Tv Noop – Tv Blog

The easiest way to watch TV on a personal computer for free is from your web browser. The major networks, a number of cable channels, and general sites such as Hulu allow you to view shows in your Web browser. If you want a more direct connection to your TV, you’ll need extra hardware, namely a TV tuner.

Hulu is a online web based service that allows you to many shows for free. Hulu has a wide verity of shows and movies ranging from BattleStar Galactica to Family Guy. A Nice Feature of Hulu is that it has RSS feeds for each show.

Tuners essentially turn a computer into a TV set. Usually they include software that allows you to record programming on your computer, too, so you can watch shows on your schedule and not a TV network’s. If you have a media center PC, a tuner may already be built into the machine. If you don’t have a tuner, you can add one either by installing a tuner card into your PC or by connecting an external tuner.

External tuners have several advantages. Connecting one is easier than opening up your computer and installing a tuner card. The tuner doesn’t take up a slot in your PC. You can easily disconnect it when you’re not using it. And some models have the same design as a USB thumb drive–they’re not only very portable, but also easy to use with more than one computer.

Two major makers of external tuners are Hauppauge and AVerMedia. Although the instructions for installing an external tuner may vary slightly from maker to maker, the general steps are the same regardless of model.

Read here: how to set up External tv tuner

http://www.pcworld.com/article/207989/how_to_watch_tv_on_your_pc.html

Although some tuner cards can be installed internally, it is much easier to install an external TV tuner card. Many of these tuner cards can connect to your computer via USB cable and quickly allow your computer the ability to connect to an antenna or cable/satellite receiver.

Instruction

1. Plug the power adapter into the back of the external TV tuner card. Although some can draw power from your computer via the USB connection, most are going to need an additional power connector. Connect the plug of the power adapter into an electrical power outlet.
2. Insert the USB cable into the USB port on the external TV tuner card. Plug the other end of the cable into an available port on the computer. In a moment, the computer will state it has detected a new device.
3. Insert the driver installation disc into the computer. The driver installation wizard is going to launch in a moment. Read through and accept the license agreement, then follow the remaining prompts to complete the driver installation.
4. Remove the driver installation disc from the computer, and insert the software installation disc. The software is what you are going to use to watch the television programming on your computer. Accept the license agreement and follow the prompts to complete the installation.
5. Connect either an antenna or a cable/satellite receiver to the external TV tuner card. An antenna is going to connect to the “in” port via the coaxial cable. However, if you are using a receiver you can either run a coaxial cable from the “out” port of the receiver to the “in” port of the tuner card or use an RCA cable running from the “video out” port of the receiver to the “video in” port on the tuner

Another Tips

Courtesy of wikihow

• Some of the tuner cards have an automatic tuning facility which can be invoked by pressing a single key from the remote.
• If initially, you do not hear any sound, try swapping the sockets of the two audio cables plugged into the tuner card.
• The TV tuner card can also be run without switching on your desktop. Just the monitor needs to be powered on. In fact, you do not need a CPU cabinet at all, just a monitor is enough!
• The connection to the CPU cabinet is made to enable you to use the monitor for your Desktop PC when you are not using the TV. The TV connection to the CPU cabinet is made to enable you to use the monitor for you desktop PC when you are not using the TV.
• The TV tuner card can also be run without switching on your desktop. Just the monitor needs to be powered on. In face, you do not need a CPU cabinet at all, just a monitor is enough.

Some people haven’t gotten rid of cable altogether, but have cut it down to the bare minimum, only receiving the four major networks, public television stations, and maybe a couple of local stations. If you can’t watch cable, you can at least watch network prime time, right? Well, there’s good news. Whether you no longer have cable at all, or you want to save even more money by doing away with that cable bill entirely, you don’t have to miss out on your favorite shows. Instead, you can watch streaming TV through numerous websites on the Internet. These are just some of the options out there.

The major networks saw how many people were doing away with cable, and did something about it. They began making many of their most popular shows available on their websites. This was also in response to NBC-owned site Hulu putting up many shows for free, supported by advertising revenue. The other networks realized how much money they were missing out on, and did the same. It wasn’t long before some of the cable networks caught on as well.

1. HULU – many cable shows can be seen on Hulu as well, not to mention programs that are no longer on the air, such as Bewitched and Ugly Betty. Also, miss an episode of your favorite soap? You’ll be able to catch up with who did what to whom on General Hospital, All My Children, and a few others.

Hulu is in the process of launching its Hulu Plus service. It began a testing phase in July 2010, and after reviewing the data, lowered the subscription price from $9.99 to just $7.99 per month. With Hulu Plus, you can watch entire seasons of shows without worrying about missing an episode because it expired. The premium service offers more shows than the free service, and many of them are available in high definition. In addition, Hulu Plus allows subscribers to stream TV shows not just on computer, but via the iPhone, PS3, and soon the Xbox, as well as other devices.

