How to Create a Video Playlist to Simulate a TV Channel on Your PC

A lot of people are canceling cable in favor of creating a home computer theater system - a setup involving a computer connected to a TV and loaded with movies and a DVD player. This is a good alternative to paying for cable, and with the TV series being released on DVD, there's no loss.

The only complaint from those who run these types of systems is the need to get up and choose new videos after each one ends. This can be frustrating, especially if you're trying to get children occupied. The solution to this problem is to create a personal TV channel of sorts, and a playlist that you can fill and organize with videos and episodes of your choosing.

If you want to create a video playlist for your home theater computer, read on to find out how.

Items Needed:

Computer

Miro Software

Video files

TV

Step 1: You will need to download a player called Miro player. I know, you don't want to use a different player. Unfortunately, there aren't other players that are free and that give these types of options. Miro is free, and is small in file size. It is non-intrusive, and doesn't mess with other programs.

Step 2: Start up Miro player and create a new playlist by navigating to Playlists > New Playlist. A box will appear asking you to choose a name for the playlist. You can make it however you'd like. For example, you can create a playlist for random cartoon episodes, a playlist for sitcoms, etc.

Step 3: Navigate to your My Videos folder on your hard drive by clicking Start > Computer > Videos. You will see a folder called 'Miro'. Click on this and drag your video files into it.

Step 4: Back in the Miro application, click on New and see if your videos are there. If they don't appear, close the program and restart it. Click on New or Library and they will be there.

Click and drag videos into the appropriate playlist to get them organized.

Step 5: When you want to watch a certain sequence of videos, click on the playlist and it will start playing with the first video in the list. You can skip a video using the arrow key.

Tip: To truly simulate a channel, you can create a lineup channels. For example, if you enjoy watching sitcoms for a couple hours at night, you can create a couple weeks worth of sitcom playlists with different episodes, so you always have different episodes to watch.