Computer & TV Programs

I was told that I could download something onto my computer and be able to watch TV programs ( News, CSI, Lost, and other stuff) But I have no idea how to do that and how to make it closed captioned also from my computer? Can anyone help with this information? I would appreciate your time and help regarding this.
Thank you.

Yes, you can... but it would be considered illegal and you could face consequences by the DMCA. :Ohno:

Since moving to a new apartment, I've no longer had cable TV. (at the last apartment basic cable was included) So far my girlfriend and I are getting by with Netflix. I think it's a great alternative to cable TV. We're on the "4 at a time" plan which cost about $25 a month, a lot less than cable. Netflix has a lot of TV series and since we don't watch a lot of TV to begin with, we havn't seen all of the shows yet We're renting shows like Grey's anatomy, Veronica Mars, Futurama etc.

To do what you want to do, it's pretty complicated, but certainly can be done if you're technologically inclined. (and if you do get CC working well please post again because getting CC to work will be the hardest part)

For the most part, Vampyrox is right. you <i>could</i> get hit with a lawsuit and charged with DMCA violation, but you could also get hit with "theft of service" (cable TV) which may or may not be more or less likely. Here's the thing:
Let's imagine you are getting cable TV, if you set up a way to let you watch the cable TV on your computer at school or work, or on vacation, that would be ok. but if you set it up so that you could watch cable TV that's in your friend's house, and you don't have cable TV yourself, that's bad.

That being said let's take a look at what you'd need to do.

There are products like slingbox and Hava that do exactly what you're talking about. They're set-top boxes that stream video over the internet. The big problem is that they don't support closed captioning. You'd have to get a CC decoder and hook it up that way. (There is a software alternative that's free called "orb" but again no support for CC, you'd have to use an decoder)
You could also build a computer and put windows Media Center or mythTV on it. Then you could record shows, (closed captioning works most of the time) and then download them via FTP or telnet or something, and watch them on your computer.

There are also ways to download bootleg copies of movies and sometimes even TV shows but they'll never be closed captioned, don't even bother, and that is illegal, no legal way around that.

good luck

well you can download legal movie or tv programs from several providers such as:

Vongo.com - Choose Now. Watch Now.
CinemaNow - Movie Downloads - Online Movies - Download DVD Movies - Movie Site
many movie or tv downloads list - Free Movie Downloads - The Best Web Sites for Free Movie Downloads

personally i love NetFlix... it will release its own movie downloads very soon.
walmart does have movies downloads - Video Downloads Store - Movies - Wal-Mart
amazon too - http://amazon.com/b/ref=gw_br_unbox...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=285525001&pf_rd_i=507846

and there are several other movie downloads providers you can find by using google.com.

one plm is there is no CC or Subtitles however if you watch foreign movies you can watch that with english subtitles. personally i havent tried movie downloads lately since 2 yrs because in 2 yrs ago there was no subtitles on regular movies so. maybe i ll try that at this time.

good luck.

LilleJ said:

I was told that I could download something onto my computer and be able to watch TV programs ( News, CSI, Lost, and other stuff) But I have no idea how to do that and how to make it closed captioned also from my computer? Can anyone help with this information? I would appreciate your time and help regarding this.
Thank you.

Click to expand...

You can get Xbox 360 to download tv shows from marketplace or get Apple TV or watch tv shows on iTunes.

Both of them aren't CC supported.

Pacman said:

You can get Xbox 360 to download tv shows from marketplace or get Apple TV or watch tv shows on iTunes.

Both of them aren't CC supported.

Click to expand...

I am not going waste my money on product that don't have CC!

deafclimber said:

well you can download legal movie or tv programs from several providers such as:

Vongo.com - Choose Now. Watch Now.
CinemaNow - Movie Downloads - Online Movies - Download DVD Movies - Movie Site
many movie or tv downloads list - Free Movie Downloads - The Best Web Sites for Free Movie Downloads

personally i love NetFlix... it will release its own movie downloads very soon.
walmart does have movies downloads - Video Downloads Store - Movies - Wal-Mart
amazon too - Amazon.com Unbox video downloads: TV shows, movies, international videos and more, ready to download

and there are several other movie downloads providers you can find by using google.com.

one plm is there is no CC or Subtitles however if you watch foreign movies you can watch that with english subtitles. personally i havent tried movie downloads lately since 2 yrs because in 2 yrs ago there was no subtitles on regular movies so. maybe i ll try that at this time.

good luck.

