PCTV HD Pro Stick USB2 HDTV Tuner for Free HD | 
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| Brand: Pinnacle
Category: CE
List Price: $232.52
Buy New: $74.99
You Save: $157.53 (68%)
New (3) Used (5) Refurbished (1) from $44.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Platform: No Operating System
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Operating System: MS Windows XP Media Center compatible
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 8.2 x 3
MPN: 230100090
Model: 230100090
UPC: 613570219699
EAN: 0613570219699
ASIN: B000IM5GAO
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Package Contents - USB 2.0 TV tuner for ATSC/NTSC reception; Mini remote control including batteries; Telescopic antenna; A/V adapter cable; USB extender cable; Printed QuickStart guide; CD-ROM with Pinnacle MediaCenter | | • | Watch live high quality digital HD and SD TV on your desktop or notebook PC | | • | Break free and PlaceShift with the sleek USB 2.0 powered portable PCTV device | | • | Take the ultra-compact tuner with you wherever you go | | • | Full support for both NTSC analog and ATSC digital TV reception (ATSC available in many areas of USA) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Bring digital HDTV with full DVR functionality to your laptop with Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick. Enjoy all of your favorite shows in high quality HD anytime! PCTV HD Pro Stick is the first ultra-compact USB 2.0 powered TV tuner in an attractive stick form factor that brings the brilliant sharpness of HDTV via ATSC to your PC. The new digital TV standard ATSC comes over the air and for free in high or standard definition. In addition to ATSC, also standard analog TV (NTSC) can be received, via cable, satellite or antenna. The included Pinnacle MediaCenter software lets you not only watch TV but also record it. You can even pause live TV and resume exactly where you left off and you can rewind or fast forward. Good looks, great features and minimum size, will make the PCTV HD Pro Stick a must have wherever you are. Transform your PC into a DVR Take complete control of when you watch your favorite shows with TimeShifting Never miss a critical part of your favorite show again with pause, rewind and replay Schedule recordings with the integrated Electronic Program Guide and never worry about missing your favorite show (Web connection required) Eliminate the guess work by automatically recording shows in the destination file format of choice (i.e. Apple iPod - Sony PSP - DivX - more) Create your own DVD collection with direct-to-DVD recording to computer's DVD writer Capture audio and video from most consumer devices with analog composite outputs (e.g. VCRs, camcorders, DVD players, etc.) Create your own masterpiece by adding effects, titles, music and more with Pinnacle Studio QuickStart / Edit out your uninteresting moments using Pinnacle Studio QuickStart Composite A/V ports, S-Video port, F-Connector for optional external antenna For Windows XP and Vista PC
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| Customer Reviews: Read 36 more reviews...
 Works fine as long as... September 1, 2008
This product works on my computer (Dell Inspiron E1505 - Intel Core Duo @ 1.73 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Windows Vista Home Premium, no dedicated video card), with a few constraints. I feel that using the tuner pushes some aspects of my system's performance to its limits, so I probably would not recommend buying this tuner if you have a less powerful setup than I am using. I should also note that I am really only reviewing the hardware - after reading numerous bad reviews of the bundled software, I decided not to install it. I just plugged the tuner into my computer's USB port, let Windows set up the driver, and I use it with Windows Media Center - no need to install the bundled software.
Overall performance:
- Effortless setup and integration with Windows Media Center capabilities (programming guide, live TV viewing, recording, time shifting). I had the tuner set up and was watching a program on my computer within 20 minutes of taking it out of the box.
- I use this with an over-the-air digital antenna, and get crystal clear picture quality for both SD and HD broadcasts. I use an amplified indoor antenna rather than the included antenna because it's difficult to get a good signal without an amplified antenna at my location, which is in a valley 30-40 miles from my local broadcast towers. If you live in better proximity to your local broadcast towers, you ought to be able to use the included antenna. The base of the included antenna does have a magnet in it, so be sure to keep it away from hard drives and other magnetic media.
- Running with Windows Media Center and not using the bundled software, I have no problems with system lockups or needing to reboot. On very rare occasions I end up stuck while changing channels (it hangs in the transition between one channel and the next), but switching back to the previous channel and then changing it again always gets it unstuck.
- When watching or recording HD programming, I get pauses/choppy picture and audio if I have the viewing window maximized or sized larger than about 1/3 of my screen size. I have better success watching HD programming maximized (full screen) if I record it instead of watching it live, then view it after the recording is completed. I am not a computer expert, but I assume that this is because my computer lacks a dedicated video card, so running the full-screen video while simultaneously handling the HD signal from the tuner may be more than my CPU can comfortably handle. I do not have the same problem watching SD (standard definition) programs.
- I also end up with choppy video if the computer is doing anything else CPU-intensive during viewing or recording.
In summary, this tuner performs acceptably for my needs, and I would expect others to find its performance satisfactory as long as they use it with computer systems that meet or exceed the manufacturer's minimum system requirements. Of course, for optimal performance, I would recommend using it with a system that greatly exceeds the minimum requirements.
