Have you ever tried explaining to a teenager what life was like before high-speed Internet access made it possible to treat YouTube and Facebook as extracurricular activities, before messages were instant and TiVo was a verb? Well, don't bother, because they wouldn't believe it. These days I order groceries online in Paris and have them waiting in my apartment when my plane lands in New York. I have not spoken to a bank teller in five years. Do you remember when television networks decided not only what shows to put on the air but when we were permitted to watch them? The march toward digital freedom has been slow but relentless: from videocassettes to DVDs and from cable to pay-per-view. The biggest change, though, came in the eighties, when Blockbuster video began to appear at half the strip malls in America. Suddenly you could drive to the store, wade through hundreds—even thousands—of movies to rent, and then watch them at your leisure. (Kind of.)

Then Netflix, with its endless catalog, made driving to get a movie seem foolish, wasteful, passé. Still, you had to wait a day or two. It was gratifying but not instant; fine in the 20th century, perhaps, but the Internet has placed the world on demand, and nobody wants to rely on the United States Postal Service to deliver their movies. Thankfully, we no longer have to. I recently received a package that may make it possible for me never to leave my apartment again—a sleek black box called Vudu. As soon as it arrived I plugged one end into an Ethernet port on my home router and connected the other to my television with an HDMI cable (though there are several other setup options). Ten minutes later I was watching Roberto Rossellini's devastating and majestic Rome, Open City. This 1945 film was transmitted to my HDTV with breathtaking clarity and superior sound. (Vudu automatically conveys the picture in the highest quality your television can display.) I was in digital heaven, but my daughter was with me and she has less interest in the final days of the Nazi occupation of Rome than I do. So I stopped the movie, and within 60 seconds we were watching To Kill a Mockingbird.

Vudu delivers movies over the Internet instantly, on demand, and the company aims to turn every TV into a personal video store. Its initial collection of 5,000 films will gradually be doubled. Yes, you will have to add yet another box to your media center, but its flawless operation, innovative remote control, and breezy interface will make Vudu difficult for any true film buff to ignore. The box itself costs $400 and movies can be rented for $.99 to $3.99 (once you push play it's yours for 24 hours), and purchased for prices ranging from about $5 to $20—there are no subscription fees. The first 30 seconds of every film comes installed on the 250 GB hard drive, which provides a buffer, so you will need a fast connection to download the rest without any lag—at least three Mbps. Cable broadband will do, but DSL is often slower, and you might have to settle for a slight delay. (Vudu's Web site offers an easy way to test the speed of your home connection.)