What are the options/best ways to watch TV on my computer? My internet access is via cable. From that primary machine, my laptop is on a wireless network.
If you want to get it directly on your laptop at home, you can get pcmcia cable modems.
OTherwise, the much more popular way is to get a slingbox which connects to your cable at home and sends the TV across the network or Internet to your laptop. You can also hook other devices to the slingbox enabling you to record TV at home and remotely play it back for example.
My friend at work (in Japan) has a slingbox at home in Chicago and watches all his TV over the Internet. He has cable and a tivo in Chicago and can set the tivo record remotely and the playback. It’s how he watches all his TV now.
I use a Sony Location Free device which does basically the same thing to watch TV on the road but the Slingbox is easier to setup and use.
slingbox, no question.
slingbox, no question.
You have this?
There are several things to consider, what kind of quality are you looking for? The downside to the sling box is even with a really fast connection you are not going to get TV quality video. If you have a slower connection it is only going to get worse. But for someone away from home, like the guy in Japan, it’s definately the way to go.
I have a desktop pc in my bedroom that doubles as a tv. I use a tuner card that plugs into the mobo and has a coax input for cable. It can also be used for over the air tv signals. You do need a program to run things and there are many options. Beyond TV, Sage TV, Myth TV(Linux OS only), WinTV, Windows Media Center, and Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. All of the programs except WinTV can also be used to record programs. Of course if you want to record one channel and watch another, you need either 2 tuner cards or 1 tuner card with 2 tuners. A down side to tuner cards is that they accept analog input only, so you can only get channels 1-99 without the aid of a cable or satellite decoder box. There are also HD tuner cards but they can only recieve over the air signals from an antenna.
With Beyond TV Link you can stream the content from your pc with the tuner card(recorded or live) to other computers on your network.
Ed
yes, i like to watch certain shows, when I travel not all hotels get the channel selection i like
http://us.slingmedia.com/page/home
my wife sets it up for me, i am not that sharp with cpu’s and stuff like that.
My network router (linksys) just has one input, that is marked “Internet”. The slingbox need to have an input also. I have 5 outputs on the Linksys box. But it would seem that what the Slingbox wants to do is output from the Slingbox to an input on the router. Without two inputs on the router, how would this work?
EDIT: Or maybe not. The network light on the SB lit up when I connected it to an output on the router. See I will keep at it for a bit.
I will ask her, we have the slingbox pro, I think that is why it works. we also have a belkin router, but it seems to be the same as yours. I am sure it goes through there.
She said:
“Tell Monk I am watching Beckham, he will have to wait, or look on Slingbox’s website. That is how I figured it out.”
Sorry dude, I did check on the thing, and she has it going,
Cable Modem----> Router —> Singbox
I know I am not helping that much, but what can I say?
She said:
“Tell Monk I am watching Beckham, he will have to wait, or look on Slingbox’s website. That is how I figured it out.”
Sorry dude, I did check on the thing, and she has it going,
Cable Modem----> Router —> Singbox
I know I am not helping that much, but what can I say?
I got it working. Tell your wife “thank you” and point out that Bckham is horribly bowlegged.