Streaming live TV programs through wireless connection or watching TV using USB TV tuner?

[hajime]

Hello. My TV at home is connected to a Now tv box. I hope to watch TV on my MacBook Pro, desktop PC and iPad 2 as well. What suggestions do you have? I heard that it is possible to watch streaming live TV programs on computers and iPad through wireless connections. What are the pros and cons of using this method vs. getting a USB TV tuner? I can imagine that with the former approach, several devices can watch different TV programs at the same time while the 2nd approach requires different TV tuners for different devices. Also, watching streaming live TV may not be enjoyable due to interruptions caused by wireless connection?

I found the following products:

USB TV Tuner
http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/prod...st.aspx?IID=18

Steaming device
http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/Prod...il.aspx?Id=524


I heard that the digital signals used in Hong Kong is DMB-TH.

For the Avermedia USB products, I can see a price gap of over $130 among different stores. How come?

Any user experience/recommended products appreciated. Thanks.

[MrMoo]

Check this weeks PCM magazine for iPad friendly TV & movie websites.

DVB USB TV adapters vary in price per the number of channels you can simultaneously view, sounds a bit stupid but consider recording programs on one channel and viewing on another. The bottom of the price range devices have really bad signal handling and need a big antenna and better signal.

I think it's the MyGica D689 which is really cheap with poor reception, I have another that is a lot better but it looks like they have all new models this year.

[hajime]

Thanks for the reply.

[pc-chef]

Hi,
when comes to NowTv then I am afraid that you will not be able to watch on iPad or any other PC even when you buy TV card, unless this card will have composite connection. NowTV is not broadcasted by air on such but is distributed like any other IPTV, meaning - it is already a streaming done over Internet to your place. You need to use special set topbox to decode channels and view them on your tv - one channel at the time. so buying USB tv dongle even with 2 or more tuners will not allow you to watch 2 different channels at the same time, not even record one and watch another. You will need for this two settopboxes from NowTV.
When comes to streaming then you should consider of setting up additional device like volcano or create a dedicated PC that will have TV card, some large hard drive, decent graphic card and good CPU. then you should be able to set up system that will grab signal either from NOwTV or terrestrial TV, convert and stream to your all devices that you wish to use (of course those devices have to have been connected to LAN either by wire or wireless).
system you can use is either Windows based or you may go with Linux. So it is doable but require some knowledge about how to do it, or you can hire a pro who will advice you on which solution will be suitable for you.

one more thing: using nettop and USB tv dongle will not give you ability to watch or stream tv over your network, they are to slow to do this.