Hi everyone.

I just got accepted into my 1st choice college and am really excited, have slight insommnia, and pondering what to bring into my dorm (even though college doesn't start until fall 2005 - damn senioritis).

Anyways, I'm wondering if it would be better to bring my actual TV or just buy a USB TV Tuner for my laptop. I thought an actual TV would be nice, but it seems that a laptop + TV Tuner would take up less space; plus I don't normally watch TV and work on the computer at the same time (although I listen to the TV sometimes when I work). Can anyone advise me on which would be a better choice?

BTW, do USB TV Tuners work with Linux? I tried googling for info, but I couldn't find much helpful info (i searched for: usb tv tuner linux)

Buy a TV.

Configuring a USB device is hell in Linux (generally). Configuring a TV tuner in Linux is also tricky.

Put the two together and you have a double difficulty. Of course if you like a challenge and you have lots of free time, then you can try it.

I didn't own a TV when I left for college, so I bought a TV Tuner to use at school. Despite what Harishankar said, I had zero problems configuring it, since Fedora auodetected it, and installed the necessary drivers for me without any effort on my part. However, mine wasn't USB, so your experience may be different. I found that having it's great, but my one problemonce I started watcing TV on it was when I realized how teeny my monitor was (14 in). It hardly seemed worth watching TV on such a small monitor, especially if I wanted to watch it while I worked. I'd have to shrink the window down to about 200x150, and could barely see it. I solved that problem this Christmas by asking my dad to get me a new monitor, and he got me a 20.1 in, so now, watching TV on my computer is perfect, and with a 1600x1200 resolution, I can watch TV in a 640x480 window, still see everything, and not have it block what I'm working on.
However, if you don't watch TV while you work, it may be an unneccessary expense to you, especially if you already own a TV.

It's a good TV license dodge aswell, but you didn't hear that from me.....

We don't have to pay TV licenses in the States.