Entertainment Tonight

…an occasional series about new-fangled gizmos and how geezers like me use them.

TV? Check.

Wireless access point (WAP)? Check.

Gaming system? Check, rarely used Wii.

Netflix account? Check.

Lots of movies/TV series missed in the past couple of years? Check.

I got my gear girl on this week when I hooked up my big honkin’ TV to stream Netflix. I was initially intimidated by the number of steps, but it’s really pretty easy. My rule of thumb for easy? If I can do it, you can, too.

To save you some manual-reading (because I know most of you think that’s unnecessary), here’s what I did without requiring a hole in the wall or an onsite technician:

·          Connect the Wii to your wireless network (this assumes that your Wii is already hooked to your TV). There are articles out there to read, but you navigate to Wii options/settings (second menu screen)/Internet/open connection. Then choose wireless access, let it search for a WAP and then choose yours.

Important caveat: Make sure you know the name of your WAP (mine is an obtuse set of letters/numbers) AND that you have the security code or password handy.  Don’t have your WAP locked down? You really oughta, but that’s another post and, please, Mr. Neighbor, don’t lock yours…you’re my go-to desperation connection.

·          Go to the Wii Shop Channel and download the Netflix app. I put the download on the system itself since I’m not a gamer. You’ll have the option to put it on an SD card, but if you have one of those, chances are that you don’t need this post or this article.

Mine upgraded the Wii firmware so yours may, too. Be patient; this could take a few minutes.

·          Next, I took a 24-hour break. It was past my bedtime…this geezer needs her sleep.

·          If you have more stamina than I, then open the Netflix app on your Wii. The first time you’ll see an activation code so go to your Netflix account via your computer and enter that code at http://www.netflix.com/Activate.

·          Go back to your TV (see why a laptop is nice?) and you should be ready to browse your queue or the Netflix selection of movies and shows.

·          Start streaming. The Wii remote serves as your Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind. It’s a bit klugy since you have to point at the screen and click on the icons but you’ll get the hang fairly quickly. For the $7.99/month option, you don’t get DVDs by mail and the selection of first-run movies seems pretty limited, but I’m hoping that competition from other providers will remedy that OR that RedBox will come out with its own app. In the meantime, there are movies/shows that I need to watch! Thus far, I haven’t had herky-jerky streaming but I can’t promise that won’t happen….I DO love me some Verizon FIOS!

If my TV viewing encroaches on the rest of my world, I’ll unplug it, but I’m claiming that I did it for your entertainment tonight.