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I WANT MY PC-TV

Welcome to the exciting convergence of the computer, internet, and television worlds. This page is intended to give people a starting point for information about PC-TV and TV Tuner cards that go into PC-TV systems which can interchangeably be called Entertainment PCs, Home Theater PCs, and what I would call "Power PC-TV Boxes." This web page is for those people who want their PC-TV.

So, what's a PC-TV? A simple definition is that a PC-TV is a computer device that let's you watch regular TV and run PC functions at the same time. To have a PC-TV system, you will need a TV Tuner card. What's a TV Tuner card? The TV Tuner cards discussed in this PC-TV section here at Ruel.Net are actually TV receivers, like a TV set on a card, but you install that "TV-set-on-a-card" into the PC. If you are a newbie, do NOT get confused by the fact that it's on the PC. What some newbies get confused about PC-TV is that since it's on a PC then they *incorrectly* think it's TV-via-the-Internet.¹ To those newbies: Forget The Internet -- at least for one moment. Instead imagine this: You have a regular TV set sitting next to your PC, but then you take the TV hardware out of the TV set (except for the TV picture tube) and put the TV set's hardware on a card that you install inside your PC. That's a TV Tuner card: a TV-set-on-a-card for your PC. And like with a regular TV set, you would hook up a rabbit ears antenna, or hook up cable TV, or hook up a satellite TV receiver box, to the TV Tuner card installed in your PC and then simply watch regular TV but on the PC which is now your PC-TV. And just like you would watch television on a regular TV set, you would instead watch TV on your PC-TV which is merely a PC with a TV Tuner card (the "TV-set-on-a-card") installed inside the PC.

You can watch TV on your PC in a TV window
as shown in this example screenshot. Or you
can watch TV on your PC in full-screen mode.

HOWEVER, since it is on a PC, you can take advantage of any traditional PC functions you may have. For instance, you can use any internet connection for downloading TV listings from TVGuide.com, other supplemental information about TV shows, or even downloadable movies and TV shows that you may be able to access via the internet. One of the most interesting TV watching behaviors of consumers nowadays is what is called the telewebber behavior where the TV watcher watches regular TV (whether on a regular TV set or a PC-TV) and surfs the internet on a PC at the same time. The terms "telewebbing" and "telewebber" are actual terms used by analysts who have been following and studying the interactive television experience. The internet surfing to particular websites could be in response to what the TV watcher sees on the TV set -- such as watching MTV on cable television on the TV set and surfing the MTV.com website on the PC at the same time, or watching a football game on the TV set and surfing to a football team's website on the PC at the same time. Well, if you want to combine the two so that you see it all on one monitor, you can do that with a PC-TV system by installing a TV Tuner card in a PC.

PC-TV / HTPC / MCPC systems hit the big time when advertised in full-page newspaper ads to show these PCs are starting to go mainstream

You can call a PC-TV an "Entertainment PC" which is a Microsoft-Intel standard for PCs running Microsoft Windows but which requires the PC have a TV Tuner card to receive TV and cable broadcasts. You can actually follow the marketing shift in the terminology for these PC systems from the aforementioned Microsoft-Intel terminology in 1998 of the "Entertainment PC" which is then repackaged as the Microsoft code-named "FreeStyle" in 2002 with the eHome entertainment concept for the "NewPC" in 2002 in the form of the current Microsoft brandnamed "Media Center PC"  (MCPC) beginning in 2002 running Windows XP Media Center Edition (aka WinXP MCE) and where the WinXP MCE-powered Media Center PC comes full circle to be renamed by Intel with the resurrected specification name of the "Entertainment PC" (ePC) in 2004.² Also, most recently, there is the new "Lifestyle PC" terminology in 2004 as yet another new marketing nickname for PCs moving from the typical desktop office functions to entertainment, video, and music functions in the home.

You could have your PC-TV system in a desktop
tower PC case. Or you could have a PCTV, HTPC,
or a Media Center PC already put into the form
of a set-top box to be connected to your TV set
such as this Hewlett-Packard Media Center PC.

Media Center PCs, HTPCs, and PC-TVs could
become common appliances for household
living rooms such as this end-table concept
design for a Media Center PC by Onc and Co.

