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  #1  
Old 05-01-2012, 12:27 PM
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Connecting Blu-ray player to Internet

Greetings.

I will consult with a customer service representative at Time Warner Cable regarding the issue I am about to describe, but I thought I'd run it by the experts here at VK first to get some ideas.

I have an LG BP-220 "smart" Blu-ray player which works very well with my flat screen and Time Warner cable service; my old DVDs never looked better, thanks to the BP-220's 1080p-upscaling feature. However, I am wondering if I can connect the player to the Internet, to take advantage of the smart-TV functions such as Netflix streaming. I realize I can just hook an ethernet cable to the Internet/telephone RJ-45 modular jack on the baseboard under my desk, but my computer and telephone are already connected to that jack via a two-way splitter. My question is simply this: How would I connect the ethernet cable to the player if both outputs of the line splitter are already in use? I have cable Internet service. Would a second splitter work (to split the first splitter's output again, resulting in a three-way split) or would it just result in too weak a signal to the player -- or, worst case, will it damage the cable system? If for any reason this connection will not work, what other alternatives do I have?


Thanks much.
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Last edited by Jeffhs; 05-01-2012 at 12:35 PM.
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Old 05-01-2012, 06:53 PM
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If it is dial-up internet and and your modem is connected to your computer by something other than a (wider than a normal phone jack but similar) ethernet cable then you are likely SOL on connecting that player. You NEED a high speed connection for video(and often audio) streaming anyway. It your modem does use the ethernet cable to connect to the computer than you need a router to connect both at the same time.
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Old 05-01-2012, 08:56 PM
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Eric H Eric H is offline
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First thing we need to know is what type of Internet service you have?

Are you using Time Warner? Does it have a Router?

As Tom said, if you are using dial up you are SOL, don't attempt to hook it to a regular Phone Jack.

We were just discussing this in another thread, you can damage the player doing that.
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Old 05-02-2012, 01:02 AM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric H View Post
First thing we need to know is what type of Internet service you have?

Are you using Time Warner? Does it have a Router?

As Tom said, if you are using dial up you are SOL, don't attempt to hook it to a regular Phone Jack.

We were just discussing this in another thread, you can damage the player doing that.
I have cable Internet (broadband) from Time Warner. Have not had dial-up or DSL for some time (please read my first post again), and certainly not since I upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows XP about a year and a half ago.

No, I do not have a router.
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Last edited by Jeffhs; 05-03-2012 at 02:36 PM.
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Old 05-02-2012, 01:27 AM
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Jeff-

Since you have Internet from your cable company, you do most likely have a router, but they probably call it a "gateway". Look at the box that connects between the cable itself (with its screwed-on "F" connector) and your computer. What type of connectors are on each end of the cable between that box and your computer? Likely, they are "RJ-45" connectors (like phone plugs, but bigger/wider), and that cable itself is an "Ethernet" cable. The cable company's box may have extra jacks next to the one with the cable going to your computer; one of those unused jacks could be used to connect a cable to your Blu-ray player.

Let us know what you have attached to your computer for your Internet service.
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Old 05-02-2012, 06:04 AM
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Unless he has one of the old-timey cable modems that don't have a built-in router. Maybe just give us the model number of the box (the box the cable comes into, and your PC connects to).
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Old 05-02-2012, 07:58 AM
Chip Chester Chip Chester is offline
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Or, if he only has one ethernet drop in the vicinity, he could use a ethernet switch to provide additional connectivity without running another wire from wherever the cable modem/router is to the DVD player's vicinity. Should cost about $15.

Chip
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Old 05-02-2012, 11:13 AM
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CoogarXR:

I don't know anything about the box that connects my computer to the Internet or whether it has a router or not, much less how old it is. It is made by a company called Scientific Atlanta. I don't know and cannot find the model number. Even if I could find the number (it must be somewhere on the box), my eyesight is bad and I cannot read the tiny print on the box. For what it is worth, the box has six lights on it, one that blinks when the Internet connection is working and one, according to the cable company, that doesn't light at all, although the box itself still works. The other four are for functions I know nothing about at this time.

Chip Chester:

There is only one Internet connection here; as I said in my last post, the line is split between the computer and my telephone. I never heard of such a thing as an ethernet switch, and even if I knew what it was, I don't know where I would get one. I live in a very small town (no electronics or computer stores here anymore) and I don't drive, so I have no access to stores such as Radio Shack, et al. unless I order things online.


The foregoing is all the information I can provide, as I know next to nothing about how broadband Internet works, let alone cable/online service split among three devices (television, telephone and computer).
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  #9  
Old 05-02-2012, 12:01 PM
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Last edited by andy; 12-05-2021 at 08:12 PM.
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  #10  
Old 05-02-2012, 02:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andy View Post
It sounds like you have telephone service from your cable company. If the cable modem is plugged into a phone jack, then this connection is to provide phone service to the house. To prove this, unpulg the phone cable from the cable modem, and you should lose the dial tone on all your phones.

If there is a wire connecting directly from your computer to the cable modem, then you will need to buy something called a router which will connect to the cable modem instead of your computer. The router will have about 4 ethernet connectors on it which can be plugged into anything requiring internet access. Most routers also provide wireless signals for laptops, but you don't need to use that part. A router is basically in Internet splitter.
Thank you much for the info. I just got off the phone with Time Warner Cable's HSI (high speed Internet) service support, and the representative I spoke with, a gentleman by the name of Ryan, told me the same things you did. In fact, he also offered to upgrade my connection speed -- a requirement for video streaming to keep the player from excessively buffering the content, causing, I believe, a choppy picture; I took him up on it in a second. Ryan also said I could temporarily connect my Blu-ray player to the cable modem (using the same ethernet cable that connects the computer to the modem) as a test, which I may try later this evening. My player is the LG BP-220, which is the bottom of the line of the company's Blu-ray players. The next model up from mine is the BP-620, which offers the same functionality as the -220 with the addition of, IIRC, 3D video playback and possibly a few other features -- I'll have to look up the specs on LG's website to know for certain what features the BP-620 has that the -220 does not.
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  #11  
Old 05-02-2012, 04:08 PM
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Eric H Eric H is offline
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The other four lights on your box may be for additional Ethernet connections.

Look on the back, are there additional RJ-45 jacks or just the one to your Computer?

If there are extra then all you need to do is get a Cat 5 cable and hook it up to your BD Player.
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