Record Videos or TV on PC

We really love TV but we can’t let our fingers off the computer because we have many things to do in work or in school.  Of course for every problem, there is a solution.  So sit and relax in our computer chair, turn on our PC or laptop because we can now have entertainment and work at hand at the same time.  Why choose if we can have both?

TV on PC is in nowadays especially for people like us that spend most of the time outside our own houses.  The solution for the dilemma of missing the entertainment offered by television is called TV tuner/ Personal Video Recording (PVR) cards.  So, how will it work?

§Step 1:  Make sure our PC has all the requirements to have TV on it.  Then, get a TV tuner card for our PC (there are also TV tuners that are USB-based) and insert it at the back of our CPU.  Some manufacturers, offer free service to properly place the tuner on our computer if we bought their product.

§Step 2:  Plug the cable, satellite or antenna into the tuner card.

§Step 3:  Install any TV recording software and the card’s drivers on our PC.  For PC running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, we can take advantage of the many features of Windows Media Center including watching live TV and recording videos.

§Step 4:  We can now start watching different channels.  To record shows or videos, we click the recording tool and see options “record videos”, “create recording”, or something similar.  For Windows Media Center, select the Record button on the computer screen or the Record button on the remote control.

There are also other features that are offered by Windows Media Center and TV tuner cards like pausing live TV (if we need to read an email, we can pause the TV for a while), rewinding live TV (we can rewind for as many as 30 minutes even when the show is still on), and many more (see the guide or manual attached to the product when we buy one)

Further, there are different TV tuner cards in the market.  Listed below is a fraction of vast number of TV tuner cards.

1. ADS Instant HDTV PCI- PTV- 382-EF

Turns Windows XP to a full-featured HDTV theatre with powerful personal video recorder.

2. ADS Instant TV PCI + FM

We can pause, rewind and record live TV on our PC and even burn programs to CD or DVD.

3. Miglia TVMini HD – MAC HDTV Tuner – TVM- 02

HDTV tuner for Mac and puts us in control to rewind and pause live HDTV on our Mac. We can even schedule recordings.

4. TV Wonder Pro with Remote Control from ATI

Runs on Windows 98, ME, 200 or XP and one requirement is at least Pentium II processor in our computer.

5. WinTV – PVR 350 from Hauppauge Digital

Runs on Windows 98SE, ME, 200, XP and also required at least Pentium II processor

There are many TV tuners that we can choose from.  So don’t be left behind and maximize what we can do on our PC or laptop.  Instead of missing our favorite show or game because of our hectic schedules, we can record these programs and watch it on our free time.

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