Podcast: Your Questions - TV on PC

Every month we take calls from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia on calls about technology. This show aired on the September 14, 2006.

  • We are sad. Lonelygirl15 is an actress, not a troubled youth with a sweet crush on her camera toting friend, Daniel.
off to the first call...
  • Greg's TV died. He wants to watch television channels on his laptop PC. After I proposed that he spend more time watching shirtless dweebs on YouTube, Eric suggested he download in2tv tv shows. Greg really wants to watch broadcast shows, however, so we get a TV tuner card. There are lots of choices. We think that what he really needed was to get a card with a coax input so that he could watch cable television signals.
  • Ken asked about retaining access to his old Outlook Express emails. It's easy! Find the directory containing all of those .eml files and copy
  • Greg has Windows XP Media Center Edition. He wants to put his videos on DVDs to watch on his home television. We wandered off in a discussion of compressing video into the DIVX format which is supported by newer DVD players. We suggested also that he use Nero if he needs to convert video for a standalone video player.
  • Eric started with his own news about lonelygirl15. We've been had! Eric wants to get rid of all advertising in his life (especially on PC.) Our Eric has recommended Spybot, Phil recommends Windows Defender. Want to browse invisibly? Check out the Firefox extensions to help. Don't forget to hit Shift-Ctrl-Delete in Firefox to clear some of your history.
  • E.G. wants to put video on his website. For audio, I suggested he use Audacity, but to transfer video he is going to need a video capture device like the Dazzle.
  • Eric (another) bought a new desktop with Ad Aware installed. He is looking for free spyware detection and removal tools. Windows Defender is a good choice for Windows users. We also recommend he take a look at Spybot Search and Destroy. He asked "What is a Trojan?" I guess the answer must have been off the air. We warned him about the perils of programs that attack his computer.
Thanks for listening. We'll be back next month!

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About Phil Yanov

Phil Yanov is a Technologist, Columnist and Public Radio Commentator.

He is the founder of Tech After Five as well as the founder and President of the GSA Technology Council and the IT Leadership Council.

His personal technology column appears in Greenville Business Magazine and the Columbia Business Journal.

He co-hosts the Your Day technology shows heard on NPR radio stations across South Carolina and is a frequent contributor to technology stories appearing on radio and television.