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For many years now, it’s been possible to hook your computer up to your TV through a VGA or HDMI connection and watch streaming movies or YouTube on your TV — large, like God intended. Services like Roku or Apple TV even let you do it wirelessly, so there’s no cable mess cluttering up your entertainment center. But in the last few years, the TV market has been flooded with a host of flat screen, HD, plasma and LCD TVs without much to differentiate them from all the other flat panels you see hanging on a huge wall at Walmart. So in order to get ahead of the game, some TV manufacturers have begun to integrate internet capability directly into their TVs in hope of luring more consumers their way.
Be careful, though, if you are looking for an internet TV. Many TVs purport to have internet connectivity, but that simply means that you can hook up your computer to them. Very few TVs actually hook up to the internet themselves, wirelessly or through an ethernet cable.
Although this article is too short to go through the pros and cons of all the internet TVs on the market, it is important for you to do your research on each internet TV before you go out and buy one because, depending on the manufacturer, your internet TV could have certain limitations. For example, some internet TVs only have direct access to Netflix streaming service, while others may have access to Netflix and YouTube. Others may not have access to either, but have connectivity with Hulu. As well, some internet TVs come with built-in web browsers so you can surf the net, check you email, and set your Facebook status, whiles other won’t.
The real question is, how many people want to sit on the couch and surf the net on their TV? As these devices become more popular, I suppose the market will tell us.
