Satellite TV on Computers

Answer:

This is a good question. Many people believe that just because some
computers have the ability to display TV signals on the screen that
they are just like TVs. So to answer your question; yes and no. No you
would not need a TV tuner, but you would at least need a video capture
card. This is not the preferred way as a dedicated tuner card would
work best. It would not tax your system resources as much, but it
would mean changing your current video card to a combination video
card and TV tuner or getting a separate dedicated tuner card. You will
still need a Dish Network receiver (or cable box) to get the decoded
signal to your computer. You can not just hook up the coax cable from
the dish antenna to a tuner card. You then would tune your card to
channel 3 or 4 (what ever the default setting would be for your
receiver) just like you would your TV. Some Tuner cards come with
remote controls that will allow you to change the video picture size,
change channels (on the tuner card only) and adjust the volume. You
will still need the remote for you Dish (or cable) receiver.

Now basic cable, from a terrestrial provider, would be another issue
all together. With a tuner card you can change the channels via
software keyboard commands or a special remote for the tuner card.
Then you would not need a receiver box of any sort. This type of
service is expected to be phased out within the next 5 years as the
cable companies are moving to all digital signal and HD which will
require a set top box of some kind.

If you wanted to watch TV on a computer that is not near the receiver
or did not want to mess with running cables all around the place you
could use Audio/Video signal extenders from Radio Shack,
http://www.radioshack.com /product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F010%5F011%5F000&product%5Fid=15%2D2572
. They do run on the 2.4 GHz frequency family so if you have
802.11a,b,g, or n, or have other devices using the same frequency, you
might experience some problems but you can change channels to improve
performance. Here is a link to the manual
http://www.radioshack.com/images/ProductCatalog/Manuals/OME15-2572.pdf.

This would also be able to hook up to a child's room TV where the
parent can control which channel the child is allowed to view in their
room.