Satellite TV is a form of television signal that is provided by communication satellites. There are many methods of receiving satellite TV signals, and perhaps its most attractive feature is that it can be received on a laptop as well.
A fast broadband Internet connection is enough for an individual to get satellite TV feeds on a laptop today, and this has negated the need for expensive satellite TV subscription deals and other necessary equipment. A simple USB satellite TV connector is enough to receive these feeds on any device that supports a USB port, so watching satellite TV on a laptop or on a desktop is not an impossible task now.
Satellite TV is an excellent choice for people who reside in areas that are not penetrated by terrestrial cable TV connections. Satellite TV offers more than 3,000 different channels to pick from, so it is a useful choice for anyone living in some far flung areas. Till a few years back, a satellite dish was necessary for getting a satellite TV connection, and this dish needed to interact with a satellite set top box or a built-in TV tuner card of a TV set. Today, these instruments are no longer necessary, since a simple USB satellite TV connector will be enough to gain access to these same channels, thus allowing one to watch satellite TV on laptops and desktops.
How to Watch Satellite TV on Your Laptop
The very first thing that you will need to do is locate some satellite TV software retailers over the Internet, and a simple Google search will throw up plenty of options for you. Any of the options that arise will serve this purpose, and you may have to pay a fee between $10 - $50 to purchase this program. You will also receive a step-by-step manual instruction book for using this software, so anyone with a basic understanding of installing software will be able to manage this. Once the software has been installed, you will not need to pay any additional subscription fees for the channels, even when some new channels are added to the package. Moreover, no hardware equipment is required for this purpose, so the only cost that you will have to incur is for purchasing the software in the first place, and this expense will only be borne once. The ability to access more than 2,000 channels with such ease is definitely beneficial in the long run, and for this reason, more and more people are learning how to watch satellite TV on laptops. The very best satellite TV providers that can be found online are as follows.
* DirecTV
* DISH Network
* Sky Angel
You must remember that in order to make full use of this feature, you will need a PCTV card in your computer. Almost all modern laptops come equipped with this card straight from the manufacturer itself, but in some cases, this card may be missing. This card allows a computer to receive Free-To-Air (FTA) TV signals over the Internet, and then play the channels that the viewer wants to watch. In the cases when this card is not present inside a laptop, an external PCTV card needs to be attached to the USB port of the laptop, giving it the ability to receive the FTA TV signals.
If you already own a satellite TV dish and wish to watch the satellite TV channels on your laptop, then you will need to establish a connection between the dish and your laptop. For this purpose, you will need to purchase a DVB-S cable, which is solely meant for satellite TV for PC. One end of this cable will be attached into the USB port of your laptop, while the other end will be attached into the DiSEqC switch on the satellite TV dish, thus allowing seamless transition of the satellite TV signal into the laptop. Once this has been done, you can stream live TV to your laptop and view the thousands of channels that are provided for free.
Advantages of Satellite TV on Laptop
While you will most certainly need a PCTV card or a USB satellite TV receiver to watch satellite TV on your laptop, these are minimal purchases that you will need to make. Moreover, these are one time purchases that you will not have to incur again. This makes satellite TV a very economical option for TV lovers. The additional benefit of paying absolutely no subscription charges is also something that works in the favor of satellite TV. All these features make satellite TV ideal for someone who is living in an area that does not receive cable TV signals, or even for someone who wants an extra outlet for watching TV channels at home.
As long as one has a speedy broadband connection, watching satellite TV is not going to be a problem at all. It is cost effective, instantaneous, easy to set up, and offers a wide range of channels to pick from. What this does is that it gives TV viewers the power to choose between various sources, and this in turn leads to better services and higher quality options to pick from.
By Rahul Thadani
