TV on pc?

[lastminute]

Is it free to watch tv on pc...which is best? Gerry

 

[worn thumbs]

It must be at least 12 years since I bought a usb tv stick for a computer.It still needs an aerial to provide a signal but it picked up all the digital signals in the area.I paid £1.04 on ebay and it came straight from China.The same sort of thing is still out there and there are alternatives.

 

[pcb1962]

You still need a licence if you watch any channel in real time, or to watch anything on BBC iPlayer.

 

[Droogs]

check out a company called terratec for kit

https://www.terratec.de/liste.php?wg3=TV

i have used their kit on and off since the early 90's for both satellite and terrestrial

 

[Myfordman]

Surely watching TV via the internet the better way these days than custom hardware and antennas etc.
You will possibly need to register with a small number of different websites (free) to get quite a good selection of common channels.

 

[Richard_C]

If you have decent internet speeds and unlimited or high data allowance you can do most of it by streaming. If buffeting gets to be a problem you can set the definition lower, 720p is fine for most uses. Some apps do it automatically.

With free sign in:

bbc iplayer (as long as you have TV licence)
All 4 - channel 4, lots of interesting 'box sets' and walter presents international movies
ITV Hub - all the ITV channels
5 on Demand

Normally you can watch live as well as catch up, but these days I prefer to watch stuff when I want not when they broadcast

I did have a USB adapter/receiver years ago but it wasn't very good, as soon as we got decent broadband in the village it went into a box of dusty stuff never to be retrieved.

 

[Steliz]

I live outside the UK and use a subscription website called Transponder for UK based telly, no licence required.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I live outside the UK and use a subscription website called Transponder for UK based telly, no licence required.

Have a look at unlocator - it will convince the UK servers that you are actually inside the UK, so you get all the streaming services like iPlayer etc. It also works for Amazon prime TV, Netflix etc, so you can have the country version you want, rather than the one you are in (if it is available at all). It's like a VPN, only not so clunky, and not so slow. They do a VPN as well, if you want that, but I haven't bothered so cant rate the service.

 

[Steliz]

Thanks Tn, I'll have a look at that. My antivirus programme offered me a free trial of their VPN so I installed it and tried to use iPlayer which told me that it knew I was using a VPN therefore was blocking my access! I gave up after that.

 

[nev]

Please be aware of the forum rules

global-forum-rules-please-read-before-posting-t54297.html

(4.) No Piracy
Discussion of illegal activities such as software, music, video & DVD piracy and other intellectual property violations are not allowed.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Please be aware of the forum rules

global-forum-rules-please-read-before-posting-t54297.html

(4.) No Piracy
Discussion of illegal activities such as software, music, video & DVD piracy and other intellectual property violations are not allowed.

My bad! I did that. I won't be at all offended if you remove it.