Digital Internet HDTV is here.

So the first thing I did for my Internet HDTV was to upgrade my Netflix account.

I’ve used Netflix for years, renting DVDs on the El Cheapo plan. It’s been good, though I often don’t get around to watching the DVDs until weeks after they come in the mail. That’s cool because Netflix charges a flat fee, so they make money whether I watch the films or not.

After getting the digital TV hooked up, I upgraded my Netflix account to an on-demand account. It only costs me a few dollars more per month, but now I can use the Netflix app on the TV to browse and watch movies and TV shows instantly. Netflix even remembers where I stopped watching a show, so I can pick it up again later. That helps immensely, especially when I often fall asleep while watching TV late at night.

The HDTV, like your typical smartphone, comes loaded with apps. There is Hulu Plus, YouTube, Skype, a Web browser, and a few apps I’ve never heard of but most likely cost money to use.

When I tried out YouTube, the screen told me to log into my YouTube account and type a special number. It didn’t exactly say to do that on a computer, but I had a laptop handy, so I obeyed the directions. After typing in the code, my TV instantly hooked into my YouTube account. That was nice.

The browser is clunky to use, mostly because the TV lacks a mouse and a keyboard. (It didn’t come with Bluetooth, which some newer TVs will.) It’s boring to typing a web page address in one character at a time using a TV remote control. So after bringing Wambooli up on the screen, I was done web browsing.

On the local network, the TV picked up the presence of other devices that use media sharing. I was able to view pictures and videos, plus listen to music stored on my Windows PC over the network. It’s that DLNA thing I write about in some of the For Dummies phone books.

With the HDTV I also purchased a Blu-Ray player. The Blu-Ray stuff looks gorgeous on the TV. Even better: The 3D stuff looks awesome. I was afraid it would be ugly, like the demos in the store. But, no: 3D was really nice. It’s not something I’ll look at all the time, but it didn’t suck.

The best move I made after getting the TV was upgrading my cable account to digital. I figured it would cost extra money, but it didn’t matter: Regular TV looks gross on a large screen HDTV. So I’d at least ask to see what it cost.

Surprise: The digital cable subscription is $15 less than what I’d been paying for regular, non-digital TV. That was good news. And the slew of new digital channels I get (over 300) look very nice. That includes video on-demand, which means I probably don’t need to subscribe to Hulu Plus.

Overall, I’m pleased. And I’ll probably write more and new Internet TV topics come up, including some How Tos. The only thing that will tick me off is when Apple announces their new TV and I become suddenly jealous.