External tuners are the easiest to connect to your computer, however, they tend to not offer as many features as the internal tuners do. These tuners range in price from about $50 to several hundred dollars, and can be connected via an internal adapter card or an external USB port. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled topic: Free HDTV on your PC… One way that you can do this is to set up your PC to receive and play free over-the-air HDTV signals by installing an HDTV tuner.Īn HDTV tuner is a digital TV signal receiver that is connected to your personal computer. (See Goodbye to Analog TV for details on that.) But even in the all-digital television world of the near future, we'll still have both Standard and High Definition broadcasts. television broadcasts must transition from analog to digital by February 2009, so at least one confusing factor will be removed by then. An HDTV signal can be broadcast over the public airwaves, either in analog or digital format. And finally, you DON'T need to have cable or satellite service to get HDTV broadcasts. Simply put, digital does NOT imply High Definition. A digital broadcast can be either Standard or HD. An analog broadcast can be either Standard or HD. Television broadcasts can be transmitted in either analog or digital form. Oh, and don't make the mistake of confusing 'Digital TV' with HDTV.

HDTV broadcasts can be transmitted at up to 1920x1080 pixels, so the picture is astonishingly clear by comparison.

And that's why Standard Definition TV pictures look so grainy, especially on a large screen. That's lower than the old VGA computer screens we tossed out 15 years ago. Although some TV stations are beginning to broadcast in High Definition, most TV signals are still Standard Definition, with a screen resolution of about 480x330 pixels.

Free tv tuner for pc