The best ways to stream at home

Streaming video and audio are the two latest products of the internet age. Gone are the days when you maintained a movie and music collection. For a small monthly subscription, you can now play from a catalog of thousands of movies or millions of songs. Two of the most prominent services that stream are Netflix (video) and Spotify (audio). Getting this to your TV or home audio systems have also become much easier.

Chromecast (and Chromecast Audio)

The chromecast device family is the cheapest way to stream to a TV or home audio system. For video all you need is a Chromecast and a TV with a HDMI port. Chromecast Audio has a standard stereo out to connecto to older home audio systems. Setup is fast and easy and can be done in minutes.

Smart TV

Several brands have Smart TV’s which have applications installed for the various services. Most come preinstalled with Netflix, Spotify, Pandora support etc. This requires newer TV sets and will also require a little bit of setup time. The interfaces are not as polished and as fluid as smartphone apps but will get the job done.

Sonos

There is no other competitor when it comes to whole house audio systems. If you have a Sonos system all you need to do it setup your streaming music service of choice on it and you can then play music wherever you have speakers set up. The biggest drawback with the Sonos system is the cost.