"PC Magazine Guide Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005" book at Amazon "Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 PC for Dummies" Book (eBook also available)

With WinXP Media Center Edition and the "new" Media Center PCs, Microsoft and the other computer companies, including Intel, etc., are catching up with what the PC-TV and HTPC enthusiasts have been doing for years putting TV Tuner cards in their PCs *without* the special MCE version of WinXP. (Click here for footnote information about Media Center PCs, and you can also click HERE to get an authorized copy of Windows XP Media Center Edition which Microsoft requires that you also buy with MCE-compatible PC hardware such as a MCE-compatible remote control, and you can also click here for a comment about this expected business model where Microsoft is yet again making more deals with OEM PC manufacturers to package a version of Windows with new PCs.) And now, PC-TVs, HTPCs, Media Center PCs, AV-PCs, PC-AV systems, ePCs, or whatever you want to call them are starting to enter the mainstream particularly when you can see full-page advertisements for Media Center PCs in major newspapers and also when "Dummies" books are being published about Media Center PCs. So, you can have such a PC system for yourself by getting a HP media center PC or a Dell media center PC (or even by ordering a comparable and some would say cheaper built-to-order Media Center PC that another company like Tigerdirect with Systemax builds in a tower PC box for you ... or you could look for another built-to-order computer assembler to do all the technical assembly work for you....)

But if opening up a PC and dealing with the hardware inside the PC doesn't scare you, then you can simply put one together yourself or upgrade whatever PC you may have (or have already bought or may have already put together yourself) by adding a TV Tuner card and installing the right software to make your own media entertainment PC system. So if you want to put it together yourself with your own hands, then keep reading....

WHAT IF YOU DON'T WANT
TO BUY A NEW PC: YOU CAN
UPGRADE YOUR EXISTING PC
AND BUILD YOUR OWN PC-TV BY
INSTALLING A TV TUNER CARD

So, what if you do NOT want to buy a new PC? What if you actually want to upgrade your existing PC system? What if you want to build a completely new PC system yourself? (Hey, there are a lot of people who like to tinker with their PCs and electronics, take apart and build PC systems, just like there are those folks who like to tinker with their cars and build hot rods.) Well, you can have your own PC-TV system as a "Media Center" for your "Home Theater" in your home right now without having to buy a whole new WinXP MCE computer by putting together your own PC-TV entertainment system in any free style that you want by equipping your existing PC with a TV Tuner card in your current PC -- and you don't need WinXP MCE if you don't want it. Add a TV Tuner card to your existing PC and you too can have your own entertainment jukebox for TV and video for your Home Theater. You can even attach your PC-TV to a regular TV set or a big-screen TV via the proper PC-to-TV connection in building your home media entertainment center system for your living room, or for your family room, or even for your own dedicated home theater room.

Cable and satellite TV companies have been coming out with specialized interactive digital set-top boxes and entertainment gateway boxes with personal video recorder (PVR) capabilities that consumers could hook up to their TV sets for personal television watching and recording for the home. (Cable and satellite TV companies say their boxes are "DVRs" meaning "digital video recorders" in order to be consistent with their marketing of "digital cable TV" and "digital satellite TV.") In case you don't know, you can "build" your own PC-TV system by turning a PC into a TV-capable unit with PVR capabilites for personal television watching and recording for the home without being locked into paying extra subscription fees that you may need to pay when using a proprietary set-top box or other proprietary entertainment gateway box. (You can also click here to read more about "building" your own PC-TV PVR system.)

The initial PC-TV phenomenon came out of the birth of TV Tuner cards for the PC. And then with the internet, you have the previously mentioned "telewebber" phenomenon where people are "interacting" with TV by using their PC devices in response to whatever they may see on TV. For instance, you may see a TV broadcast mention a website address and then you go to your PC to look up that address. Or another example is that you may be accessing the TV Guide website to look up today's TV schedule. And now, telewebbers are finding out they can install TV Tuner cards into their PCs to build their own PC-TV systems.

The PC version of 'WebTV for Windows' was an EPG
that was ahead of its time for checking out television
schedule listings with a built-in integrated TV picture.
Also, the PC version of 'WebTV for Windows' had an
enhanced TV capability for accessing interactive TV
data & info that may be included in a TV show.

And as well as the accessing of the always handy TV Guide website for television schedules, people are finding out about IPG / EPG programs (i.e., Interactive Program Guides also known as Enhanced Program Guides) for the PC-TV such as the PC version of Gemstar GUIDEplus+ for ATI cards, WebTV for Windows (included with Windows 98 and Windows ME), TitanTV, DigiGuide, UltimateGuide, and other TV guide programs for scheduling their personal "primetimes" and even automatically scheduling the recording of TV shows using some of the guides. And people are finding out that instead of buying fancy digital video recorders which are typically locked into monthly subscription fees, people are looking into building their own PC-TV personal video recorders so that they too can have digital recorder capabilities for personal television scheduling to schedule their own "primetime" schedule of TV watching. This continuing integration of TV-watching with the interactive accessing of information is driving people to want to merge interactive TV watching capabilities into their PCs for better personal television watching.

