We have a cable internet connection and a cable TV account.
I know it can be done somehow but do I need any special hardware or is it just a matter of acquiring software?
We have a cable internet connection and a cable TV account.
I know it can be done somehow but do I need any special hardware or is it just a matter of acquiring software?
Google “USB tv tuner”
There are lots of choices. The one I got didn’t work well with my netbook/ I think you need a fast processor and lots of ram. YMMV.
Many TV networks stream their content to the internet. It’s just a matter of finding it. I can’t speak for American TV. But I can watch BBC, ITV, Channel 4 shows through the internet. BBC allows you to watch shows live (at the same time as broadcast on TV) and afterwards.
It’s so good a service that I now no longer actually watch tv ON a TV at all. I get to miss all the adverts
We watch a lot of TV on the computer but I have been unable to locate a site that has a general description. Everything seems to be trial and error, hit or miss, experience. Seems there is no general treatment such as could be taught in a community college adult extension course available.
We use Eye-TV, which works very well indeed on our Macs (they don’t make a PC one AFAIK). They have a cable option.
If you use PCs instead; have you talked to your cable supplier?
It depends on what you want. If you want all the shows you watch on cable, then, yes, it’s a matter of hardware. As mentioned, a USB TV tuner is probably the easiest way to hook it up. You’d probably also need a splitter, so you can have the cable go both to your modem and to the tuner.
If, on the other hand, you are talking about what most people mean when they say watch TV on a computer, that’s just a matter of finding a website on the Internet that shows it. The best bet is either Hulu or the website for the channel the show plays on, or, occasionally, YouTube.
There is one other option, but it cannot be discussed on this board. But I personally do not find it unethical, since you are already paying for the cable, and thus for the content on it.
Internet Movie/TV services:
HULU
Netflix
Blockbuster
Cinemanow
Amazon video on demand
That covers most non-TV addicts
If you want to watch your full cable TV HD lineup you need a proper tuner.
There are analog tuners which can tune to analog cable TV. This won’t be HD, and cable companies are moving to digital, so you’ll have a limited lineup.
Digital tuners come in three flavors:
ATSC tuners can pick up Over the air digital TV which limits you to your local channels.
Clear QAM tuners can tune to your cable company’s unencrypted digital channels. This will be a limited lineup fo your local channels in HD plus a few other non-HD channels. Ultimately your lineup will depend on who your cable co is.
Cable card tuners can tune to your full cable HD lineup (except on demand for now). Unfortunately there is only one pony in town for this show, the Ceton TV tuner. But three others are coming out this year, including one that sits on your network and streams TV channels to any PC requesting them on your LAN.
As for software that handles typical DVR stuff, windows 7 and vista (home premium) come with Windows Media Center. Does a better job than most other DVR software, including TiVO in most categories. But there are other options out there. Media Center also integrates Netflix into it’s GUI, and other services can also easily be integrated via free plugins.
You’re not, though. Advertisers pay for the content on non-premium cable channels, and illegally downloaded shows typically have the commercials removed (and sometimes viruses added, for your convenience!). What you pay to the cable company is mostly for them to transmit the data to your house, not for the content itself (the cable companies do pay some money to the content producers, but it’s a lot less than you’d think).
Premium channels use a different model, but those have websites where subscribers can watch their material, so there’s no need to go down the illegal downloading route.
I thought I responded on Sunday…not sure what happened.
I’m somewhat familiar with Hulu and the like.
What I’d really like to do is “watch” live broadcasts like sporting events or news. I put watch in quotes because I’d be happy just to be able to listen if any channels do live streaming of their audio… or if there is a way to tune in just the audio of a TV boadcast even if the picture doesn’t show up properly.
Thanks for the tuner info above.
My experience is that you are more likely to find the opposite.
I find a lot of online content that has been pushed to cable channels in the US that I don’t subscribe to. You get the video but the audio is in another language. For sporting events, I find this more attractive, as I can see what’s going on and don’t need someone chattering away about the obvious.
In most cases, these are live broadcasts and all local advertising is intact. I have never received a virus in 5+ years of viewing and I don’t think it’s possible to pass viruses in most video formats.
I do avoid sites that require me to download software to allow me to view their programming. The programs are delivered in standard video formats and most computers already possess all of the needed codecs. There should be no need to download anything and that may be where the reports of viruses and spyware originate.