Internet TV - What Are My Options?

By Craig Relph

When it comes to watching TV on your computer, you can go down one of two roads: the hardware one or the software one. If you take the hardware road, what you're going to buy is called a TV-PC tuner card. This comes either as a card that you install inside your computer that creates an external socket for your TV aerial, or as a USB device that will happily plug into the outside of your machine. This will allow you to receive television signals directly to your computer, and is handy for someone who has recording options on their computer that they can use for television content. This option, however, will not allow you to get any TV content that you are not already getting or entitled to either through a paid subscription service of free public television content.

If you take the software road, you are entering the land of 'Internet television', which is at once a land of promise and a land of confusion. Here's what it entails:

1. Firstly, You can go and try and access the 'free stuff' if you want. There are many news stations and some TV channels that offer live streaming of their channels. There are a number of websites that also link you to these channels.

2. There are also software packages that are available for you to purchase. These normally involve you investing between $25 - $150 which will allow you to access hundreds and often thousands of local, national and international channels. This software is very easy to download from the net and can be operational in literally minutes and should easily play through most computers with a reasonable connection.

Please be aware that you are not going to be getting both HBO and MTV free! Both the hardware and the software options are not 100% perfect, you can expect them to be a little bit 'hit or miss'. Expect to get occasional bad links, buffering and a few browsers being incompatible with your software. Be aware if you go for the really cheap option, you are likely to get what you pay for!

3. Another option is p2p (or peer to peer) software. At the time of writing this it is still legal to have the technology, however there have been many court cases. Please be aware that sending others protected television programs is ILLEGAL, which in reality makes it not the best option for you.

It is inevitable that in the future we will not be paying as much for our television, as increased competition from the internet will drive the price downwards. It also will mean that the choice of quality TV that will be free to view will go up. As for the immediate future, it will still remain a challenge to find great quality programs online, but it's certainly not impossible, with a little time spent it can be quite a rewarding experience.

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