Do you ever wish you’d waited to watch Lost? Do you wish you’d let the seasons pile up, so you could sit and watch at your leisure? I do. Right now I feel like I’m in a long distance relationship. If only I’d nipped it in the bud and recognized that it wasn’t going to work out if the basic infrastructure of the relationship stood. I should’ve said “When you have time to be with me, I’ll be here, but I’m not going to wait with baited breath for these eight week trysts!” If only. So, by way of finding my center, I’m going to give you a few sites to visit for shows with full streaming seasons. The three used often enough to make it onto my bookmarks bar, in descending order:

1. Project- Free TV : Not a pretty site by any means, this is still the easiest to use, and most comprehensive of the bunch. Once you click into the “Tv-Shows” section, you’re greeted with a list of Upcoming New Episodes and Recently Aired new Episodes. If you keep up with certain shows on the network sites, a number of these will be useless, but for shows like Dexter, Weeds, Entourage, and Californication, this site is great. Once you click into a show you get a list of source links with a “Speed” rating that is pretty accurate. Most of the fast links go to a Megavideo user site, and the caching time is VERY good.

2.   tvshack: A little prettier than Project-FreeTv, and a little less user friendly, TV shack gives you a little bit of the old lists and ranking type stuff, with a list of top searches, top videos of the day, recommended content, and a list of top “Link Hunters”. Clearly a little more socially orients, it doesn’t really offer anything FreeTv doesn’t, and it’s more distracting.

3. TV-Links.cc: Super stripped down, very easy to use, very very ugly. It’s got annoying ads, once you open a link it’s got a very simple page with a synopsis, genre, and actors list. Right below that is a list of links to sources. I don’t even look at this page unless the other two are down.

Clearly the top two are the best, and all of them serve up something in that they require no download. I’ve got two full seasons of Weeds to go, and a few shows in the docket suggested by good friends, hopefully these links and a little patience will tide me over until Lost comes and rears it’s pretty seductive head. 

There are many ways to watch TV programs online, you can stream it from the networks site (ABC.com,NBC.com, CBS.com) you can stream from link aggregators (projectfreetv, tvshack.net, tvlinks) or you can download the torrents and watch them on an offline player. The first two options are clearly the simplest, but often (unless you are streaming from the network) the quality of the stream can be horrendous, and waiting for each episode to cache can be annoying. This is where the value of the third option comes in.

Miro (formerly known as the democracy player) allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds from outside the list of channels within its player. The full potential of this can be reached by combining that knowledge with this site. Here you have a list of just about every show that gets posted as a torrent on the internet. Most shows are updated within a day or so of airing, so you can keep up fairly well.

Once you’ve downloaded the Miro player, click on the link for the show you want to subscribe to, then right click on “Search-based RSS Feed” and select “copy link location.”

Select the Channels tab in Miro and then add the channel, past the link location into the box, and then rename the channel from whatever weird numbers and dashes it is to the name of the show. Depending on how you have your preferences set on Miro, the show will update every day, or even while you’re sleeping. The Setup is ridiculously simple, and with tvRSS, you have access to a HUGE number of shows. I looked up some of my favorites (Dexter, Big Love, Lost, House, Heroes) and they were all there, and all updated. Keep in mind, WE ARE NOT ADVISING YOU TO ILLEGALLY DOWNLOAD TELEVISION SHOWS. But if you don’t have cable (like me) and you want to watch the shows you love, this is how. Don’t ignore the channels preloaded into Miro though, I discovered TED talks there, and a few other more educational programs. All in all, this is a fairly comprehensive solution to the problem of consistency in Internet Television. 

The Office is just one of those shows where if you’ve worked in any sort of corporate environment, you can totally relate. The pointless meetings, incompetent boss, office drama, inappropriate work relationships, etc. If you’ve been to a cubicle, you can probably appreciate at least a portion of the show. Helmed by a hilarious Steve Carell as well as a wide variety of other characters, it’s one of my girlfriend’s favorite shows and she’s looking to get season 4 on DVD.

So with that in mind, if you’re looking for season 4 of the hit show from Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios than you’re in luck. You can get season 4 on DVD from Amazon and it’s also available on itunes. Season 4 will run you about $30.99 plus shipping of course. On itunes you’re able to purchase each episode individually or as one package as well.

If you’re looking for more information on the show, you can always check out The Office homepage over at NBC. You’ll be able to get your hands on an entire cast list, the history of the show with tidbits like accolades and other awards the Office and it’s actors have earned, as well as video clips, episode guides, and other exclusives.

