Need advice on buying a Blu-Ray player/streaming files to TV

Looking for something relatively simple; looks like that'll probably run me between $100 and $150, which is fine. But there's one technical thing I'm wondering about: WiFi. Many seem to be WiFi-capable, but require a USB dongle or something, which has to be purchased separately. Some have this built-in.

What I mainly need to know is what this actually allows me to do. If it just lets me hook the thing up to Netflix, Pandora, and all the standard places, I'm not sure I care about it much. But if it actually lets me stream things from my computer, I'm all about it.

The main reason is that my cable connection is terrible so I often find myself wanting to either a) watch something on Hulu or b) buy something on iTunes the next day. I don't mind either that much, but I hate having to watch it on my computer screen, so I'm trying to get it over to the TV in the next room. So any related advice on that in general, even if it's not Blu-Ray related, would be helpful.

For what it's worth, my new TV has a USB port and can read media right off of it...but that doesn't seem to include the files I buy from iTunes, and I've had trouble converting those to a usable format. The TV only appears able to play a few formats, which is beyond lame. So...that'd be another way I could get around this problem, if anyone has any experience with it.

As always, any advice or experiences are appreciated.

Does the new tube have HDMI outputs? Does your puter? If so, hook 'em up and watch anything you put on your computer on your new big screen.

At the very least you should have a VGA input. Its not as good of quality but its still pretty good.

As far as Blu-ray goes, I wouldn't buy one. I bought an upconverting DVD player and most of the DVD's look pretty damn great. If your heart's set on one though, I'm sure Johnny Mc could reccomend a good one to you. Many have told me that the PS3 has one of the best Blu-Ray players on the market, plus you can get online with it and do all the wonderful streaming jazz too, I think.

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My computer's a desktop in the other room, so anything involving actual, physical wires is basically out; they'd have to be crazy long and laying on the floor in the halfway and all that.

My heart is kinda set on a Blu-Ray, largely because I'm sure I'll end up there eventually, they've really come down in price, and there are a few specific Blu-Rays I have my eye on, like the Anchorman "Rich Mahogany Edition."

My brother's got a PS3, but I'm not sure if it can do the specific thing I'm going for. I'll see if he's done anything like that with it.

I bet you could pick one up for dirt cheap on Black Friday.

I have a PS3 and it does all of the things you describe, blu-ray, streaming from my laptop to the PS3, netflix etc.

Oh, and wirelessly too...

Chris, I don't know if you found anything or not, but Boxee seems like a legit solution for the streaming part. I can't link you to it right now though.

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Looks like Addie has your answer. If your bro doesn't mind you assimilating his PS3 into the main entertainment area...of course it might already be there...

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www.vuze.com

www.tversity.com

These are a couple of different software programs that will help you stream from your laptop/PC to your PS3/xbox etc.

Sadly, not really an option. We have both devices in the "main" area but I was hoping to do it without them (for various reasons it would be pointless to enumerate here). I have a Wii, but I'm guessing that ain't gonna fly. Guess I just need to buy a set-top box, or else put together a cheap media PC, yeah? Probably the latter, since the former seems to keep getting blocked by the network websites.

Y, you might want to check out WDTV too. I don't have the wireless version, but the little WDTV box plugs right into a hard disk with hundreds of movies on it. You can then scroll through whatever you like, click and watch. You can organize stuff in folders too, which is awesome. I believe the new wireless version does streaming as well.

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Try taking a look at the...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148499

You can plug a usb into it and play it directly onto you tv or monitor, can connect with HDMI and a few other types but its great for just watching movies. You can go on the web and use shared drives if you want but its need to be connect to a CAT 5 or 6 cable.

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Thanks, but actually connecting the TV to the computer isn't an option at this point. Too far away. If they were near each other, this would have been easy.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. At this point I'm almost certainly going to buy some kind of budget PC exclusively for media content and keep it near the TV, though I might toy with some of the cheaper options first, just in case I can avoid going that route.

I use a ps3 as well. I'm not sure who well it holds up in comparison to the new players since my PS3 is an 08 model. Back then it was really good.

I have one of these: MediaGate 350HD
http://www.mediagateusa.com/html/mg350.html



Has one 10/100 LAN port
Supports USB2.0 host/slave
3.5-inch HDD is user-installable
Supports HD MP2, MP4 and WMV9
Supports MP1/2@HL (720p/1,080i), MP4@L5 (720p) and WMV9 MP@ML (720p)
Supports composite, S-video, component video outputs
Supports stereo L/R, optical/coaxial digital audio, analog 5.1 channels
Supports JPEG/BMP/GIF/PNG still picture
Enables file surfing from multiple sources on TV using a remote controller

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I know it's not a blu ray player, but get the new TIVO, you can record everything and then send it to your computer and access it anytime you wanna, plus you can access Youtube, Amazon, Blockbuster, and the Hulu Plus, I think that is a way better deal.......

Did you ever end up doing anything like this, Chris?

I turned my PC into a HTPC 3 or 4 months ago simply by HDMI-ing it to the TV and audio receiver and never looked back. It also takes a lot less clutter out of the living room because I don't need a computer workstation, monitor or PC speakers.

Really should get hold of a decent wireless HTPC keyboard but I'm loathe to get rid of my Sidewinder board and MX518 mouse, both wired.

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