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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

How You Can Watch Movies Online

By Cody Bray

In the past, the only way to watch movies was to go to the local cinema or trek out to the video store. However, with today's great advances in internet technology, it is possible to rent and watch movies over the internet, without ever having to leave your house. This essay will talk about the types of equipment you need to watch movies online, the best places on the internet to find movies, and will also discuss which websites you should avoid.

Before you can start to watch streaming video, there is some basic equipment you need. Having lost of bandwidth and a high speed connection to the Internet is a must, if you want your videos to play properly. Because streaming files are very heavy, playback will stall if you have a slow connection.

You will also need a computer with a processor that is fast enough to handle digital data streams as well as a decent video card. Most new laptops and computers come optimized for digital home entertainment, so if you have upgraded your system recently, you shouldn't have any trouble.

There are a plethora of places on the Internet which offer streaming video. Hulu is a particularly popular site as it offers access to free streaming movies. Thought the video quality is good, Hulu's selection is small and you do have to watch the occasional commercial.

It is also possible to stream movies from popular rental websites. There is a decent selection and many have very reasonable rates. Most allow you to download movies to your hard drive for a period of 24-48 hours. These files are heavily protected by licensing software, so don't try to burn them to DVD, because it won't work.

If you like the idea of streaming video, but aren't attracted to the idea of watching movies on your computer screen, there are several ways to transfer video from your computer to your television set. For example, older laptops or computers can be hooked up to your television using a serial monitor cable. This cable basically turns your TV into a second computer monitor and will make your TV display everything on your computers desktop.

If you are lucky enough to have a new laptop or desktop and a high definition TV set, then you can connect your computer to your HD TV using an HDMI cable. The HDMI cable performs the same basic function as the older serial monitor cable, but it supports high resolution output so you can stream high definition movies to your television via your computer. The newest generation of computer systems actually will let you send video to your TV wirelessly.

Of course, when looking for sources for online video, it is important to be careful as there are several sites that promote pirated content. This is particularly true if you are trying to find streaming video for movies that are still in the theatre or that haven't yet been released on DVD. Not only is this pirated content illegal, but many of these sites contain malware and other malicious programs that can seriously damage your computer if you long on and try to watch. As such, these sites should be treated with care.

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