can you make a laptop pc into a tv?? techy question

J

jema

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as in... is there a bit of electronics you can plug into a usb or other port ( or even open up the casing & fit in somewhere) that will enable the laptop to recieve tv signal via some form of aerial??
usually have laptop on board, play kids dvds thro it.... wondered if we could pick up the news thro it....
any ideas.. however heath robinson !!!
thanks J.
 
Do not buy the cheapest one you could find from Dixons, on mine you could not channel hop, i.e. if you saw more than 3 channels in a minute, the process would hang and only a reboot would restore the TV.

Also the arial is cruicual
 
hurrah. Someone even more boneheadedly medieval than me IT-wise.

Er yes, you can deffo make your puter into a TV. Good products from "hauppag". You get a card thing, plop it into the puter (or obviously, get teenage son to do this) and then watch the telly. A year later you realise that watching three news programs and a rubbish soap has cost 150 blimmin quid. Turn the radio on, buy a newspaper, or a dvd, or try www.nakednews.com, much better. Normal Tv is doomed.
 
naked men news

ah, you obviously haven't clicked on the website? I am sure you can also get naked men news, probably on the right hand side, yes, there it is, lower right hand side. Ok, i know you can get naked men news, cos i just watched a free promo video but of the women.

Unfortunately, unlike the good ole days, actually naked nakednews is about 90dollars a year. What a ripoff! It used to be free! I don't know what the world is coming to i really don't...
 
I got one of these;
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/101191
Recomended on the forum.
P4170002.jpg

P4170001.jpg

Picture is better than it looks on my snap.
Easy to install (I did it without a safety net).
The dongle is the blue thing stuck in the front of the machine.
As said aerial input is critical.
 
To enable a usb TV system to work you need the following
a laptop with USB2 ports
It must also have at least 2.0 GHz processor
TV Type depends on location, but digital works most places, and a purely digital terrestrial tv system is cheaper than a hybrid that does analogue as well (i.e. old style telly before freeview)
The next essential is a decent aerial, preferably with a good aerial amplifier as well. The ones included with the USB dngle are pathetic. You can get a 12v powered amp from a caravan shop, and also a decent aerial. a directional aerial is better, and the higher it can go the better, but dont forget you will then need to adjust its position.
 
Be wary of Hauppauge products. Many, if not all of them produce an MPEG encoded picture which is not suitable if you want to record and edit the stuff later. The way MPEG encoding works each frame is not separate - it just records the changes from one frame to the next.

This can be important if you want to use it to copy films from old VHS tapes to DVD, or from an analogue video camera.

I have a Pinnacle Hybrid Pro Card (no longer in production) which works fine with, for example, Windows Movie Maker. The Pinnacle software is not very friendly - probably OK if everything works, but precious little information about what to do when you can't sort out your channels.

I bought the Pinnacle card to replace a Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2, however I can't say that I chose the Pinnacle - it was the only one on offer with a PC I bought at the same time.
 
not that techy

blimey r2, you are have a very bad case of techno there? I read it that jema just wanted to watch the telly? I've got a few tellies and i bet all of them won't be abl to handle post-recording picture edit in the werbles format, largely cos i dunno what to do. Does anyone actually record the telly these days anyway? Alternatively, um, praps it's a very good point...
 
Re: not that techy

The best Freeview Product is Nebula Electronic's DigiTV.

It's not cheap, it's designed in the UK, by a UK Company, they do free regular updates to the software, have excellect technical support, and there's a user owned Forum which can help with any issue.

I have a dual-tuner version, and it allows me to record 11 different channels at once, and playback/timeslip something else at the same time.

Downside of Freeview for all tuners is that you do need a strong TV Signal.
 
Re: not that techy

[ QUOTE ]
blimey r2, you are have a very bad case of techno there? I read it that jema just wanted to watch the telly? I've got a few tellies and i bet all of them won't be abl to handle post-recording picture edit in the werbles format, largely cos i dunno what to do. Does anyone actually record the telly these days anyway? Alternatively, um, praps it's a very good point...

[/ QUOTE ]

The other thing that some have not read correctly .... she wants it for a Laptop ! NOT a Desktop machine.... so son can go back to bed and put his screwdriver away !!

There are plenty of TV plug in USB sticks ... that provide the biz .... just make sure that minimum stuff is loaded into system / memory when you want to watch and you have a reasonable machine spec.
 
Re: not that techy

thanks all, had no idea it was that easy, just wanted the laptop as obviously can use on own battery power ( al be it not too long) if anchored,
off shoping now..
cheers everyone
 
Re: not that techy

Hi

I've got the TV Stick which works fine for me on the boat, although you do need to download the latest driver software & instructions from the dealers website. The original instruction are not written in anything like english. You also need a decent size USB extension lead, as the aerial it comes with has to be outside the cabin. I have led the lead through the hatch and clamped the aerial (which is tiny) horizontally on the mast with some bungee cord. Works great for me - it seems the mast amplifies the aerial signal.

Hope this helps

Tom
 
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