Click Essentials: TV to PC

Use a TV tuner cards or UBS dongle to watch TV on a PC

Our essential guide to watching television on your computer - even without an internet connection.

If you are lucky enough to use a personal video recorder (PVR) you will already be recording TV programmes on to a computer hard drive.

You can do all sorts of clever things like record an entire series with one mouse click, pause or rewind live TV.

Even if you do not have a PVR, you can do the same kind of thing on your PC - after all, they are both just computers with a hard drive.

Many broadcasters are now making their programmes available online. The BBC iPlayer does TV on demand and now allows you to stream any of its channels live, straight to your machine.

But if you do not have a fast enough internet connection, or any internet connection at all, there are still alternatives.

TV TUNER

First you need to get your computer to receive a TV signal. You can either buy an internal TV-tuner card, or even easier, a USB dongle.

There are lots of choices, including analogue TV, digital TV or both, single tuner, twin tuner and so on.

The more tuners you have the more channels you can record simultaneously, so choose wisely.

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But beware of websites saying you can get satellite TV on your PC for a one-off fee, as getting satellite reception is much more complicated than just buying software.

You will need a dish professionally installed and a decoder to unscramble the signal, which could mean having to pay a monthly subscription.

All TV cards, analogue or digital, come with a small antenna but for better results just hook it up to the big one in your home.

THE SOFTWARE

Once you have the signal coming into the PC, the next step is to see the picture and be able to record it.

Most TV tuner cards and dongles come with their own software to allow you to do this.

However, if you are using Vista (Home premium editions and above) you can use Windows Media Centre instead.

If you have a Mac or run Linux, the open-source alternative Myth TV will do the same thing.

SETTING IT UP

The software will do a quick scan to find free-to-air channels in your area, and once the setup is complete, you are ready to go.

Recording is also very easy - just press record to start recording immediately, or choose what you want from the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG).

Do not forget to check how much hard disk space you have got as anything you are recording will be stored in your local hard-drive.

LIBERATE YOUR RECORDINGS

Hardware allows you to control a digital box remotely

If you want to watch your recordings on the move, these can easily be transferred on to a portable device.

Just make sure the PVR software you use can record the footage in a format that your handheld device plays.

Otherwise you might have to do some transcoding before you can watch it, which can be complicated.

And how about streaming your favourite TV shows to wherever you happen to be in the world?

There are various pieces of hardware that sit between your TV and your broadband connection which allow you to control your digital box remotely.

This works as long as you have reasonably fast internet access, and it certainly gives a radical new dimension to the idea of remote control.