[WebTV] TV at leisure

I like watching TV at my leisure, that's why I had SKY+

I told it to record and then either watched my favourite programme in batches or when I had time, but SKY+ has a problem, there is only so much you can store on it, even with the latest SKY+ edition with increased hard drive space, there was also the problem that SKY+ only allow you to keep a programme for a limited time, so...

I bought a DVD Recorder, It's works Okay..ish, but getting the two to work together, nightmare.

So what to do?

OK, I've bought TV Cards and PVR's for my PC and recorded programmes to my PC to watch later, these are flakey and the compression is not so good.

Download TV programmes via BitTorrent and watch them on PC, - good Programme quality but the setup is still not ideal, I want to watch it on my 32" widescreen TV in my lounge, not on a 17" 4x3 monitor in my study.

Almost there...

Purchase a DIVx/Xvid Networked DVD Player (Kiss DP-1500), it does the job, I can watch TV programmes downloaded using BitTorrent to my PC and watch them from any room that I have the Kiss DVD player wired to the network.

Shame about the KISS DP-1500 player though.., when it doesn't like something, it decides to stop there and ...., after reboot/switching the unit off and then on... watch another programme instead...

I thought we had it...

OK, what have we learnt ? ...

• Download TV programme using BitTorrent Technology
• Store on PC / NAS
• Make available via network [ Ethernet - Fast ]
• Works best using PC / MAC
• Networked Player good but limited

My answer so far, buy a Widescreen TV with PC input, connect TV to a whisper quiet PC / Mac Mini / or standard PC in the cupboard , attach a wireless keyboard & mouse or a PCTV Remote Control, install up to date codecs and a good video player (one you are happy with) Windows Media Player comes as standard with Windows XP and codecs are available.

Relax, watch TV and wait until something better comes along.