I'm coming full circle. When we moved to Portland 8 years ago, I got Comcast triple play (voice, TV, internet) for $115, it was such a good deal! Well, over time it went up and up and last year, when it was $230 or so, I dropped voice and replaced it with a $12 extra line with our cellular carrier. That took the Comcast bill from $230/mo to $130/mo This weekend I dropped TV, something my kids have been telling me to do, since we hardly ever watch cable TV. That takes my Comcast bill to $95/mo for just 50 MB/s internet. I will also drop my TiVo service at $15/mo. I can reduce it to $85/mo by downgrading to 25 MB/s internet, or I can drop Comcast entirely and get internet from our local telco. They charge $80/mo for 40 MB/s, but there is a 1 year introductory $30/mo price, and I'm told they extend that for another year if you call and state your intention to drop. We are paying for $16/mo for Netflix and Hulu Plus. I might subscribe to an online sports streaming service for another $10/mo. In the summer, I might pay $30 to watch the Tour de France online. TL:DR version - "I was paying $245/mo for Comcast + TiVo, I am now $123/mo for Comcast + Netflix + Hulu + a cellular home phone, and I can get it to $58/mo for telco internet 1-or-2-year deal + Netflix + Hulu + cellular home phone." I will spend about $200 one-time for a used modem, Roku, cables to connect Mac to TV, maybe an OTA antenna. We are still figuring out the limitations of Netflix and Hulu. For example, my son asked how he could watch the current season of Doctor Who. Turns out that BBC UK streams it but only to the UK, and by going through a free proxy server in the UK, you can watch it in the US.

If you don't have an excellent HD TV, you may not discern the difference between Blu Ray and regular DVD. I can't hardly tell the difference with very good eyesight (sub-Medicare age) and experience assessing image quality. Much content is available in both DVD and Blu Ray. Some newer stuff can be just Blu Ray, some older stuff can be just DVD. You don't know if having Blu Ray opens any doors for you, until you start seeing a lot of content you want that is unavailable in DVD. There are many ways to get streaming content from over the internet to a TV to watch, there's nothing special about using a disk player to do it. Other choices that can be easily connected to your TV include a PC, a smart phone, and a TV with the same built-in capabilities as your proposed disk player. Wifi= network signal transmitted using radio waves. Ethernet= same network signal transmitted using a wire. If your Wifi reception is adequate ( and 1.5 or 3 megs is very slow and undemanding unless your interior walls are made of stone or concrete), there's no technical advantage to using one over the other. I only glanced at the details, but the Samsung's capabilities are very normal and vanilla. Nothing special and nothing missing from what everything else does. Using a notebook isn't the same as streaming video, unless you'/re using the notebook to stream video. Simply web surfing is VERY undemanding of bandwidth. Put your laptop where the player would go, and try a video steam. How does it work? When an internet connection is sub optimal, all the streaming sources will automatically downgrade the image quality to avoid herky-jerky playback. So with a slowish internet connection, it'll usually work but the image will not be as clear as with more bandwidth. Streaming movies using either Amazon or Netflix doesn't require a Blu Ray player, they have their own systems. Amazon streaming is free with a $79 annual Prime account (free 2 day shipping and other bennies), Netflix is about $9 or $10 per month. They're competitors and don't have the same content. Streaming media is more popular than ever. Unless you really love a movie, most people would rather see something new instead of something old for another time.

A follow up to share what I learned. The Smart HDTV is now working and delivering streaming movies to our bedroom via the WiFi. The only wires to the HDTV (Vizio) is the house A/C electricity. 1) Don't change the WiFi password in a router using the WiFi interface, use a Ethernet interface. This is based on experience with 5 year old Netgear (low end) Router still 54 mb capable 802.11n? I tried and the Router ended up locked up. The password change may gone astray in any case the Router could not access the internet for connection to either the Ethernet or the WiFi. Lights on the Router showed both the Internet and WiFi okay. I replaced with a newer Netgear which supports 150 mb and has more Internet based features. 2) My Smart HDTV (all?) does provide for inputting all keyboard characters via an on-screen keyboard(s). I got in trouble because the number only input on the hand controller made me decide to change my Router password to all numbers, which I did on the new Router. Still better, much faster putting in numbers from the channel keypad than to use the "Hunt and Peck" on screen keyboard. The (my) HDTV does not have a touch screen so one has to click the pointer around the keyboard to pick out inputs. This into my view only after I entered the all numeric password and hit the "OK" - the next screen was the subject keyboard - which I no longer needed, but did need later when logging onto Netflix. The operation involves being in a data field, input any leading numbers (best) from the hand held keys then hit the "OK". An on screen keyboard then appears. If nothing more is needed, i.e., all numbers, click down to the "Enter". Side benefit: then new Router specifies Windows 8 compatibility - the old one was XP, maybe Vista qualified and some older Routers have problems with newer OS. The HDTV showing a Netflix movie had no detectible breaks (buffering?). I thought maybe that is because of the new Router, as my W8 computer had (and still has) some breaks in Netflix streaming, not sure about other services. The W8 laptop still exhibits this problem. One last start up issue on the HDTV. After logging on to my WiFi I pushed the Netflix button on my controller and Netflix started to load but failed. I started over again, it failed again. I then tried the Amazon application and it too failed. I then when into "chat" with Netflix technical support (they came on quickly) after the exchange of information on the situation on my end the support person typed, try youtube, so I did, and it come up/worked. I typed back the smart HDTV must be learning or youtube is more fault tolerant, No response, but I then tried Netflix and it worked and continues to work.

Well, first off, you can (through the use of adapters) make a DVD player work with ANY TV. Granted, the quality won't be as good as on a new TV, but you CAN make it work. What to look for also depends on what kind of TV you get. Here's several connection options starting at the lowest (and therefore cheapest) on up: 1) Keep the TV you have -- through the use of an RF modulator, and maybe another adapter or two, you can hook any DVD up to your current TV. Even some newer low-end TVs need this adapter. 2) Composite hookup -- These will connect the DVD to the TV by use of red/white/yellow cables. Make sure your new TV has AT LEAST these jacks. 3) S-Video -- The S-video will replace the yellow (video) cable in the above hookup. Low-end TVs will not have this. If it does, however, use it. 4) Component video -- This will be found on only middle- to upper-end televisions. A red, green, and blue cable are all used to transmit the video signal, plus the red and white audio make FIVE cables total to hook the TV up to the DVD. 5) HDMI -- Now you're venturing into the high definition arena, which I'm not as schooled on. Someone else will have to fill you in there. As for the DVD itself, I would say you don't need to go over your head. Recordable DVDs are quickly replacing VCRs, but it if you are the type that doesn't like learning new technology and feel comfortable with what you have, you can certainly hook up both a DVD and VCR at the same time, though not necessarily through each other. IN that respect, you can certainly get a DVD recorder if you feel comfortable learning it. Other than that, it's pretty simple. I would try to avoid the $19.99 Wal-Mart special, but unless you're going with an expensive home theater hookup, you don't need to go with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD either. Hope this helps!