Phoenix, Arizona (PressExposure) October 08, 2010 -- For Major League Baseball fans the Playoffs are a special time of the year. After Spring Training and 162 regular season games the Playoffs are finally here. However, many of the games are played during the day so it is hard to watch them for many. A USB TV tuner lets you watch the games on your computer and they cost less than $100.
Keeping track of games on the internet or on a smart phone may be fine during the regular season but in the playoffs when every at bat and every pitch is huge, it just doesn't cut it. For the hard core fan who needs to see every pitch as it happens a USB TV tuner lets them do just that. According to David Jay, owner of LaptopTVTuners.info, "many baseball fans like myself would probably call in sick to watch the games if it weren't for their USB TV tuner." Jay also stated that he sees increased interest in USB TV tuners during March Madness.
USB TV tuners work with any computer that has an available USB drive and with most operating systems. They are easy to install, just plug them into a USB port, connect the TV signal and select a channel. Some USB TV tuners are the size of USB thumb storage drives so they are very. You can watch the games full screen or reduce them to a small window on your computer screen while you work.
To watch over the air TV signals, you need an antenna which comes with most tuners. Some have a built in antenna while others come with one that looks like an eight inch tower that sits on top of your desk. If you will be we watching TV near a major U.S. city the standard antenna should work fine. If you need better reception, upgraded antennas are available for about $30 but they are not as portable.
If you have access to a cable or satellite signal you can also watch cable or satellite signals with a USB TV tuner. A set top box is needed to watch premium channels but not standard channels. To watch standard cable or satellite channels you simply plug the cable into the tuner which is plugged into a USB port in your computer. If you are using a set top box it would be installed between the cable and the tuner. You must be a paid subscriber to a cable or satellite channel to watch it.
A USB TV tuner and either the software that comes with them or Microsoft's amazing free Windows Media Center software turn your computer or laptop into a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) allowing you to record television shows to watch later. A bonus of recording shows on a computer is that they can easily be edited or burned to a CD or DVD. And if shows are recorded on a laptop they can be watched just about anywhere such as an airplane or hotel room.