Let’s face it, Youtube is undoubtedly one of the best media sites out there. This doesn’t mean it could do with some improvements, however. Rather than wait around for them to make changes themselves, there are a number of useful tools you can use right now to improve your Youtube experience!

Sort Your Youtube Links in Gmail
I’m not gonna lie, my inbox for gmail tends to be rather..cluttered. Often times my friend and family will send me some Youtube links and occasionally I’ll be bored enough to check them out. Enter Xoopit, the gmail addon that allows you to sort through these videos easily. In addition you’ll be able to view and play these Youtube videos within gmail!

Get the Audio From Videos
I’ve always been a fan of collecting sound clips. From using them for my ring tones to just having them around so I can play them at random, turn to my friend and say “what’s that quote from?!” having audio and other sound clips is fun. Your best bet is to use a web based converter such as VidToMp3 so you can be as quoterageous as possible.

Search on a Timeline
Often times when searching for videos on a specific subject you’ll be blasted with a list that’s a mile long. Using the time line creator TimeTube, however, you can search for any topic and TimeTube will organize a timeline for it. Very handy.

Download Videos Easily
It’s likely that at some point you’ll probably want to download a clip from Youtube for personal use or for reference later on. In this case there are a number of options available to you. If you’re an Internet Explorer guy/girl, you can use YouTube File Hack, which grabs FLV files for you. Alternatively if you’re more the Firefox type you can use the Better YouTube Firefox extension.

Bring Youtube to Your TV
Being able to kick back and relax while surfing youtube from the comfort of your couch definitely sounds like a lot of wasted hours and a ton of fun. If you’re interested, your best bet is to check out lifehacker’s guide to turning your Xbox into a media center.

Although this is off the topic of Satellite Television I thought I would share a great site that I ran across the other day when trying to find and compare credit cards online. If you are looking for a new credit card or need to find any information about credit I HIGHLY recommend checking out Ask Mr Credit Card. I was really impressed with the site and Mr Credit Card gets my props.

- Thats it for now, more Satellite TV News and Info is on it’s way.

Verdict: Overall a good service, ability to return movies to the store is something Netflix can’t compete with.

Recently we have launched a section of the site that provides information on Online Movie Rental services. After recently reviewing Netflix, I thought I would give Blockbuster Online a shot as well.

Signing up for Blockbuster Online only took a few minutes, about the same time as Netflix. The clear advantage of Blockbuster that was apparent from the start was the fact that you can rent and return your movies from the store as well as online. This is great if you want to rent something at the last minute and don’t want to wait for your movie to come in one business day.

When renting from the store the service works exactly the same was as online. The amount of movies you can take out at one time depends on your plan, the less expensive plan lets you take out one movie at a time, and the best plan let you take out 3.

Once I signed up I made a list of movies I wanted just like on Netflix and they arrived the next day. I watched the movies that night. Everything worked and the movies were in pretty good condition. When I was reviewing Netflix one of the movies was almost unplayable, so it was nice to see that the movies I received from Blockbuster were fairly new. I don’t know if they do a quality check or we just lucked out, but either way we didn’t have a problem.

After I was done with those movies I mailed them back, and the next round of movies arrived in a few days. I wanted to see how the service at the store was, so instead of sending these movies back I returned them to the store. The employees were friendly and I found out that with my Blockbuster online plan I could rent movies from the actual Blockbuster store as well. This was a nice feature, however they do limit the number of in store movie exchanges you can do each month depending on your plan.

I think that ability to return and exchange movies in store is a really nice feature, however most people seem to sign up for online movie rental services for the convenece of being able have the movies delivered directly to your door, and not having to go to the store.

Overall and to my surprise, Blockbuster really held up to Netflix. I would recommend looking into both Blockbuster and Netflix if you want to rent movies online. If you are looking for a more flexible service than Netflix that allows you to return movies to an actual store instead of having to mail them back, Blockbuster is for you.

You can find out more about Blockbuster Online and Sign Up Here.

1. Use Leverage to Get New Equipment For Free

Satellite and Cable TV companies will do WHATEVER they can to keep you. If your satellite equipment is old or outdated, call the company up and tell them you are going to be switching to a different company because they are offering you a better deal. Check your local newspaper or online for the current deals that are out there, you can use these as leverage against the current provider you are with. Most times they will match or beat deals the deals of their competitors. Enjoy your new equipment.

