by Maxwell Payne

Created on: November 22, 2008

How to Watch TV on Your Computer.

Watching TV on your computer is very much a reality with ever-increasing processing power of computers coupled with widely available high speed internet connections. For those with a decent sized monitor and a good set of speakers; the experience of watching TV on the computer might be just as good, if not better then watching the actual TV set.

There are a few ways through which to watch TV on your computer. One of the oldest ways and best ways to get true TV on your computer is to purchase a TV tuner card. This card fits in one of your card slots on your motherboard and allows you to directly connect an antenna or cable line to your PC. Through this you can surf your cable and watch TV (including live TV) in the same way you watch it on a traditional TV set. You can get a decent TV cable tuner card for fewer than 100 dollars, but this only work with full size desktop computers and it is best to have cable TV for this.

Another way to watch TV through your computer is to use your high speed internet connection to download episodes of your favorite shows. Legally many stations and studios now sell complete seasons of your favorite shows on sites such as iTunes. Legalities aside many file sharing sites also have many shows and movies available but you risk being fined or at the least ending up with a corrupt virus infested file. If you don't want to pay for your favorite shows or take the risks associated with illegal downloading, many sites have teamed up with TV stations and studios to offer streaming episodes of their shows on websites.

Many of these sites stream the shows in good quality, but you'll need high speed internet to watch through these websites. Also the picture quality and speed of transmission depends on site traffic and your connection. Usually in exchange for allowing you to watch shows for free, you may have to sit through small commercials or see ads alongside the video. Not bad for free on demand access to your favorite TV shows.

Streaming shows through these sites is great, but for the truest TV on the computer viewing experience it is recommended that you consider getting a TV tuner card, a good monitor, and some decent speakers for a full TV viewing experience. But for those with a budget or just looking for some shows, the streaming episodes or seasons for digital download in exchange for a small payment are just fine.

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