best web browser for HTPC

A

Atherton213

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 21, 2004
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ive got a HTPC connected to my tv in my bedroom with a blue-tooth keyboard/mouse. I use it mostly for DVRing stuff (2 tuners in it) but sometimes i like to surf the web also

I find using IE or Firefox annoying at times having to zoom into webpages to read them... its a 46inch samsung led 1080p from about 15ft away... (my eyesite is good and i can read it but its just smaller than i would like it)

is there a good browser or firefox plug in that i can use to enlarge everything making it better for viewing pages?
 
If you use ctrl-z or ctrl scroll it should make everything bigger and stay that way even after closing ie or firefox.
 
im a pretty big fan of opera.. speed dial page has big icons.. and cool widgets..
 
I do 90% of my browsing on my 40" Sony and Firefox is easily the best. I do 3 main things to make everything extremely readable:

1. Change the Windows DPI to 150% by right clicking the desktop and choosing Personalize then the Display link at the bottom.

2. Install the Quick Page Zoom plugin. It puts 2 magnifying glass icons at the bottom of the browser for easily resizing. It remembers your zoom preferences on a per site basis between sessions. Right clicking the "-" icon returns you to the default zoom.

3. Adjusting the CSS>DPI>layout filter in about:config lets you increase the size of all the fonts, buttons and icons in Firefox itself.

I find Chrome to be the absolute worst browser for big screen displays. There is no way to increase the size of the fonts and icons and all of the zoom functions, using keyboard shortcuts or extensions, do a horrible job rendering the pages. They all wind up giving you a horizontal scroller bar. It is virtually impossible to get Gmail to look good on Chrome using any zoom function.
 
DDR4040 said:
I do 90% of my browsing on my 40" Sony and Firefox is easily the best. I do 3 main things to make everything extremely readable:

1. Change the Windows DPI to 150% by right clicking the desktop and choosing Personalize then the Display link at the bottom.

2. Install the Quick Page Zoom plugin. It puts 2 magnifying glass icons at the bottom of the browser for easily resizing. It remembers your zoom preferences on a per site basis between sessions. Right clicking the "-" icon returns you to the default zoom.

3. Adjusting the CSS>DPI>layout filter in about:config lets you increase the size of all the fonts, buttons and icons in Firefox itself.

I find Chrome to be the absolute worst browser for big screen displays. There is no way to increase the size of the fonts and icons and all of the zoom functions, using keyboard shortcuts or extensions, do a horrible job rendering the pages. They all wind up giving you a horizontal scroller bar. It is virtually impossible to get Gmail to look good on Chrome using any zoom function.
Click to expand...

this is exactly what i was looking for ty
 
Atherton213 said:
this is exactly what i was looking for ty
Click to expand...

np. A couple of details I left out:

QuickPageZoom only works up to Firefox version 3.6, which is what I still use in my setup. If you want to use Firefox 4.0 or higher you can try Page Zoom 2.3 by DW dev. I use it on my laptop and it seems to do the same thing.

The actual name of the about:config filter is layout.css.dpi. The default value is something like -1 or -2. I have mine set to 200.
 
I use Chrome in Presentation mode, along with the zoom feature. Works great.
 
What I do is load my desktop up w/ 256x256 icons of the sites I frequent to watch video or browse, Youtube, Facebook, Vimeo, Netflix, ESPN, etc. I then make them all shortcuts to my chrome.exe file but with the command parameters set as follows

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application --kiosk http://[COLOR="Red"]enter URL here[...he screen with whatever page you are viewing.
Click to expand...
 
MrSmegzabush said:
What I do is load my desktop up w/ 256x256 icons of the sites I frequent to watch video or browse, Youtube, Facebook, Vimeo, Netflix, ESPN, etc. I then make them all shortcuts to my chrome.exe file but with the command parameters set as follows



Running chrome in Kiosk mode forces full screen and takes you strait to the site but no address bar or way to close other than to go to the taskbar and close it. The only extension I use w/ chrome is Zoomy which fills the screen with whatever page you are viewing.
Click to expand...

Holy crap! Zoomy is exactly what I've been looking for, thank you!
 
nite0 said:
I like Kylo for HTPC browsing.
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That's what I use as well. Unfortunately though, Kylo has no plans on making their browser MC Remote- or Harmony Remote-friendly because Kylo is also selling gyro- remotes.

Edit: I'll also add that running Internet Explorer 9 is just as great. Since you're using the television as the media center you can just make the default zoom 200% of whatever's comfortable - or better yet, go in Windows display properties and change the display to 125%. That will make IE9 very TV-friendly.

A few other tips to make any browser TV-friendly. Instead of going to www.youtube.com, go to www.youtube.com/xl
 
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