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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphics & Displays > TV Tuner Cards > Best/cheapest way to watch TV from PC?

Best/cheapest way to watch TV from PC?

Forum Graphics & Displays : TV Tuner Cards Best/cheapest way to watch TV from PC?

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Hey everyone,

I've been toying with the idea of ditching my cable TV from Comcast for awhile now and beefing up my internet connection with higher speeds. I'd STILL pay less for just the internet, but I'd be able to stream almost anything quickly and efficiently.

That said, I'm looking to stream from my PC to my TV. Preferably wirelessly (I've heard a blu-ray player does this, Xbox, etc.) It can be wired, but that'd require a bit of shifting and an annoying HDMI cable dangling about, but that doesn't bother me.

A few questions:

1. What is the cheapest and most practical way to do this? I don't mind a monthly fee if it's something like Hulu/etc. Is Hulu the way to go to get *most* of the stations I watched before? Keep in mind that I have a good package from Comcast and probably only watch 10-15 channels tops. I don't even venture into the 100's and beyond. I watch the movie channels and the usual favorites (USA, FX, TBS, TNT, etc).

2. What hardware would it require? I have a laptop with an HDMI out, as well as a video card on my PC with HDMI capability. My TV is a 32" LCD by Dynex, which naturally has HDMI connections. Keep in mind that if this is possible to do wirelessly, I'd love to go that route (obviously that means something has to be connected to the TV, but I'm not sure what).

I think that's it. Any thoughts?

Reply to elninost0rm
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I don't know of any wireless transmitters/recievers that will do 1080p and even the ones that will do 720p are like 200 bucks so just buy a long HDMI cable. Also your laptop probably doesn't send audio out through the HDMI so you might need a long 3.5 mm headphone cable and a RCA splitter to connect it to the audio in on your TV. Hulu is good quality but it's limited and I don't think you can watch live. I use http://atdhe.net/ for sports but it's usually worse quality than hulu (but free). Veetle.com is another but you have to download there player.

Reply to benski

I bought an online software that allows access to about 3000 satellite TV channels and cable TV (I have no time yet to see them all), but tuned channels have very good signal.

If anyone is interested

http://satellitedirect.net46.net/

Reply to Mikey30
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