I replaced a TV with a TV tuner in my office. I don't watch a lot of TV there (current news, financial news, maybe check the occasional hockey game score ...!!! ) and wanted a bit more workspace.

This is the one I bought from Dell. It's about $70 now - I think it bought it during Days of Deals for about $50. The mfr website and more specs/details are here. This is the only one I am familiar with, so can't make comparisons but I am happy with this one.

What kind of signal do you have now - cable, satellite or antenna? The tuners work with all three, but my experience is with cable only. All I had to do was a quick bit of software/driver installation and then connect a standard coaxial cable to the tuner from the cable jack in the wall and then run a USB cable from the tuner to my computer. I spent maybe 10 or 15 mins configuring.

(It only took me that long because the printed instructions that came with the tuner were poorly written and I went to the mfr website to get more complete info on one small point - can't remember what that was.)

The TV tuner itself is fairly small and sits unobtrusively on my desktop next to my wireless router. The tuner came with a remote control if you want to sit back and just watch TV. I rarely watch full screen (often just want to check headlines or something while I am still using my computer for something else), but the picture quality is fairly decent either way.

I occasionally record a TV program, and it's easy to set up the recording times. I wouldn't want to try and work on the computer while it's recording, though, as it seems to s-l-o-o-w down the PC while it is recording. The recorded programs are fairly large, but most PCs have lots of storage space these days.

All in all, it was inexpensive and quite simple. The only complaint I have (and it's a very minor one) is that there is a bit of a "click" when I change channels.

Edited to add: You can also connect to external speakers, of course, and there are also inputs for DVD players, for example.