How do you Watch TV?

Television has become a requirement in modern life since the 1950s, and most people would probably consider suicide without TV. (That was sarcasm... I hope.)

Nowadays, the most popular ways to watch your favourite TV shows come from TiVo, Comcast and other providers. In the UK, which is where I am, there are two MAIN television providers, "Sky" and "Virgin."

Sky and Virgin are similar in someways, they are both subscription services, they both offer DVR functionality, they both have digital channels and pay-to-view channels and they both have on demand services such as 'BBC iPlayer' and 4OD. There is also Freeview, this is a fairly popular option and is a very good idea. The concept is, you pay for the box (from £25 - to £300 <depending on the quality of the box and software>). You don't pay for any subscription service at all, and I've found I can get over 60 channels with a cheap, low-end model.

But here is what I actually use to watch, record, pause, rewind and enjoy my TV. "Windows Media Center.' I have an old Windows machine, so I installed Windows 7, (I got a cheap deal on eBay), bought a TV tuner (£25 from Amazon), plugged it in to a USB port and I was watching TV instantly.

Its one thing Microsoft done right (unlike Windows... but we'll not get into that.)

For more information, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-media-center

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Comments

[James]

I don't watch much television at all, never get time, so I buy DVD on TV sets :)

[Dave]

Great post, I never watch TV anymore because I'm always on the web :)