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Satellite TV Trends - Watch Digital TV on Your PC
By: Steve Gee

Who needs a TV receiver anyway?

For decades the world has been buying and watching standalone TV sets. They have faithfully entertained us and provided up to date information. Well as up to date as was possible in between the adverts. Things are now radically changing. The world you live in is very different from the world of past years, this is a world where digital communications, computers, digital TV, Satellite TV and the Internet are everywhere you look. The computer is now as common in your home as the TV set ever was and I know of many people that have more computers in their home than they have standalone television sets.

Your television used to be the best and in some instances the only way to get up to date information about current affairs and news. This is no longer the case now that we have computers in the home connected to a planet-sized library of information called the Internet. You can get up to date information about literally any topic instantly by browsing the Internet whenever you feel the need.

So why do we need a standalone TV set?

The home computer revolution has crept up on us almost without notice and it might come as a big surprise to you to find that your computer is now capable of doing everything that your TV set can do and a lot more. It wasn't so long ago that to have the kind of processing power needed to decode and play full motion digital video from sources such as sattelite, cable and terrestrial broadcasts, not to mention DVD, would have been unthinkable. When you sit down and think about it you might want to consider buying a PC the next time you go shopping for a TV set.

How to use your PC to watch digital television

Not very long ago in the early days of PC TV it was necessary to install a TV capture card inside your computer in order to watch television broadcasts without using a standalone television. This was not a difficult task but it wasn't simple or elegant either. It also made it unsuitable for use with notebook PC's which limited the appeal somewhat. Notebooks were also less common and more expensive a few years ago so there was no incentive to develop such systems.

Here come cheap powerful notebooks with USB 2 interfaces

At the time of writing, the cost of a conservatively powered, but "powerful enough", notebook is comparable to the cost of a good TV set. In fact I paid half as much for my last notebook as I did for my TV set. They all support USB 2 interfaces and are fast enough to accept a digital video stream in real time. With this combination your notebook PC or your desktop PC is well able to perform as well if not better than your average TV set.

USB satellite TV

The USB 2 standard PC interface is one of the best advances in computer technology for a long time. It's versatile and fast enough to cope with a variety of different applications including streamed real time digital video. Manufacturers of computer peripherals have jumped on this opportunity to bring you a mountain of products that enhance your computer by simply plugging them into the USB socket.

You will find that there are many USB 2, solutions for receiving, decoding, streaming and watching sattelite, cable and terrestrial TV by simply plugging it into your PC. DVB is the digital TV standard to look out for. It stands for " Digital Video Broadcasting" and there are 3 versions - DVB-C, DVB-S and DVB-T for cable, satellite and terrestrial use.

Digital TV USB adapters - disadvantages

Adding a digital television adapter to your PC to watch free-to-air broadcasts is a great idea but if you want to subscribe to any encrypted pay-for-view channels such as Sky in the UK you may be unlucky. At the time of writing the only way to watch these channels is through a set top box designed for the service.

Your TV is a computer - Your computer is a TV

As computers become more and more like TV's the need for a standalone TV set will diminish and ultimately vanish. I don't know when this will happen but it might be sooner than you think.