Internet to TV players, services?

[Dean Hoffman]

I'm curious if anyone is using just the internet for their TV viewing. How does it compare to other sources of TV content?

Thanks muchly.

[gfretwell]

I have had a regular PC connected to my PC for over a decade. I don't get a lot of online content but I use it like a DVR, music player and web browser. I am looking at a Netflix subscription as we speak.

Once you get to a flat screen with a VGA connector, it is just your monitor. Add a blue tooth keyboard and mouse and you have an armchair entertainment center for $100 or whatever you can find an "off lease" used computer for. You need something "dual core" for most new video capture cards but they are still out there cheap.

[micky]

What's the range for that?

With my most likely configuration, I need 50 or 60 feet? Suggesstions?

[micky]

How would he know?

[gfretwell]

Bluetooth is supposed to go 30 feet, give or take with clear line of sight. Count on 20. You can extend the USB and get your bluetooth hub a little closer if you like. I have some 16 foot extenders that you can cascade out to 80 feet.. I have one on the bluetooth so I can run the PC in the living room from the back room.

The VGA put goes to the big screen in the living room and the A/V output goes into an agile modulator that is set to an unused channel on my house cable bus along with 4 Dish tuners and a ReplayTV.

[tom]

We use a Roku box with Amazon streaming video. Works great! No commercials.

[Metspitzer]

I use this:

If you learn to use Usenet binaries you can get lots of content for it and play it right off your hard drive if you have a wired or wireless network.

[DerbyDad03]

USB Turntables can be used to transfer vinyl to MP3.

I have a basic USB Turntable from ION, but you can get some pretty neat devices from them.

[DerbyDad03]

I also have turntables that are pre-USB. Those are used with my sound system.

SWMBO bought the USB turntable specifically to transfer vinyl to MP3. It came with software and plugs right into the PC. I just updated the software to the Win 7 version but haven't tested it yet.

For VHS to DVD, I've used my DVD-VCR combo unit.

This weekend I want to try connecting my DVR to my USB-TV Tuner to transfer some wood working shows to my PC. Lots of tips and techniques that I want to save.

[dadiOH]

dadiOH's dandies - How to record vinyl & cassettes to MP3

[micky]

Thanks. This might well do it.

[micky]

Get it? If he uses just the internet and nothing else, how can he compare it with other sources!

Darn. I was going to uise this my Vegas act. I guess I'll need something else instead.

[DerbyDad03]

Gee, let me think...

He's used other soruces in the past and settled on the Internet only because he did a comparison?

[Dean Hoffman]

Carson had Ed McMahon for backup. Tea for Two soft shoe.

in case you've been culturally deprived due to lack of years.

[krw]

I just used a sound card plugged into my stereo and Audacity. Cheap (software is free) and it works quite well. Audacity is a very good sound program, at least for what you pay for it. ;-)

[Ron]

So your computer has built in Bluetooth but no HDMI output?

[dadiOH]

Note that it contains a .hlp fie and that MS decided that Windows users beginning with Vista really didn't need to read .hlp files. There is a link on my page to MS for a reader for them (for Vista, assume it works in Win7/8 too).

[gfretwell]

I have a bluetooth dongle on the end of a USB cable

[DerbyDad03]

Yep...been using Audacity for years. I've even used it to fix skips in vinyl to MP3 transfers. Just cut and paste from another part of the track.

Of course, there a few skips that I had to keep. After listening to the same skip thousands of times as a teen, it's the only way certain songs sound right. ;-)

[DerbyDad03]

My Samsung VHS-DVD Combo unit does the same thing, plus copies VHS to DVD.

I've burnt a bunch of DVD's already but I'm curious to see if my USB TV Tuner can do as good a job saving DVR'd show to my PC. SWMBO just left to visit my daughters at college, so I've got the weekend to screw around with technology.