How To Watch Satellite TV On Your PC

The easiest way to watch TV through the computer is to get a TV tuner. This is a piece of equipment that plugs into your computer, and then a standard coax cable plugs into it. All of a sudden, you can use your computer to watch whatever is coming through the coax cable.

So if you have cable TV, and plug the cable into the TV tuner, you can now watch cable TV through your computer. This has a lot of benefits, including recording shows to your hard drive. Get a big enough hard drive, and you can record quite a few shows before having to transfer some to DVD.

The cable bill still comes, though. As little as we were watching TV, it didn't make sense to pay the cable bill for the few shows we wanted to watch, if there were any other way.

While looking online, I found a site that promised the ability to watch satellite TV through your computer, with only a one-time payment. One of the selling points was that you could watch sports events that might be blacked out locally.

I was skeptical. After all, I might be watching TV through my computer for years; how could a one time payment cover all that? Then again, the one time payment wasn't all that much (a couple months of basic cable), so I figured I'd take a chance.

The way it works is, once you pay your money online (click here to order, if you want to follow along), you get instant access to download a media player program that will allow you to watch satellite TV. They do try to sell you something else almost immediately, but if you don't want it just say no and you'll get to the members area where you can download the software.

Once at the member's area, I clicked on "Watch Satellite TV" and downloaded the two programs they list. They also showed some requirements (Windows Media Player and Real Player). I didn't have Real Player, but downloaded and installed the programs anyway. The satellite TV aspect seemed to work, so I think Real Player is meant for the music channels.

The sports channels seem well represented. Animal Planet is another channel we watch, and it was there. The Food Network wasn't, nor was the SciFi Channel. So it was a mixed bag for us.

The picture quality was good, but the picture was small. You could zoom it to be larger, but with the expected loss in picture quality. So this isn't suitable to use as a replacement for a TV where you're sitting on your couch to watch it.

On the other hand, if you're sitting at a computer for other reasons, and want to catch a sports game, it's ideal.

One of the other programs you get for your one time payment is a program to download TV shows and movies to your computer. This program seems to be a peer-to-peer file sharing program hooked up to a search engine for finding TV shows and movies, combined with a media player for viewing the shows once you've downloaded them.

If you're already using a peer-to-peer program for downloading TV shows, you won't be missing anything by passing on this one. But if you're new to the idea, this program does provide a nice unified interface for finding, downloading, and watching videos.

Note that peer-to-peer programs rely on someone else to share a TV show or movie, so the availability of the particular movie you want might be limited.

Overall, the satellite TV on your PC program isn't going to replace your TV in the same way that a TV tuner might, so we'll be going with the TV tuner option.

But the satellite TV option is a nice way to watch sports events on your computer if you're not near a TV during the big game. They also have a good selection of international channels.

The program I tested can be found here.

If you enjoyed this lens, you might also enjoy Who Is Jay Shaffstall?, my lens about myself, which also contains links to other lenses and blogs I've written.