Actually its quite simple.
You hook the cable up and you are done. If you want to get real complicated you can buy a 2nd cable "type Optical" and hook it to your surround sound system. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse and we got a dedicated Windows box with a BlueRay disc drive and then loaded the box with several 2 and 3 TB hard drives. We buy used BlueRay and regular DVDs and rip them to Hard drive (Same with music) and thus we have a dedicated computer entertainment system that also streams all the youtube and free media. The whole thing cost me less than 3 months of our previous cable bill and most everything we watch via the internet is free or waaay cheaper than paying for internet.
You’re doing a dedicated media PC, which also avoids the problems I outlined. The issues come in when it’s a multi-use PC, when you want to stream content to the TV AND do something else. Big PITA, which is why I stopped, if I want to stream from the web via the PC I DLNA share, if it’s something I have on the PC I USB sneaker net, much easier. No sound bleed, no having to turn multi-monitor back on, get rid of the extra cables.
Like I said, none of it’s really new, it’s just an easier way to do things.