DVR Software

Converting Your PC Into A Computer Using A Computer TV Tuner Card

There is a very thin line these days defining between a TV and a computer. That is why more and more people want to watch television on their home computer or laptop. The technology is there to do it, and it is both inexpensive and easy to install. In order to watch television through a computer all that is required is a simple TV Tuner Card. Some of the more popular brands of computer TV tuner cards are Hauppauge, Diamond and ATI. Installing a card is pretty simple for the relative expert.

Anyone unsure of how to handle the procedure would be well advised to ask the company who supplied the card to carry out the procedure. It will be a few dollars well spent. A component that allows television signals to be received by a computer, the TV tuner card also functions as a video capture card. This additional function allows the tuner card to record any program downloaded from television to the computer onto the computer hard disc for further later viewing.

TV tuners can be attached to the computer through either PCI-bus expansion cards or thorough a USB connection, with the most popular connection being USB2.

Most computer TV tuner cards contain a combination of a receiver, tuner, demodulator and sometimes even an analog to digital converter if reception is only through an analog aerial. The function of the demodulator is to recover the information content from the signal's carrier wave.

In addition to absorbing the signals, the majority of TV tuners can also be set to function as FM radios. The reason for this is that FM radio spectrums are situated between television channels 6 and 7. This means that the demodulator can be readily programmed to decode FM.

The majority of tuner cards on the market are geared towards digital television reception, including satellite. Despite that, there are some models that can handle analogical reception.

Broadcasts for digital TV is broadcast are in the form of a MPEG stream, and therefore do not require an encoder. Instead, the digital tuner card's function is to extract the correct protocol-based intrusion detection system (PIDS) from the transport stream, requiring much less processing power. The role of the PIDS is to monitor the dynamic behavior and state of the protocol. The PIDS usually consists of a form of system or agent, usually placed at the front end of a server. Its role is to monitor and analyze the communication protocol between a connected device (a user/PC or system) and the system it protects.

TV on PC software has become very popular. The main advantage of using this type of software to watch TV is that you can get access to many different satellite TV channels for free. You'll be able to access TV channels in many different languages and from many different countries in addition to your local channels.