Showing posts with label Computer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computer. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Watch Live TV Right On Your Computer - How To Watch Any Channel Online

With more and more forms of media hitting the internet, one of the most frequent questions we get is - "how can I watch live TV online?" With this in mind we thought it would be helpful to show you your options for finding any TV channel right on your computer.

There are all sorts of benefits to watching TV online as opposed to using your regular cable or satellite service. It's pretty impressive the features that are available for watching Tv from your computer.

When you watch TV through your home cable or satellite package you are always restricted in the channels that you can watch. There are usually extra fees you have to pay for movie, sports or "specialty" channels and many international or premium channels may not be available at all.

It's a lot different online. The TV services don't have the same restrictions as the regular cable or satellite providers so they are able to offer far more channels than you can find elsewhere.

There are two main options when you are looking for online TV services - let's go over each of them.

Option # 1 - Watch TV Online

There are certain websites that advertise having free TV channels that you can watch. Many people go hunting for this type of service but they are often disappointed with what they find.

With free online TV services there aren't very many channels to choose from. You may find some of the basic channels but the premium channels, movie channels or sports packages aren't available.

The picture quality is usually quite poor since there is no money being invested in these websites. They just don't put any money into bandwidth or technology so you will often that the video streams break up or you get disconnected easily.

We don't usually recommend these TV services since they can be frustrating and are also famous for installing spyware on your computer. The next option is a lot better for anyone that wants to watch TV on their computer.

Option #2 - Watch TV Online

There are online TV services that let you choose from literally thousands of TV channels. This includes all of the major networks, movie channels, specialty channels and even sports packages. You can also find thousands of international channels in all sorts of languages.

As you can imagine there is a fee for using this service, but it isn't expensive. You will be asked to pay a one-time registration fee which then makes you a lifetime member at the website. All the software is included and there are never any additional fees that you have to worry about. Just to warn you - there are a couple of TV services online that charge a monthly fee. Stay away from them - you are much better off finding a service that only charges the one-time membership fee.

We included a link at the bottom of this article that you can use to try a free trial at a couple of the top-ranked online TV services. We should warn you though - it's easy to get addicted!

What a lot of people love about this service is that if you have a laptop you can take it anywhere you go. It works no matter what part of the world you are in so it can be extremely handy for anyone that travels.

Considering the fee for this service is only about $50 for lifetime access, you can see how much value there is in this type of service. It's quickly gaining in popularity as the computer continues to become more and more of an entertainment system.

Watching television online has quickly become the option of choice for many people. It's a great way to find any TV show or movie that you want to watch without having to worry about a monthly bill. Enjoy!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

7.1 Computer Speakers - What Exactly is 7.1?

When you mention computer speakers it is hard to speak without mentioning Dolby in some way shape or form. Dolby labs have their hands well and truly within the audio sector. Dolby has developed some great sound reproduction methods and Dolby 7.1 is one of them. Dolby has come up with the naming scheme of the two numbers separated by a decimal point. The first digit represents the number of speakers, so in this case seven speakers. The second digit represents the one channel for the sub woofer or the bass channel.

Dolby is the brand name for the digital surround sound that is used on entertainment systems, televisions and computers. The point of surround sound is to place the sound where it is supposed to be. 7.1 computer speakers use the seven speakers to place the sounds in the right place. The 7.1 system is sometimes called HD sound because it has appeared with the latest HD devices such as Play station 3 and HD Televisions but Dolby were always going to develop new sound systems regardless of HD technology.

As with other Dolby systems the 7.1 computer speakers work by decoding all seven channels from just the left and right audio channels. The standard 5.1 channels that are the most popular currently will soon be phased out by the 7.1 speakers that offer a much better sound depth.

In order to take the two audio signals, left and right, and turn them into surround sound is quite difficult. Dolby are a clever bunch and they knew that in order for their system to be accepted they needed to integrate the new surround sound into the existing technology and so they developed it to fit with existing two channel systems.

To understand how the system works requires some pretty hefty mathematical technology. The standard left and right channels are extracted as they are, no signal processing required. The center channel is obviously the difference between the left and right. The back speakers are a little more complicated and require the signals to be phase shifted from the front channels by 90 degrees. Does the addition of an extra two speakers mean much better sound? It definitely makes a difference and the sound depth is unbelievable. The sound appears exactly where it is supposed to be.