<p>i know there have been many posts about this. can anyone give me advice on where to buy those tv converter thingys that you plug in to your laptop so you can watch tv on your laptop?</p>
<p>try best buy or staples. if you don't mind online shopping try newegg.com or pricewatch.com</p>
<p>bump....but what's that little thingy called? does it have a specific name?</p>
<p>You mean: USB External TV Tuner</p>
<p>See: <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/118799-1/article.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.pcworld.com/article/118799-1/article.html</a></p>
<p>I recommend tigerdirect.com, as they always have a great selection.</p>
<p>Try amazon.com.....they're always good with delivery and everything. And they sell everything including the kitchen sink.</p>
<p>IF you buy one of these, what is the quality like? Can you hook up a cable connection?</p>
<p>I have one (USB, came free with my laptop).</p>
<p>Works well, viewing full screen is funny beause tv signal is 640x480 and my laptop is 1680x1050, but its not bad when the rez is reduced. </p>
<p>Otherwise, with WinXP MCE05 or BeyondTV, you'll have DVR as well :D</p>
<p>If you mean a T.V. Tuner, I recently purchased the "PCTV Pro USB" tuner at BestBuy for just $60. It comes with various other cool functions such as ability to create movies w/ your digital camcorder and you can pause, record, and rewind T.V. programs as you watch them, among other things. I think it is probably the best value T.V. Tuner I have ever seen. System requirements are fairly low as well. All you need is a USB port, a decent video card, min. 512 mb RAM (though it seems to run much smoother at 1 or 2 gigs) and 1 gig available hard disk space.</p>