Set up a home entertainment system

Downloading movies
Any sentence containing the words ‘downloading’ and ‘movies’ is usually followed by another rather serious one containing the word ‘illegal’. But these days there are many legal ways to view the latest films on your computer without buying a DVD.

Apple’s iTunes software offers films to rent or buy. Recent films cost £10.99 to download and keep or £3.49 to rent, while older titles are £6.99 to buy or £2.49 to rent. Once you download a rental film from iTunes you have 30 days to start watching it, but as soon as you click the Play button you have 48 hours to finish watching the film before the licence expires. It’s also possible to download HD movies, but annoyingly these only play on Apple’s own TV media streamer – you can’t just watch them on the computer.

If you own a Microsoft Xbox 360 games console and subscribe to the Xbox Live Gold service you can download movies from the Xbox Live Marketplace. There are a wide variety of movies available and more than 100 titles available in HD. To make a purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace you need to use Microsoft Points. Amazon.co.uk sells 2,100 points for £18, so most films cost around £2 or £3.50 for HD. Lovefilm is also worth checking out because, unusually, many of the movie downloads it sells also include a copy of the movie on DVD.

The ultimate television
With your computer connected to a television it also becomes a brilliant way to watch TV programmes. BBC iPlayer is one of the most popular sites for TV on demand. It offers BBC programmes from the last seven days, ready whenever you want to view them. Radio shows you may have missed and live radio broadcasts are also available. And it’s free. However, it’s only available to UK internet users and to make the most of it you’ll need a reasonably fast broadband internet connection.

TV shows can be played direct on the site (known as streaming), but if you want to play them on a big screen, or even a projector (see 'The big screen' section) it’s best to get higher-quality versions. You can download these onto your PC and the programmes will be available for a 30 days. If you choose to download a high-quality version of a show, you will need to install the iPlayer Download Manager. To do this, select a show and click the Download menu in the bottom right corner. Select To Computer and you’ll be prompted to install the Download Manager.

The application uses peer-to-peer technology to download files, which means the TV shows are downloaded in chunks directly from the hard disks of other iPlayer users. Once you download a programme, you become part of this peer-to-peer network – when another iPlayer user downloads the same show, parts of it may be transferred from the copy of it on your PC. There’s no security risk involved, but by default the iPlayer will continue sharing videos when the player is closed. If you have a broadband internet connection with a usage limit this could be a problem – if so click on Settings within Download Manager, then remove the tick from the option ‘Allow programmes to be shared when you exit Download Manager’.

Other on-demand TV services include ITV Player and Channel 4’s Catch-up. Another service offered by Channel 4 is 4oD, which is an application similar to the BBC iPlayer Download Manager. 4oD (short for ‘4 On Demand’)provides access to the last seven days’ TV and lets you watch a variety of archived films and other programmes, some of which are free.

Record and rewind
If you have a computer running Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate you can use it to record television programmes. These versions of Vista include Windows Media Center which, if you have a suitable TV tuner installed, can show live TV or record programmes to the hard disk.

Media Center can pause live television and has a brilliant Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) so you can see what programmes will be on many days in advance and schedule your PC to record an entire series. If you don’t have a TV tuner take a look at our reviews. Windows Media Center is designed for simple operation using a remote control, which you can pick up for around £20.