[sammyjayuk]

For the specific case of wanting to watch video at your parents' home that is stored at your own home, remote desktop programs are completely inappropriate (especially VNC, which is always inappropriate over the public internet as it has no encryption). I would recommend using something designed for the job, like VLC, to stream the video from your home PC because it can transcode the video into a lower bitrate. You will still need remote desktop software to set up the stream, for which you'll need a little patience if you're using VLC, so make sure you use something with encryption - or of course tunnel VNC through SSH.

With the right software, a little knowledge and a fair bit of patience you can come up with a completely free point and click system. VLC, SSH and VNC are all quite complex but there's tons of information about them - Google is your friend!

Sam (who misses his Mac something awful but realises he's still fairly comfortable with Linux, even after all this time)

---------- Post added at 14:01 ---------- Previous post was at 13:56 ----------

Ohhh, you have a Slingbox? If your home computer has a TV output, and your Slingbox has a free input, then just connect them up and you'll be away! No faffing around with VLC, etc...

Sam