Watching Kristi Yamaguchi skate at the opening ceremonies
for the 2002 Winter Olympics in a TV window (Ruel was first
introduced to PC-TV while watching Kristi in a TV window
on a PC-TV computer during Kristi's earlier skating days)

This evolution is slowly happening in the United States and other parts of the world where PC-powered media features are invading into PCs and into consumer electronics found in homes around the world. TV will still probably be the dominant media force in most countries for some time to come, but PC-based functionalities will increasingly enhance and intermix with the TV world such as with PC-based TV-Tuner-card-equipped systems that you have with Home Theater PCs (HTPC), media center PCs, personal video recorder (PVR) PCs, other media-oriented PC-TV systems, **AND / OR** also taking advantage of broadband video capabilities including internet streaming video content of TV-type shows and movies from websites like Mediazone and Movielink -or- even broadband television (IPTV) services (which do NOT require a TV Tuner card) that various cable TV companies and telephone companies are getting into.

Here is a Black and White press photo of the new
Time Warner Cable Broadband TV service for PCs.
This IPTV-for-PC service is using RealPlayer and
is in testing in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego.
Expect any "Cable TV over Internet" service to
be closed and to only be accessible by cable TV
subscribers and NOT freely open on the internet.
Or expect an IPTV service to force the subscriber
to use a set-top box and not a personal computer.

As for me, you could say that I was part of that initial group of PC-TV users before the telewebber phenomenon ever happened. (I've been watching the overall interactive television developments on both sides of the TV on the set-top box side as well as on the PC-TV side for years if you haven't also checked out the set-top side of the website yet.) I've always wanted to watch TV on my PC. This goes back to my watching old sci-fi shows and movies about the future where the hero or heroine is playing with a computer-monitor device and watching live moving video on the monitor. Then much later on in life, I saw my friend's computer that had what is now an old Reveal TV300 card. I remember visiting his house and watching him resize the TV window while Kristi Yamaguchi was skating in the window. So, like saying "I want my MTV," I was saying "I want my PC-TV." Now, more and more people are beginning to say the same thing because of the fast-moving telewebber phenomenon.

WELCOME TO THE PC-TV WORLD

As for a little personal PC-TV building history, I bought what was in 1996 a new MiroVIDEO 20TD Live card and installed the card in a 486 PC at that time. (You can also click here for a quick nutshell early history on video, TV, and PCs.) Then I was using a WinTV-GO card on a Pentium system and an ATI TV Wonder card on a Celeron system both systems running either Win95 or Win98. Then I moved on to a Pentium III system running Win98 with the ATI TV Wonder card, and the WinTV-GO card, and a Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card all installed on the one PC-TV system at the same time -- keep on reading these pages to find out how I was able to get multiple TV Tuner cards to work on the same PC-TV system. And then after my faithful Pentium III system died because of my constant use of that system, I then moved on to a Pentium 4 system rebuilt with my existing spare parts and software along with finally upgrading to WinXP but still using the ATI TV Wonder card and the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card. (I ran out of spare PCI slots to put the WinTV-GO in the Pentium 4 system and so the WinTV-GO card goes to another family member's PC.) Although this may all seem to cost a lot, it really didn't because I've been very economical and very lucky with each system to keep out-of-pocket costs low by re-using parts such as re-using the TV Tuner cards and other cards from the prior systems to make a new PC-TV system. As well as being wise as to what to buy and how much to spend, you will have to be prepared to experiment to try to get whatever you have to work the way you want your PC-TV system to work. Electronics and PC solutions have become so ingenious that you can even build your own large-screen projection system for under $20 using an existing TV set or an existing PC monitor and a fresnel lens. And you can even find good cheap DVD players selling nowadays for about $40 or maybe even less if you look around. So, if you don't want to build or rebuild a PC, you can buy a new Pentium 4-based PC for about $400 or less if you look around and then install a cheap or mid-range TV Tuner card (for $50-to-$100) into the PC.

TVTonic interactive TV software showing
an actual on-the-air broadcast television
commercial in Microsoft Internet Explorer
using the WinTV-GO TV Tuner card to
receive the actual TV broadcast signal
(Note: this example is NOT internet video)

If all you want is ONE good TV Tuner card, and I know that most people will want only one good TV Tuner card, then click here for more information on cards you will want to check out. I like each of the cards I've used. My sentimental favorite is the ATI TV Wonder PCI card since it is the first TV card I've used with stereo sound (note that this is different from the cheaper "VE" version of the card which doesn't have stereo; also, FYI, my old Miro card doesn't have stereo sound). The WinTV-GO card is also very good and is a favorite among users even though it lacks stereo sound and is perhaps the cheapest TV card on the market.

