Bruce: Watch TV on your computer

Not wasting quite enough time with your computer? Our tech columnist, North Beach computer guru Bruce Richardson, tells you how to watch TV on it:

Cable vs. Net
My last article, “X the DVD” spawned a series of interesting questions like “can we ditch Cable and just use a computer?”  Well you can certainly watch TV or Movies on your computer, but I am not sure that most people would want to ditch their Cable.
First, let’s find out what you can get on your computer.  The best place to get movies and TV shows is hulu.com.  This is a free site although you may get some commercials at the beginning of a show.  If you already use Netflix, you can watch movies and TV shows on your computer. You can also cruise your favorite network, CBS, NBC, ABC, SYFY, etc., and get content. Although it will not be ‘prime time’ content and it is usually not ‘live’. You can also actually hook your cable to a card for your PC.  They run about $80.00.  This works only if you have a large monitor.
Most every computer, Mac and Windows, already have a pre-installed media player that will work just fine.  You don’t have to buy anything to watch TV or Movies.  But, you will not get live TV or that just released movie.  And the answer has nothing to do with technology.  Technology is fully capable of receiving and displaying live TV or movies.  What’s up?
There are three forces at work here: Content, Content Providers, and Appliances.  You may want to expand your thinking a bit in talking about these three things.  Content is a news story, your favorite TV series, a movie, a video game, even a phone call.  Appliances include a radio, a television, a computer, and your Iphone.  Content Providers include cable companies, networks, the North Coast News, a telephone company, anything that produces or ‘carries’ content. The reality is that you could receive all content on all appliances these days – except the radio.
Chances are you did not watch the Super Bowl on your Iphone even though it is capable of doing so; same with your computer.  The Content Providers don’t want you to.  They want you to watch their advertisers on their preferred media.
Currently, the North Coast News provides content via paper distribution, the Internet, and you can get the North Coast News on your Iphone via an RSS feed.  They could produce a TV show and distribute content that way, but the paper makes money from ad revenue and those ads are on paper.  The Internet could add additional revenue but there is currently only one advertiser on the Internet site of the North Coast News.
It is basically the same model used by the networks.  The networks generate huge revenues from TV commercials.  You can watch TV on the Internet, but not the most current content.  They will make as much money as possible from the shows first, before they will let you watch for free.
There is another thing to consider before ditching your cable in favor of the Internet.  Television is a very social network, although you may not think of it that way.  We all grew up with a television.  Most watched it with someone else, and with family.  Most ‘water cooler’ talk is about that show last night, although Facebook talk is creeping in.  It is a little tough to invite folks over to watch a show on the Internet, unless your computer is hooked up to the Plasma TV(which you can do, of course. It is just a large monitor).
So it really does depend on what you like to do.  If you are a sports fanatic, you should keep your cable.  You will not see every game on the Internet.  If you must have a live news broadcast, keep your cable. If you like older movies and older TV shows, give hulu.com a try. If you are sick of commercials, try finding content on the Internet from your favorite network.