Okay, having tested it now, notes on the Panasonic Viera:
1.) Very, very easy to stream Amazon movies. Like, stupidly so. Account setup is seconds requiring I log into my account on my laptop and enter the code the TV gave me to connect them. Then created a five digit pin and done. The search function keeps a running autocomplete list. HD is very clear and very easy. I'm assuming Netflix will be about the same, but if you have an Amazon prime account, this makes it ridiculously easy to watch all those free movies and TV shows available.
2.) If you have a server or access to a computer on the network, Mediatomb shows up under DLNA. It shows up, I can read all titles, but I can't actually make it play yet. Yeah, no idea, but it may involve recompiling it myself, which worked so well last time (as in, not at all). XBMC may be a better choice all things considered, but my biggest problem right now is that I don't actually understand what I'm doing. It would help if I knew that part instead of mimicking.
3.) Recommended: get a keyboard for typing up movie searches.
4.) Recommended: get a warranty on the TV. I got a plasma, since--did I mention there was a sale? Yes, obviously, I got it at half-price--but plasma apparently does occasionally have burn-in issues. OTOH, the color is fantastic, and definitely better than LCD.
Due to officially needing more ethernet space, I attached an old router that the wireless stopped working on--strangely, now it works again--and set it up as a repeater, which has had the added advantage of extending the wireless in the house enormously. It was fairly simple to repurpose once I had the correct order to do things in and where to plug it in; it works very, very, very well. I haven't noticed a significant decrease in speed on internet or the LAN, and still much better than the fastest wireless available. The most irritating part was running the cord along the walls and nailing in the tiny brackets to hold it, but totally worth it for the wired speed versus wireless.
I"m actually irritated I didn't do this before, to be honest; it sounded a lot harder and a lot more complicated than an hour bracketing the cord to the wall and a few minutes changing router settings.
I am not yet totally convinced that internet TV is a necessity, but I am getting there very, very quickly. The sheer convenience of being able to stream from my server will win it if I can get that to work. Will update if I get it to work.
*grimly goes back to Mediatomb transcoding*
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
