TV on laptop

[Pete_5112489]

I'm about to buy a new laptop (for work not just as a tv) and was interested to see if anyone can tell me how I can set it up to watch TV in a caravan, or elsewhere. I would use it mostly as a second TV to watch the football and Tour de France instead of Big Brother! Also if I brought my sky box could that be connected to it too?

Cheers

Pete

 

[rob_jax]

Hi Pete,

If you search the forum - look at the top of the page for the blue box with "Forum Search" as the last item - there have been several threads on this subject.

In summary:

The TV tuner cards for a laptop are not very sensitive and nor are they as good quality as a top brand TV - but should still be better than a cheap TV and may struggle in a weak signal area

Laptops screens don't have the same brightness as a modern LCD TV - but still usable.

Buy the best quality / value for money TV tuner card you can find - you'll need to do some research on the PC forums.

Try to find a system that doesn't require loads of extra cables or bits that you can lose - either a PCMCIA or USB based adaptor that doesn't need an extra power supply.

Digital boxes usually have a SCART output (that big black 21 pin connector) to the TV - and you probably won't have one of these on your laptop so you may not be able to connect a SKY box.

Robert

 

[MooseontheLoose]

Hi,

I bought a Freecom DVB-T tuner aerial which I have admittedly only tried twice on sites in Derbyshire and Leicestershire and it worked ok.

It cost me

 

[Fouldsy]

We used to use a laptop with a USB TV adaptor, the picture was generally okay and you will need better speakers than are onboard the computer.

We did move to an LCD which we also use at home, it is far far better.

Remember the old one 'jack of all trades but master of none' that sums up the laptop/tv experience.

You could spend less on the laptop and buy a TV?