I recently bought a new toy -- a TV tuner for my computer.  I'm not sure how commonly known these devices are, but it can be very convenient at a reasonable cost. 

The Hauppauge HVR 950Q TV tuner can receive the old analog signals, the new digital signals, and even QAM signals if you have a cable box.  The tuner itself is only slightly larger than a USB flash drive and connects to a computer  by USB.  It comes with a 12" telescoping antenna, but like all small indoor antennas, it doesn't nearly have the reception strength of an outdoor antenna.

The benefit of a device like this is that you can watch TV while typing a document, editing a spreadsheet, or composing an email.  The television display opens in its own window that you can position in one corner of your monitor while you work on a document in the rest of the monitor.  Of course, you can also watch TV in full screen mode.

If you have a laptop, this tuner turns it into a portable television.  Yould could watch your laptop TV while waiting at the airport, or while sitting on a park bench enjoying the fresh air.  I have this tuner connected to the same rooftop antenna that my regular TV is connected to, and I'm amazed at the stations it picks up.  Where a station might be too weak to be displayed by my TV, this tuner is often able to pick it up with no problem.  My TV rarely picks up Raleigh, NC, and Greenville, SC, stations; but this USB tuner is strong enough to pull them in regularly.  For somebody like me who enjoys the challenge of finding distant TV stations, this is a good toy to have.

I won't even get into the recording and image capture features that the software includes.  Below is a snapshot of Finding Nemo that was broadcast on ABC tonight, and you can see that the picture quality is amazing.