TV Tuner for PC – Possibilities at Your Fingertips

What is a TV tuner? TV tuners allow television sets to take TV signals by tuning in or “changing a channel”. Remember the old days when TV personalities would say “don’t touch that dial”? Well, the dial is where the TV tuner is, or IS the TV tuner. So what about a TV tuner for PC? These days, when you say “TV tuner”, it usually refers to a broader category of tuners for the computer. Simply put, they allow you to watch TV on your computer. 

You can get TV tuners from your cable company or from your local hardware stores. Those that cable companies offer you simply allow you to add more channels to your current cable subscription. Those that you can from your local hardware stores allow you to watch TV on your computer for free, as long as you hook up an antenna to pick up local TV signals to project them on to your computer monitor. If you have a powerful satellite dish, for instance, you can receive free or non-encrypted TV signals and enjoy channels – even foreign ones – on your computer. 

There are different TV tuners. There’s the tuner box and there’s the tuner card. Tuner cards are chips that you insert to one of the slots in your motherboard that allow you to watch or record TV shows. More powerful tuner cards allow you to watch AND record TV shows at the same time, and additional tuner cards allow you to record multiple shows while watching another. One thing to note is that there are some cards that will not work for some computers. To be safe, you might want to get a tuner card that works for both PCs and Macs. 

TV tuners are also available in USB forms, but due to heating issues, you may not be able to record shows in the background. They are useful, however, if you like to bring your laptop everywhere you go. There are also software tuners, which you can get for a one-time transaction, and receive a legion of channels. This beats paying for cable anytime. 

The TV tuner for PC is geared towards personal use. As Conan O’Brien said, you can watch television the same way you can in your computer, but only seated in a more comfortable chair. It may not be good idea for a whole family to huddle in front of the computer for TV, but TV tuners do provide a cheaper alternative for cable subscription. The choice is yours.