Streaming Oscar winning movies for Dummies discussion: Why use a streaming device???

Short Life

I'm a n00b to the matter of streaming movies from the Internet over to a big HDTV, in my case a Vizio HDTV.

I want to start streaming movies issued by Netflix and Amazon into my residence. For several days I was under the impression that you need a special device to stream an Amazon or Netflix movie. But I was wrong, dead wrong!

You can stream with an X-box, but if you're not a gamer and have ZERO interest in gaming why go out and pay big bucks for an X-box? Save your money!

Ditto for Tivo. Tivo will stream a movie for ya. Keep in mind that Tivo costs $300. You can save $300 right there by not buying Tivo!

Roku makes an Amazon/Netflix streaming device, but it costs $100 and...I found out that Roku's tech support department lacks quality service, so to speak. So save you can save $100 and a little money on aspirin that you would have used to squash your headache!

Folks, what I'm saying is all you need is a $20 CABLE (sometimes less than 20 bucks) to accomplish this task and not a HARDWARE device that costs anywhere between $100-400. Am I missing something when I say you don't need all that hardware to stream a movie when all you have to do is stream it from your computer over to your HDTV via an HDMI or some other cable?

DoctorCAD

Right, so instead of a $300 XBox or a $100 Roku, you need a $1500 computer.

Great deal...