Streaming Netflix at Home

Presently, Netflix is hitting the movie rental industry as online music downloads hit the CD industry in the 1990’s. Seemingly ever growing in popularity, Netflix has quickly gained a cult of loyal following. Offering over 10,000 movies in stock to be delivered to your door in a mere few days, many inpatient consumers have been looking to Netflix’s newest addition of technology as the answer to an even more speedy delivery of movie rentals. Watch Instantly is a relatively new concept by Netflix which allows subscribers to instantly watch movies streamed over the internet from their website to people’s PCs. As of now, consumers have a few choices as to how to view their streaming videos, but each come with their own drawback. Viewers can choose to view the streaming movies on the monitors of their PCs (which offers a viewing screen often smaller then desired), or can turn to a number of external devices (all of which come with additional monetary costs) such as the Roku Netflix player, Xbox 360, or TiVo DVR to connect the streaming Netflix video to their TVs.

However, on Monday, LG announced a leap in advancement concerning this technology. LG has publicized the introduction of the first TVs to contain built-in Netflix streaming capabilities which will hit stores in the US this upcoming spring. The TVs are being called Broadband HDTVs and will be available in both plasma and LCD technologies. The true feature that will set these TVs apart from all the others, is that the Broadband HDTV will be equipped with Ethernet jacks. This will enable the televisions to directly stream movies off of internet sites such as Netflix. Though these televisions are estimated to cost about $300 more then comparable models without the Ethernet jack, it is important to note that these LG Broadband HDTVs will be the first of their kind and are a breakthrough in technology.

In addition to their Netflix streaming capabilities, though no formal announcement has been made thus far, many are speculating the further capabilities that an Ethernet cable could bring to a television. Added viewing capabilities of videos off of online sites, such as YouTube and CinemaNow, are soon to be considered a technology of the present, not the future.