Satellite TV Trends - Watch Digital TV on Your PC

The reign of the conventional television receiver is coming to an end



For decades the world has been buying and watching standalone TV sets. They have faithfully entertained us and provided up to date information. Well as up to date as was possible in between the adverts. Things are now radically changing. The world you live in is very different from the world of past years, this is a world where digital communications, computers, digital TV, Satellite TV and the Internet are everywhere you look. The computer is now as common in your home as the TV set ever was and I know of many people that have more computers in their home than they have standalone television sets.



Your television used to be the best and in some instances the only way to get up to date information about current affairs and news. This is no longer the case now that we have computers in the home connected to a planet-sized library of information called the Internet. You can get up to date information about literally any topic instantly by browsing the Internet whenever you feel the need.



Is a standalone TV no longer required?



That's a very good question. Until recently the computer that you might typically use in your home hasn't had the power or capacity to perform the same functions as your TV set but this is no longer the case. Even the most humble of modern notebook PC is now capable of receiving and playing digital TV from sources such as terrestrial, cable or satellite digital TV. You can even watch analogue TV transmissions until they are phased out.



The secret to using your TV to watch digital video



When it first became possible to watch digital video, or analogue video for that matter, on your PC you were required to install a video capture card inside your PC. You then had to find a way to get your chosen source of signal converted into a form acceptable to the add-in card. Typically you had to provide an analogue signal for the capture card. This provided an acceptable solution for desktop PC's but it wasn't very good for notebook PC's.



Along came cheap powerful notebook PC's and USB 2



Have you seen how powerful notebook PCs are now? Even the cheapest you can get is good enough to watch DVDs and streamed digital video. You might also be surprised when you compare the cost of a notebook PC with a good standalone TV receiver. When I bought my notebook I paid only half as much for it as I did for my TV. Desktop PCs are even cheaper. All modern PCs have fast and convenient USB 2 adapters, which is the magic that allows you to watch satellite, cable or terrestrial TV just by plugging it in.



USB satellite TV



The USB 2 standard PC interface is one of the best advances in computer technology for a long time. It's versatile and fast enough to cope with a variety of different applications including streamed real time digital video. Manufacturers of computer peripherals have jumped on this opportunity to bring you a mountain of products that enhance your computer by simply plugging them into the USB socket.



There are USB digital TV units available for terrestrial, cable and satellite TV so you should have plenty of choice. All these devices conform to the DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) standards in 3 basic versions. DVB-T for terrestrial TV, DVB-C for cable TV and DVB-S for satellite TV.



Digital TV USB adapters - disadvantages



By adding a USB adapter for digital TV to your desktop or notebook PC you can easily and cheaply turn your computer into a high specification television. However if you want to watch encrypted pay for view channels then you will have to go with the decoder box supplied for the service. The output of the decoder box can still be fed to your PC via a USB 2 analogue video adapter.



Digital PC TV is the future



Computers aren't going away anytime soon and neither is digital TV and video. Computers are only going to get more powerful at the same time as they get cheaper and digital TV is capable of far more than is being used right now. It won't be too long before the standalone TV set is a thing of the past.



Steve is webmaster at www.sattelite-television.thegrandfatherclock.com

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