<p>Question bout streaming video. First I think you need either a wireless connection or a connection to your provider? The wireless is preferred since it doesn’t count on your down load max? Second, does streaming video go to the device’s hard drive for viewing later, if you want to, or does it disappear when you stop looking at it as it down loads? I’m thinking about getting Amazon Prime, which doesn’t down load to any computers. It will down load to the iPad and iPhone but we have limited hard drives on them. The iPad is wireless only. I have a Kindle Touch but that’s no good for watching movies.</p>
<p>I use Amazon Prime and watch it(via streaming) on my IPAD or on my television with my ROKU via my wireless internet. It streams and it is not saved on your hard drive. You can, however, flat out purchase the product and download it permanently.</p>
<p>I prefer Amazon Prime to my (now cancelled) Netflix. I think the ROKU is a great product.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Roku-2500R-HD-Streaming-Player/dp/B007KEZMX4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1360950728&sr=8-3&keywords=roku[/url]”>www.amazon.com/Roku-2500R-HD-Streaming-Player/dp/B007KEZMX4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1360950728&sr=8-3&keywords=roku</a></p>
<p>FYI—if you “buy” the movie. You will still be streaming it via Amazon Prime, but have access to it at any time. Needless to say not EVERY movie available on Amazon Prime (or Netflix) is available for free streaming.For the products that are not free you can buy it for permanent access or just for a single viewing.</p>
<p>Streaming video is not stored on your hard drive (except for perhaps some small temporary cache file). YouTube, NetFlix, Comcast On-Demand, Amazon Prime Instant Video. All streaming. It will all count towards your internet provider’s bandwidth limit, whether it is sent to your computer/tablet/TV over a wired connection or a wireless router in your house.</p>
<p>When you buy or rent an Amazon Instant video, you have the option of streaming it or actually downloading it to your hard drive so that you could watch it without an internet connection. I rented and downloaded a couple of movies to my Kindle before the snowstorm, just on the odd chance that we lost power. The rules were the same as for streaming: I had 30 days after the rental to start watching the movie, and, once I started watching, I had 24 hours to finish watching (and rewatching) the rental.</p>
<p>As far as I know, NetFlix and Comcast On-Demand do not even offer a download option.</p>
<p>Normally, there would be no reason to actually download a movie – Unless you are purchasing movies and want to build a library. Better buy some big hard drives if that’s your plan. The HD movies I downloaded were about 8 GIG each.</p>
<p>BTW, for my fellow geezers trying to figure out this new-fangled stuff, most Blu-Ray players (and many TVs) now stream video. A $100 Panasonic Blu-Ray player will connect to your internet router, either with an ethernet cable or a wireless signal, and stream NetFlix, Amazon Instant Video, or YouTube to your TV.</p>
<p>Interested:</p>
<p>The blue-ray thing could work, BUT I want to hook it up to a non-smart, but much too expensive to dispose of, plasma TV. If I attached it to the receiver that is connected to the TV would that work? What kind of cable would I need?</p>
<p>Another thing; the internet provider we have in the condo is provided as part of the HOA fees and different than provider, AT and T, on the Apple products. I would love to be able to get it to the TV but I’m kind of stumped with the non-smart TV issue.</p>
<p>If you connect the streaming capable device, like the Blu-Ray player interestedDad mentioned or a Roku or similar device to your older non-streaming capable Plasma, you’ll be able to do the streaming jus as if you’d purchased a brand new TV with that capability built-in. In other words, buying the Blu-Ray will give you the capability even with your old TV.</p>
<p>The streaming WILL count to your download bandwidth whether it’s wired or wireless. The wireless is really happening at a point after the wired download anyway - i.e. the data is coming into your router/modem on a wired connection and then being sent further wirelessly. </p>
<p>If you’re going to use a device like a Blu-Ray player to give you the streaming capability you may want to connect it to the router/modem via a wire (ethernet cable) rather than wireless since the connection will likely be better.</p>
<p>There’s some streaming you can do without getting another device - for example to your PC and other devices ala Hulu, Netflix, Youtube, etc.</p>
<p>The router is not located anywhere near the TV, and there is no outlet in the area around the TV for me to connect it to.</p>
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<p>Yes, that would be no problem hooking up the blu-ray player to any HDTV. The cable you need depends on how you have the system wired up, but you would hook up the blu-ray player just like a DVD player. With a new-ish receiver/TV, you could just connect an HDMI cable from the Blu-ray player to the receiver (which is connected to the TV with an HDMI cable). I have an old home theater receiver, so I connect the blu-ray to the TV with an HDMI cable and also to the receiver with an optical digital audio cable. As long as your TV has HDMI inputs, something will work.</p>
<p>As for the internet side of things. My cable modem internet box connects directly to a wireless router. This router then connects to all the internet devices in the house, either with an ethernet cable or through a wireless connection. The Panasonic blu-ray has built in wireless, although I have it connected to the router with an ethernet cable because it’s it’s on the same shelf. I have wireless connections to my desktop computer upstairs (so I don’t need a wire running up the stairs!) and to a Kindle Fire HD tablet. The wireless and the wired connections are all the same speed.</p>
