Help with TV on iPhone? DirecTv? Internet TV?

[GeeGawGadgetGuy]

Hi Everyone,

I still am loving my iPhone and am amazed at the abilities this puppy has!

I have researched here and on other sites but I am having troubles coming up with a solution...if one exists...to view TV on my iPhone 3g.

Here is my dilemna....I have DirecTv and have 2 HD DVRs (HR-20-700) and one standard def receiver (currently not utilized). I have not been able to find anything that would allow me to watch it on the computer so as a result, I probably would not be able to get it on the iPhone. If I had cable, then I would most likely be able to use something like Orb TV.

I also tried Joost but unfortunately for everyone...myself included...you can only use it with a WiFi connection.

One of the main reasons for wanting to have this functionality on the iPhone is that I am going to have to spend about 10 days in the hospital for a surgery that is coming in several months. I have another surgery prior to this in about 6 weeks for my shoulder that will keep me in the hospital for 2 nights.

I desperately need to find something where I could watch TV from the phone. Does anyone know of any websites that are decent on the iPhone that can view television? Any sort as long as it is in English?

I am terrified of going back under the knife and having to spend time in the hospital again (last week long stay was an utter nightmare). Having the ability to watch things on the iPhone to simply pass the time would be greatly appreciated.

So....any solutions????

Thanks again folks for any help with this...you dont know how much this would mean to me!:smile:

[RxMan]

I watch Directv on my iphone all the time with Orb. It takes a bit to get setup, but it works fairly well.
You need a tv tuner card in your computer, then you take the s-video and audio out of your directv receiver into the card. To change channels, you need a device called a USB-UIRT. This will connect to your computer and then send the ir remote signals to the receiver to change the channels.
Last thing is the Orb app on the iphone.

[psylichon]

Be careful about which TV tuner card and IR blaster you buy to use with Orb. Orb only works with devices that do hardware MPEG-2 encoding, which rules out a lot of the cheaper options. And as far as IR blasters go, you have to get the expensive USB-UIRT or one that is compatible with the Microsoft MCE remote.

If you get those things right, however, it's fairly easy to hook it up with cable or satellite TV as long as you split the signal or get a feed after the converter box.

[UFGator]

I have a Sony Location Free player. I would love to have SW on the iPhone that would work wit this. I think the Orb solution is a little "cloogy".

[BigCiX]

I didn't even know you can watch tv on your iphone. Is this live tv we're talking about?

[dturner]

I didn't even know you can watch tv on your iphone. Is this live tv we're talking about?
Yeah, you can learn more about it here (http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/iphone-app-store/orb-livetv-released-38749.html).

[GeeGawGadgetGuy]

I watch Directv on my iphone all the time with Orb. It takes a bit to get setup, but it works fairly well.
You need a tv tuner card in your computer, then you take the s-video and audio out of your directv receiver into the card. To change channels, you need a device called a USB-UIRT. This will connect to your computer and then send the ir remote signals to the receiver to change the channels.
Last thing is the Orb app on the iphone.

Rxman....would you mind PM'ing me or posting the links to the equipment you have? This may end up working for me however as Psylichon stated its probably pretty expensive.

Thanks!

[psylichon]

Even though I'm streaming cable and not direct TV, the hardware is the same. I bought a Hauppauage Win-TV PVR USB2 for $50 on Ebay. For changing channels, I bought the cheapest MCE-compatible IR-blaster on Ebay... worked out to about $20 for that I think. I haven't received the IR-blaster yet, but the Win-TV works flawlessly. I believe it is the only USB TV tuner that does hardware MPEG-2 encoding.

[Dustu2]

Even though I'm streaming cable and not direct TV, the hardware is the same. I bought a Hauppauage Win-TV PVR USB2 for $50 on Ebay. For changing channels, I bought the cheapest MCE-compatible IR-blaster on Ebay... worked out to about $20 for that I think. I haven't received the IR-blaster yet, but the Win-TV works flawlessly. I believe it is the only USB TV tuner that does hardware MPEG-2 encoding.

Wait... So you payed about $70, and now you're streaming Live Cable television to your iPhone?

[psylichon]

Well, plus $10 for the Orb app on the phone, plus some USB extensions and hubs for my particular setup, but yeah, that's it. I've already used it several times on break at work and consider it well worth it.

[Dustu2]

That's pretty sweet. How much is the TV Tuner card mentioned earlier? And just out of curiosity, which Cable provider do you use?