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.

After visiting this site very often through search results, I finally became a member. Timing is everything when purchasing a television. I'll give you a rundown on what I went thought this fall. I was sold on the samsung 7000 series televisions. I was a sony fan for years and this one really got me over the brand name. They make a few sizes but the 46" was what we considered to be a good size for the room we are going to use this in our soon to be built home. You can also get it in 55" It does 3D if you want that. It has what they call "smart hub" which somewhat arranges apps so that you can get news, weather, facebook, some free 3d content that is actually not too bad, netflix, hulu+, vimeo (which I really like and was happy to see here. It also has wifi built in for your network. A basic internet browser, movie rentals, computer input, smart phone remote capability. A lot of this stuff won't cater to the masses, and that's fine as you should consider this an extra to the amazing picture the TV can put out. The 7000 series has a 240hz refresh rate. You want this over a 60 or 120. It's hard to explain, but it looks much better to my sensitive LCD eyes. Enough with the sales picth for the 7000 series... Back to timing. In August, I saw the TV I wanted 46" with blue ray player and 2 pairs of 3d glasses for 1,499. I figured I would wait until Black Friday... Well Friday and cyber Monday came and went and I didnt see it for sale, but the 55" was dropped to $1799 and the 46... $1699 lol. I waited and eventually before Christmas, they went back to 1499 with the blue ray player and 2 pairs of glasses. This is in contrast to 1799 without anything. Now this is my strong consideration to you as far as a blue ray player goes... Get the Playstation 3. It plays your blue rays, it streams netflix and hulu+ (Better then the samsung TV which sometimes is slow to stream videos). It plays video games, has a basic internet browser, can stream movies from a computer on your network (I have a 2 TB drive connected to my network and I can view and stream them to the TV through the PS3.) for $200 it's a no brainer. If you get the Samsung with the blue ray player, you can always sell the extra player if you don't need it (but the player can also stream netflix and hulu and all that stuff.) So in short... I recommend a Samsung 7000 46 or 55 (Be patient and wait until the sale hits... They will do it again) and get the PS3 for your media hub. We have this setup, and don't have cable... And don't need it! I calculated that in 26 months, without cable my TV and ps3 will be paid for with the savings... I will be on the lookout for a 55" 7000 series for the living room once our house is finished in March. I've got the xbox 360 out there to do a similar job. Good luck on your decesion. The game consoles are a far better solution to a stand alone player/streamer as they are constantly updated to meet the times. Also they are working on offering some sort of tv streaming services. Time will tell.

Oh Mary, yes I did. Couldn't decide to tell you the long or short story. Thank you for caring. I was looking for Acorntv right? I went to Apps on my Samsung and it was not with Netflix and the other few apps that came with the television. Chatted with Samsung and my television does not support Acorntv. Saw an ad for Acorn on line and filled out the info and got to the part where I was free to write on the form. Asked how I can get this app since Samsung told me my television serial # doesn't support it. No answer. Filled out the Acorntv subscription form again and complained about them not answering and updated my request to call me. "I am on a major forum and I will provide them feedback." Meanwhile, I went to my X1 XFINITY button on their remote and pushed it. I use some tabs on it every day. Went through all the tabs: Guide, On Demand, Search and Apps. Looked at Apps again. ACORN is not there. Went to Search. ACORN is not recognized. Never used On Demand before X1 and new television. Found buried in Xfinity' s On Demand tab, a couple of rows down wasACORNtv app. Signed up to see what that would do. At the same time ACORNtv called concerning what I wrote on my form and listened to my story. They called back and said I was now subscribed to two places: Acorntv Direct ( which needs Roku) and Xfinity Acorntv (doesn't need Roku) Same Acorntv. Same price. Lovely woman said she would take me off of Acorntv Direct and let me be billed through Xfinity. Any questions or comments?

For billing through ROKU, check out this - https://support.roku.com/article/208756478-how-to-manage-or-cancel-a-subscription-to-a-channel. I have never paid a penny through ROKU services. My Hulu and Amazon Prime are paid separately at my convenience. I can select HULU, Netflix, Amazon Prime through my SmartTV, but have chosen to use my ROKU. There are some differences in capabilities of each device, IE my ROKU stick is capable of streaming 4K, the SmartTV isn't. Youtube is presented differently on the SmartTV VS the ROKU stick.