[Carpe Cerevisi]

The idea of sitting in front of a computer monitor to watch a movie doesn’t appeal to me. I’m sure someone more tech savvy will tell me that there’s a way around this.

[dfwgator]

When you have kids and are not comfortable showing R-rated movies over the family TV, watching them on my computer monitor does have a lot of appeal.

[DouglasKC]

The idea of sitting in front of a computer monitor to watch a movie doesn’t appeal to me. I’m sure someone more tech savvy will tell me that there’s a way around this.

Netflix offers a cheap box that will stream movies direct to your tv:

Mash here

[Brookhaven]

The idea of sitting in front of a computer monitor to watch a movie doesn’t appeal to me. I’m sure someone more tech savvy will tell me that there’s a way around this.

My computer is hooked up to my 50" high-def flat screen plasma. This is the wave of the future.

You can rip DVDs to your hard drive and create a library to watch on demand (and you don't have to worry about breaking or damaging the DVD disk.)

You can use your PC as a DVR and record shows (cheaper and more fexible than TIVO.)

You can watch content from the internet (more full movies and TV shows are becomming available, including good free sites like hulu.)

It is cheaper to install a blu-ray drive in a PC (<$100) than buy a standalone one (200-300).

Windows Media Center is darned good (a potential "killer app" over time.)

You need two cards.

1. A video/sound card with a HDMI output (I found a Radeon card for about $60, just make sure it is one that has the HDMI port on it. Plug the card into your computer, install drivers, and connect it to your TV via the HDMI port.

2. A TV tuner card (Hauppauge makes good cards $70-$110.) Install in your PC and hook cable input (or antenna) to it. Windows Media Center shoud recognize it as a tuner. Now you can watch TV on your computer.

Ther other thing you want to do is add a seperate drive to hold you recorded content (DO NOT record TV and save programs to your c: drive, you will live to regret it.) The external usb/firewire drives work fine (and at about $100 per TB they are a good cost option also.)

For $300 max, you can turn you PC into an entertainment center. The options becomming available via the internet are jumping by leaps and bounds. It won't be long before not having an internet entertainment center will be like not having cable (which, imho, will eventually be replaced by the internet.)

[Harold Shea]

The way I do it on my TV is a hacked AppleTV
with XBMC and Boxee loaded.Tons of free movies
and TV shows new and old

Hope Hulu has Netfix soon

[TomGuy]

The idea of sitting in front of a computer monitor to watch a movie doesn’t appeal to me. I’m sure someone more tech savvy will tell me that there’s a way around this.

Piece of cake.

I have the main pc wired. I have a laptop in the living room that accesses internet via wireless router. I have a relatively new HD TV that has a video port. I have a long video cable that goes from the laptop to the TV. Thus, the TV acts as a big screen monitor via the laptop and wireless internet.

:)

[Vermont Lt]

I work out of a home office. I use Netflix almost like a TV on in the background. Queue up a movie, let it run. Better than the radio or the TV.

[longtermmemmory]

mid to high end TV’s can easy run as the second monitor to a comupter system.

There are even “ahem” workarounds which will allow you to burn the movie to a dvd and just watch it off your good ol’ dvd player.