Video recorders were, in the 1980s, one of the most expensive and most satisfying technological objects: if they made a good movie on television, they could be recorded to be able to see it the next day or to be able to watch it again whenever they wanted. Once the videotapes were passed, traditional VCRs disappeared to make room for VCRs on DVDs or those on hard disks, which record on a disc, saving the videos as MP4 digital files or other formats.
Today we can say that even video recorders of this type have become niche products, since an internet connection is enough to be able to see almost every film, TV show and TV series.
This is also thanks to regular film sites such as Netflix and also thanks to Rai Play or the online Mediaset site that give the opportunity to see the broadcasts of the main TV programs and fiction.
However, if you want to use your computer as a TV video recorder, in the traditional way, that is, to record and save a certain broadcast, a game, a movie or anything else, then there are two ways to do it.
The first way to record TV with the PC is to make the PC a digital terrestrial TV .
To do this, just add a DVB-T TV card on PC which is like a normal USB stick to which the antenna is connected.
Through a media center program or using the software supplied with the TV card, you can watch every TV channel from your computer, not in streaming, but via the Digital Terrestrial antenna, even with the remote control, even in a Windows window.
The program used to watch TV can also record what you see in a video and even schedule the recording of a movie or TV broadcast as you did with old cassette recorders.
Wanting to buy a digital terrestrial TV receiver for PC we can find various models on Amazon including:
- Hauppage from 27 Euros.
- August DVB-T 202 DVB-T from 15 Euros.
- CSL - DVB-T USB stick
- 100 Euro EyeTV.
The second way is vCast, a web application that allows you to record broadcasts and TV programs on demand, and then receive them on your PC in one of the Onedrive or Google Drive cloud archives.
I had already written a detailed guide on how to record TV channels with vCast .
The service is free with the limit of 16 hours of monthly recording and low MP4 quality.
If you want an HD quality of the recorded videos and an unlimited service to record the Italian digital terrestrial TV channels, then you have to pay a premium subscription of 4 or 5 Euros per month depending on the quality you prefer, HD or Full HD.
Unfortunately vCast, for a matter of permissions, does not have the Mediaset channels, which as mentioned, however, makes it possible to review many of the broadcasts of Canale 5, Italia Uno and Rete Quattro streamed on the Mediaset website.
In any case, for whatever appears on the computer monitor, you can always use the programs to record the screen, which work wonderfully even with videos.
