Since moving to Mexico, I have averaged about two hours per year sitting in front of the TV set. I have cable TV with 75 channels, none of which interest me. I only have it for the cable modem and internet connection. Interestingly enough, my ISP has an internet-only plan (without the TV channels) and it costs 40% more than the internet + TV. Go figure!

SWMBO is pressuring me to upgrade. Her brother will be moving down here with us in a year or so, and television will be his life. He is handicapped with cerebral palsy and mild retardation. Complexity caused by multiple boxes and remotes will be impossible for him to deal with.

Since there is literally nothing in the local cable lineup that will interest him (maybe 5 out of the 75 channels are in English), we are leaning towards subscribing to Amazon Prime and their video streaming service. My home theater experience is more rooted in turning the rabbit ears to improve reception than it is to WiFi, streaming video, HDMI, cable modems, digital signals, etc. I am somewhat over my head when it comes to acting upon SWMBO's request.

To that end, about a year ago she purchased a Sony SMP-N200 in a close-out sale, and it has been sitting unopened on the top shelf of my computer hutch since then. The reviews of the product on Amazon are less than charitable, maybe it will serve our purposes, maybe not.

Can anyone make a recommendation for setting up a simple system to stream video from Amazon, hopefully with the Sony box we already have, but other options will also be considered. I hope to go WiFi with it from my home network but don't know if it will be feasible. He will be downstairs in a house with a lot of concrete and steel, and will have to get his signal (if he can get it at all) from the repeater router we have for the lower floors. I understand that the repeater will only be half as fast as the primary router, is that correct? I do get a pretty reliable 14 mbps download speed from my ISP.

Whatever I set up has to be reliable (no dropped WiFi connections--a BIG problem with the SONY apparently), simple to operate, and able to seamlessly access Amazon. Brother John will NOT be able to cope with looking through 40,000 Amazon selections and choosing what he wants to see. Can we add a DVR to the mix so that Jean or I can pre-load the DVR 100 hours at a time and then all John has to do is select from the DVR menu? The best option, TIVO, is not available here.

What should I do?

tanstaafl.