Satellite TV on Your PC: the Basics

When it comes to watching TV on your computer, you can go down one of two roads: the hardware one or the software one. If you take the hardware road, what you're going to buy is called a TV-PC tuner card. This comes either as a card that you install inside your computer that creates an external socket for your TV aerial, or as a USB device that will happily plug into the outside of your machine. This will allow you to receive television signals directly to your computer, and is handy for someone who has recording options on their computer that they can use for television content. This option, however, will not allow you to get any TV content that you are not already getting or entitled to either through a paid subscription service of free public television content.

If you take the software road, you are entering the land of "Internet television," which is at once a land of promise and a land of confusion. Here's what it entails:

1) There is plenty of free stuff available legally online by way of video clips and streaming content. This stuff can be anything from an amateur video on You Tube to streaming news clips associated with a professional news agency. Many satellite TV stations also stream live on the web, and there are a handful of websites that link you to this content.

2) You can opt to buy a software application (for anywhere from $25 to $125) that will provide direct links (often numbering in the thousands) to national and international satellite television programming. The software in most cases is downloadable online, and will open the chosen content in a standard media player.

Both of these first two options can be hit or miss as far as finding what you really want. And no, you cannot legally get MTV or HBO for free. What you do find is often a grab bag of foreign language and religious programming, and your search will be rife with browser incompatibility problems, applet errors, broken links, and endless buffering. If you do go with the proprietary software solution for a very low price, you can count on getting what you pay for.

3) You can also use peer-to-peer (P2P) applications to share video files with others. The technology itself is legal, but distributing and/or receiving protected television programming is not. But in this case at least you know what you're getting.

In the coming years, paid satellite TV subscriptions will go down in price and the offerings that are available for free will go up in quality. TV programming online will also improve, and the practice of micro-payments for certain content may help drive this change. In the meantime, searching for satellite TV programming online, often from other countries, will continue to be an unpredictable and often surreal experience, but it can also be a serendipitously rewarding one.

Drew Surrey writes on a changing TV culture in the age of the Internet and digital technology. For more on your TV to PC options, check out http://satellitetvonpcreviews.com/

Watch Satellite TV On PC Without The Dish

Watching satellite TV on PC without a dish is a completely new concept to many people. This article would reveal how you can enjoy satellite TV without any messy satellite dish installation.

For those of us who live in remote parts of the world, we are used to watching satellite television using a dish. This dish basically acts like an antenna to receive/transmit signals to and from satellites, allowing us to watch satellite television. The set up of a satellite television can be laborious for folks who are not too techie. The installation involves getting the satellite dish erected outdoor and fixing a low-noise block converter (LNB) on the dish. A receiver or decoder is also required in order to complete the installation. If this set-up sounds very complicated to you, you would be glad to know that you can now watch satellite TV on PC, without any complex installation.

Here are the basic hardware and computer requirements before you can watch satellite TV on PC:

1. PCTV Card

Your computer can act as a satellite television, with the monitor functioning as the screen. However, you would need to first enable your PC to receive and interpret the satellite TV channel feed using what we call a PCTV card. This card can be installed internally on the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slot which attaches peripheral devices like the PCTV card to the motherboard of your computer. External PCTV cards are attached to your PC via the USB port. In both cases, please take note that internet connection must be established. If you are using an external card, remember to make sure you have a USB port. Otherwise you may need to purchase an adapter.

2. Internet Connection

Broadband connection at speeds no lesser than 512Kbytes is preferred. I will explain why. The quality of your satellite TV would be clearer and transmission would be faster and smoother with high connection speeds.

3. Computer Configuration

In order to watch satellite TV on PC, your PC has to satisfy some minimum requirements like having a minimum RAM speed of 128Mbytes and the CPU must be at least a Pentium 3. Nowadays, most computers are able to fulfill these conditions so it should bother you too much.

4. Optional Computer Peripherals

There are other optional computer components that would enhance your viewing experience such as installing a top-grade graphics card and sound card. It would be perfect if you can get hold of a sub-woofer or even a theater system that is compatible with your computer.

This may be a good way to watch satellite TV on PC but it is definitely not the best nowadays. With technological advances at such break-neck speeds, we can now access to satellite TV on our PC using software. Read my blog to learn how you can watch satellite TV from any computer installed with this special proprietary software everyone is talking about.

This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Davion is a successful webmaster, author and fan of TV shows. Discover how you can instantly watch satellite TV on PC, tuning into hundreds of LIVE world channels of news, movies, music and kids program at Watch-Satellite-TV-On-PC.blogspot.com.