Digital TV for PC is an application that provides a window to TV stations worldwide. When using Digital TV for PC, you may search through hundreds of channels from all over the world, in every language, for free (after the cost of your Internet connection and the application, of course).
Introduction
Digital TV for PC is designed to deliver hundreds of TV channels to a PC with nothing more than high-speed Internet access and the application. In addition to Digital TV, a Digital Radio application is included and is designed to deliver hundreds of music stations. The overall quality of TV stations that were received successfully was high. In fact, much higher than I expected, making it simple to view a show.
While Digital TV for PC gathers a variety of TV channels into a single view, I was often prompted to launch an external application to watch a channel (RealPlayer, which I didn't have on my computer, consequently, I was continually prompted to install the application). Some stations were never available for me to watch while others were restricted, which made the overall experience frustrating.
| Installation & Setup | Rating  |
Installation of Digital TV for PC was quick and easy. After the initial installation and launch of the application, I was prompted to perform an Internet update of the channel list. After the update was complete, I was prompted to restart the computer.
I found it odd that the initial installation of Digital TV for PC didn't require a reboot, but a channel update did. I believed this to mean that more than channels were updated. The installation program didn't install RealPlayer automatically, nor did it inform me that RealPlayer was a requirement for me to reach all of channels. Otherwise, the installation was quick and I didn't encounter any errors or issues.
| Product Features | Rating  |
Digital TV for PC can be played in both full screen or within the application window. Full screen mode reduces the quality on a large monitor, but from a distance it's bearable.
You can save channels to your favorites list and even create Favorite groups to speed up the location of particular channels. Local U.S. channels are available from some markets and I would expect more cities to broadcast their local stations in the near future. A search option is included to help you find a particular channel or show if you know exactly what you are looking for.
| Performance | Rating  |
Digital TV for PC installed and operated quickly. There were not any significant performance issues on my test computer, which was running Windows XP with 2GB of RAM. My Internet speed is 12Mb/s, which definitely helped my overall playback quality, but watching my utilization, it never taxed my connection.
Digital TV for PC has a data buffering feature (similar to most online media applications) so even if you were to experience a lag in your Internet connection, the TV should not be impacted. This buffering feature did slow down the startup of every channel I selected, but it's a nice feature to have.