2. NETFLIX - Another venture that had a bumpy start, Netflix is now edging out competitors Blockbuster and Movie Gallery, once thought to be the end all, be all of entertainment rentals. It began as a service that allowed customers to receive DVDs through the mail, and keep them as long as they wanted with no late fees. Accounts range from the basic that only allows one DVD per month, to the highest-priced option with four DVDs at a time. But no matter which account you choose, they all allow instant streaming. The service also recently added a new price point of $7.99 per month for streaming only. You can also now stream Netflix on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

Blockbuster and other rental establishments were mostly known for providing movies, with a few TV shows thrown in here and there. Netflix went above and beyond there, too, providing access to hundreds of television shows, from classics to recent hits such as Dexter and Weeds. These are especially nice to find through the service since they normally not only require cable, but premium channel subscriptions. What Netflix charges per month is a fraction of what you would pay to have Showtime or HBO.

3. YIDIO – In our busy lives, free time is at a premium. When the workday is over, household chores are done, the kids are in bed, and the mood to relax and watch some TV strikes, you don’t want to spend half your free time jumping from site to site trying to find something good to watch. That’s where Yidio comes in. The site acts as an aggregator, listing all the locations on the Web where you can find the shows you want to watch.

Some of the results are for pay sites like Netflix, but it also lists a ton of free sites where you can watch streaming TV for free. You can either browse the more than 500,000 episodes from 5,000 TV shows, or use the site’s search function to pinpoint exactly what you want to watch, and find out where to get it. Yidio also offers points that give registered members access to premium content. You earn Yidio points for your activity on the site, everything from signing up, to adding favorites, to sharing content once you’re a member. The best part is, it’s free to join!

4. IMDB – You may be most familiar with this site as the place to look up information about TV shows, movies, and actors. It’s a comprehensive site where you’ll find all kinds of data when a TV show was released, when and where an actor was born, movie trivia and quotes, and thousands of photos. IMDB also allows registered members to post on message boards, rate movies and TV shows, and even add synopses and trivia items.

Not long ago, IMDB took the final step in being an all-around entertainment site, and added streaming video. While the site does offer full-length TV shows, they are far outnumbered by clips and movie trailers. In addition, it’s sometimes difficult to find consecutive episodes of TV shows. The ability to watch TV on IMDB has improved since it was introduced, but it still has a long way to go to be a viable alternative to most other sites that offer streaming TV.

5. JOOST – With so many streaming TV options out there, new services really need to find a way to stand out, and Joost has done that pretty well. Not only can you find great TV shows and movies to watch, Joost offers entertainment news videos, and featurettes about popular movies like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The service is still in beta, so its library will no doubt continue to grow and improve.

Parents will especially love Joost. If you’re tired of the overly merchandised cartoons on TV nowadays that only get your kids asking for toys and other products they’re going to forget about next year when the new cartoons and products come out, sit them down with Joost. There’s a Cartoon Classics channel where you’ll find old favorites such as Rocky and Bullwinkle, Mr. Magoo, Fat Albert, Casper the Friendly Ghost, He-Man, and even a handful of old black and white treasures, and classic character cartoons like Felix the Cat!

Read further on:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/210909/hulu_cuts_price_of_plus_service_to_799_a_month.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/1704610/netflix-creates-799-streaming-only-service-aimed-at-hulu-increases-dvd-pricing

This Tech Tip will focus on the television portion of the list above, and will take a look at five ways in which just about anyone can enjoy watching television on their computer monitor.

PC TV Tuners

The most common way to get TV or other video on your PC may be to use a tuner specifically designed to interface with your PC. These devices are available with a variety of interfaces and feature sets offering great compatibility with just about any personal computer (PC).

The basic principle of a PC TV tuner is that you connect the device to your computer, and then you connect your cable or antenna television source to the device, just like you would connect to any typical TV.

There is an interface to turn just about any available connection on your PC into a TV source, including: PCI, USB, Cardbus, PCI Express, and FireWire. So, it doesn’t matter whether you have a desktop or laptop, or if you are running Windows, Linux, or a Mac. You can find standard (NTSC/PAL) cable or HDTV tuners configured in single or dual tuner arrangements.

All of the tuning is done with a combination of hardware and software, so quality will vary from one tuner to another based on the quality of the tuner components and the design of the application and drivers. Watching television is the easy part, but the great thing about these tuners is the ability to record.

Higher-end cards will provide better video quality during live television playback, and in general will offer more options and capabilities when it comes to recording and saving programs to your hard drive. Having a dual-tuner card allows you to watch one show while recording another, or even record two shows at the same time. Even if you don’t have a dual-tuner card, you can create a similar setup by installing multiple TV tuners into one computer.

All of this, especially the recording and encoding, requires some reasonable computing power. Many times just meeting the minimum specifications published by the manufacturer will leave you less than impressed. In addition to a fast processor, you’ll need enough memory and a hard drive that is not only fast enough to keep up, but large enough to hold all of your recordings.

One big upside to this method of getting television onto your computer is the wide array of choices, interfaces, and price ranges. You can be up and running on a basic tuner for around $25, and since they are also available with USB and FireWire connections, your installation might take just a minute or so and doesn’t have to involve opening your computer case. Other strong points of this method are the recording capabilities, potential for high quality audio and video, portability when used with a laptop, and the ability to install multiple tuners in one system.