 Not able to receive ATSC cable channels July 23, 2008
I bought this Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick last year to use it on camping vacation when it rains. Software installation was as terrible as others found it too. A year and many patches and updates later I still don't know how to select a channel I want and not to step through all of them. I also do not understand why I am not able to scan available broadcasting without error message, in red, first. Sometimes error is diagnosed as "other application is connected to your device". Other times error is not diagnosed at all. Multiple software restarts, sometimes system reboot, let me at some point to do the scan but I still don't know what is the right thing to do to get the scan.
At some point I thought I would use the stick at home to record HD programming for time shift watching. My TV is able to find all HD channels directly from my cable signal without the cable box and display those not scrambled. My TV tuner specification says "Channel Capability-ATSC/NTSC". I mention this because I found erroneous information that one need to have QAM tuner to receive digital channels from cable signal. I don't have QAM and still receive HD broadcast that means that at least not scrambled channels on my cable are ATSC/NTSC. All big networks have their broadcast in HD on my cable. But when I try Pinnacle on cable signal it found nothing. Neither HD nor even digital channels, only analog. I tried both signal types: antenna and cable.
My conclusion: It may be useful if you have over the air good signal and you are tolerant to software quirks.
Pinnacle: The height of ????? July 20, 2008
I wonder if those who gave this product more than one star are posers from Pinnacle corporate. I note that they write long wordy paragraphs of praise... hmmm. This is an absurd product, pure and simple. It should take no more words to praise it as it does to knock it. Thankfully Amazon will refund.
Disturbing June 23, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's quite amazing that even today...almost 6 months after this product launched, it's still in what should be regarded as beta. That's also being generous...as it feels to me like "Alpha".
Some of the issues encountered:
1. The remote is terrible. Buttons don't respond well. Sometimes pressing common buttons, such as to increase volume will cause other issues...such as changing channels, windowing the program, or just plain hanging hte application with one of three different error messages. Some buttone seem useless. Try clicking the middle flower button for example. Nothing happens. Searching the forums dicusses the use of an INI file to customer map remote buttons. Searching the installation directories using the latest software shows this INI file not even present.
2. Support is iffy. They actually try to charge you for phone support...which is truely disgusting for installation problems. When you do finally get a chat, their recommendations seem to revolve around uninstalling and reinstalling the software. After that didn't work, they actually suggested reinstalling Windows. No joke.
3. The software is attrocious. It's slow, sluggish, and doesn't work sometimes. Re-running the setup wizard wont' work at times...but mysteriously works another time. Sometimes it won't see anything other than a few channels...sometimes hundreds. Channels take 3-5 seconds to switch and are choppy with stuttering 75% of the time. The software never lasted more than 30 minutes without some sort of crash...most of which required and entire reboot.
4. Did I mention the software? It doesn't have closed captioning. The channel information I simply could never get to work. The EPG free software never did download and I had to use the "premium version" which didn't work right either (and displayed a date of "0001" for the year it expires).
5. XP and Vista support. I tried running the software on Vista 32-bit ultimate w/sp1. Media Center absolutely refused to see anything other than the digital receiver (even running the 4.9 service as well as trying the MCE 3.1 drivers) and would not scan any channels. I also tried this on XPsp3 (on another partition of the same laptop)...which would possibly have been better, but I simply can't live with the Pinnacle software. It's absolutely a horrible experience on XP with the built-in software.
All in all, I hope to help someone else out by avoiding this product altogether and choosing something else like the Hauppague products. Every once in a while a product comes out that is suprisingly bad...with problems that are simply too much to overcome. After 5 hours I have come to the conclusion that this, unfortunately, is one of those products.
Does not work with MCE 2005 June 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hate to write a bad review, but I feel I must being that this is advertised to work work with media center and it doesn't the way it is supposed to.
I am a quite advanced experienced PC user and get cheallenged very rarely, well I have to hand it to Pinnacle, they challenged me!
Be prepared to spend a while on your PC trying to configure, download updates and so on to get this thing to work.
The included software is outdated, I had to download the updated software from the pinnacle website.
The MCE 2005 drivers included on the CD (you would only know they are there if you bother to explore the CD) will get rid of the annoying "found new hardware" window after plugging the unit in, but MCE will still not work, even after a reboot.
MCE will not find HD channels off the antenna at all, oh wait, it will not find a SINGLE channel at all!
Pros:
1 It works after about 30 to 60 minutes of messing with it.
2 A visit to the dentist is less painful.
Cons:
1. As the first reviewer commented, the installation of the unit before the software makes no sense.
2 the software interface is horrible.
3 it is a processor hog. I have another MCE computer running with 1gb Ram and an older processor running a PCI tuner from another manufacturer and runs smooth as silk.
4 gets VERY hot after only 10 minutes of receiving.
5 waste of a good 100 bucks.
6 too small to even use as a paperweight.
Save yourself the trouble, I thought I had found a good solution in a USB device, but was wrong, next time, after I return this unit, I shall invest in a unit manufactured by a company that has proven their technology.
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