Free to Air (FTA) satellite broadcasts

Outdoor television broadcasts transmitted by satellite so you can enjoy without having to pay any additional subscription or pay your charges. Unless you live in the UK, of course, where you have to buy a TV license, no matter what TV broadcasts you receive.

The vast majority of satellite TV for PC available solutions are designed to receive FTA emissions, which can mean a lot of channels, depending on where in the world you live. To view premium channels from your satellite TV provider, you will need a decoder to decode the signal. More about that article Descrambler – Satellite TV.

What is USB and the version you need?

The short answer to this is "sure to get USB 2" on your PC. Most if not all modern PCs support that you need not worry too much.

USB means Universal Serial Bus and comes in two main versions, version 1 and version 2. Version 1 was the first USB standard to be released and allowed for many peripheral devices to be added to your PC without opening the box and do things techy.

USB 1 or 1.1 is a bit slow, but do not work well when used for video applications. It will support high definition TV (HDTV) at all.

USB 2 on the other hand has a maximum speed specification of 480 Mbps, which is approximately 40 times faster than USB 1.1. USB 2 is ideal for all types of video applications that may want to use.

What to watch satellite TV on your PC

Most of the satellite PC solutions are available for Windows ® only for what I'm assuming you will use.

PC System Requirements

• Microsoft ® Windows ® XP

• Microsoft ® DirectX9.0c or later

• Microsoft ® Windows ® Media Player 9.0 or later

• P4 2G MHz or higher

• 256 MB RAM or higher

• VGA card with at least 32MB of memory

• Sound card or onboard sound chip

• One free USB 2.0 port

Besides, then you need the following:

• Digital Satellite Dish & LNB

• USB TV with satellite receiver DVB-S

Connecting the USB FTA satellite receiver to your PC

Once installed, or had a professional install, your satellite dish and LNB you can connect the antenna cable to your satellite TV receiver. The next thing to do is install the software on your computer that came with your USB satellite receiver. Just follow the set-up the instructions supplied with the receiver. Once you've done that you can connect a USB cable that normally comes with the receiver, in a free USB port 2 on your PC. Run the software you have installed and that's it.

That's all. It's real simple to watch satellite TV on your PC!

Want to know more about watching satellite TV on your computer? You can learn more at http://www.satellitetvtopc.net/