Streaming Netflix to TV: requires more research than you would expect

Having recently entered the market for an HDTV, I wanted to ensure that whatever HDTV I ended up buying could play streamed video from Netflix. To my surprise, there is a confounding array of options to accomplish this goal. There are atleast five methods out there: Netflix-enabled TVs, Netflix (or Internet) enabled DVD players or home theater systems, Netflix-enabled game boxes (PS2, Xbox), PCs/Laptops connected to TVs and specialized devices such as those from Roku that are custom built to stream Netflix to HDTVs.

The Netflixed-enabled TVs seem to be too high priced: ~$2K and above. Even if they were not, a standalone piece of computing/Internet technology inside a TV doesn't seem like the right solution. What if the software support for the TV is dropped in a couple of years or I want to play videos from other Internet sources on the TV. For the same reason Netflix-enabled DVD players and game boxes don't seem right. The latter would be a good solution if I already had a game player, but I don't. The specialized devices from Roku (and others?) are well even more specialized to work with Netflix. They are a possibility since they are not too expensive ~$100. However, I would much prefer getting the same functionality without involving one more device, if at all possible.

That just leaves connecting my laptop - that I currently use to watch streaming video - directly to HDTV. Various websites list multiple ways of accomplishing this but the easiest method with reasonable quality seems to be that of buying a VGA-to-HDMI cable to connect the laptop to the HDTV. Of course, using a laptop that is used for home computing has its own problems. The advantage is that the solution is cheap (~$15) and flexible. That's the path that I am going to take when I do buy that HDTV.

However, going through this exercise, I couldn't help but think that either there has to be an out of the box solution for networked home entertainment or there is a business opportunity for a company to solve this "integration" problem in a scalable way.