laptop to PC connection

[breadlord]

doesnt the raspberry pi provide streaming capabilities?

No, not as standard. you have to pay extra to get the binary blob that has the MPEG2 codecs in it.

[Chillum]

Amazon are selling a wireless dongle for £19.76 delivered. Search .....

Hama Wireless LAN 300Mbps USB 2.0 WiFi Stick


I managed to transfer pics and toons but ran out of expertise when it came to streaming TV    :'(

Assuming you are running Windows, the easiest thing to do is run Windows Media Center and share your folders where the pictures/movies and music are. You're Smart TV or media extender (the thing that actually sends the signal to the TV) should be able to pick this up if it's connected to the same network.

I should start charging for this shit  :lol

edit: I just realised that I know next to nothing about your setup Dilligaff, feel free to PM me what you're up to and I can try and help. I'm good with networks and have tried most ways of getting stuff round a network in the easiest fashion. I currently run a 1Gbps LAN, 300Mbps wi-fi with additional access points and a 4TB NAS array serving up over 200 films and about 3 albums  :rolleyes  around the house to various devices, including Samsung Smart TV, WD Media extenders, laptops and a Sonos sound kit.

[FuZzBoM]

The big down side to all of this is that your laptop is connected to a tv.. kinda annoying in ways.
You can buy HTPC's for not much money and can even make one out of an old pc's like i did. but im a geek and mine has now evolved into a quadcore 8tb beast lol.
The other thing i have been eyeing up for a while is a Roku 2 http://www.roku.com/roku-products