Watching TV Away from Home

From time to time you may want to watch you TV somewhere other then your living room. Maybe you have to work the night shift? Maybe you Travel a lot on business? Or maybe you just don't have a TV hookup in your den. When this happen you may want to look into some alternative for getting to you TV service, whether it be Cable, FIOS or Satellite.

1. Possibly the most popular name in this space in the slingbox. If you have not heard of a slingbox it is device that basically connects your set top box to the Internet and streams whatever channel your box is set to. You then install a client software that connects to the slingbox and is capable of sending remote control signals to the set top box.
2. A second option is a HAVA box. While similar to slingbox, but less well know and therefor cheaper this may be a good alternative. One feature the HAVA has available is the ability to add a hard drive to the HAVA box and use it as a DVR.
3. A software solution, among many, is ORB. Orb works as a media server you can access from anywhere in your house or over the Internet. The software is free to download and use, however if you want to use it to stream your TV service you will need a video capture card.
   
4. While not technically watching "your TV" online services like HULU.com, the newly relaunched TV.com and FanCast allow you to watch popular and sometime not so popular TV show, movies and clips.

As with most things in life one solution does not always solve all problems. I personally use a HAVA Platimum HD as well as HULU.com. The HAVA works well for watching my Comcast cable from any PC in my house as well as from any computer outside my house with the HAVA Client installed. If you get either a HAVA or Slingbox make sure you get an HD version, it may cost a little more but in the long run you will be happier with the quality of the the video you get remotely.