Want to watch TV through PC. Equipment recommendations please.

Clutterfree

Hi,

I want my son to be able to watch TV through his Vista PC as it will save on buying him a separate TV and also save on space.

I've looked on Amazon, and although the prices for the adapters are reasonable (around £20-£40), the reviews are very mixed.

Please could someone on here recommend a device?
I've no idea which to go for.
It will be plugged into an external aerial, if that helps.

Many thanks.

totalsolutions

tvcathup.com free for a start.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-013-CP

Clutterfree

Thanks.
Checked out the bottom link but that is an actual TV card that needs fitting in the PC, right?
I'm not techie at all so would not have a clue what to do.
That's why I was thinking more along the lines of an external adapter.

4743hudsonj

totalsolutions wrote: »

tvcathup.com free for a start.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-013-CP

i second tvcatchup.com

its brilliant

Millionaire

I use TvCatchup as well. Excellent for watching live TV.

Only thing you have to be careful is that you don't go over your ISP usage limits as it streams at a high bandwidth.

althas

Hi Clutterfree

My main home system, TV, recorder, CD player, DVD player etc is my PC, so let me assure you it is a great thing to do

1st thing before you spend any money, does your son's PC have Windows Media Centre program? If not it will be a little trickier. But I will advise what I can on the presumption it HAS

Ok, on line TV watching is good, yes, but it is all dependant on bandwith on your broadband. I do not know if you can record anything also, I am sure people will advise on that. But put a TV tuner card into the machine (it is VERY easy I promise) and you then get live TV, recordable to watch and keep later, set series up to record, pause live TV (so when you shout him down for dinner he can pause the football, come get his dinner and go back and watch it from where he left off :rotfl:)

Again I will make another presumption that you have freeview available where you live

Ok you will need something like http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0498939970.1243346449@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccedadehgdhhdeicflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=051400&category_oid=-29779

This card (same kind of model as mine) is a twin tuner. This means that you can watch one freeview channel and record a different one, or record two seperate channels at the same time. VERY much worth the little extra you pay for it, trust me on that one

Fitting is very easy, I am sure your son would know what to do if you were not happy to do it. Here is a guide to fitting what is called a PCI card. The PCI is just a generic name for the type of fitting a computer component has, it does not matter WHAT the componant does (TV Card, modem, etc) they are the same fitting

http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/how-to-install-a-pci-card-135479.php

Re-connect the wires and off he goes. Just needs setting up, but media centre will do all that for you with a set up wizard

GL on whatever you decide

daily_2

You'll probably need a good aerial feed.

headpin

Di you need an aerial connection for any of these, especially the Freeview option? That can often be the stumbling block!

cowbutt

Recently, I've used a couple of Hauppauge Nova-Ts and a dual-tuner Nova-T-500. Both work well, but I fancy the -500 is more tolerant of signal interference. I wouldn't recommend getting an analogue-only tuner card these days.

The Nova-T-500 uses the same bits as Hauppauge's USB TV tuner, so they should work well too.

hotkee

Whilst recommending Hauppage tv cards - I got an USB standard 5 channel receiver (do not use any more) and I used it for a few years since getting it sometime around 2004 - I think its worth noting that its not the same experience as watching a standard tv.

Further - watching tv on the monitor for prolonged periods (especially whilst doing other things on tv), can damage one's eyes (more so than just normal tv).

fwor

Like cowbutt, I've got a couple of Hauppauge nova-t cards and an external USB version with the same chipset.

They work well, but the software that Hauppauge bundles with them is not good. If you're going to use that software it's best to download the latest version from their website, as the version on the CD will probably be bug-ridden unless things have changed recently.

Better than that, use one of the Hauppauge products with Windows Media Centre or one of the good free programs such as GBPVR or the excellent MythTV.