As an avid movie watcher, and major sports fan, television has always been my way of staying entertained. In recent years, with the advent of Satellite TV for PC software, I've been getting all of my favorite shows without cable or satellite bills. Better yet, with these simple software programs, I don't need a cable box, there is no complex equipment, all I need is my computer and an Internet connection (my new 40" HD TV/PC monitor helps as well).

The reason most people haven't adopted this technology yet is simply because they don't know about it, or because they haven't found a software package worth the money. There are many of these free-satellite-tv services out there, and sorting through them all can be quite difficult.

With that, let's first cover what a good satellite for PC service is and is not.

First, a satellite for PC service is NOT a good solution if your main TV viewing includes pay per view programs or expensive movie channels. Although you will find a huge variety of movie channels, live sports broadcasts, and some of the most popular channels, there is no pay per view with satellite streamed to your PC.

Second, NOT everyone will need satellite to PC software. If you don't have a decent computer (less that 3-4 years old) and an Internet connection this software won't work for you anyway.

Third, a satellite for PC program IS the best way to get up to 4000 channels with $0 spent on monthly fees. In fact, with the best services the only money you put out is a small one-time $40-$50 fee to get TV streamed to your PC 24 hours a day, 365 Days a Year. Considering that the average cable bill costs as much as $1200/year, that's $1150 you can keep in your pocket this year alone!

Fourth, if you don't take the time to choose the right satellite for pc service you'll likely just be wasting your money anyway. Worse than that, with the poorest services, they really are fly-by-night operations and your TV enjoyment might end at any time.

To help, along with a group of friends, we went through the process of testing the top satellite for PC services. To evaluate each service we simply signed up for them and used them for a period of 3 months. We then shared our results and rated each service based on the following criteria.

• Number of Channels - How many channels could we receive at any given time. The best services had channel counts in the thousands.
• Quality of Channels - Our TV viewing requires more than just public broadcasts. Each service was rated based upon the quality of channels we could receive.
• Consistency of Service - With some services channels come and go. Higher ratings were given to those who had more channels, more consistently.
• Quality of Broadcasts - When streaming video through the Internet quality sometimes gets sacrificed. We gave higher ratings to satellite for PC software that brought high quality pictures.
• Support when Needed - Although these services are fairly straightforward, it is important to have help when you need it. We contacted the support teams for each of the services we signed up with and rated them on their responses.
• Value/Cost - Based on the above criteria was the service worth the money we spent. When compared to the monthly costs of cable obviously they were, but when compared to each other - did they provide decent value?
• Overall Rating - Finally we gave each service an overall rating based on all of our findings.

Below you will find our ratings for the top three satellite to PC programs that we could find. With each of our top three we got decent quality broadcasts, a good number of channels, and consistent quality and support. Our recommendations are clearly laid out below, but if you do need help choosing the right service feel free to contact me (info@thekingsweb.com).

To Never Paying a Cable Bill Again,

Simon Fallow