Prism99

Here's my un-techie explanation. Buy a Roku unit (check Amazon for reviews). Plug it into the back of your tv. Your internet router will have a password on it. Use that to link your Roku to your wireless internet (or you can hard-wire your router to the Roku unit by means of Ethernet). Go to Roku.com to set up an account. Roku will start with some standard icons, but from the website you can add additional icons to your Roku screen. For example, you might have a Hulu icon but that does not mean you are subscribed to Hulu; you can click on the icon to set up a trial subscription and if you keep it pay for it through your Roku account. Your Roku remote will let you delete icons and add icons, or you can also add icons from your Roku account. Anyway, that's the way we do it.

Some apps are free; others are subscription.

We pay for Netflix, Acorn, and Mhz. Just started a trial of Hulu, but I think I am going to cancel that one. We also pay for a subscription to Great Courses Plus, which gives us access to wonderful college-level lecture courses on an amazing range of topics.

We also have a lot of free apps such as CBS, ABC, NBC, Newsy, and NewsOn for news. WJS (WSJ?)has some interesting short documentaries. Dh subscribes to a lot of free cooking apps, including several on Indian cooking.

My advice is to start by purchasing a Roku unit. If you already subscribe to Netflix, you can access it from your Roku unit as well as your tv. Check out some of the freebies, then add subscriptions one at a time. I think all of the subscription channels offer a free trial before they start charging.

Edit: I think all of the "free" channels include ads. They used to not be too annoying, but lately I have noticed they have become very annoying. (Maybe it's me?) Apparently they don't have enough advertisers because they will play the same ad over 3 or 4 times during a "commercial break". I have started turning off the sound when those are on.