I want to get rid of my existing old TV sets and save space. I have a PC and a Mac G5. What are my choices for TV on the computer?
1) Get all programmes via broadband - BBC and ITV state they are about to start streaming
2) Use my existing TV aerial and a freeview box and go from there somehow into the computer
3) Buy some sort of extra TV card for the PC or the Mac
4) Other
I don't want to subscribe to anything - I don't watch TV much so freeview channels are enough.
So what are my best options? All help appreciated and questioned answered.
My desktop PC came with a card which has two freeview (or analogue TV) inputs, plus two satellite inputs (for free to air). You can watch one and have it record another. There are plenty of free to air channels on Astra 19.2
The above works very well, but I never use it.
So far as broadband goes, I doubt many have the bandwidth to watch it live and with the quality you expect from a TV.
You can get a USB dongle (£20-£30) which can provide free view from a TV antenna and these are supposed to be quite good.
is really useful. since we have a few computers in the house, it seems to me that a USB box would be a good idea - I could put that at the TV aerial input in the flat and then run digital cable rather than coax. I'll have a look at the different models available. that's one option.
I take the point about broadband being potentially not fast enough, but TV is coming onto broadband nevertheless, so that must be an option.
Can't say better than that! This really works, within a small window. It's a good start!
I'm getting glitch free reception on the small panel, but my computer/ broadband can't cope with the larger screen version. So back to the drawing board.
If you forget to switch off your screensaver and don't change your power saving options, your viewing will be interrupted by curses and regular bouts of moderate exercise as you jump up to move the mouse to stop the screen going blank / screensaver
This is not necessarily a bad thing and can be incorporated into your daily exercise plan.
Since you have a G5, get Elgato's EyeTV. They have a wide range of receivers including Freesat, Hybrid (Analogue/DVB) and Diversity (dual tuner DVB). This isn't anything really unusual, you can get similar hardware for PCs. What is unusual is the EyeTV software which gives you a personal video recorder that's better than any of the dedicated PVR boxes, and infinitely better than the rubbish given away with Hauppage tuners.
The "Diversity" model is here, you can also find the rest of the products from this page.
If you feel that you would like a wider choice of hardware than the Elgato offering, you can use most USB sticks and receivers with the EyeTV software. I'm currently using a Hauppage USB stick with mine and have tested a range of different devices such as MobiDTV, Cinergy, Avid. They have all worked well, and the EyeTV software has always been a joy to use.
The software supports the DVB Proram Guide, but also comes with a free tvtv subscription. A neat feature is that it will transfer recorded programmes into iTunes[1] and when it does it also transfers the program information from the programming guide.
[1] It also supports export to a wide range of other formats.
Very recently purchased a USB twin tuner from Maplin, their cheapest I think. It works perfectly, and integrates well into Windows Media Centre. I think I paid about £27 plus p&p.
I've got a satellite setup with rotator so I get dozens of the things - and can't really say I watch anything other than what you can get on FreeView - apart from BBC and ITV HD. It's quite fun to see what's up there, though.
I have about half a dozen invites to a private UK TV file sharing site. (thebox.bz) I am happy to send these out to anyone here, first come first served.
However before you email me, note that you will need the following:
1) To be able to setup a Bittorrent client and be able to leave it running for extended periods.
2) You need to maintain 105%+ share ratio over time. The are two ways to do this a) Download anything that is marked as FREE (even if you don't want to watch it) and then seed the program(s) for a while until you have built up some upload 'credit'. b) Pay.
3) The disk space to be able to do the above (20GB should be OK).
4) A reasonable ISP that does not throttle Bittorrent Traffic it does not have to be very fast. An hour's TV a day would add about 15GB/per month to your bandwidth.
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