Many people in the computer industry believe that TV- at least in the traditional sense- is dead. While this may be somewhat of an extreme view, it’s certainly becoming more common to get TV programming and movies from online sources than it used to be. It’s also far more common to watch TV programming, both TV shows and movies, on devices other than a traditional TV (or an HDTV) in the living room. Computers and portable devices, including even some types of mobile phones, are increasingly being used to watch video.
Because of the increase in popularity of watching TV on mobile devices, a whole new genre of gadgets has cropped up that can be plugged into lap top computers and home computers that will allow them to receive TV broadcasts over the air and for their users to watch that programming on their computer screens. One of these gadgets is called the OnAir GT and it’s made by AutumnWave.
The OnAir GT has a whole bunch of features that make it, and the computer that it’s plugged into, extremely versatile for watching TV. The device itself is pretty much a phenomenally compact USB device that can plug into a Windows based computer and, along with special software that comes with the OnAir GT, display the TV programming on the screen. The OnAir GT can receive both analog and digital programming over the air, and even be used to watch HDTV programming. (Although you presumably need an High Definition computer screen on your computer in order to get the most out of the HDTV programming.)
The device can provide video resolutions ranging from standard definition television all the way up to High Definition resolutions as high as one thousand and eighty horizontal lines of resolution. In addition to getting video from over the air programming, the OnAir GT can also be plugged into a cable jack to receive unencrypted cable TV. As another additional feature, the software that comes with this gadget is capable of turning a computer into a digital video recorder and then playing back the recordings at some point in the future when over the air TV isn’t available.
One disadvantage of the OnAir GT is that it’s only compatible with Windows based computers. Users of Apple computers and people who insist on using the Linux operating system are pretty much out of luck. That said, this device has an advantage over other similar devices in that it doesn’t require that the computer have as much power. For example, the OnAir GT will work with computers with as little as 128 megabytes of RAM and processor speeds as low as 800 megahertz (if it’s the right kind of processor). Of course, significantly faster processors and 256 megabytes of RAM are recommended.
The OnAir GT also has variety of user friendly features. For example, it allows you to watch TV as the wallpaper of your computer desktop or capture images from video to use as wallpaper. It’s also based on USB technology, so it’s compact to transport, easy to plug in, and is completely powered off of the computer that it’s plugged into. It also comes with a remote control, so you don’t have to be a foot away from the screen to use it.
In all the OnAir GT can add a lot of value to your computer in a location that can receive over the air TV signals.