TV telecast to computer monitor

Question

I wish to know whether it is possible to bring TV telecast to computer monitor in a non real-time. That means TV program is going on but TV is in a off position but you can see that TV program on the computer monitor.

Maha · Answer

Following are the two websites of the TV channels I watch. http://www.sunnetwork.org/suntv/ http://www.userrain.com/index.html I wish to whether it is possible to concurrently watch a channel on my computer monitor while different channel is watched on TV. Cable TV service Telephone service and Internet service provided by the same company Rogers.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

It depends a lot on the cable company. It depends on what they offer and allow. You can at least ask them what DVRs you can get that work with their service. If you tell us what the web site is for your cable company then I might be able to see what they offer. See Tivo . That is a very well known brand of DVRs. I don't know if you can use a Tivo with your cable company but if you can then I am familiar with them. I know that a Tivo can record programs onto a hard drive inside the Tivo box and then you can watch anytime you want to. You can also copy a program (over the network) from the Tivo box to your computer's hard drive for viewing on your computer. The Tivo box uses Linux. Tivo might be too expensive for you but as a new subscriber you can get a Tivo box at a good prioce if you watch for specials. As for decoding signals that the cable company scrambles (encodes) it depends on the cable company whether it is possible to record from their signal.

Maha · Answer

Your thread is very informative. I was a Sri Lankan and migrated to Canada. Here I watch cable TV channels telecast by Indian TV station. If decode equipment cost too much I wish to drop this idea.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

It depends on the type of signal that the TV is coming from. If it is a TV program from a broadcast station whether you are receiving it using an antenna or if you are receiving it using a cable company then you probably need a TV tuner. I of course do not know the details of how TV is broadcast in India but I assume a TV tuner of some type is needed. I find many when I search using Google. So in other words I think you are asking if it is possible to make your computer into a DVR. Note that the big barrier is that most channels from a cable company are encoded and you must have special equipment to decode them. So for that reason it is not possible to do what you want to do for most channels. If TV in India is like TV in America then you can use a TV tuner card only for shows that are broadcast over the air. There are two types of tuners for computers; USB and cards that go into a the computer. A USB tuner is very flexible but I have not heard of any USB tuners that have two receivers. You can get tuner cards that go into a slot in the computer that has two receivers so you can record two programs at once. If you are using cable then you might have or can get a cable box that has a serial interface. The output of the cable box can probably be the input to a tuner for the computer. With a serial interface you can have the computer change the channel. You might be able to do that. Or are you asking something totally different? Do you know what a Tivo is?