This has nothing to do with boating, but with living in a small space.

We never used the LCD TV that we had onboard, so we sold it at a cruiser's flea market earlier this year. But while we've been 'on the road', several times we've wished we had television capabilities. So I researched what might be available to get TV on my laptop.

Before we left the boat, I ordered a Hauppauge USB WinTV-HVR-950Q. It only costs $70 from Amazon.com. The package includes the tuner, which is a USB device a little fatter than a memory stick, a small antenna, a remote control the size of a PCMCIA card, and a USB extension cord (in case you are trying to squeeze it in with something else in 2 side-by-side USB slots). Plus a connector to feed an external video source into your laptop.

I finally got it set up and got time to play with it today, and I'm impressed! Sitting at my dining room table on the ground floor in Satellite Beach, with the supplied mini antenna, I'm getting about 10 digital channels out of thin air (most from Orlando and Daytona). You can also hook a cable feed to it, but that's not what I'm after. It will also pick up old-style analog signals, and I THINK it will do the European PAL format too (will let you know after we go to Europe).

Not only does it tune TV channels on your laptop, but it can also function as a DVR (digital recorder), so you can record shows for later playback.

In about 10 minutes, the supplied software had scanned for all available Analog and Digital channels, and from then, to change channels, you just up or down arrow on your keyboard. (There's a remote, but I haven't played with that yet).

It seems to run fine on my Eee 1000 laptop, as long as the signal is strong enough. It can run full screen or in a smaller window. I've got 3 Internet Explorer sessions, Outlook, and the Windows Performance Monitor and I'm using up less than 50% of the CPU.

The software that comes with it is a little klunky, but there's a new version coming out soon. It does the job, it's just a little less intuitive to use.

I'm currently using a 21-day free trial of a $99 software product called BeyondTV. With an internet interface, it effortlessly provides the on-screen programming content that we've all become used to with Cable TV Smart Boxes.

This is a great option for 'road warriors' who want to get local news and weather on their laptop.

And for a boat or house 'installation', before you go out and spend big bucks on a hyped 'digital TV antenna and amplifier' (in the $100-$200 range), check out this video on how to build your own TV antenna out of coathangers. I haven't made one (yet), but it looks like fun and supposedly does a great job.

Have fun!

Labels: Electronics

Though I do have some legitimate excuses (lots of travel, jet lag, a cold), one of the main reasons I haven't caught up on our travel posts on the blog is because we got a new computer when we stopped in Satellite Beach.

Just before we left Ecuador, we helped a fellow cruiser out who was in desperate straits... no charts and his navigation PC had crashed. He was in a hurry to make the trip from Ecuador to Panama, and couldn't get a computer in Ecuador for a reasonable price. So we sold him our old Dell 1000, stuffed with all our navigation software, for $250. And then we turned around and bought this new Eee PC for only $379. So I have spent all my spare time in the last few days trying to get all my stuff moved over to the new computer. (I am only about halfway there!)

The model I got is the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE 10-Inch Netbook. It is small, great for traveling, but not too small to be usable as a laptop. It has built-in microphone and speakers, AND a webcam. So great/easy for doing Skype on the road. AND it has an 8 hour battery, for those long bus/airplane rides, and a really solid case, necessary for the abuse that my laptops take.

It doesn't come with a CD/DVD, so you have to buy that extra. I bought a Samsung from Amazon for about $$65 that will run totally off the USB, without having to plug it into external power.

I also bought a copy of Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009 and a cute little USB GPS. Though Streets and Trips has a version that comes with a GPS, I chose to get an alternative GPS because the reviews on its receiver were much better than the MSoft one.

We've been having fun playing with it. I was amazed that the GPS actually receives a good signal inside our hotel room (my Garmin eTrex would never do that).

We will move the used Dell D400 that I bought last year to be our 'primary navigation computer'. It uses much less power than the older Dell with the Pentium 4 processor that we sold (that was part of our motivation for selling it). And this new Eee PC will be configured as a full backup for our navigation computer, in case we need it, as well as be our primary 'road trip' computer.

My very nice (but heavy, and also rusting) 17" HP laptop that I bought in 2006 is still working, but the LCD screen is dead. The cost to get a replacement screen was a whopping $400, so we opted to buy a new computer instead! It is now in deep storage aboard as a last ditch backup, usable only with an external monitor.

Labels: Electronics, USA 2009