How To Watch TV And Movies On Your Computer By Gabriel Adams At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Watching TV and Movies on an actual television is SO “last century!” Today, the internet is the ultimate multimedia machine, and that doesn’t just mean listening to music or watching the occasional music video. That means TV and Movies online! You’ll need to know where to go to watch TV and movies on the internet, and how to hook your computer up to your TV.

Where to Go To Watch TV and Movies

There are three main places you’ll want to visit for online video content: TV channels’ websites, movie websites and user-uploaded websites.

TV Channels’ Websites

Almost every TV channel you can watch locally and on cable now has a website. And more and more of these sites are adding clips and/or full episodes of content right on their websites. When watching local television on TV take note of websites mentioned during broadcasts and commercials.

iTunes sells many of your favorite TV shows for one or two dollars per episode, although this isn’t a big deal.. iTunes is also rife with DRM-plagued content, which causes compatibility issues with mp3 players and so on.

Movie Websites

Amazon.com has a section called “Unbox Video Downloads” that allows you to actually rent movies online. Clearly this is the future of renting movies! On-Demand is cool, but the internet is definitely going to take-over in this arena.

There may be other websites where you can watch officially released movies; go to your favorites search engine to find out.

User-Uploaded Websites

One of the main places people are going to watch video is the ever-popular YouTube, whose website motto is “Broadcast Yourself.” On this site you can watch videos of every different kind. This includes TV commercials (both old and new), TV shows, music videos, and tons of other types of videos. Generally, movies are rare on this site.

YouTube consists of videos that have been uploaded by its users (people just like you) and the quality is therefore very sketchy. The site is a permanent fixture in pop culture nonetheless and is worth visiting often.

Other sites, too, allow you to watch TV and movies online due to user-uploaded content. The quality is, again, only here-and-there. Go to your favorite search engine and type in “places to watch TV online.” You’ll find hundreds upon hundreds of sites! Enjoy!

Adapters that Allow You to Watch Local TV Channels On Your PC

That’s not all—you can actually watch TV and movies, including local TV, streamed from your computer but displayed on your actual television! Now THAT is the REAL wave of the future!

Many laptop (a.k.a. notebook) computers have an S-Video or VGA output. S-Video is a circular plug with 4 holes on each side and two smaller square holes on top and bottom. VGA is an almost-rectangular-shaped plug which is the same plug you’d use to connect a computer monitor. To see what one looks like, look at where your VGA monitor connects to the back of your desktop computer.

All desktop computers have VGA outputs (hence the monitor plug just mentioned). Desktop PC’s may also have other video output types, but it depends on what video card you have. If you have not purchased and installed a special video card (such as one by a company like ATI for example) VGA is probably the only type of output your desktop PC has.

To connect a computer, you’ll need to first make sure your television has an S-Video or VGA input. If it does, simply purchase an S-Video or VGA cable and connect to your TV.

If your TV does not have an S-Video or VGA input, it most definitely will have a standard RCA video input (AUX input, etc.). If not, your VCR probably has such an input. You’ll need to purchase an adapter. Here are the types you’ll need:

* For computer with S-Video and TV with RCA, get S-Video to RCA adapter
* For computer with VGA and TV with RCA, get VGA to RCA adapter
* For computer with VGA and TV with S-Video get VGA to S-Video adapter

You can simply search for these online or call your local electronics or computer store. Local stores (instead of corporate big chains) are often more helpful than others! Just ask; they love to help their customers find what they need! If you fail by calling one store, call another until you get the info you need!

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