If you don't have an excellent HD TV, you may not discern the difference between Blu Ray and regular DVD. I can't hardly tell the difference with very good eyesight (sub-Medicare age) and experience assessing image quality. Much content is available in both DVD and Blu Ray. Some newer stuff can be just Blu Ray, some older stuff can be just DVD. You don't know if having Blu Ray opens any doors for you, until you start seeing a lot of content you want that is unavailable in DVD. There are many ways to get streaming content from over the internet to a TV to watch, there's nothing special about using a disk player to do it. Other choices that can be easily connected to your TV include a PC, a smart phone, and a TV with the same built-in capabilities as your proposed disk player. Wifi= network signal transmitted using radio waves. Ethernet= same network signal transmitted using a wire. If your Wifi reception is adequate ( and 1.5 or 3 megs is very slow and undemanding unless your interior walls are made of stone or concrete), there's no technical advantage to using one over the other. I only glanced at the details, but the Samsung's capabilities are very normal and vanilla. Nothing special and nothing missing from what everything else does. Using a notebook isn't the same as streaming video, unless you'/re using the notebook to stream video. Simply web surfing is VERY undemanding of bandwidth. Put your laptop where the player would go, and try a video steam. How does it work? When an internet connection is sub optimal, all the streaming sources will automatically downgrade the image quality to avoid herky-jerky playback. So with a slowish internet connection, it'll usually work but the image will not be as clear as with more bandwidth. Streaming movies using either Amazon or Netflix doesn't require a Blu Ray player, they have their own systems. Amazon streaming is free with a $79 annual Prime account (free 2 day shipping and other bennies), Netflix is about $9 or $10 per month. They're competitors and don't have the same content. Streaming media is more popular than ever. Unless you really love a movie, most people would rather see something new instead of something old for another time.

Thank you! What would I do without y'all? Yes, we decided we are not astute enough to notice the difference between 720 and 1080 on a 32" screen! LOL Thanks for explaining the Netflix to an old lady. I gather that the content is blasting away out there -- all of it -- all the time. I'm not ordering a fresh version of whatever movie be taken out of storage and sent to ME. It's already 'out there'. I'm just being permitted to 'grab it' -- I can start viewing any part I want of what I've ordered. This isn't like waiting for an AdobePub book to be available from my library, where the library has X numbers of the product to lend. Um...so what if every person in the USA asked to view "The Grapes of Wrath" right now? Could everyone get it immediately -- no limit to how many people access the same thing? Both the TV salesperson at Sears and the Blu-Ray salesperson at Costco told us the cable here (Oceanic on Maui) provides only 720 at best. We currently have a Digital cable box; it's a substiture for the HD cable box we ordered in January. The HD box was 'out of stock' -- as we learned only when the installer showed up. The HD is to be installed Monday afternoon. I hope I see a lot more difference with the HD; I saw very little improvement with the Digital over plain cable. (Diital and HD is the same price: $7/month. Makes me wonder.) Oceanic offers a landline/broadband bundle I could use if I bought my own router. However, my dealings with Oceanic over this box have not been positive. (Hours on hold. Mixed up orders. Installer shows up with wrong box. HD boxes 'out of stock' for a MONTH just between Oahu and Maui?) We have no choice of cable provider in this condo; it's Oceanic. So, I need to ask Hawiian Tel for 1.5 - 3.0 mpbs broadband? Will every router push that? I was unable to register the Blu-Ray w/Sony/Netflix, but that may be because our leased router is failing -- or we have insufficient bandwidth from Hawaiian Tel? I'm probably ahead to continue leasing (a replacement router) so that Hawaiian Tel will be responsible for maintaining the router/service for guests.

Well, first off, you can (through the use of adapters) make a DVD player work with ANY TV. Granted, the quality won't be as good as on a new TV, but you CAN make it work. What to look for also depends on what kind of TV you get. Here's several connection options starting at the lowest (and therefore cheapest) on up: 1) Keep the TV you have -- through the use of an RF modulator, and maybe another adapter or two, you can hook any DVD up to your current TV. Even some newer low-end TVs need this adapter. 2) Composite hookup -- These will connect the DVD to the TV by use of red/white/yellow cables. Make sure your new TV has AT LEAST these jacks. 3) S-Video -- The S-video will replace the yellow (video) cable in the above hookup. Low-end TVs will not have this. If it does, however, use it. 4) Component video -- This will be found on only middle- to upper-end televisions. A red, green, and blue cable are all used to transmit the video signal, plus the red and white audio make FIVE cables total to hook the TV up to the DVD. 5) HDMI -- Now you're venturing into the high definition arena, which I'm not as schooled on. Someone else will have to fill you in there. As for the DVD itself, I would say you don't need to go over your head. Recordable DVDs are quickly replacing VCRs, but it if you are the type that doesn't like learning new technology and feel comfortable with what you have, you can certainly hook up both a DVD and VCR at the same time, though not necessarily through each other. IN that respect, you can certainly get a DVD recorder if you feel comfortable learning it. Other than that, it's pretty simple. I would try to avoid the $19.99 Wal-Mart special, but unless you're going with an expensive home theater hookup, you don't need to go with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD either. Hope this helps!

"Neither Consumer Report or Amazon reviews have proven to be worthwhile due to the reviewers giving 5 stars for something they have owned a short amount of time" Ridiculous statement. Of course CR owns the TVs a short amount of time. TVs become obsolete; should CR rate TVs five years old and no longer manufactured? The TVs are rated on performance. "I would take the advice of a post on here may be better in the television section of garden web over anyone else." That makes no sense. Each person has only one TV; he can't do side-by-side performance comparisons.