How to watch tv using internet no subscription

[netcommercial]

Hello, I was wondering if one can use their computer to watch TV instead of using an antenna. One would think that "air" channels are avail on the net with no fee. Anyone?
Running winxp pro at the moment but building a new puter and will be getting win 7 pro and will stuff it into my old girl that came with Vista that I uninstalled 2 weeks after owning it. So I know she will take a 64 bit O.S. She has an "S" video out for the moment but the TV I got has VGA input.
Dell Inspiron 530 with a gforce 8500 in BTW... "The new TV slave...."

 

[drums101]

well you wouldnt really be able to hook up cable from your house to your pc and have all of your channels without having some sort of subscription...all you would get would be your basic channels...but you could hook up your tv to your pc and watch youtube videos and whatever things you watch on the internet....all you would have to do is hook up the tv to the pc via hdmi or vga and boom you have pictures on your tv....after looking at your manual it appears that all you have is a vga out...so you would have to run the vga cable to the tv and not use your monitor.....or you can buy a cheap card like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131339

put it into your pc and run vga to your current monitor and HDMI to your tv

 

[netcommercial]

Thanks for the help... I already watch stuff from youtube and hulu etc... I was thinking about live TV "Network TV" You know Air channels, I get with rabbit ears, but I was thinking if rabbit ears get the signal the net should get it too. No?

I do not think I can add that video card you shared with me because this MOBO has an on board or integrated card. If I am not mistaken? It has a 128 Nvidia 8500GT in it with NO HDMI out only an S video I think it is back there...

Sucks when you buy a computer from a salesmen and give them carte' blanch to steer you. That is why, or how I ended up here and those name brand computers WILL NEVER get my business or my friends business again! I will build it so I know what I am getting and not getting over sold or sold stuff that I should not bother buying. Figure they lost at least 20 computers because of it..</end rant

 

[drums101]

you would be able to install that video card no problem once you install the card the onboard video will be disabled....as far as the whole live tv air channels stuff that is not gonna work....if you could get all kinds of channels on your computer for free then everyone would be doing it and not paying for cable... unfortunately there not much you can do besides netflix and youtube.

 

[Wolfshadw]

You could probably bookmark each channel's web page and find full episodes of what's on, but they do not... simulcast (for lack of a better term) live shows. For what you're looking for, you'd need a TV Tuner card installed into your PC.

Before making any decisions, go to http://www.antennaweb.org/ and see what channels might be available in your area.

Depending on what expansion slots you have available, you could probably install an ATSC (digital) TV Tuner card into your system to receive Free Over-The-Air TV Transmissions.

If you have an available PCI-E slot, something like this Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250 hybrid Tuner would allow you to receive local broadcasts.
If you have an available PCI slot, something like this Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 Media Center kit would do the same.
If you don't want to install a card into your system, there are external options like this Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-850 HDTV USB 2.0 Adapter

Any of these options would require some sort of antenna connection. If your home has an antenna on the roof, connected to a coaxial run throughout your home, then it's just a matter of running a coax cable from the wall to the TV Tuner card. If not, then you'd probably need some sort of internal antenna that also has a coaxial connection.

Once the hardware is set up, you could use the included software to view live TV broadcasts or you could use Windows Media Center (not sure if that's included with Windows 7 Professional) or other media center programs like Xbox Media Center (XBMC) for Windows.

-Wolf sends

 

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[Mousemonkey]

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