Written by James Fohl

Pretty much everybody who owns a modern computer system knows that is possible to watch DVD movies on a computer equipped with a DVD drive. Many other computer users also know that it is even possible to download episodes of television shows that are viewable on their computer monitor.

Something a lot of computer users do not know however, are that television tuners exist for both desktop and laptop computer systems that allow the user to watch the same television they would see on their television sets on their computers.

The secret is not a piece of computer software, but rather a piece of computer hardware, known as a television tuner card. These pieces of computer hardware pretty much take the television cable signal and displays it either in a resizable window on your computer screen, or takes up the entire screen.

TV tuner cards for desktop computers are not something new. In fact, they have been around for quite a long time. For example, Apple made a black cased computer system back in 1993 that featured a built in television tuner card.

Television tuner cards can be purchased from large electronic stores, and can easily be installed in a desktop computer case. You simply open the case, insert the tuner card in an empty PCI slot, install the bundled software and you are good to go. Television tuners are now even available for laptop users, although these tuner cards are external devices that plug in to the laptop computer via a USB port.

Television tuner cards have many wondrous uses for computer users. They free up desk space, which is a major plus in crowded business offices and cubicles. Also, with the sophisticated bundled software, users can now digitally record all of their favorite television shows. With these recorded copies, they can edit out the commercials and burn them onto DVDs to watch them on their larger television sets. Third party software even exists that give users of television tuner cards even more power. These third party software titles allow users to tell the program to automatically record a list of programs, help automatically delete the commercials, and even record a television broadcast directly to a CD or DVD as it is being broadcast.

Television tuners are not without their disadvantages, however. Topping the list is the fact that the cards still require a cox cable. This means that your desktop computer must be situated where the television cable runs. It also means that if you were hoping to be fully mobile and watching your favorite television shows with your laptop, then you are going to be quite disappointed, as a TV tuner takes the mobility usage out of a laptop computer.

If you can put up with these slight problems, and are itching to do both your computer work and watch the local newscast at the same time, then perhaps a television tuner for either your desktop or laptop computer is a great idea.