A possible downside to this method is that you need a computer with the horsepower to keep up with the demands of your tuner or tuners. Just watching cable TV might not stress a system that is even several years old, but trying to watch an HD broadcast while recording from another tuner might best be done on a more modern computer. Another potential downside is also related to HD, and that is that most HDTV tuners are for over-the-air high definition broadcasts only. There are tuners that can access HD digital cable, but the vast majority of HD tuners will require an antenna and also that you be physically located in the vicinity of an over-the-air HD broadcast.

Computer Monitor TV Tuners

Although the title of this section may not be the most technical term available to describe the product in question, it is a fair description. This type of TV tuner connects to your computer monitor directly, and does not require that your computer be powered up in order to enjoy television (or any of the other video input sources they may support). The device connects between your computer and monitor, and with a press of a button or click of a remote control you can switch between your computer display and your favorite TV show.

The Startech.com TV Jockey and ViewSonic NextVision N5 are two examples of this sort of “PC-less” TV tuner that allow just about any computer monitor to be converted into a display for TV, DVD, and other video sources (security video on your PC monitor, anyone?)

One key advantage of this type of tuner is that you are not relying on the computer at all – you simply need a monitor. This way, you do not have to worry about any PC noise (the whirring of fans and droning of drives) hindering your enjoyment, there is no software to install, and you do not have to worry about your computer hardware meeting minimum specifications for proper operation.

The downside to this type of tuner is that you cannot use your computer to record, and since the tuner is not built into your computer, it will probably be a stationary device.

Watch TV Online

With high speed Internet reaching new heights in popularity and available speed, many outlets (such as YouTube) are taking advantage of it to share their video content. This includes pre-recorded content, but now there are a variety of programs available to watch TV online.

Some of the major broadcast networks now have programs available online, such as CBS and their CBS Innertube originals. Established online media portals now also offer television programming, like Shoutcast TV. Shoutcast has been streaming audio through Winamp for years, but now you can also watch television programs from around the world through the familiar Winamp interface.

There are also some websites out there that have sprung up to serve as portals to direct TV feeds from around the world. World Wide Internet TV and Beeline TV are just two examples that will let you watch things like the local news from sunny California or a soccer match from Eastern Europe.

The main advantage of this type of television is that it is readily available anywhere broadband Internet is available. Today, you can watch shows from around the world that you could not get on standard cable TV, and there is no additional charge over your Internet service fees.

The negative aspects of broadband TV are that the selection of shows is presently quite limited, and in most cases, the image quality is rather poor. Although people have more bandwidth than ever on their personal broadband connections, having shows stream in broadcast quality (or dare we wish for HD quality?) is generally cost and hardware restrictive.

Network Attached TV Tuners and The SlingBox

The SlingBox is the prime example of this type of device, which I feel will eventually become more refined and extremely popular. Computer Geeks often has the SlingBox in stock.

The basic principal of the SlingBox is that you connect the device to your television cable (and perhaps other video sources), as well as your wired local area network (RJ-45 connection). The SlingBox is then able to share cable TV over your network, and when properly configured, over the Internet. You can share the audio/video to your desktop PC wired to your local area network, your WiFi-enabled laptop, or even to your work computer whether it is 10 miles away or on the other side of the world.

The device is controlled from any computer with the software installed and proper login credentials. You can then not only watch TV, but you can also control it; change channels, video sources, and more. Special IR adapters included with the SlingBox allow you to control other items, such as DVD players and personal video recorders just like the cable TV function.

The biggest upside to a device such as the SlingBox is that you can share your home audio/video and television with any computer on your local area network or anywhere in the world with a broadband connection.

One downside is that video quality isn’t the greatest due to the restrictions of bandwidth, and it only gets worse when you go from local to Internet viewing. Another issue is that the present design only allows one computer to broadcast the SlingBox content at a time. You cannot set up the device to share a program and allow all of your friends to watch, so just forget about starting your own pay-per-view company with one of these devices!

Digital Cable Box

This may seem like an unlikely source for TV on your computer, but have you taken a look at the back of some of the digital cable boxes on the market today?

There are plenty of connections that make it look like a computer all on its own: Serial, USB, FireWire, S/PDIF, Ethernet, DVI, and more may all be found on the back side of the device you use with your traditional television. Scientific Atlanta is just one manufacturer with products designed to do far more than the typical cable box.

In addition to the various data connections, the video connections could be connected to either your computer or directly to your monitor. Connections such as component outputs on the cable box could be used to send video to a capture card or graphics card with VIVO (Video In / Video Out) support in the PC for watching and/or recording. The DVI connection could be used to go straight to your monitor.

The main upside of this method of getting television on to your computer is that the signal may be of the highest quality and look superb on screen and in recordings.

The main downsides are that it may not be particularly convenient and compatibility features will vary from one cable box to another. Also, while some equipment provides these connections for “future use,” in many cases their use is not currently documented or supported by providers.