Watch TV on your PC whenever you like

With the rise of cable, satellite and Freeview TV, the massive choice of programmes now available is both a blessing and a curse. Freeview alone has around 100 TV channels plus a large number of digital radio stations, while satellite and cable subscribers have dozens more. Trying to keep up to date with all your favourite shows can become almost impossible.

In the old analogue days, a trusty video cassette recorder (VCR) was enough to record the odd programme for watching later. But VCRs are disappearing fast and the modern equivalents, hard disk recorders, ­ are still fairly pricey. In this article we will show how you can stop recording TV altogether, using just a PC and a broadband internet connection.

We will explain how to watch TV shows from the most popular channels (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky) whenever you want, and even watch live TV from some of these – ­ all completely legally and absolutely free.

No add-ons for your PC are needed, just a decent broadband connection and an up-to-date web browser: we recommend a recent version of Internet Explorer or Firefox, as Google Chrome, Opera and Safari may not be supported by all sites. And if you still want to record TV broadcasts, we will also look at what you will need in your PC to do that.

Finally, for movie aficionados, we will also explain how to rent or buy downloads of the latest blockbusters legally.

Ditch your VCR
Although you could replace a VCR with a newer form of recording device, it’s now possible to stop recording entirely and stream television programmes whenever you want to watch them. This means there is no need to worry about setting timers, digging through television schedules or recording shows at all.

With a streaming service, programmes are stored by the television service on its servers, and you simply connect up to watch whenever you want. When you start watching, the server sends the programme via your broadband internet connection and as you don’t have to wait for the programme to download first it’s normally ready to play in just a second or two.

Streaming video has been technically possible for ages, but in the past you would have needed all sorts of technological trickery to be able to decode and watch video, such as special add-in cards and expensive professional software. Now all you need is a home broadband connection and a web browser.
The main attraction of streaming TV is convenience. If you want to catch up with episodes of a show (or watch them again) without having to go through the hassle of remembering to record them, it’s perfect.

You won’t have piles of unlabelled VHS cassettes to wade through, and most of the services we will be looking at make it very easy to find the particular show and episode you are interested in.

Another advantage is that you can use almost any desktop PC, laptop, or even some mobile phones to watch these services. Even games consoles such as the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii can access the BBC iPlayer, and Sky TV access for the Xbox 360 is promised.

What you will need
If you want to stream television on a computer, you need a computer, a decent broadband internet connection and a modern web browser. Sadly streaming is too demanding to work on a dial-up internet connection, and very slow broadband connections may also have trouble with high-quality television streams.

We recommend a minimum of a 2Mbits/sec broadband connection ­ – the BBC has a handy speed tester that shows what kind of programmes you should be able to watch. If you find that a slow broadband connection is limiting your ability to watch TV programmes successfully, check out our complete guide to improving broadband speed.

It’s also important to remember that streaming high-quality video files involves sending a lot of information via your broadband connection – ­ an hour-long show can require as much as 1-2GB of information to be transferred, so watching regularly could be a problem if your broadband connection limits the amount of data you can download. Click here for a useful tool for measuring the amount of information downloaded via your broadband connection.

Windows (XP or later) and Apple’s OSX operating systems are widely supported by online streaming services, but Linux users may occasionally encounter problems.

If your favourite browser has not been updated for a while, you might need to download and install the latest versions of some add-ins, such as Adobe Flash, to be able to watch shows. Installing the latest version of your browser will often do the trick. In case you have problems with any particular service mentioned here, we’ve listed links to the requirements for each on the opposite page.

Finally, don’t forget TV licensing requirements. In order to watch live television broadcasts streamed online, you need a TV licence. However, no licence is required to watch programmes that are not being simultaneously broadcast live, such as ‘watch again’ or ‘catch up’ services.