[How to ] Sync a Smart TV With Your PC or Mobile Device

Start with apps

Like smartphones, smart TVs have embraced the app model. Netflix, Hulu Plus, and everything from MLB to Twitter have developed apps that will work on most smart TVs. In these cases syncing is simply a matter of logging into your account. Once your TV has your YouTube info, for example, anything you've liked or added to a playlist on YouTube is now available on your TV.

Some services are more commonly accessed by smart TV apps than others. Flickr seems to be the most popular photo-hosting service, but Picasa has its share of apps as well. Pandora and last.fm are custom music station services that are well-supported by apps. Vimeo has a presence on many platforms, but YouTube remains the king of streaming video.

Add a little Wi-Fi

So far so good, but what about all those movies you have on your PC? Well, that depends on your TV. The latest and greatest TVs can connect to your local network and automatically find any videos on your desktop computer. For example, LG's new Smart Share TVs can stream content from your PC's media player. Smart Share also includes what LG calls "Media Link," a service that provides extra information about what you're watching, like plot synopses, actor bios and other metadata.

LG's new Smart TVs, and similar models from other manufacturers, also offer their own custom apps for streaming other things, like educational content or games for kids. And of course most offer a built-in web browser as well. Though browsing the web from your armchair is not an ideal experience, it does offer a fallback plan for content that you can't get any other way.

Fallbacks

If your TV isn't one of the newest models that include built-in streaming tools you'll need to add another box to the mix -- like the Apple TV 2, Boxee or a PC running XMBC.

Go mobile, or not

The Apple TV 2 makes it incredibly simple to stream content from any iOS mobile device to an Apple TV on the same network. Sadly, the smart TVs on the market at the time of this writing can’t easily stream movies or other content on your phone. For now at least, you'll have to content yourself with the movies on your PC or jump on the Apple bandwagon.