Google Search: torrentbot. It's amazing how people around the world innovate to save the rest of us some time (and money). Case in point: the ability to watch our TV shows, where, when, and how we want it. Join bittorrent technology with IRC, Jabber, and a smattering of RSS, and you get torrentbot.
However, what if you don't want to go the bittorrent way? What if you still like the old-fashioned, pipe-it-through-my-cable way? Well, you'll have to pay, right? Pay the cable company and then pay TiVo, or ReplayTV, right? Actually, no. I hope I got your interest. What I'm about to tell you has been around for years, but I just learned about it. PC users, especially here in the US, have been in the dark about this for quite a while, but the hardware to do it finally has been made easily available. Heck you can buy it from buy.com!
Sorry for the tease, now on to the story. You can watch your shows for free via satellite. Wait, I know what you're thinking, but this is completely legit. Only problem is, you might have to know how to speak another language. Satellite systems orbiting the earth are constantly sending back TV transmissions that you can legally pick up and watch (search google for the term "free to air"). You just need the hardware to do it -- least of which is the dish and a receiver. But if you already have a PC, all you will need is the dish, purchased from your local consumer electronics shop, and a card to pop into your PC.
From what I've read, the software to watch TV is packaged with the PCI card and it's packed with features such as timeshifting and timed recording. If you're so inclined to do, get few third party software programs and you can have yourself a TiVo-like unit without the costs.
There are definitely major downsides to doing this all yourself: time and patience. You also have to know how and where to point your dish to the right satellite. Fortunately, there's a website for you to locate satellites: LyngSat. There are also pluses of going this route. One is cost (one-time cost). Considering that I pay $400/yr for cable, the cost is recouped after a year. The other plus is the format in which the show is saved. The digital transmission stream (TS) is not much different than that stored on a DVD (MPEG2). The possibilities are endless with what you can do with that MPEG2 file -- that is, with what is covered under fair use, of course.
For my purposes (PBS kids' shows like Sesame Street for my son), this is the perfect setup. After all, PBS does stand for Public Broadcasting System (i.e. meant for the public free and clear), I'm just updating my hardware from rabbit ears to the 21st century of digital satellite reception. There are a number of satellites serving countries all around the world, all available for you to watch. I hope to teach my son a foreign language one day and this will be a major teaching aid.
Posted by johnvu at October 6, 2004 05:08 PM