Watching TV on a notebook...

Here's two scenarios.

-Watching TV on an old 23" Zenith from 10-12 feet away (with my vision it feels like 20 laying in bed)...or...

-Watching HD TV on the 17" Inspiron 9300/9400 (due to the juiced-up video card, etc.) about 2-4 feet away in bed, or recording television on this laptop while watching the family 36" TV in the living room, etc.

Mind you, since my TV blows I don't often have friends over for TV in my room (the 23" Zenith) and I am going to purchase the Inspiron for MANY MANY more reasons than TV. In fact, I never intended the use of television 'til I discovered the power of HD on the video card...more enjoyable TV, DVD-watching experiences, recording, etc.


Does this make any sense? Could I prevent myself from a higher cable bill? (giving the Zenith to my sister and just using the notebook as my "room-TV")


I know you need a TV Tuner:

-Would u gather that the TV Tuner/remote on the Dell website is too expensive? Could i find them elsewhere cheaper?

-Do i have to pay a seperate cable bill for the use of TV on the notebook?

-Wireless. I'm hearing about the Slingbox for $200. How does this work? Can i take my Notebook anywhere and watch TV? watch recorded TV? Explain.


THANK YOU! Recommendations, experiences, costs, suggestions, opinions are appreciated.

 

Alright, you can watch TV on your Ispiron. If you want cable, you need to have it plugged into the wall jack. If you can manage being on antenna, then you can ditch your cable.
Your not going to pay anymore to have cable on your laptop from your cable provider. That really doesn't matter so you don't have to worr about it.
The Slingbox you need cable if you want all your channels. This is how that works, the slingbox plugs into the cable jack. Then that goes to the internet. Then you go online i believe and your watching your TV online. Im not to sure on that but if you get slingbox, i believe you need internet to view it on the laptop.
Does that make sense? Just do a little research yourself on google and on these forums. There was a question just like this posted just very recently. So just look around a little and if you have questions come back here.

 

You could also do something like the Slingbox, but it's not going to be HD. I don't think the TV tuners on the market offer HD anyway, though someone can prove me wrong.

 

it all sounds like too much work...

 

I know you need a TV Tuner:

-Would u gather that the TV Tuner/remote on the Dell website is too expensive? Could i find them elsewhere cheaper?

yes you may be able to find them cheaper but if u buy ur laptop with MCE which i assume u would if u want the tv and recording possibiltys i would juts go the easy route and get dells

-Do i have to pay a seperate cable bill for the use of TV on the notebook?

no your tv is just like you 23 inch , i.e. dont pay extra but u need to run another cable to your room or add a splitter by the 23 inch that can reach your notebook

-Wireless. I'm hearing about the Slingbox for $200. How does this work? Can i take my Notebook anywhere and watch TV? watch recorded TV? Explain.

this site has a slingbox review

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=36135

enjoy

 

Like some of the people who responded to the Slingbox review, I'm going to "wait until someone takes it to the next level" (which i'm assuming could be this year).

I was only going to begin watching TV on the Inspiron due to its beautiful wide screen, DVR, and HD capabilities. If technology isn't there yet, it's not worth ditching the 25" (i made a boo-boo, it's 25) TV for a 17" laptop...yet.

As usual, you've been a good help. I think I'm starting to get a little TOO giddy about buying a brand new laptop and I'm jumping too many fences here. We'll see how the 'Net and DVD-viewing goes before going into TV...

I guess :-\

 

you can get a USB digital TV receiver for your laptop from www.ebuyer.com
i was gonna get that for my laptop plus a projector so i can lying on my bed and watch TV, DVD or play game on the wall, but the proector cost alot

 

r u still gonna get it without the projector? 17" wide screen on your bed is like watching a 42" 10-15 feet away

 

i got one question here..i am planning to buy acer aspire 5514. the main reason is because it has tv-tuner(dvb-t).however, i would like to know the performance of the tv tuner of this notebook. is it good?or do i need super big external antenna. i'm going to stay in sydney anyways

 

my room is quite small and my plan was point the projector toward the seiling which like 6-8 feets away when im lying on my bed.
it seem like i can't get good digital tv signal in my room with the freeview channels when i was testing my flatmate's freeview box, so i going to borrow a USB digital tv receiver from my workmate and see do i have any luck with that (it should receive different channels and more than the freeview box).
if everything work fine then i will only need a S-video cable so i can connect my laptop to my 21" width screen (and of couse my own USB tv receive too ).

fingers cross

this is the link for the one that i will be getting if everything go on well

 

Visit www.snapstream.com. You may find what you are looking for here. You can record SD or HD on a server computer in your home, and then use the Link product to watch over your home network. Tons of our customers do this all the time.

Disclaimer: I work at SnapStream.