Tech Talk: Link your TV and computer, says David Behrens.

TELEVISION sets could be much more useful than they are. But it isn’t technology that’s standing in the way of progress; it’s an army of lawyers. You can, for instance, convert your existing telly, cheaply and easily, to surf websites, browse pictures and play movies stored on your PC – but licensing considerations have for the most part kept the necessary hardware at bay. There’s more money in selling you new kit, signing deals with content suppliers and making you pay per view.

But some smaller developers, especially in the Far East, are not party to the legally-enforced deals on licensing, and their gear – if you can find it – gives the big players more than a run for their money. Such a firm is Himedia, based in China and with no presence on the British high street, whose line in networked set-top boxes outclasses almost everything from companies you’ve actually heard of.

For £85 including delivery, their basic box feeds content from your home computers and the internet to your TV and lets you browse it by zapping a remote control or clicking a wireless mouse.

This means you can watch YouTube (or most other websites) and play videos you have downloaded, in full high definition, without leaving your armchair, You can also browse your photo collection and, if you have speakers connected to your TV, play your music collection from an on-screen jukebox.

It will even wirelessly connect your TV to your smartphone or iPad, so you can view your media on a big screen. If you have a subscription to an online movie rental service like LoveFilm, the box will let you watch your downloads on your TV.

It’s not perfect: the absence of any formal UK sales support means some of the preloaded websites are in Chinese. And, YouTube apart, most websites are better suited to viewing on a computer or phone than a TV. Himedia also doesn’t let you view the BBC iPlayer (for reasons of software incompatibility, not lawyers’ restrictions).

Despite a fairly active community of users in Australia, I could find only one British website – futeko.com – selling the Himedia box. But an independent website called iboum.com keeps track of other retailers and suppliers of similar devices.