Here's everything you need to transform your desktop or notebook PC into a TV.
It's a lifestyle slogan for the new century: A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and a PC in every room. In fact, the PC has done more than simply replace the television as the gathering point in many homes--for many people (including me), it is the television. Let me explain. Three years ago when we moved into our home, I had a nutty idea: Abolish TVs from the entire first floor of the house and consign our viewing to a rec room in the basement. Everything worked great, until I realized I couldn't watch football games if I had to work in the kitchen. Oh, my wife had a PC in kitchen, where she could manage her schedule, send e-mails, and even look up recipes on the Web. But I couldn't watch football while making grilled cheese sandwiches. Outrage! So I decided to upgrade the humdrum graphics card in my wife's Compaq Presario desktop with an ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder card. This little marvel is a graphics card, TV tuner, and video center all rolled into one. I installed the card, hooked up the monitor, and plugged the fortuitously located coaxial TV cable from the kitchen wall into the card. Fifteen minutes later, I was watching SportsCenter. That little experience kicked off a frightful media binge in my home. Today, I have three PCs humming away in different rooms all over the house, and all three double nicely as TVs. I've even used the PCs to make digital recordings of shows--a real lifesaver when our 10-year-old VCR died last fall. So what does it take, really, to get an old PC to learn some new TV tricks? Not that much. Here's what you'll need: A decent PC with at least a fast Pentium III processor (above 500 MHz) and at least 10GB or so of free hard-drive space (you'll want more storage room if you plan to record your favorite shows, too).
A way to get a TV signal into your computer. This could be a graphics card with a TV tuner attached or a dedicated PCI tuner card or USB-based tuner box (the latter is a notebook user's only option).
Software for controlling the TV tuner hardware (changing channels, volume, and so on) and managing video input and output. Most tuner cards come with the basic apps you'll need.
For watching DVD movies on your PC, you'll need to purchase player software specifically designed to display DVD video content. Of course, your PC will need a DVD drive. |
