Watching over-the-air TV on a notebook computer

Last year I bought a 20" RCA TV at Loblaws for $90.
It has HDMI so I can plug in the iPad and use it as a monitor.
I wasn't looking for a new TV but I couldn't pass it up.

Nothing worse than needing the laptop when somebody else is watching TV on it.

There is all kinds of USB TV STICKS on the market these days. Just plug them into any USB port and connect to antenna or whatever...

USB TV TUNERS


Roy Ken

If you just want to watch OTA TV, I would just buy a new small TV. You can find under 19" for under $`100. A laptop would be good if you wanted to record and take movies along,
For some reason, I don't enjoy watching stuff on a monitor, but that's just me.

I use an HDHomeRun with my computer. It has two tuners which gives you the ability to view and record programming on your computer. The HDHomeRun connects to the computer using a network cable. There are also tuners that use a USB port.

Once you have the tuner, you will need software to view or record programming. Some tuners come with bundled software. The HDHomeRun does not. If you are lucky and are using Win 7 you already have Media Center which works well. If you have Win 8 Pro you have to purchase Media Center for $9.99 or $99.99 for other Win 8 versions from Microsoft.

Here's some links:
SiliconDust HDHomeRun
Media Center AddOn

I have a Hauppauge USB TV tuner, which costs under $40. Comes with software to record and manage what it receives, which is digital TV off the air. It's about the side of a typical USB "stick". It's got the capability of working with an infrared remote, but I've never tried that.

Windows Media Center is included with the Windows 8.x "pro" upgrade, and provides a better interface to watch, record and play OTA tv. I think the Pro upgrade is about $100. You can get it at BestBuy.

So - yes you can. Personally I'd find the laptop screen a bit small for watching much TV. But for folks who watch streaming video on cell phones, I guess a laptop screen is like Imax.

al

THIS ONE or a similar product is what I was thinking of. Our Roadtrek has a fairly decent TV antenna in the fiberglass roof that has worked well with the old CRT TV set and digital converter box. Hopefully, good TV reception on the notebook and the ability to record would make the proposed setup superior (and a lot lighter!) than our present arrangement.

Before I plunk down the money for the TV tuner, I'd be interested if anyone has this or a similar tuner. Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a good idea. If you get a Windows 7 laptop, it includes something called Windows Media Center, which provides the ability to record tv shows. Microsoft removed this feature from Windows 8, but maybe they added it back.

Just watch out that the tv tuner add-on has a cable f-type input, so you can connect it to your existing antenna.

I'm following as I didn't know that you could get a TV tuner for a laptop. Randu