So, you've been hearing about watching television shows and movies
online, and you're thinking about giving it a try. It's pretty neat
watching the latest episode of your favorite tv show or the hottest new
movies online, and there are a few things you need to do to properly
enjoy the experience. There is nothing worse than trying something
you've heard great things about and being sorely disappointed with the
results. Here's a checklist of things to go over to help ensure you have
the best experience possible watching your favorite tv shows or movies
online.
1. Internet Connection Speed ' There are no two ways about it:
streaming movies and videos take up a lot of space. Everything gets
bigger as they get more complex. You may have had the experience of
sending a picture to someone by email, and having it bounced back
because your internet service provider said it was too big.
Think about it. A letter you write or a spreadsheet you build isn't
all that big, but pictures get a lot bigger. Then when you talk about
audio files or short videos the size gets even bigger. When you're
talking about hour long television shows or two hour long movies, those
files get really huge!
How long does it take to send that online movie over the internet?
The faster your internet connection, the faster you receive the video.
And if you want it to play smoothly, you've got to receive it pretty
quickly.
So dial-up modems are out. Anything under 3 Megabits per second is
likely to end up stuttering and pixelating on your screen. Sometimes
eveb DSL is too slow for streaming media like online movies and tv
shows. If you have speeds above 6 Megabits, you probably won't have much
trouble with the playback.
2. Age of Computer ' Now that we have that big bottleneck taken care
of, let's talk about your computer. Actually items 2 - 5 are about your
computer, but let's take them one at a time.
How old is your computer? Not only are the files getting bigger as
time goes on, but computers are getting faster all the time as well. You
really need to have a pretty fast computer to watch online movies and
videos, so your computer needs to be pretty new also. If your computer
runs at 3 Gigahertz or faster it's probably good for watching streaming
media like online movies and television shows. If you're in the 2
Gigahertz range you might be able to squeak by, but you might have to
get rid of extra programs, toolbars and other memory hogs. If you're at
the 1 Gigahertz or slower speed range, it's time for a new computer!
3. Memory in Computer ' Right up there with the speed of your
internet connection and computer is how much electronic memory, or RAM,
does your computer have? Five years ago 512 Megabytes was enough to have
on a Windows XP computer. Today 1024 Megabytes is the bare minimum for
average activities. And if you want to enjoy streaming television shows
or movies online, you had better go for 2 Gigabytes. If you're running
Windows Vista or Windows 7, double those numbers!
4. Free Hard Drive Space in Computer ' We've been talking about the
disadvantages of not keeping up with the pace of streaming media,
whether through the speed of your internet connection or the speed of
your computer. What if you're lucky enough to have enough horsepower to
handle all that? It's very unlikely these speeds will exactly match the
pace of the online movies or streaming television shows, so your
computer system had better have enough space to hold any over-run of the
media until you've had a chance to watch it in real time. And that's
where free disk space comes in.
Movies typically take four to eight gigabytes of hard disk space, so
you want to have plenty of free space available on your hard drive(s).
Most modern systems come with 300 Gigabytes hard drives or more, so
unless you're holding lots of data newer systems will typically have
enough room to hold the temporary files created while downloading
streaming media such as online movies or television shows.
5. Quality of Graphics on Computer ' Last on the list of computer
items is the quality of your graphics and monitor. We have become
accustomed to constantly improving graphics quality, as evidenced by the
increasing popularity of HDTV and BlueRay systems. Be sure your
graphics equipment can display high resolution graphics and operate at
sufficient speeds to render streaming media in a satisfactory manner.
If any of these items are unclear to you, find someone who can help
you get your computer system ready to view streaming media and online
movies and videos. If you live in the Central Texas region, send me a
message! 8^)
6. Pricing ' With everything else taken care of, our last
consideration is how much are you going to pay for this streaming media
service? When you start looking for sources on the internet, you'll find
a wide range of services, including many that say FREE ONLINE MOVIES.
The old adage of 'You get what you pay for' bears a lot truth here. Many
things that are free money-wise will cost you in other ways. You can
subscribe to Netflix and watch online movies and tv shows as part of the
standard subscription. You can go to Hulu.com and watch many current
television shows and movies online from ABC, NBC, FOX and others for
'free.' This version of free is like standard television; you pay for
the service with your time, watching commercials between segments of the
shows.
You can also find many other variations. Visit my website at
to learn of other options available to you in the world of online
movies and television shows. And remember to buckle your seatbelts,
because the ride just gets more fun from here!
