Many people are now using their computers to play and record their favorite TV shows.  Many computers are equipped with TV tuners to easily display TV on your LCD computer monitor.  Some TV watchers are going one step further and recording the shows that are being broadcasted onto their computer screens.

For people that like Tivo but do not want to pay an expensive monthly fee just to have access to a programming guide, computer users are coming out with open source software that will make your computer a glorified TV recorder similar to Tivo. 

Today, you can purchase a TV tuner that also works with your cable or satellite service, in addition, many TV watchers are using software on their computer to record the shows on to their hard drives.  There are even programs that will scour the internet looking for TV listings and record programs similar in practice to how Tivo records shows.

For people that aren’t too thrilled watching their favorite TV show on a smaller computer screen, many TV tuner cards include an audio and video output to transfer the TV signal from the computer to your home TV set.  The great part about this set up is that you can both time shift and place shift your favorite TV shows.  Most TV tuners cost from around $50 to $200 for top of the line models.