Watching the Olympics in fast forward

Honestly, if I have to listen to Scott Russell and Diana Swain flirt for a national audience any longer, I will scream. Ian Hanomansing's thinly veiled smug superiority towards Shaun Majumder's particular brand of Rajbinder humour isn't exactly palatable either. (I know, I know, Ian's just uptight because he's jealous that Shaun figured out how to remove the cork from his butt). Fortunately, I watch TV on my computer. This means I can fast forward through CBC's largely inane, uninformative and repetitive coverage of the Beijing Olympics. It is also handy for watching instant replays on my own time. Like when the Japanese athlete falls off the rings. Or for improving my synchronized diving judging skills.

I was about to tell Victoria all about watching TV on my computer but I didn't want to blather on in her comments section so I thought I would do it here. After all, what is a blog for if not for bloghorrhea? So this is how you too can watch TV on your computer.

When you're a giant geekette like me and build your computer to personalized specs (I'd really like to replace my blue LEDs with pink ones, anyone?), you can put in a tv tuner (a thing you plug your cable or rabbit ears into) and software that allows you to record tv which can then be played back, fast fowarded, paused etc. If you've ever seen a PVR or DVR, it's essentially the same thing.

There are many variations of such hardware and software. I had originally intended to pay for cable but I get 6 channels (CBC, CTV, TVOntario, Global, CFMT and City) and that's enough for now. If you want to watch one channel while recording another, you need 2 tv tuners. Oh, and you can download about 2 weeks of tv guide programming information using that software which allows you to program recordings ahead of time. (Yay nightly CSI reruns!) And generally you would want a decent monitor. I have a 22" widescreen which is fine for those all-too-often "snowy" rabbit ears days.