What kind of Internet access do you need to watch movies on your laptop?

[raccoon]

I am going to finally buy one soon...

Also, can anyone recommend a relatively inexpensive ISP? I used a small local service ages ago when I had a desktop, not Charter or AT&T or some big name.

[Berserker]

1. I am sure

you like all of us do not have many choices. You have to find what is available in your area. I have three choices comcast,dish or DSL. You will not get cheap and fast download speeds. You get what you pay for and boy do you pay.

[darkstar3]

2. That depends on what kind of movies you're talking about.

If you're strictly interested in YouTube and other similar sites, you can get away with a fairly slow DSL connection, say 1.5Mbit.

Now, if you're talking about services that are more like Netflix, you'll probably want something a bit faster. I know for a fact that Netflix WILL work on a 1.5Mbit connection, but loading times will be long. You'd do better with 3.0Mbit or higher DSL connection.

Of course, to put it frankly, DSL sucks in the cost-per-megabit department. If you can get it, cable internet will give you your biggest bang for your buck. I have Charter, and thanks to the promo I'm on, I get 18Mbit for a VERY decent price. Their support, their billing, and pretty much everything else about them sucks, but their speed is good for the price.

I really don't think you'll be able to watch Netflix on an "air card" connection. Throughput for those just isn't good enough yet.

[Warpy]

3. You pretty much need broadband

unless you want to download forever.

I have the medium tier DSL from QWest and it works just fine. Cable is quite a bit faster, but less secure, so I keep the DSL.

Check your local phone company to see what sort of package deals they're offering. You can usually get broadband a lot cheaper from them than the big name guys.

If you're in a rural area, though, you're stuck. You can get satellite, but they often have unreasonable limits on usage. Cable would be the best way to go, even if it's not cheap.

(On edit: if you're just talking about putting a DVD in, make sure it's got a DVD player instead of just a CD-ROM. Most new laptops come with a DVD-R)

[Old and In the Way]

4. I think 3mbs is a minimum floor to minimize buffering.

My internet connection averages about this rate and, after initial buffering, the movies run pretty well. If you stream HD, it will take longer to buffer and there can be more buffering during the movie. Mine seems to average 3-4 mbs on average. I can't really complain because my service is free. I happen to be located on a hill that's the highest point in the area and years ago I let my dentist (who got into the wireless internet business) locate a repeater tower on the back of my property. In turn, I get my connection at n/c. It's pretty well hidden by trees and we really don't notice it because the property focus is towards the front of the house.

If you get the Win7 OS, it has Netflix built into the Media Center (you might have to download Silverlight and the application software if it's not set-up already, but that's pretty easy)...so if you have a Netflix account, log in and your good to go.