setting up a home theater

[screamingflea]

I'm a complete technological boob, so I'm hoping someone here may be able to help me out.

First, I'm attracted to the Netflix instant downloads. That's the appeal of having a DVD player for me, and a reason I haven't signed on with Netflix for a long time. To me, enjoying movies should be about impulse! I don't think it makes much sense to order a cloak-and-dagger thriller only to be in the mood for a comedy once it gets to me.

Secondly, at the same time I'm trying to cut back on my Comcast bill. Last year I ordered the basic cable/internet/landline bundle because it was the best deal going at the time. I never plugged in the phone, and it's been about $70/month. Pretty soon I can order things individually and I'd love to winnow it down to just the TV for $12/month. My apartment complex installed Wi-fi recently, with mediocre coverage. I'm hoping I can just rely on that for the internet.

I've looked at devices for downloading movies and some of them come with wi-fi. Can I get those and still stream movies and enjoy my internet? Or do those devices have to plug in to some kind of land line? Does anyone know?

[Alan]

I can stream Netflix directly to any of our computers or to one of our TV's through Wii or X-Box. You could do the same with either of those or a Roku box (http://www.roku.com/roku-products), which has wi-fi capabilities.

The only problem you might have is the "mediocore coverage" of your apartment's wi-fi. If it's slow or spotty, your streaming video may have to revert to a sub-par resolution or have frequent pauses while it receives content.

[Miss Cellane]

Yup, pretty much agree with Alan. The quality of streaming Netflix is going to depend on the quality of your internet connection. I have a Wii which is wi-fi capable, and have no problem with streaming Netflix wirelessly.

What my sister has done is cancel cable altogether, and use the money for high-speed internet. She has both the streaming and DVD Netflix, and an HD antenna which gets all the broadcast TV channels, but not the cable TV channels. Since the cable TV shows she likes come out on DVD within a year of being on the air, she just waits until they show up on Netflix. The internet and Netflix combined cost less than the cable she used to have. She spent about $30 on the antenna.

While I find Netflix to be worth the money, you should be aware that they only have about 20,000 titles available for streaming. The bulk of their collection is still available only on DVD. They do rotate titles in and out of streaming. There are a couple of websites that give you a heads up on what's about to drop off. And with streaming, fast forward and rewind are klunky, not everything has subtitles, and you don't get the special features that are on the DVDs.