Watch satellite and terrestrial TV on your computer

Normally when you see a title like that, it is some sort of scam. Wait, come back! This is not a scam! What I'm talking about is hardware that adds a TV tuner to your home PC. Personally, I use an old co-ax tuner to watch and record both the standard terrestrial broadcasts (RTE1,RTE2,TV3,TG4) and satellite as fed from a skybox through a composite input (the yellow video wire). You could do away with the skybox completely by getting a 2 in 1 satellite/analogue tuner. At €79 it works out at the same price as a bottom-of-the-range Free To Air satellite box, but with the added benefits of picking up the Irish channels, being able to record and getting (and recording) HD broadcasts for free. In the future there is also the possibility of someone adding support for the Freesat EPG so you can't really lose especially if you have a PC pretty enough to sit under your TV.

Satellite TV (and radio)

Ah, satellite. Is there no end to the joy you bring? For many years now people all over Ireland have been reaping the benefit of Free To Air satellite transmissions. For a very modest outlay, you can get over 200 television and radio channels beamed into your home for no monthly cost. Since early May '08, these channels have been supplemented by Freesat: an offering that delivers an EPG, a range of High Definition decoder boxes and PVR functionality without a subscription. At the moment there are about 80 channels available on the EPG and the PVR boxes are not on store shelves yet but it's only a matter of time.

I'd like to make a special note of how good the satellite radio is: the sound is better quality than FM and you can get a great variety of channels. Well worth looking into!