Building a Home Entertainment Wireless Network
Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 11:37 am
With this posting, I'm hoping that the rest of you will help me develop a basic wireless network; I know next to nothing about this. I've read and searched topics on the Internet, and either the info is considered too basic ("everyone knows that") to answer my fundamental questions, or way too sophisticated for me at this point in time.
This begins with my desire to have Netflix on my old cathode ray tube TV. You'd think that, after seeing a TV commersial from Netflix, that you could go to their website and see not only what's available, but exactly what you need in the way of hardware and how to assemble it. Well, you'd think wrong. If you go to Netflix and check their "how it works" links, you only get a list of basic equipment (TVs and gaming machines):
https://signup.netflix.com/HowItWorks
and https://signup.netflix.com/Watch?lnkce= ... id=1256502
Really, until I started investigating this, I thought you just had to connect your cable directly into the box or specially equiped TV to get this. I think Netflix and their marketing dept are really dropping the ball here; a bunch of knuckleheads. Let's say that some guy and his wife see that Netflix commercial, go to the Netflix site (Isn't this the logical first step?), but still can't make sense of what is truly needed to see Netflix. Nowhere is there any mention that you need a wireless router or a direct ethernet connection from your cable modem. Those drop-down info windows on that first Netflix page should include, or have links to, line drawing schematic examples of ways to set up for receiving Netflix; they are nearly useless as is. With the components labled and a short narrative for each example, all would be clear. It wouldn't take very much effort for Netflix to provide this, but it would pay off well for them. This would make the difference of uninitiated people (like me) going ahead and getting the necessary equipment and a Netflix subscription, or just forgeting it... like I've been doing for the past couple of years. (I'm resentful of companies who are not consumer-friendly or who do little to enable potential customers use their products; it's bad business for everyone. I'm only doing this because my wife has been bugging me to get Netflix for a few months now. If there were an equivalent alternative to Netflix--one who actually provided useful consumer information on how to get started--I'd consider them.... Well, the wife wants Netflix....)
OK, so the first item I need is a Roku or similar wireless receiver to connect to my TV. Having a CRT TV, I cannot use the new Roku 3 and suspect the Roku 2 XD would be my best choice within this line of Roku products.
http://www.roku.com/roku-products
They claim that this will work on any TV, and I take that to include CRT TVs, although there is no specific mention of this. So, after searching the internet, I still don't know what a Netflix movie will look like on my CRT TV. Will it have upper and lower horizontal bands of black cropping like you see on most DVD movies? Will the movie show as a "full screen" version (somehow) that you see on early DVD movies and double-sided DVDs offering both formats? I really don't know. I suppose this aspect doesn't really matter, but I'd sure like confirmation that my CRT TV will display Netflix movies.
Of course, there's at least one alternative option to the Roku, and that is the one posted here a short while ago:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/News/western-dig ... layer.html
I don't know about all the online feature that can be received on this and the Roku; all I've heard about is Netflix, and at the moment, that's all I care about. But I am interested in ease of set-up and bullet-proof performance. I'm inclined to go with the Roku, since it probably has the greater support, having been around for so long. Opinions?
I'll stop here and begin again regarding a good wireless router selection after finalizing this purchase decision. Thanks.
This begins with my desire to have Netflix on my old cathode ray tube TV. You'd think that, after seeing a TV commersial from Netflix, that you could go to their website and see not only what's available, but exactly what you need in the way of hardware and how to assemble it. Well, you'd think wrong. If you go to Netflix and check their "how it works" links, you only get a list of basic equipment (TVs and gaming machines):
https://signup.netflix.com/HowItWorks
and https://signup.netflix.com/Watch?lnkce= ... id=1256502
Really, until I started investigating this, I thought you just had to connect your cable directly into the box or specially equiped TV to get this. I think Netflix and their marketing dept are really dropping the ball here; a bunch of knuckleheads. Let's say that some guy and his wife see that Netflix commercial, go to the Netflix site (Isn't this the logical first step?), but still can't make sense of what is truly needed to see Netflix. Nowhere is there any mention that you need a wireless router or a direct ethernet connection from your cable modem. Those drop-down info windows on that first Netflix page should include, or have links to, line drawing schematic examples of ways to set up for receiving Netflix; they are nearly useless as is. With the components labled and a short narrative for each example, all would be clear. It wouldn't take very much effort for Netflix to provide this, but it would pay off well for them. This would make the difference of uninitiated people (like me) going ahead and getting the necessary equipment and a Netflix subscription, or just forgeting it... like I've been doing for the past couple of years. (I'm resentful of companies who are not consumer-friendly or who do little to enable potential customers use their products; it's bad business for everyone. I'm only doing this because my wife has been bugging me to get Netflix for a few months now. If there were an equivalent alternative to Netflix--one who actually provided useful consumer information on how to get started--I'd consider them.... Well, the wife wants Netflix....)
OK, so the first item I need is a Roku or similar wireless receiver to connect to my TV. Having a CRT TV, I cannot use the new Roku 3 and suspect the Roku 2 XD would be my best choice within this line of Roku products.
http://www.roku.com/roku-products
They claim that this will work on any TV, and I take that to include CRT TVs, although there is no specific mention of this. So, after searching the internet, I still don't know what a Netflix movie will look like on my CRT TV. Will it have upper and lower horizontal bands of black cropping like you see on most DVD movies? Will the movie show as a "full screen" version (somehow) that you see on early DVD movies and double-sided DVDs offering both formats? I really don't know. I suppose this aspect doesn't really matter, but I'd sure like confirmation that my CRT TV will display Netflix movies.
Of course, there's at least one alternative option to the Roku, and that is the one posted here a short while ago:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/News/western-dig ... layer.html
I don't know about all the online feature that can be received on this and the Roku; all I've heard about is Netflix, and at the moment, that's all I care about. But I am interested in ease of set-up and bullet-proof performance. I'm inclined to go with the Roku, since it probably has the greater support, having been around for so long. Opinions?
I'll stop here and begin again regarding a good wireless router selection after finalizing this purchase decision. Thanks.