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How to Watch TV on Your PC

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Are you looking to add more television to your life? It turns out that there are a number of ways that you can watch television from the comfort of your office chair - although I’m not advocating watching TV on your PC during your work hours- you could keep your project on screen next to the local newscast like I’m doing right now.

Well, the first thing you will need is some good software such as Windows Media Player, QuickTime, or Adobe Flash Player 8. Type these into any search engine and you’ll be directed to websites where they can be downloaded for free.

If you spend any amount of time surfing the web, you’ve probably already been asked to install one of these programs as some web pages require this type of media program to showcase their flashy information. You’ll also need to be working with high speed internet; dial-up just isn’t fast enough to stream the feeds into your PC without a lot of pauses, stops and waiting time.

You’re definitely going to want some good speakers or the poor sound quality will ruin your good time, and plenty of memory is important too. At least 512 MB are required to run RealPlayer in addition to the memory needed to have a media player like QuickTime.

Now, there are lots of free TV websites online. Just type in “free TV” on a search engine such as Google and you’ll find a lot to choose from, just be careful what you choose. You might find some offers for 3000 plus channels at one low set-up cost. These are scams, but there are lots of other legitimate sites to browse.

You’re not going to find a lot of popular TV but there are some really good local programs including religious, news and weather shows. Most of these free TV websites also give you access to international channels from Austria to Zimbabwe, which is a bonus if you’re multi-lingual or trying to keep up with your nation’s news, drama or comedy.

If you’re looking to get mainstream programs that you’d ordinarily find on “cable” or satellite television, you can check out Adobe Media Player at: http://get.adobe.com/amp/. It’s a free download that allows access to some movies, clips and episodes of some television programs such as CSI, Melrose Place, the Young and the Restless, The Mentalist, and more, and selected episodes from channels like HGTV, CBS News and others. Obviously, you can’t watch “whatever” you want, but there are a lot of options with Adobe Media.

Another option is to pay monthly for TV access on your PC. RealPlayer Plus has a low monthly fee that allows you to watch movies and television programs, play games, listen to and download music, and burn CDs and DVDs. Members even get to download and keep one pre-selected game per month. The media library is pretty huge, so chances are you’ll be able to find something (or lots of “somethings”) that interest you. If you’re interested in this option, you can try it free for fourteen days first, just to be sure. You can find the service on http://www.real.com

By: Chris Irvine
Published: 11/10/08

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2 Posted Comments:

Free TV website list

@ 2:06 am 11/11/08 by steve

You can watch pretty much anything on your PC without paying. Theres a site that has a list of every free tv and video site on the net
http://www.worldtvpc.com/onlinevideosites/

Thanks

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@ 9:22 pm 12/21/08 by C.D. Crowder

Good article. I like that you've offered up multiple alternatives. Also, thanks for the link Steve.

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