How to watch TV on my computer?

How to watch tv on my computer?

• I want to keep this cheap, but quality is also important. to give you an idea, we have an 18 in. tv in our house that for a few days I switched in as my monitor and I really liked it because I had a tv and a computer in my room. but I had to put the tv back and now I'm stuck with my monitor again (which is noticeably better, to say the least... but no tv) as we speak the cable box is right here on my desk, but I can't plug it into my monitor. my computer has xp home so I can't use media center (which would be great if I could). so I'm not sure what to do now. I know I can put a tv card in my computer, but how do they work? will I have to power off every time I want to switch tv and computer? can I use both at the same time? what is the best option for me? (don't want to spend over $200)

• Answer:

  but a usb tv tuner like these https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tv+tuner&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=o7haT4zKHdSGhQertPGoBA#q=usb+tv+tuner&hl=en&safe=off&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-Address&tbs=p_ord:p&tbm=shop&sa=X&ei=rrhaT7mtM8KU8gPRufziDg&ved=0COEBELsNKAE&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=9f7efae2222f3b32&biw=1141&bih=677 the software to view tv will run on you computer just like any other video software so you will not have to power off you pc.