2. Eliminate Premium Channels by Renting

If you’re on a tight budget but still want to receive the movies that HBO and Showtime have to offer, consider trying out Netflix. Netflix plans start at just $4.99 a month which can be a third or less of what your currently paying for movies. Even though it will take about 1 day to get your movies now, you have access to more movies and shows that HBO or Showtime have, and you can always make a list ahead of time so you will automatically receive movies in the mail when you send the previous movie back.

3. Package Deals Save You Money

If have cable with a large provider such as Comcast you can get a bundled deal – Cable, Internet, and Phone service all through the cable company which may be less than getting them from different companies. Comcast has a promotion going called the Comcast Triple Play where you can get all 3 services for under $100.00 a month.

4. Keep Track of What Your Paying

Every now and then I like to check and see what the current pricing is for new customers. Often when a company introduces a new pricing scheme they will first introduce it with their new customers and keep current customers on the old pricing (if you pay more) as long as possible. If your company is offering service for less, give them a call and tell them you want to be included under the new rate.

5. Don’t be afraid to switch companies.

When you are with a specific cable or satellite company for a few years, you often get accustom to their services and are hesitant to switch companies for a better deal. If you see a better deal somewhere, and if the techniques above fail to save you money, don’t be afraid to try a new company. Don’t let your current cable or satellite company intimidate you into staying with them, or try to offer you a cheaper rate for a few months. Switching to a new company can often be refreshing and end up saving you a lot of money.

We have been reviewing a lot of TV on Your PC software recently, but today we are going to take the whole TV on your PC thing in a new direction. Getting a TV Tuner Card is an alternative to watching television through the internet. A TV Tuner Card is a piece of hardware that allows you to watch cable television directly on your PC. I have had a few TV Tuner Cards over the years, and they are great if you want to watch your cable service on a PC. They also allow you to record television shows, turning your PC into a DVR which is a really useful feature.

Selecting the Right Card

Summary: I currently recommend the WinTV HVR 1600. This card allows you to watch HD broadcasts on your PC, and includes a remote and easy to use software.

When looking for any piece of computer hardware you want to make sure that it will work with the computer you have and make sure that it has the right features and will provide the performance you are looking for. In the case of TV Tuner Cards, there are really two different types of cards, PCI and PCI express. Before buying a card you need to find out if your motherboard supports PCI express which is about 16 times faster than PCI. If it does than a card that supports PCI Express is the obvious choice. If not, don’t worry TV tuner cards are not like graphics cards and there really isnt much of a difference when it comes to just watching television on your PC.

One thing that is worth mentioning is that some of the current generation of TV Tuner Cards can’t handle HD broadcasts so if you are looking to watch HD television on your PC, make sure you find a card that can receive HD digital cable, not just over the air HD broadcasts.

A great card that can do pretty much everything is the WinTV HVR 1600. This powerful card and allows you to watch ATSC high definition digital TV in full 1080i HD or traditional analog cable. The card comes bundled with a remote that you can control the TV tuner software with. The WinTV HVR 1600 will only work with Windows. If you want a card that can receive HD broadcasts, and comes with a remote and powerful software, this is a good choice.

For those who don’t want to open up their computer…

If you want a quick and easy way to start watching TV on your PC I recommend looking into the WinTV HVR-1950 External USB HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder, which is an external TV Tuner that is ready to go out of the box. You just plug it into your computer with a USB cable and your good to go.

Hauppauge has also just released a next generation TV tuner the WinTV-HVR-1800 which is a PCI Express card that supports HD broadcast. This card has an NTSC tuner for analog TV broadcasts and a ATSC tuner for digital broadcasts. If you are looking for a top of the line card, you should definitely check this one out.

Personally I shop at Amazon or Newegg, they usually have the best deals on most computer hardware, so your best bet is to check there first. You should be able to pick up a decent card for around $65.00 (as stated above, if you want a card that supports HD it will cost more). Some of the top of the line cards are a few hundred dollars, however I would only recommend getting one of these if you are doing professional video capturing and editing.

The great thing about Amazon and Newegg is that they are not only cheap, but they ship your items ridiculously fast, I’ve gotten my items in one business day before with just the standard ground shipping.

Installation

Once you have your card, you will need to install it in your computer. If you arn’t a technical person or a computer guru, then installation may be a bit tricky, however its not really that bad. There are basically 4 steps when you are installing a TV tuner card. I’ve simplified the process a bit, however as long as you follow the instructions that comes with your card, and use this as a general guide as well, you should be fine.

