BenF said:
I was recently shown an android box where movies and tv series could be watched by streaming them off the internet and through the box onto a TV
Now I know I am old and not so savvy on some of this technical business, but what is the reliability and/or legality of this.
It's fine, I know this stuff.
In its first 10 years, the Internet was very much like the Wild West. It existed, few understood it and fewer still knew what to do with it. It was in those days that the 'torrenting' (a type of file sharing by many people) of illegally copied films, music, etc flourished. Those days, apart from a few extremists, have gone.
Now people buy to own or rent their films, just like they did when they rented VHS video cassettes from the local hire shop, back in the day.
Now, this stuff is all legit and above board, the Internet merely serves as a transport mechanism for the stuff you've paid for and you never have to use an Internet browser to browse or surf the actual WWW (Worldwide Web), if you don't want to.
Have a look at this, as the concept is clearer here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-W87CUN-Fire-TV-Stick/dp/B00KAKUN3E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450143993&sr=8-1&keywords=firestick" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Using that you would watch the free streaming TV programmes from the BBC iPlayer, because the BBC itself makes no charge for that. Alternatively, you could pay an annual subscription fee to Netflix or Amazon Films. Other providers, like Google Play, are set up for one-purchases of films, music, books, etc.
Obviously, I don't know the actual reliability of the hardware (the solid stuff you handle when it comes out of the box) that you were looking at, but I do know that the general concept of all this is legit.
Hope that helps.