But the one TV Tuner card that I really like is the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card which has become a very popular TV card with its PVR (Personal Video Recorder) record-and-playback, pause-and-instant-replay capabilities plus its very handy handheld remote control and it's simple TV-oriented on-screen interface which is easy to use when in full-screen mode -- playing back TV shows that you missed or paused can be addicting. I know that a lot of people want a good PVR solution and I know that a lot of people will want a remote control which they may consider an absolute must-have accessory when watching television (you will find the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card to be very competitively priced when compared to other cards that have remote control devices). I'm finding myself using the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card as the preferred primary card while using the ATI TV Wonder and the WinTV cards as secondary cards -- keep on reading these pages about using multiple TV Tuner cards and you can also click here to read more about using the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card for "building" your own PC-TV PVR. I have used these cards and I like these cards. But I know that unless you are really TV-crazy like me, you will probably want to get only one card to turn your PC into your very own PC-TV.

For an example description for installing a TV Tuner card, let's go back to my first TV Tuner installation with the MiroVIDEO 20TD card for a description of installing only one TV Tuner card (note: the Micro card is no longer being made). That particular Miro card came in both VLB and PCI versions when I bought it. Installation was simple: I opened up the PC by removing the screws for PC's cover and taking off the cover, inserted the card into a slot on the motherboard and screwed in the screw for the card, then replaced the PC case cover and tightened the screws, reattached the PC monitor cable and any other cables I may have taken off when I was opening up the PC, plugged in a rabbit-ears TV antenna, plugged in 1/8" stereo jack plugs of a wire into the TV card's speaker output jack and into the computer's sound card's input jack, installed the TV card's software, rebooted, and I had a working PC-TV. I was watching TV on my PC in a resizeable window or full-screen in up to 32-bit True Color on my computer monitor. Installation of a single TV Tuner card on most anyone's computer should be just as simple.

And once you have the TV Tuner card installed in the PC, you should be able to hook up a VCR to the TV Tuner card to watch movies rented from the local Blockbuster video store on the PC. Unless you already have a DVD drive, if you have a DVD player then you could try hooking up the DVD player to the PC-TV also as if you are connecting the DVD player to a regular TV. I have a VCR hooked up to both the ATI TV Wonder card (via a coax cable connection) and the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card (via a RCA cable connection) on my PC-TV. The DVD player has an S-Video connection to the ATI TV Wonder card unless I want to hook up the DVD player to the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card.

And if you wanted to, you could also try hooking up a videogame console such as a Sony Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo, or Sega to the TV Tuner card -- I've done this for realtime play (meaning just like what you get when connecting a videogame console directly to a regular TV set without any PVR-type delays) with connections from a videogame console to the ATI TV Wonder card, the WinTV-GO card, and my old MiroVIDEO 20TD card. PLEASE NOTE: Hooking up a videogame console to a TV Tuner card is just like hooking up a videogame console to a TV set -- but instead of connecting the videgame console's cables to the TV set's inputs, you are instead connecting the videogame console's cables to the inputs on the TV Tuner card. Generally, keep in mind that a TV Tuner card is a TV-set-on-a-card with the same video inputs like there are on a TV set. So don't get confused because it's a TV Tuner card -- because you are still making the connections to a TV even if the TV's inputs are on the TV Tuner card. (Note if there is no audio input on the TV Tuner card, then hook up the sound from the videogame console to the sound input on your PC's sound card.) And like with a regular TV set, you are still using the game controls on the videogame console. ALSO PLEASE NOTE: I don't recommend this if your TV card is always in PVR (Personal Video Recording) mode because then you will get the PVR-recording delay. With a PVR, you will always get a delay and will not be able to engage in actual realtime play. PVR-specific TV Tuner cards will be behind actual live "realtime" TV by at least one second or more because PVRs need that delay so that you can immediately pause and instantly replay video as well as for recording TV shows.³

If you can hook up a device to a TV set, then you could also try hooking the device to a TV Tuner card-equipped PC. Install a FM Radio card to listen to over-the-air FM broadcast stereo music and use your current CD drive to play music CDs, or add a multiple CD drive changer to play even more music CDs without ejecting-and-reinserting discs, or even "rip" your personal CD collection of music discs into your own personal MP3 collection of songs on the harddrive, and you'll have a great entertainment PC system that you can use for TV and movie watching, music listening, email, internet surfing, and "productive" computer activities such as word processing, desktop publishing, and spreadsheet number crunching.

