Streaming Oscar winning movies for Dummies: Why use a streaming device - what's the point? (connect, system)
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I'm a n00b to the matter of streaming movies from the Internet over to a big Vizio HDTV.
I want to start streaming movies issued by Netflix and Amazon into my residence. For several days I was under the impression that you need a special device to stream an Amazon or Netflix movie. But I was wrong, dead wrong!
You can stream with an X-box, but if you're not a gamer and have ZERO interest in gaming why go out and pay big bucks for an X-box? Save your money!
Ditto for Tivo. Tivo will stream a movie for ya. Keep in mind that Tivo costs $300. You can save $300 right there by not buying Tivo!
Roku makes an Amazon/Netflix streaming device, but it costs $100 and...I found out that Roku's tech support department lacks quality service, so to speak. So save you can save $100 and a little money on aspirin that you would have used to squash your headache!
Folks, what I'm saying is all you need is a $20 CABLE (sometimes less than 20 bucks) to accomplish this task and not a $100-400 HARDWARE device. Am I missing something when I say you don't need all that hardware to stream a movie when all you have to do is stream it from your computer over to your HDTV via an HDMI or some other cable?
You're absolutely right that it can be done with a computer. The reason people shell out for the devices is they don't want a computer in their living room next to the TV. Or in some cases, people have the devices for other purposes (Tivo, Xbox, etc.) and find it more convenient to use those than get another computer. There's also a picture quality and compatibility issue- many computers don't have HDMI out and some TV's don't have VGA in.
On Wednesday or Thursday of last week I ordered the $100 Roku box. On Friday I found out that it's virtually impossible to contact their tech department - and so I canceled my order. Today on Saturday I discovered how to contact them to talk to them directly. So now it looks like I'm going to re-order the Roku box and ditch the HDTV to PC transferance via HDMI cable idea.
Just be aware for the streaming movies - it won't be HD quality, it will barely be DVD quality. Depending on your connection, probably much less than DVD quality.
And remember all those artifacts and loss of quality get mulitplied on a large HDTV.
On Wednesday or Thursday of last week I ordered the $100 Roku box. On Friday I found out that it's virtually impossible to contact their tech department - and so I canceled my order. Today on Saturday I discovered how to contact them to talk to them directly. So now it looks like I'm going to re-order the Roku box and ditch the HDTV to PC transferance via HDMI cable idea.
I've had the Roku box for nearly a year. It was truly one of the easiest pieces of technology to connect and use that I've ever seen... and I've seen and used bunches of them. I don't mean this to sound rude, but the Roku box is so simple to set up that if you need help connecting it, your system must be so complicated that you should be paying a local home theater vendor for on-site support.
IMO, the only tech support you'd need is provided by the content providers, which at this point are Amazon and Netflix, with more rumored to be on the horizon.
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