by Sam E. Jones

Created on: May 29, 2010

Technology has finally caught up with demand, it is now possible to watch television shows, live or prerecorded on your computer; and it’s pretty easy to do.

To watch live television shows, all you have to do is purchase a computer with a TV tuner already installed, or if you already have a computer, than order a TV tuner for your computer (from Dell, HP, etc.) and install it yourself. Then, you plug a cable from the TV service (Cable, Direct-TV, etc.) directly into the TV tuner port on your computer, install the software for the TV tuner if it’s not already installed for you, and you’re good to go. For cable and other services, you’ll still have to use the remote from your cable service to change channels because the channel changing occurs at the set top box. The TV tuners for your computer also work if you have a television antenna instead of a service, so long as you have the digital converter needed for any TV to watch over the air TV. In this case you’ll be able to change channels using the software that came with your computer TV tuner. Once everything is installed you should be able to receive all the channels you get on your television set. As an additional note, most cable providers offer separate digital channels in HD for those that have HD TV’s. If you don’t, and haven’t been using this service, you should be able to with the tuner that comes with your TV and your HD computer screen.

To watch prerecorded television shows, you have two options: stuff you have recorded yourself, and stuff you’ll find online.

To watch television shows you have recorded yourself via VCR or DVR, all you have to do is hook your player up to your computer. To do so, you’ll need a computer TV tuner and software as described above. Once you have that up and running, watching prerecorded shows is the same as watching them on your television, only you’ll be using the remote for your player to run the shows, rather than your cable remote.

To watch prerecorded television shows online, all you need to do is go to the sites provided by the television networks, such as abc.com, nbc.com, fox.com, etc. All of them offer Internet rebroadcasts of most of their shows. Also, there are other Internet venues, such as Hulu.com and Fancast.com that also show rebroadcasts of popular television shows along with a lot of other content.

Also, it might be noted that as technology continues to improve it should become easier and perhaps the norm to receive live television over your computer, i.e. via wireless, or directly over the Internet itself without have to have a TV tuner in your computer at all.

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