Click to expand...

Nice info for me to check this out. I Know it doen't have CC cuz Any media player such as Quicktime, MS Media Player, RealOne, ect are not supporting CC even they had "Caption" on dropdown menu or option but they DO NOT work AT ALL!! that make me mad. Someone must have SOMEHOW removed subtitle coding on purpose or accidently.

As for illegal downloading, I don't care at all cuz we're living in FREE Country. Smell roses and enjoy day!! I don't care how MPAA and RIAA try to sue from little Toddler to Gramps for downloading file. They are very wrong. Personally it's all about GREED GREED. IMHO.. Congress shouldn't allow Copyrights extended to whatever MPAA and RIAA wish. They should be restricted to 2 or 3 years and that's it cuz MPAA and RIAA kept producing more more movies and music and they have ALL the monies coming in. Now that more than half of Artists and Musicians realized that it's making them look bad and cringe every time they hear their audience get sued for wrong reason. So Once movies and music ever comes out of public, there's no stopping against Piracy. So what can we do about it??


Catty

Hmmm, interesting links you provided and I took a peek on them and I didn't bother with online movie downloads since I'm concerned about CC and all that stuff. I like Netflix better because we can rent physical DVD movies and return it in mail and not worry about late fees.

farmerjoe said:

For the most part, Vampyrox is right. you <i>could</i> get hit with a lawsuit and charged with DMCA violation, but you could also get hit with "theft of service" (cable TV) which may or may not be more or less likely. Here's the thing:

Let's imagine you are getting cable TV, if you set up a way to let you watch the cable TV on your computer at school or work, or on vacation, that would be ok. but if you set it up so that you could watch cable TV that's in your friend's house, and you don't have cable TV yourself, that's bad.

Click to expand...

It's practically impossible for someone to be charged with "theft of service" when all of these programs can be received via an antenna for FREE!

Yes.... TV is still FREE! No, it's not illegal. It was never illegal and never will be illegal to get free TV service as long it's still aired over the air. It's only illegal to use a satellite or cable service if you're not paying for it. There's a difference.

People are just paying to get extra channels they barely or never watch. I used to have The Movie Channel (TMN). Nearly never watched anything on it except 'The Sopranos' and HBO TV shows. I prefer DVDs.

Are you aware that you can use an antenna to receive both standard and HD channels? It's perfectly legal. People don't have to pay for cable if they can get it from their antenna. A lot of people seem to have forgotten that part about getting free TV. Believe it or not, you can get great reception from using an antenna if you know how to use it and position it properly. The taller, the better because of the air waves from the towers.

There are also ways to download bootleg copies of movies and sometimes even TV shows but they'll never be closed captioned, don't even bother, and that is illegal, no legal way around that.

Click to expand...

For movies, it is definitely illegal to download and re-distribute. However, when it come to TV shows. It's still a gray area because they are broadcasted over the air to the public. Back in the ol' days, people used to tape TV episodes and lend it to their friends. They never got into trouble for that. The only problem is, they tend to edit out the commercials from all of the episodes available on the internet. Millions of TV episodes are downloaded off the internet every day. People upload subtitle files everyday for both movies and TV episodes.

So there's a lot of issues with how the materials found on TV can be used. It's not in the same area as movies. It wouldn't be as illegal if they didn't edit out the commercials. Commercials are what keep the TV networks alive. They rely on the ads and DVD sales to keep going.

My cousin went to his parent's house and to see HBO for Sopranos every week.
Because he don't like paying for HBO. It's problem solved! He don't need to download, because he don't want to be trouble with the DMCA for download illegally. It's LEGAL for someone invite the house for sharing to watch TV at the house. They never had problem with the law!

Also my another cousin, he had borrow tape from his friend for
watching the Sopranos for FREE.