tired battery stops mattering once it is plugged into a TV and into the wall.
Two things are worth setting once: tell the computer not to go to sleep while it is plugged in, and send the sound to the TV or the speakers you want it from.
What it will not do
Venfy is for YouTube. Other services play in the laptop's browser, but their apps will not cast to it, so for those you still reach for the keyboard.
Within YouTube, a few videos, mostly music, only allow playback on YouTube itself. Venfy says so on the screen and moves on to the next one.
Questions
Can I use an old laptop as a smart TV?
Yes. It needs a current web browser and a connection good enough for video. For a bigger picture, connect it to a TV or a monitor with an HDMI cable.
Do I need an HDMI cable?
Only for a bigger screen than the laptop's own. The cable carries picture and sound to a TV, a monitor or a projector. Without one, the laptop is the screen.
Can I use a desktop PC or a mini PC instead?
Yes. Anything that runs a modern browser works the same way, on Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS.
Can I turn a monitor into a smart TV?
A monitor is only a screen: something has to play the video. A computer connected to it is that something, and with Venfy your phone is its remote for YouTube. Check that the monitor has speakers, or connect some.
Will the laptop go to sleep in the middle of a video?
While the Venfy page is on screen it asks the browser to keep the display awake, in the browsers that allow it. Closing the lid still puts most laptops to sleep.