Internet Streaming Television: Are You Ready?

More and more people use popular sites such as Hulu or YouTube to watch their favorite television shows. It makes sense to watch your show with limited amounts of commercial advertisements while reducing your cable bills. Best of all, the majority of internet video content is free. Whether you have your computer hooked up to your television or you are streaming the content via a stand-alone box, you have to make sure you have the horsepower to handle the video.

Now ask yourself, is my house internet streaming video ready? Keep these things in mind:

1. THE INTERNET CONNECTION- Its going to be painful to watch your online content with a slow internet connection. I recommend connection speeds of about 1.5-3.0 mbps. Keep in mind, your upload speed is not going to matter. If you are not sure of your connection speed, visit speedtest.net or any other related sites. Once you have your internet connection, you have to decide how you are going to network your computer or stand-alone box to it. The best type of network for video streaming is a fast and reliable ethernet connection. Don't worry, wireless will work as well. 
2. THE TELEVISION SET- I will assume the majority of you own a flat panel LCD television. Thats great! Depending on the site you are watching your video from, you need to keep quality in mind. Many sites now support High Definition 1080p video, which will look magnificent on a large screen High Def LCD. On the other hand, many sites still stream standard definition content. Have you ever been on YouTube watching a video and seeing the video pixelated and grainy on your laptop screen? Now image that video stretched on your large HD LCD. The quality would be very poor, and the picture would be extremely grainy.

If your broadband connection, home network, and television are all set, then now you can begin to hunt for a streaming video box. I suggest taking your desktop (laptops work as well) computer and connecting it to your LCD TV using HDMI, DVI, or a VGA cable. If you don't want to use your PC, you can purchase a stand-alone streaming box. Below I have listed a few options you might want to take a look at:

• Apple TV (40GB & 160GB) - $229-$329
• Vudu Box (250GB) - $149
• Roku Digital Video Player (No HDD) - $99
• TiVo HD (160GB & 1TB) - $299-$599
• Sony Playstation 3 (80GB & 160GB) - $399-$499
• Microsoft Xbox 360 (60GB & 120GB) - $299-$399

I hope this helps to get you started.

-Brandon (iTalkTech)

http://www.italktech.tk