So. Regionals start tomorrow, and you’re planning on watching all weekend. If you’ve been around the block a few times and have your technology ready to go, high five. For those who are new to catching CrossFit online, you may be wondering how the hell can I watch?

The quick and easy answer, originally posted on games.crossfit.com:

To watch any of the eight regional competitions, tune in to Games.CrossFit.com for live streaming of every heat of every event of every division.

All regionals start at 9 a.m. local time. The detailed schedules will be posted to the regional pages, which you can access by clicking the region icons on the side of the Games site.

I know what you’re thinking. Thanks, Captain Obvious. For those who aren’t tech savvy, let me break down all the 14 bazillion ways you can get the regionals from the internet to the giant television in your living room.

Seeing that I’m #nerdybynature and work in television, figured I’d compile a few helpful hints on how you can watch Regionals (and the Games) without squinting at a tiny iPhone screen all weekend long. Caveat: the hardware may cost a few extra dollars, but it’s stuff you can use all the time and get your $8 subscription to Netflix’s worth out of.

WHAT YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED: A halfway decent internet connection. Or else, this list is useless.

STREAMING DEVICES
Apple TV ($69)

I 100% admit that wanting to watch the 2013 Games ON MY TV is the reason that I impulsively bought an Apple TV. When I say impulsive, I mean… I was sitting on the couch watching the games, iPad in my lap. I had a giant TV doing NOTHING in my living room, glanced over at it and said EFF THIS. Both my HP laptop and MacBook were not playing nice with the Samsung TV via HDMI, So I immediately put the iPad down and hopped into the car. Drove to Target, and was home and with it hooked up and running within a half hour.

This is also a good deal, people. Back in 2013, this little black box cost me $99. Now, it goes for $69! My geeky recommendation is to go straight to the CrossFit HQ channel on YouTube and stream directly from there. Quality may not be as high if you use AirPlay to access the content via the Games site from your smartphone/tablet/laptop. This also saves battery life on your smarty device so you can sit and text and tweet all about it with your friends while watching!

Google Chromecast (Approx $35)

WHY was the Chromecast not released until after the 2013 games? Could have saved myself $60. Anyway, I now own one of these too. The Chromecast is an HDMI dongle (*giggle*) that you plug into the back of your TV that is controlled over wifi using a smart device such as an iPhone or laptop. Most TVs (if not all) have HDMI ports nowadays, so you should be good.

Just change the input your TV to the appropriate source, tap the Chromecast icon (image below) in the compatilble app on your smartphone (aka YouTube) and voila! YouTube on the big screen!  

Amazon Fire TV Stick ($39)

By the looks of it, the Fire TV Stick takes the same approach as the Chromecast does. Can’t speak from experience, seeing that both of my televisions at home are occupied with the 2 technologies listed above. The only notable difference I can think of that it comes with a remote, while the Chromecast interface is exclusively controlled via other wifi-enabled devices on the same network.

Roku (Models vary – prices start at $49.99)

Yet another streaming device! I have limited knowledge on the Roku. Like the others, fire up the YouTube channel and have at it.

Laptop > TV via HDMI
Not my favorite. Sometimes monitor settings on the laptop skew the picture and compromise image quality when converting from a laptop to a television display. Call this a last resort. In my case, this was the frustrating ‘solution’ that didn’t work and led me to buy the item at the top of this list, the Apple TV.

OL’ RELIABLE

If you’re on a train or (riding in an) automobile: Smartphone & earbuds. I once streamed a Regional announcement to my phone and plugged the AUX cable into my car so that if I couldn’t watch it while commuting home from the train station, at least I could listen along.

If you’re at work: Smartphone & earbuds. Or a laptop. Or your desktop in a minimized corner window. Depends on how obvious you want to be when your boss walks up behind you and wonders what the F you’re doing instead of, you know, being productive.

If all else fails, fire up that smartphone or tablet and do what HQ says, stream from the Games site. Watching on a tiny screen is better than not watching at all.

Hopefully my nerd rambling will end up helping a few readers out. Happy streaming!