Is there a product that will allow me to watch Cable TV on my Laptop
over my wireless LAN?

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Clarification of Question by stiletto-ga on 07 Apr 2004 08:00 PDT

I do NOT have a cable TV STB (set top box).  All I have is the cable
connected to the cable modem then connected to the wireless router.

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Clarification of Question by stiletto-ga on 07 Apr 2004 21:51 PDT

I want to be able to watch cable TV on my laptop where it is the same
quality or as close to it as possible as watching it on the television
set.  I am capable of installing a server and running services that
deliver this....the only stipulation is that I would like a solution
that is under $500.

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Clarification of Question by stiletto-ga on 07 Apr 2004 21:55 PDT

$500 for the software or appliance that does this...I am not
addressing the cost of server hardware.

Yes, there are several products, the best probably being SnapStream's
BeyondTV 3. www.snapstream.com

It is essentially a PVR (personal video recorder, like Tivo, or
ReplayTV) that runs on a PC.  In your case it would require at least 1
WinXP machine and TV-Tuner card to do the actual recording and/or
streaming to internet connected devices (default file format is
Windows Media, though I believe there is a DivX format option).

In essence you would schedule recordings or start streams on a machine
running BeyondTV and then access them over your wireless LAN on your
laptop.  It works quite well, there even options to control digital
cable boxes (from Comcast, Warner, etc) via infared attachments.

As a stand-alone product BeyondTV works well, but if you like you can
escalate into HTPC territory (Home Theatre Personal Computer) which
expands most functions of standard AV equipment to your PC, including
PVR functionality and even HDTV.  For tinkerers, the best place to go
for HTPC discussions is www.avsforum.com

I hope this answers your question.

install video lan client software on your laptop (VLC)

On your server (linux) computer, install video lan server (VLS)
software and a TV Tuner card.

You can serve video from one client to another, but you should really
use the VLS software.

Seach for it at sourceforge.net.  It is free.

You might want to try Freevo and MythTV.  I dont think you can view TV
over a network, though.

Here's what I do. I have a computer with an ATI AIW Radeon card (but
you could use any TV capture card) that has the TV signal input into
it. Download Windows media encoder (WME) and install on the box with
the TV card. Use WME to stream the video/audio over your LAN. On your
other computer use Windows media player to watch. Snapstream solution
is also good, but this option is cheaper (software is free).

I use this setup with a sattelite feed, and invested in a IR remote so
I can change channels anywhere in the house while I watch on my
laptop.

Good luck.

Check out the book Linux Toys by Christopher Negus and Chuck Wolber on
making a Linux Redhat 9 Personal Video Recorder. Haven't done it
myself. Also in the book are instructions on making a home broadcast
center. I'm guessing you could feed the PVR input from Coax to the PVR
server, then to the broadcast center, out to your wireless
router/access point, and then straight to your (linux/windows) laptop!
Good luck!

I spent about 2 months trying to do this.

Could you please clarify if you have a cable TV STB (set top box) or a
Cable TV Tuner card in another TV? I have a different method for each.

Thanks

I do NOT have a cable TV STB (set top box).  All I have is the cable
connected to the cable modem then connected to the wireless router.

I use SageTV <http://www.sage.tv>, and it works quite well ove my
802.11g network; and it's the only PVR I'd recommend for Windows.  You
will need to buy a TV card (I'd recommend the Hauppauge PVR250 which
costs around $130).  SageTV also has a sweet interface and acts as a
TiVO box (pretty sweet for $130+software costs).

Buy any type of video capture card (most come with some sort of
software tuner).  Put the card in the computer that's not portable. 
From the portable computer...take remote control over the non-portable
computer.  It'll be just like you were watching it from the
non-portable.