{"id":29,"date":"2010-01-31T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/?p=29"},"modified":"2010-01-31T17:07:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T17:07:00","slug":"use-media-center-to-watch-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/31\/use-media-center-to-watch-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Media Center To Watch TV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the improvements in Windows Media Center, starting with Vista and fully realized with Windows 7, it is easier than ever to watch \u2018live\u2019 TV (from antennae, cable or satellite) and also watch \u2018on demand\u2019 Internet TV.<\/p>\n<p>You can also very easily use Media Center as a PVR (personal video recorder) much like TiVo or your cable company\u2019s PVR. If you already have a PVR or cable on your main television you can always use Media Center to add another viewing room. Or you can go all the way and create a complete Media Center PC to replace your PVR, output to your high def TV and to an audio receiver for a full home entertainment system.<\/p>\n<p>I have been using \u2018TV Cards\u2019 in my systems since 1997 to watch and record live TV from my PCs. I actually still do. I utilize dual monitors for increased productivity and when I am able, I\u2019ll watch TV up in one corner of one monitor while working. Sort of like a \u2018white noise\u2019 or radio while I work. Or, since I have my systems in my bedroom I can watch TV full screen on my larger monitor from my bed.<\/p>\n<p>With Windows 7 it is now SO EASY to set up, watch, and record if you desire, television that it seems silly not to.<\/p>\n<p>To watch \u2018live\u2019 television you have to have some sort of TV tuner card. I recommend the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hauppauge.com\/index.htm\">Hauppauge<\/a> line of tuners. Or the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amd.com\/us\/products\/pctv\/tv-wonder-tuners\/Pages\/tv-wonder-tv-tuners-for-the-pc.aspx\">ATI TV Cards<\/a> or their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amd.com\/us\/products\/pctv\/all-in-wonder-cards\/Pages\/all-in-wonder-cards.aspx\">All-In-Wonder<\/a> Combo cards. I have at least two versions of each card in 4 different machines and I can tell you they are great. If you system is new and has a high powered graphics card already you may want to go with a TV card only. Most new TV cards also come with remote controls! If your system is older, you may wish to use a \u2018combo\u2019 card (like the ATI). <b><i>For Internet TV you do not have to have a TV card.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>I was going to put up some detailed walkthroughs but there are already so many great ones available I thought I\u2019d just post up the links. All of them have great simple explanations, some have good video tutorials and other very good screen captures and descriptions.<br \/>Everyone is excellent and worth fully investigating if you have even the slightest desire to use Media Center to it\u2019s full potential. I like to help people utilize technology to be more productive, have more enjoyment and use it to it\u2019s full potential. I hope this helps some who are always asking me about this.<\/p>\n<p>So here are some great links, take them for what they\u2019re worth:<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/windows\/windows-media-center\/what-is-it\/default.aspx\" title=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/windows\/windows-media-center\/what-is-it\/default.aspx\">http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/windows\/windows-media-center\/what-is-it\/default.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/windows\/windows-media-center\/learn-more\/internet-tv\/default.aspx\" title=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/windows\/windows-media-center\/learn-more\/internet-tv\/default.aspx\">http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/windows\/windows-media-center\/learn-more\/internet-tv\/default.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The HowToGeek site has some great ones too!:<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/howto\/9166\/learning-windows-7-setup-live-tv-in-windows-media-center\/\" title=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/howto\/9166\/learning-windows-7-setup-live-tv-in-windows-media-center\/\">http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/howto\/9166\/learning-windows-7-setup-live-tv-in-windows-media-center\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/howto\/9376\/learning-windows-7-watch-tv-programming-without-a-tv-tuner\/\" title=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/howto\/9376\/learning-windows-7-watch-tv-programming-without-a-tv-tuner\/\">http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/howto\/9376\/learning-windows-7-watch-tv-programming-without-a-tv-tuner\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the improvements in Windows Media Center, starting with Vista and fully realized with Windows 7, it is easier than ever to watch \u2018live\u2019 TV (from antennae, cable or satellite) and also watch \u2018on demand\u2019 Internet TV. You can also very easily use Media Center as a PVR (personal video recorder) much like TiVo or &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/31\/use-media-center-to-watch-tv\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Use Media Center To Watch TV&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,33,18,13,8,19,1,11,15],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}