Instead of renting movies from a store, the world seems to have gone to downloading and playing movies over the Internet; the major player in this market is Netflix. What equipment is necessary to download and play movies from Netflix?
If you only want to watch movies on your laptop or desktop, all you need is a high speed Internet connection.
If you prefer to watch movies on your TV, you must enable your TV-Internet connection. Here are three ways to do this:
- If your television has a built-in network interface card, connecting a cable (Cat5e) from your DSL/Cable Modem or router is a matter of finding a cable long enough to reach the television from the DSL/Cable Modem or router.
- If your television supports WiFi, you will need to plug an approved WiFi Adapter into the television's USB port. See your televisions owner's manual for more details.
- If your television cannot connect to the Internet via a built-in network interface card or a WiFi Adapter, buying a DVD Player that has the ability to connect to the Internet will allow your television to stream movies from the Internet once the DVD Player is connected to your television. (Note: WiFi enabled Blu Ray Players do not include a WiFi adapter. They must be purchased separately. So far, the only approved adapters are the ones sold by the Blu Ray Player manufacturer. If you need your Blu Ray Player to be connected via WiFi, plan on spending an additional $70-$80 for a manufacturer specific WiFi adapter.)
