Posted by Colleen July 21, 2008
The Miracle of the Internet
We hooked my laptop up to our TV this weekend, and watched On-Demand movies from NetFlix.
Why am I telling you this? I just think it’s really cool.
I’ve always been amazed by new technology, since the first time I used a VIC computer in third grade to practice multiplication facts. The internet arrived about the same time I arrived at college, and even now I’m still floored by what you can do with it. I don’t know a lot about how technology works, but I like to use it.
We’ve been a Netflix customer for a while. I love the convenience of getting and returning movies through the mail. No driving to the video store, no due dates to remember, no late fees. Now we don’t even have to wait for the mailman. Not all their titles are available on demand, but there are many to choose from, including a big selection of kids’ movies. Perfect for all the rainy days we’ve had this summer.
I you’re like me, watching a movie on a little computer screen doesn’t really appeal to you. Well, if you’ve got the right equipment you can watch NetFlix’s on-demand movies on your TV. For about $100 you can buy a dedicated device that will stream the on-demand movies to your TV. But if you have a computer and a newer TV, you probably already have just about everything you need. The only thing we had to purchase was a cable to hook the computer up to the TV. It was simple. As soon as we had the cable plugged-in, a menu popped up automatically on the computer screen to configure it for sending video to the TV.
Some of you computer geeks really technical people out there probably think I’m silly for being so amazed by this. I know it’s not like we put a man on Mars, but it’s nice to know that if we do go to Mars someday, we’ll be able watch movies on-demand inside our little biosphere there.
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We have hooked up an old computer of ours to the new TV (it is just a monitor cable, but some video cars have AV output), but we haven’t tried this option. My goal to to allow my wife to check her email and internet stuff while nursing in the living room. It has actually turned more into the kids on Disney.com playing games on the bigger screen.
I had to check out your blog because I read your comment on Musings of a Housewife- and I realized that I do the same thing. I daydream about blogging during church.
Unless it’s about Him, I doubt He appreciates that very much. (I will repent as well. )
We watch movies and reruns of TV shows via computer and internet all the time – and it IS neat! Screen resolution has come a long way in the last few years. By using the computer, we can watch them on our (new to us) TV upstairs (we only have TIVO on the downstairs TV.) We don’t pay for any service like NetFlix or even rent movies anymore. We just don’t watch enough to justify NetFlix and the rentals NEVER work right, so you are left hanging when the DVD malfunctions halfway through. But with the internet and the laptop and the one magic cord, we are good to go!
That is pretty cool. I could never watch a movie on my computer, way too small. We just do the on demand from our cable company, seems to work and it is pretty rare we watch a move, especially in the summer time, too much going on!
Hi Colleen.
What kind of cable did you buy to hook your computer to your TV? Was it an ethernet cable, a USB cable, what? Curious if my TV is new enough (purchased last August) to handle this the way yours did.