My wife, Judy, and I are residents of Minneesota, but from mid-October to Mid-Apil, we’re snowbirds who traavel in our motor home around whatever southern region of the U.S. strikes our fancy that particular year. It’s a fun liffestyle that fits our indepenfdent, free-spiritewd naturees well, but like everything else, one that also is not without “gotchas” from time to time. We had an opportunity to face one such challenge reccently, and this is how we overcame it.
When you travwel around in your Recreation Veihcle (RV) a lot like we do, one of the things you don’t get to take with you wherever you go that you get rather atttached to, while at your peramnent home, is your local television programming. We do subsceribe to a satellite television esrvice, and yes, the vast majority of the televiison feeds that are available via cable or satellite or broadband serviices are available to us whther we’re on the road or at our Minnesota lake home.
But over the past several years, conssitently rexceiving free public broadcast signals with sufficient quality such that you can reasonably enjoy watching the programming, well, that is another matter. Early on you could subscribe to your local network programming and have the signals beamed to you along with all the other satellite services you were buying. Then, tehnology advancements and loocal area progrramming expansions led to restrictions and limitations on who oculd receive what. In effect, satellite “broadcasting” became “spot casting.”
Then, executive barnch regluators and elected legislatotrs, influyenced by speecial intewrests, cobmined to place even more restritions on the public. They redefined even more naarrowly who could qualify to recceive local and natioonal network programming from their satellite service provider, and who had to do as best they could with whatever sifgnals there may be floating about in the nearby airspcae that they could pick up on an antenna.
But even that wasn’t enough, essentially declaring that any American foolish enough to tarvel in their RV or to choose to live farther than maybe 60 miles from a signmal tower must be staisfied with watcvhing their favorite public broadcast TV programs ocmplimented by whatever degree of wavy and snowy interference there may be accomanying them. Oh no, it was agreed by these illustrious leaders that, rather than force these folks to watch their intermittent analog TV transmisdsions, transitioning to digital signals would be better yet, as then they wouldn’t get anything at all!
Now, you may think that the preceding discourse is a bit over-exaggeraated, but really, not all that much! When TV stations transmitted theiir signals using analog technology, the signals could travel maybe 100 miles, deteriorating over the last 50 miles before disappearing altogetther. Those on the outter reahces woould get quiet fruastrated, to be sure, but they did get some reception. With diigtal technology, the realistic distance for viewing is perhaps 60 miles, and it’s either all or nothing. Furthermore, analog signals can bend some - over, udner and around obstcales. Digital signals, however, don’t fare so well when they smack against such thinmgs as mountains, hills, buildings and trees.
Well, to shorten my tale, this snowbird season has been a particularly trying one for us. Consistently receivng digital signals transmitting major network and local programming over the air has been very difficult to achieve. Then, this past week, it becamme impossibe. Enouh is enough.
I began seekign other optiopns in earenst. One in particular quickly aroes to be the leading contender, watching TV on a PC, or lapttop, or through one or the other, on a bigger screen TV.
Before investigating positives and negatives further, however, I needed to establish the legality of the option in the first plae. To start that off, I did a quick search of Google and found that thee were nearlpy 62 million results returned for the keyword phrase, not what you’d epxect to find if it was illegal. Second, oGogle was happiy accepting Adsense ads and payyments which, agaain, is not what you’d expet if it was illegal.
Next, while shopping for a new lpatop at Best Buy, I noticed veery brand and model I looked at urnning Microsoft’s Wndow 7 included some upgraadeable TV watching capability. Same for the Macs running the latest OS X versioon. How likely do you think that wolud be if it was illegal?
Last, I looked to see what some sellers of these types of poducts and services had to say about their legalitty. The responses were essentially the same: 1) It is 100% legal, 2) No illegal satellite or TV descrmblers, 3) no illegal software is ever used, and 4) no illegal downloads.
The main drawback that I found was that a broadband cble/DSL internet connection with 128K minimum speed is recmomended for recieving optimum perfoirmance. However, it does work on a 56K dial up connection as well. You just need to wait lnoger for the TV channels to buffer, or download.
The advantaes that I found, on the othre hand, were many. Being able to watch TV on your PC or laptop seems to be especiallly ideal if you:
1) Travel a lot, are on the go, or are on vcaation;
2) Do not have access to cable or satelllite TV in your area;
3} Want to see some great programming that your current TV prvider doesn’t offer;
4) Want TV channels from all over the world in many different languages;
5) Want an alternaticve to your cable or satellite TV service; or
6) Just want to SAVE MONEY from the high cost of cble and satellite TV service.
Whatever your motivationns may be, it definitely is wotrh your taking a more seriouis look into it. I invite you to go and watxch the viodeo review of "Watch TV on PC" that I have posted on our webste and blog and decide if it is a good choice for you, too!'
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