how to watch & record tv programs on the pc?

Question

how do i watch & record tv programs on my pc. is the tv USB stick the best. do they have timers so i can record them when i'm not @home? what all things do i need to set one up please. thank you.

Answer 1

Contrary to what the other answerer stated, there isn't just one way to record TV programs on your computer. There are alot of computer programs out there that allow you to do this. You should ask yourself whether it's worth it or not to do this, because it can be almost as expensive as TiVo. You should know that your cable and satellite TV company might rent you a digital video recorder (DVR) for just a few bucks a month. The DVR allows you to do almost as much as the computer program does.

There are a few things you'll need:
1.) A TV tuner card/device for your computer.
2.) A fairly large hard drive (at least 80gigs, in my opinion)
3.) Software to run handle the recording of your shows.

I prefer this company when choosing a tv tuner card:
http://www.hauppage.com/

I've used many different brands over the years, and hauppage seems to be the most reliable. They have a few different types, I'd recommend staying away from the USB tv tuner cards and going with a PVR card. Check out the website and see for yourself.

As far as software, I've tried almost of them and the two I'd recommend are:

http://www.sagetv.com/
http://www.snapstream.com/

Both of those companies have packages available where you can get both the software and hardware in one place. You're also guaranteed that the hardware is supported by the software. I believe both of them allow you to choose what shows you want to record via the Internet so you can set your computer to record shows at work, or when you're away.

I hope this gives you a place to start. Good luck.

Answer 2

Yes, mine has all the freeview channels. reception is great on a normal aerial - but ok on the tiny aerial too if you position it OK. it has scheduling. It has time shift - you can turn on time shift and it constantly records so you can pause it and go to the loo and fast forward past the adverts when you come back. It also records to hard drive. It encodes TV to DVD and burns to DVD. I watch the late night movie in a window and chat on IRC at the same time. Great for watching TV on a laptop in bed. the new ones will record 1 hour to 300K - but I've compressed video to one Mpeg standard and the quality wasn't good. Mine does so many things I'm still figuring out what it will do and I've had it a couple of months. You can even record MP3s from the music channels if you know what you're doing. Check out Maplin and Aria for good prices - Aria have a rush hour sale at 8am on Friday morning.

Answer 3

I am not exactly sure, but I have just been reading about this - here is a link that shows some of the stuff you can do with windows media center - so that might be helpful to you.

Answer 4

i have the dvtv usb 1 its great you can watch free view channels and record you can also pause live tv it really is good.

Answer 5

yeah I think there are programs that act like tivo and store all the shows on your hardrive. It's called a TV Tuner.

Answer 6

there is only one way you really can do that, and its legal too....lol its a sling-box....I got one 6 month ago and I'm absolutely crazy about it...go to Circuit city and check it out...ya no...how it look, but go and buy it at amazon.com...its much cheaper there...here is what you need..and its only one time gizmo you got to buy, and you will have years of fun..

you can watch anywhere in the world your shows, in the motel, at your grandma house..on any computer an laptop too....and record the show....

Answer 7

i didnt no u could do it