thing you didn't mention is if you own a smart TV, or if you plan to stream over PC and connect to a monitor/TV etc.

I'm not sure what it takes to be a smart T.V..
I have two hdmi ports.
And we are planning on going to a , I think it's called g 4?
We don't actually have a computer.
We have our kindles.
Got tired of the money and problems that computers cost.

Has anyone heard of Pluto streaming?

Sounds like it will be easiest with a Roku/Firestick setup if you want streaming with HDMI as the primary receiver/input.  

Would a DVD player be an input device that would help with the streaming options?

DVD players and Blue Ray players are pretty much passe' as far as any current uses go.

DVDs used to be used for software, but now-a-days it is quicker to download the software directly to your machine.

"Machine equals T.V.? "

 Sort of, but not really in your case.  The previously mentioned "smart" TV's have some memory in them and can have applications downloaded to them, but I think in this case Oldfeller meant a PC as a machine.

 Basically the storage space of modern computers is much higher than what can be stored on a DVD today, so its easier/faster to just download a movie, or software than it is to use a DVD.  DVD is going the route of the "floppy disk".  DVD is the Kodak film we once used in cameras, its not gone but digital is mainstream so physical film is just less common.

 You can still fire up your DVD player and use a streaming device, you will just be using two separate HDMI inputs is all.

Justin does not do computing as we normally think about it.   He uses a 8" Fire tablet from Amazon as his computing base for any computing we would refer to as computing.

He could buy a Roku TV, and that could become his connection point.   Internet capable TVs are just that, computer equipped TVs.   But such are relatively expensive and Justin seeks a simple entry point that does not cost him a lot of $$$ for the experiment.

Justin sorta lacks a computing technological connection point to the Internet Streaming world beyond what a Fire tablet can give him.    He can do all the Amazon serviced stuff just fine, and he could Google off the Tablet if it were house broken (which I do not know if he has ever done).    Justin keeps reminding us his Fire tablet belongs to his wife, which I understand pretty well as my wife glommed on to mine after I was done investigating it and she uses it for gaming board games and it lives by her chair in the den.   She also uses two iPad 2 10" units, which are set up for different sorts of stuff that she likes to do.

Justin, get a Roku box on sale and hook it up to your existing TV.   It pre-packages the entire streaming thing for you in a simple, easy to understand package.

Your wife will instantly take it over, but that is a good thing.

It allows you to get rid of your cable and adopt Netflix and Amazon and Hulu as sources for "content"  (i.e. stuff you stream off the web).