How to watch Netflix on your TV in 5 different ways

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How to watch Netflix on your TV in 5 different ways

Netflix

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You can get Netflix on your TV in several different ways.

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  • There are numerous ways to get Netflix on your TV set.
  • If your TV is a smart TV, you can log into Netflix using the on-screen apps.
  • If you don't have a smart TV, you have a lot of other options, including a Roku, a video game console, or connecting your laptop or mobile device to the TV directly with a cable.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Netflix is unquestionably the most popular video streaming service, with 139 million global subscribers watching about 140 million hours of content each day.

You can certainly do that on your smartphone or tablet - the Netflix app for iOS and the Netflix app for Android are handy ways to watch.

But what if you prefer to watch Netflix on a bigger screen, like the TV in your living room? There are five popular ways you could do that.

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Watch Netflix on a smart TV

Watch Netflix on a smart TV

These days, many large flat screen televisions double as "smart TVs" — they come with a built-in media player that lets you connect to popular video services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and many others via on-screen apps.

If you have a smart TV, all you need to do is subscribe to Netflix and log in via the app on your TV.

Watch Netflix using a streaming media player like Roku

Watch Netflix using a streaming media player like Roku

You don't need a smart TV, because you can turn any television that has an HDMI input into the equivalent of a smart TV using a media streaming device.

There are a lot of media streamers available, including a family of products from Roku, as well as Amazon's Fire TV, and Nvidia Shield TV.

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Watch Netflix on a gaming console like PS4

Watch Netflix on a gaming console like PS4

Game consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have their own suite of streaming video apps — that means if you have a gaming console, you can watch Netflix from that device as well.

Gaming consoles work very much like a Roku or similar streaming device; when you're tired of games, you can log into Netflix via the on-screen app.

Watch Netflix by "casting" it from your phone to a TV

Watch Netflix by "casting" it from your phone to a TV

If you have Netflix on your smartphone, perhaps you'd like to get the video from the phone to your TV. Luckily, there are devices that make that easy. Google Chromecast is a simple media player that connects to your TV and lets you wirelessly send anything that's on your phone to your television.

Chromecast calls this "casting," and you can use this to watch Netflix at full resolution on your TV. In a similar way, if you have an Apple TV, you can wirelessly connect your phone using Bluetooth and display video like Netflix on your television.

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Watch Netflix by connecting a laptop or mobile device to your TV

Watch Netflix by connecting a laptop or mobile device to your TV

Finally, with the right cable, you can connect your computer or mobile device to a television to project video on the bigger screen. The trick, of course, is having the right cable. In most cases, you'll want to be able to connect your device to the TV with an HDMI cable, so your laptop should have an HDMI output that you can connect to the HDMI input on your TV.

If you have an older laptop (and television), you may be able to use an old-fashioned DVI cable instead. To connect your iPhone or iPad to the TV, you'll need a Lightning Digital AV Adapter. For more info, check out our article, "How to connect your iPhone to a TV in two different ways."

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