Five Ways to Watch TV on Your PC

Sat Feb 10, 2007 7:34AM EST

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Sure, you might be sitting at a desk and not really thinking about 24, but why wouldn't you want to watch TV on your computer? Your LCD almost certainly has better resolution than your TV, and when you're right in front of it, with two decent speakers (or more), it can be a pretty good way to watch a show or two.

Here are five ways to get television on your computer.

1) TiVoToGo - If you have a Series2 TiVo, you need TiVoToGo, which lets you download anything you've recorded on your TiVo to your PC. The shows can't be shared with other computers, so if you're planning on watching TV on the road, make sure you install TiVoToGo on your laptop. It's free, people!

2) Official Web Downloads - Check it out: The TV network may keep copies of its shows online for free download. NBC, for example, has some full episodes of its prime time shows here, and CBS has full episodes of a full eight prime time series available to watch online (bottom left corner). Visit your favorite shows' official website (or their network) to see what's available.

3) Classic TV - Like bad TV from the '70s and '80s (and just about any other decade)? Check out In2TV (Internet Explorer only, and even then it's buggy), which has archives of dozens of old shows (some much, much worse than others).

4) Overseas TV - Wanna brush up on your Hungarian? Check out BeelineTV, which streams about 100 networks from countries ranging from China to Slovenia and beyond. You'll find plenty more a wwiTV, which also includes numerous U.S. local channels broadcasting online.

5) When in Doubt, Buy It - You can buy or rent TV show episodes a la carte all over the web. Most popular is probably the iTunes Store: Note that you don't actually need an iPod to buy movies here if you just want to watch them on your computer. An episode is typically $1.99. Amazon Unbox also has similarly prices (though few have much good to say about it).

I already hit five? I haven't even covered connecting your TV to your cable with a tuner card or a USB TV tuner. There's also the famous Slingbox, and you can always buy or rent TV shows on DVD, too. Post your other suggestions for getting TV on your computer in the comments section!

Comments on Five Ways to Watch TV on Your PC

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  • 426 Posted by groingo on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:13PM EDT Report Abuse

    I simply can't believe you forgot HULU...the best online TV there is!

  • 427 Posted by mrdavidrayl on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:27PM EDT Report Abuse

    Check out: www.Dailymediaonline.com, for a link to free software which will enable you to watch TV on your PC.

  • 429 Posted by kmweihe on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:52PM EDT Report Abuse

    I find fancast.com to be about the best site for internet viewing. many of my favorite shows with full episodes

  • 430 Posted by longkey74 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:56PM EDT Report Abuse

    if i were your boss and caught you watching tv while you work for me you would be delivering newspapers tomorrow!

  • 431 Posted by ertie64 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:56PM EDT Report Abuse

    I watch Tv On my old Computer monitor, using EverMedia TV Box 5, bought it at Tiger Direct.com, it's fantastic, you can watch TV and work with your computer at the same time.

  • 432 Posted by kat.gill@att.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    TV.com has previous episodes of many shows. I missed 2 episodes of Burn Notice and I know where to find them. Wonder why I need a TV at all?

  • 433 Posted by mlln_dollar on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:23PM EDT Report Abuse

    You forgot to mention Super TV 4 PC. Been using there software for over 3 months to watch Plaboy and all the Pay-Per-View events.

  • 434 Posted by arashking1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:57PM EDT Report Abuse

    Yes I find that official web downloads works best for me because sometimes when i miss my favorite reality show, i can go to MTV's website and just get a feed going in no time. Amazon is also a fav of mine because i can get used material Tv on Pc

  • 435 Posted by benjamineddy@rocketmail.com on Sun Aug 16, 2009 2:59AM EDT Report Abuse

    I would avoid anything with "satellite tv for pc" or "streaming satellite tv" in the title. As much as I have experience, these programs are all scams. But I have found one I do like called john Q TV. You can check out this squidoo page I found giving a review of it www.squidoo.com/satellite-tv-for-pc--. There is about 8 pages of people leaving comments about the product and 55 four to five star ratings. I would give it a look, I really do like the program and find it provides me with all the channels I need. Out goes the satellite and no looking back ;-)

  • 436 Posted by rleechicago on Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    I travel often between the US, Australia and the UK for my work. The service I've been using for the past year is www.livetv-on-pc.com . They have it set up so that even when I'm out of the States, I can still watch US shows and vice-versa.. The only drawback is that there is no version for Apple Mac, but it works nice on my Windows machine.

  • 438 Posted by pbsumpter on Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:37AM EDT Report Abuse

    Another great way is downloading and installing a top TV on PC software package. You get more TV channel choices and variety entertainment with no programming restrictions. Watch anything and everything no matter where you are in the World. Setup takes within 5 minutes.

  • 440 Posted by amdsenwey on Sat Nov 7, 2009 6:39AM EST Report Abuse

    so...i searched i bit more and i found this: http://www.isatellitedirect.tv/ its pretty sweet. :) on time fee and i have alla the HD channels ..3000 i think. looks like it pretty popular to... anyone else uses it?

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