This is for anyone who is a pc techie. Has anyone ever downloaded satellite TV on their PC and if so: How was the software, the video and audio quality, was it worth it or was it just one of the many scams running around the internet to free individuals from their hard earned cash? I think that about covers my questions but feel free to answer any I may not have asked yet. Thanks

I think you need to clarify where you heard about this service, so you could get a better response.

You can do it through a TV tuner card, by connecting the satellite to your PC (pretty straight-forward and also beguiling). Image quality varies depending on the quality of the tuner card.

Now if you found a service which streams satellite TV to your computer, the quality can be very good or very poor, depending on the source, and streaming media can be laggy depending on the internet connection you have. Also, what kind of monthly charge are they implementing?

Provide more details.....

Ditto ..

Also, the quality will depend on your PC monitor; a CRT would be much better quality than an LCD, and then various LCDs are better than others.

I saw it on a link on a web page i was viewing and also it is spammed to my yahoo account sometimes. I googled it but could not tell if this was genuine or not. I thought someone would have used it before. A friend of mine has cable tv on his pc but i have not seen anyone with satellite tv. I have broadband internet access with Comcast Cable. The site claims that no additional hardware is needed. You download their software and voila!! over 2000 channels at your disposal. The site also warns that 80 percent of the satellite tv to pc sites are pretty much crap so you have to be selective in your choice. Check it out and let me know what you think. i would appreciate it much.

If its free and in the US, then it has to be FTA (Free To Air), otherwise they would be doing something illegal. If they are not in the US, you are, and your ISP may find out. FTA channels alone are pretty much all rubbish anyway, so I wouldn't waste your bandwidth.

Also, quality and resolution will be degraded as it is streaming over the internet, to compensate for speed (fps) the video has to be highly compressed. If others are using the same service, you can expect to see alot of buffering as well, meaning intermittent pauses while it frees up bandwidth to continue sending you the video stream.

Your friend probably just has a Video Capture card (eg; ATI All in Wonder) and plugs his cable into his PC. Thats a direct connection and would not be downloading anything over the internet.

I saw it on a link on a web page i was viewing and also it is spammed to my yahoo account sometimes. I googled it but could not tell if this was genuine or not. I thought someone would have used it before. A friend of mine has cable tv on his pc but i have not seen anyone with satellite tv. I have broadband internet access with Comcast Cable. The site claims that no additional hardware is needed. You download their software and voila!! over 2000 channels at your disposal. The site also warns that 80 percent of the satellite tv to pc sites are pretty much crap so you have to be selective in your choice. Check it out and let me know what you think. i would appreciate it much.


Whats the Link?

Whats the Link?

http://www.satellitetvtopc.com/?hop=damianmc

This is just one of many links. I found most of them when i Googled satellite tv to pc. Most of the services are a one time service payment/fee to access.

Yeah FTA .. saw that one .. most of them are located in China, or at least thats where they broadcast it from .. so its up to you .. more than likely there will be some subtitles also.

Just get Direct TV and share it with your friends ..
you can get multiple receivers under 1 account. ;)

BTW the several sites i just looked at, indicate to me that malware comes with that software, so I would also consider that first. Personally they could advertise 2000 channels of free pawn and PPV movies and I still wouldnt download it. ;)

Yeah FTA .. saw that one .. most of them are located in China, or at least thats where they broadcast it from .. so its up to you .. more than likely there will be some subtitles also.

So, you would not recommend downloading it? I am not much interested in foreign stations ( outside the USA). I just wanted it for sports channels because I already have a premium cable package but some sports stations are not in the pack. I am hoping this is similar to DirectTV and if not, then i wont bother.

No its not Direct TV, you will have a selecion of channels, seems HBO is one of them, but its illegal. They are in china though so thats why they are getting away with it.

Most of them are using this P2P network for it.
http://www.sopcast.org/

Its kind of like using Kazaa or Bearshare to watch ..
so expect ALOT of connection issues.

Basically it is FTA and some hacked (without permission) premium US channels.

Read More here:
http://digg.com/software/CableTV_without_a_Tuner_FREE_HBO_FOX_on_your_PC

Here's a free one .. you will see the kind of connection issues they experience,
and also most of the lame FTA channels they have .. it all comes from the same P2P networks :)
http://www.channelking.com/

plug one of these into a friends TV that has the sports channels ..
http://us.slingmedia.com/page/home

:)

Hey I am a victim of being scammed for $29.00 one time payment, I subscribed to PCbuzz, bunch of rubbish. They are stremlining, lots of pauses and most of the times the movies are not available. They offered the same thing over 2000 satellite channels so being being a sports fanatic I went after it thought I might be able to get some free Basketball, baseball games. Nothing at all. I wont recommend it to anyone.

Here is an interesting link on this topic

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg19325936.900?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19325936.900

.....Your friend probably just has a Video Capture card (eg; ATI All in Wonder) and plugs his cable into his PC. Thats a direct connection and would not be downloading anything over the internet.

I have that! It works OK most of the time, but it does crash now and again. I like it because I can "record" a program to my hard drive and save it or burn it to a DVD. I can edit the show (commercials) using VideoReDo Plus (best and easiest to use) and burn using Nero.

I was also able to transfer all my VHS tapes to DVD using All-in-Wonder. So now all my DVDs fit into one folder instead of two shelves of tapes.

I can also min' the TV, to a small screen, to the bottom corner of my computer screen while I am working on something else.

I have that! It works OK most of the time, but it does crash now and again. I like it because I can "record" a program to my hard drive and save it or burn it to a DVD. I can edit the show (commercials) using VideoReDo Plus (best and easiest to use) and burn using Nero.
I was also able to transfer all my VHS tapes to DVD using All-in-Wonder. So now all my DVDs fit into one folder instead of two shelves of tapes.
I can also min' the TV, to a small screen, to the bottom corner of my computer screen while I am working on something else.

Yeah I know someone that has used them from when they came out ..

But it shouldnt be crashing .. thats normally a sign of something else ..
Could be anything from Hardware incompatibility to corrupt or incompatible drivers, or some other hardware/software/OS issue.