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 www.StreamingMediaReviews.com 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!