Step 1 – Hardware Installation
First you must install the card in your computer. To do this you must open the case of your computer up and insert the card into a PCI or PCI Express slot. These slots are easy to find and should be near the base of your motherboard, if you have a graphics card or sound card they will be plugged into one of these slots as well (there are usually 3 PCI slots and 1 PCI Express slot.) Once you plug the card in close back up your computer case.

Step 2 – Connect a Video Cable to Your Computer
This step is the easiest. After you have installed the card in your computer you need to plug a cable that will transmit the television signal, if you have cable television you should be able to plug a coaxial cable directly into the TV tuner card you have just installed. Your card may support other types of video in so its not really limited to a coaxial cable, however that seems to be the most common.

Step 3 – Install the Software / Drivers
After you have connected the cable to your computer, you can now try booting it up. When windows starts it should recognize new hardware and you should get a popup window asking if you want to install this new hardware. Your TV Tuner card should have come with a CD that contains drivers you need to install for the card to work with windows. Insert this CD and install the drivers through the add new hardware interface. If this popup does not come up, and it does not recognize the card, try inserting the CD into your computer and then running the setup program included on the CD.

After you install the Drivers, you may be required to restart your computer, and when you start it back up you should be pretty much good to go

Step 4 – Configure / Fine tune your card
Well you’ve finally made it to the fun part. When you installed the drivers and software in the last step you should have installed a software program that you use with your TV Tuner Card. Start this program up and it should recognize your card and start receiving television signals. You can then adjust any settings / video options to meet your needs.

Your card may have also come with a remote, if so, then you should be able to use it to change channels and what not once you have the software program running and the infared remote receiver plugged into a USB port.

Enjoy watching television on your PC.

I hope this guide has helped, and If you have any additional questions that the guide hasn’t answered, feel free to leave comments below and I will try to answer them ASAP.

DirecTV offers a protection plan that gives you free service and fixes if anything on your DirecTV system stops working or breaks after the initial 30 day period is up. If any of your equipment breaks you are also covered. They will replace it at no charge. The plan costs $5.99 a month or about $72 per year, which is around the same price as one service call. Many things can happen to your satellite system – the receiver can stop working, or something can happen with the dish. It’s important to figure out how to protect yourself and save the most money possible.

If you are not a technology guru and know that you won’t be able to fix something with the system that breaks yourself, then you probably want to get a protection plan. The plan is very good if you live in a place that has harsh weather, like the northeast or western united states. Wind and Power Surges from bad weather can often cause things to go wrong with electronics and satellite television.

Overall we really want to stress that it depends on your experience level, and its really the same as buying insurance. You might end up using the protection plan 3 times a year and save money, and then on the other hand you might only use it once in 10 years and in that case it wouldn’t be worth it. There is really no way to predict if you will need it or not, however if you don’t want to fix a problem yourself if one arises or if you are not a technical person then you might want to at least look into it.

These days I’m known as “The Satellite TV Guru” but about 8 years ago I was actually a cable subscriber and had never owned a Satellite system in my life.  I have always been a huge television and movie buff, and believe it or not, although I watch a ridiculous amount of TV and can always be found near a computer I still maintain a normal life, no I’m not 400 pounds, and I have a wonderful wife.

I grew up watching cable television, and even though I heard about the great deals that Satellite TV offered, for some reason I stuck with cable just because thats what I was accustomed too.  Well one day the cable company I was with, was sold to a larger company you may know as Comcast. Our cable prices eventually went up and before I knew it I was paying ALOT more than I wanted to for cable service.  Since I watch a lot of TV I had the best package they offered with a ton of movie channels, and the truth is that I thought I was going to have to switch back to basic cable because it was just becoming way to expensive.

I have a family and although I do well, the price of premium cable these days is just ridiculous, and most families just cant fit that into their budget.  I really didn’t want to switch back to basic cable but I wasn’t left with much of an option.

The next weekend I was reading the newspaper and I saw an advertisement for Dish Network.  They were advertising the same package I had, with all of the premium movie channels and content for less than half the price I was paying every month!  Well that did it, and I finally made the call and ordered satellite tv service.

Since that day I have never looked back and that was one of the best decisions financially I have ever made because since that day I have literally saved thousands of dollars.  The best part is that I now get MORE channels than most of the premium packages on cable.  As you can probably tell by my site, these days I am a huge satellite TV advocate and I can be found constantly browsing the satellite section of the DSL Reports forum.  Over the past 8 years I’ve watched a lot of great television, and I have Satellite TV to thank for that.

If you are looking for the best overall Satellite TV service, I recommend signing up for Dish Network through AllSat.