Choose Your Equipment
You have a few different options. The simplest method is using boxes, or standalone tuners. These tuners function as little command centers for all your media. You plug in your satellite or cable signal, then you plug your monitor. You can add your DVD player, stereo system, or whatever depending on the tuner. Presto! You've got TV on your PC monitor without involving the computer at all.
There are also tuners that will bring your signal in through your computer via USB. These still stand outside your system, but they use your PC to transport the signal to your monitor.
A third way is to add a card to your computer. This involves manually inserting a PCI or PCMCIA card - like adding another piece of brain to your PC. It isn't terribly hard, but if you're not comfortable with programming your microwave, you should have someone do it for you. The card becomes the connection point for all your media. Everything runs through the computer. The cards are also generally less expensive than the tuners.
A Variety of Options
The variety grows from here. With both the tuners and cards, you have choices to make. Do you want a remote control? How about a set of speakers? What about wireless networking? How about DVR capability?
You can have none or all of these things depending on how much you want to spend. A remote is nearly a must. A few tuners include a set of speakers designed to enhance your new media center.
Wireless is where everything is heading and a great idea if you want your computer to manage all the TVs in your home. Some cards and tuners will pause, rewind, record, and perform just like a DVR, without the added costs. You can even burn what you save.
For laptops, the outside tuners using USB or the PCMCIA cards are ideal and simple to use.
The Details
You still need some kind of signal. The tuners and cards are just communicators, not receivers. They are also called capture cards because they capture the signal and convert it into a picture.
If you add a card or adapter to run the media through your computer, you'll need to check a few things. How much RAM is required, your operating system compatibility (like Windows XP), the speed of your processor, and if you need available hard drive space. You don't want to max your computer out. Some tuners come with internal hard drives, so you wouldn't use your PC memory.
If you are ready to take to PC to TV merging plunge, go ahead and take the leap. LED monitors are awesome these days, and often cheaper than their television counterparts. Plus, you can add two monitors and double your screen size. Fantastic for wide screen. You could even work on one and watch the show on the other. Multi-tasking at its best. Someday soon, it will all just come together in one consolidated system.
The first step is to choose which method you will use to make it happen. The basic difference is hooking up from the inside or outside of your PC. After that, it's just a matter of shopping!