You can watch TV in a window while doing
other computer functions on your PC. You
could also watch TV in full-screen mode.

So, this is what I have with my own PC-TV with which I may alternatively or simultaneously watch regular TV, watch a movie, listen to music -- all while I may be writing, checking email, or telewebbing by surfing the internet at the same time. Toss in Windows Media Player, Real Player, and the QuickTime Player and I can also watch the limited number of TV-on-the-internet offerings such as watching live Bloomberg News via the web (of course, you don't need a TV Tuner card to use Windows Media Player, Real Player, or QuickTime Player). Those internet streaming media players are mere extras because, IMHO, it is much more magical to be able to watch REAL television broadcasts, watch videotape movies, or watch DVD movies on a PC-TV. This is all a kind of "TV-On-Demand" entertainment system using a PC-TV.

There are many different TV Tuner cards
and those cards include the popular and
inexpensive WinFast TV 2000 XP card.

There are many different TV Tuner cards. Click here for several different featured TV Tuner cards. The previous paragraph just illustrates what you can do with TV on a computer. And remember whatever you can hook up to a regular TV set, you should be able to hook it up to a PC-TV through the TV tuner card. You would connect your TV antenna or your cable for regular cable TV or your cable from your digital cable TV box to the coax/antenna connection on the TV Tuner card just like on a regular TV set. You can do something like a daisy chain where you have your antenna or cable connection going into a VCR and from your VCR to the PC-TV through the TV tuner card (and if you have another TV set in the same room, remember that you can use a splitter to also get the antenna/cable connection to the other TV set). And then you can try other connections using any other inputs on the TV tuner card. Good TV tuner cards will have a regular video input (a really good TV tuner card may also have a S-Video input) so you can connect video output from a VCR or a DVD player so you can watch movies on your PC-TV. And you may also have an audio input on the TV tuner card to get the audio output from the VCR or DVD player -- otherwise you may need to connect the audio from an external device, such as a VCR, to the audio-in on your sound card. Note, if you use the regular coax with a daisy-chain connection from the TV antenna or cable TV to the VCR / DVD and then to the PC-TV, then you don't have to worry about getting both the video and sound. (You can click here for more information on connecting your PC-TV to the different connections.) So, you should expect the same inputs for antenna/cable, video, and audio on a properly equipped PC-TV that you would expect on a TV set or on a VCR.

(Continued: More on PC-TV multimedia....)

¹   For the folks who are asking about "TV-via-Internet" services on the net, those services could also be called "Video-via-Internet" services which would include such services as Intertainer and MovieLink. HOWEVER, if you want to watch REGULAR TELEVISION on a PC then you need a TV Tuner card and then you hook up a rabbit-ears antenna or some other traditional TV connection. Receiving regular television does NOT mean you have to be hooked up to the internet. The internet merely provides supplemental support for getting web-based information or for receiving any internet-based streaming video-on-demand for those folks who are asking about "TV-via-Internet" services.

²   You can click here for a screenshot to see what "My TV" will look like in the new "Media Center" PCs running Windows XP MCE (WinXP MCE). You will be able to find WinXP MCE when you buy a whole new "Media Center" PC from Hewlett-Packard and other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). Click here for some initial early reports on WinXP MCE. The early news in 2002 prior to the release of WinXP MCE was that WinXP MCE will NOT be available as a separate off-the-shelf product. However, more recently you can now get an authorized copy of Windows XP 2005 Media Center Edition but so long as you buy it with MCE-compatible hardware such as a MCE-compatible remote control -- click HERE if you want to get Windows XP 2005 MCE with a remote control. (You can also click here for some of my comments about the Microsoft WinXP MCE and Media Center PC business model.) If you want WinXP MCE on a ready-built PC, then you can buy a whole new Media Center PC. If you want a Media Center PC, then you can click here to order a custom build-to-order Media Center PC but if you want to do it all yourself where you install everything yourself then click here if you want to get your own authorized copy of WinXP MCE.

³   You can click here for more info about hooking up a videogame console to a PC.

NOTICE: Ruel provides many free links seen on these pages. If you buy anything, your purchases would be from a linked third-party website(s). The links are for your convenience since everyone asks for suggestions about products. The products should come with their own guarantees and warranties. As for return policies, the various online vendors who are linked should have return policies -- look at the specific vendor information carefully and decide for yourself what card, device, or other product you may want to get.