How Can I Watch the Olympics on My Computer?

With the Olympics going on, lots of people are asking how they can watch it on their computers. NBC here in the US has Olympic coverage pretty well controlled and unviewable on the internet except by use of their mobile application on smartphones and tablets, but what if you want to watch it on your desktop computer upstairs? Thankfully, there are devices that allow you to watch TV directly on your computer!

If you have the Olympics in mind, something like the Elgato EyeTV HD might be right up your alley. It's a small gray box that plugs into your satellite/cable receiver on one end and into your computer on the other end. The below diagram gives the details of which, and I promise it's not as complicated as it might look at first glance.

You do still need to have a cable subscription to get to NBC's coverage of the Olympics, but if you plug in the audio and video output of your cable receiver (the box the cable company gave you) into a device like the EyeTV HD and then connect the converter box (in this example an EyeTV HD) into your computer using a USB cable, you'll be able to watch the games, or anything else you normally would on TV, right on your computer. (The infared emitter shown in the picture is just to make the remote control work.) So there you have it! Maybe you live in a small apartment where a big TV isn't an option or maybe your TV died just days before the Olympic games started, you now know how to get them right on your computer instead.

Practical Tip of the Day:

There's an awful lot of games going on at the Olympics, some of them might happen while you're away from home working, traveling, or just not being glued to the TV. Some devices (like the EyeTV HD) also include DVR capabilities, meaning you can set it to record the shows you want so you can watch them when you want to, not when they decide to show them. Just make sure you have a lot of space on your computer! Remember, videos take up a lot of hard drive space!