The PG's TechMan Want to send a question to TechMan? Just fire an e-mail to TechMan. Please include your name and a daytime phone number.

Dear TechMan: Does Satellite TV for PC really work?

Newport News, Va.

TechMan: Yes, it can, although I would hesitate to extend a specific endorsement of the specific $49.95 Satellite TV for PC, since I haven't had a chance to test it. And such promotions have in the past been linked to pirated signals obtained domestically or abroad. The pirates then offer a "program" that is really access to their stream of pirated content, which may or may not be consistent and, of course, is usually of a legally dubious nature. A $50 flat rate for access to 2,200 channels in perpetuity definitely fits the description of things too good to be true.

But using home computers to get cable, satellite or other television access/content and the trend in the telecommunications industry toward making more and more television content accessible over broadband are both very exciting.

IPTV, or Internet protocol television (sometimes known as video over IP), is a rapidly expanding means of media delivery, and by every indication, the telecom industry has every intention of making it widely available in the near future. Video on demand, after all, works over broadband, and the hard drives in digital video recorders are not unlike the hard drives in home computers.

What IPTV does is push cable or satellite content through our computer's broadband connection, or even a local network.

For telecom, it's exciting because it allows for more fluid programming packages incorporating more interactivity, easier marketing (and market research) and the opportunity to be one-stop media shops for consumers. This is why you see high-speed Internet access, satellite and telephone service being offered in a bundle so much of late. The next move is to deliver all three through your broadband -- sometimes called "triple play," which some people have optimized media center computers to do all in one assembly.

Millions of people already subscribe to premium movie, pornography, major league sports packages and their favorite television shows through their home computers. There are thousands of IPTV sources free and subscription-based. iTunes is the best-known pay service, where television shows are downloaded a la carte for a fee. But sites such as backspace.tv are basically cable you can get on your computer. Other sites, such as vongo.com, are like movie rental outlets where you buy access to a library of movies, or buy movies individually, such as movieflix.com, movielink.com, or cinemanow.com.

But most Internet television is provided through video swapping and free streaming/download sites such as youtube.com, sharkle.com, clipshack.com, iptvchannels.co.uk and engio.com or else from major outlets or channels like Comedy Central, MSNBC, PBS, FoodTV and NBC.