<p>The Blu-Ray player doesn’t know anything about my internet provider. It appears to go thru the internet connection to some kind of Panasonic gateway. You can click on icons for NetFlix, Amazon Instant Video, HULU, etc. I did have to tell it my NewFlix and Amazon log-ins. I don’t think my Amazon Kindle knows anything about my internet provider either, although it would if I set it up to get e-mail. Or, I can just use its webbrowser to go to Comcast and check my e-mail on line.</p>
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<p>If it’s a wireless router, then it doesn’t need to be. The Panasonic BDT-220 blu-ray player has a built-in wireless connection. Just tell it to set up a wireless connection to your router on the setup menu. It’s all pretty painless. I was actually shocked at how easy all this stuff was to set up and get running.</p>
<p>If you don’t have a wireless router, then you need to get one. I bought the Mercedes Benz limo version of the CISCO Linksys router (refurbished for $99), but there are perfectly serviceable wireless routers for under $50 at Amazon or Walmart or Best Buy…</p>
<p>[Linksys</a> Outlet Refurbished](<a href=“Linksys | Networking & WiFi Technology”>Linksys | Networking & WiFi Technology)</p>
<p>The EA3500 and the EA2700 ($39.95) on that page are functionally identical with exactly the same up-to-date super-fast dual-band wireless. The 4500 I got has one big advantage. I can hook up a hard drive directly to it to store my iTunes library or family photos or videos and the Blu-ray player will play them (a media player function). That hard drive appears on my computer as a network drive so it’s easy to send files to it. The EA3500 has a USB connector for a thumb drive, but not the media player software. The 2700 doesn’t have a USB connector. None of that matters for watching NetFlix or Amazon video on the Blue-ray player.</p>
<p>Another option is to connect your iPad to the TV. My Kindle Fire HD has an HDMI output that can send high-def video directly to the TV, using the Kindle as the media player. So that’s a very simple option.</p>
<p>Thanks. I’ll have to think about this.</p>
<p>i went with the fancier router because I don’t have an iPod connection on my home theater system and I didn’t see any docking bay gizmos that were worth a darn. Now, I can just take any playlist from my iPod (like my 5-star playlist) and copy it to a USB drive hooked up to the router. The Blu-ray player then becomes an iTunes player.</p>
<p>interesteddad,</p>
<p>I’ve talked to people who have had issues streaming HD content via the wireless connection but it worked okay when they connected it directly via a wired connection. I have mine directly wired so I haven’t tried it via wireless. Non-HD content would be less of a challenge on the wireless connection. Part of it will come down to how good and how fast the wireless connection actually is.</p>
<p>We’re able to watch streaming movies on our smart TV, our TiVo, and our blu-ray player. All of these devices stream our movies wirelessly and we have not had any problems doing it that way. However, if you have a poor wireless signal, then you may encounter some problems.</p>
<p>As I understand it, there are a million reasons why a wireless connection might not be bulletproof. The latest generation routers, such as the CISCO-Linksys models I mentioned, all have the latest whiz-bang stuff. They operate on two different frequencies, so you can shift to the one your neighbors aren’t using. They open multiple channels with multiple antennas simultaneously. All I know is that I ran a speed test with the hard wired connection to my computer and the same tests with the wireless. Same exact speed. Obviously limited by the bandwidth of my incoming Comcast internet. So, streaming HD video by wireless is no problem for me. But, it could be with a different router in a different situation. My wireless computer is in a room directly above my router, so I’ve got the latest equipment in good arrangement.</p>
<p>It’s crazy. In condo, I can see four or five of my neighbors’ wireless networks. So, pick a good solid password!</p>
<p>First thing, regarding the wireless, it’s just a distribution mechanism for the internet pumped to your house. As others said, invest in a good wireless router! </p>
<p>If you’re considering streaming, the first thing to consider is how much data you’re allowed to download on your account monthly. If it’s not unlimited (few accounts are) you have to be careful or you’ll go over your limit and that can mean $$$! One movie can be as much as 1GB, depending on the length of the title, the resolution and so on. You wouldn’t take a bath if you only had 50 gallons of water a month so think ahead. </p>
<p>The other thing to consider is the speed of your network. That is, what’s the quality or speed of your connection. To stream without buffering, you should be looking at a download speed of around 5 Mbps. To test it, go to: <a href=“http://www.speedtest.net%5B/url%5D”>www.speedtest.net</a></p>
<p>If the router isn’t near the tv, you can add a signal repeater to boost the signal. I’m a fan of Apple’s hardware for ease of use, but that’s not the cheapest option (unless you throw in the value of my time with tech support trying to get the Cisco or Linksys router to talk to my Macs). You can buy signal repeaters/boosters anywhere you can buy a router. </p>
<p>We stream Netflix to our non-smart tv using a Wii console, which uses component (non-HD) video. After I set up an Airport Express as a signal repeater we’ve had no trouble with streaming speed, though it’s not HD. One of these days I’ll get a Roku box. That will use an HDMI cable connection and give us HD quality. I also have a dohickey that will allow me to hook up my mac laptop to an HDMI cable and then to the tv, but we always get lazy and just end up watching on the laptop screen. </p>
<p>Like interesteddad says, if you’ve got a bunch of nearby neighbors pick a good password. You can also set up your wireless router to not broadcast the name of your network.</p>