Customer Reviews:
 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The included software is outdated, I had to download the updated software from the pinnacle website.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.
Not their yet! June 8, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this item at a local office supply store, brought it home and had it working in no time following the simple quick start guide. The antenna supplied was able to pick up several HD and analogue stations sitting on top of my desk on the main floor of my house. That was good, because I live in a rural area.
Now the bad. The Pinnacle supplied video editing software does not work with Windows Vista. Don't even try to install it. The software for channel surfing installed ok, but is not good. You cannot view TV full screen, for example and the software looks amateurish and clunky.
The remote control supplied with the device is so small as to require baby-size fingers to operate, and it doesn't work most of the time from about 10 feet anyway. And finally, I am running a brand new AMD quad core desktop with 3 gigs of ram, the fastest serial ATA harddrive available and Windows Vista home premium, which has no problem running the most demanding games today. But, apparently the combination of this Pinnacle hardware and software is just too much for my machine! It pauses for several seconds between channel changes, hangs up frequently all together, and just acts like it's running on a Pentium II 266 with 640k of RAM. I would hate to see how this functions on a laptop - probably not at all!
So I cannot recommend this. It is definitely not ready for use by the average consumer with average computer hardware.
 Yeah... it's junk. June 7, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Like many people, I've had a bunch of problems with this TV tuner:
* The TV software is flaky, and often crashes during channel changes. To use the software again, you'll need to reboot your PC. I'm using the latest version of the software as well, so Pinnacle hasn't put much effort in trying to resolve these issues.
* The TV software is also very slow, and runs poorly on even a fast system. I have a brand new Core 2 laptop with 2 GB of memory, and I still get annoying pauses while changing channels.
* The software for the remote complains if you restart the system without the TV tuner attached. I "fixed" this issue by disabling the remote software on system startup.
* The analog broadcast reception is OK, but the digital reception is awful in my area. I get 6 digital channels, and none of them are strong enough to deliver a steady picture and sound. Of course, your results may vary depending on your location.
* While the USB tuner is small, it is a bit oddly shaped and doesn't securely fit in the USB port of my laptop. I needed to use the included USB extension cord to resolve this issue.
Personally, I wish that I would have spent a bit more and got a better TV tuner. Avoid buying this one if possible!
 Excellent with a few limitations May 26, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This another of those products that it is wise to shop for and wait until you can find it a bargain price. Why the emphasis on getting a good price? Because, in my opinion, the product is not worth the current street price.
I am not much of a television watcher, but I thought that at the right price, it would be nice to be able to use a computer as an HDTV. And the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick USB HDTV Tuner will allow you to that IF you meet some boundary conditions.
First, your CPU had best be rated at 2.4 Ghz or higher, preferably higher. I did run it on a 1.8 Ghz computer, but I could plainly see this device and its software want plenty of power. They also want plenty of RAM and hard drive space as well, so make sure you have both. 2 GB RAM at a minimum.
Installation goes smoothly. The device is larger than a flash drive and Pinnacle thoughtfully supplies a short USB extension cable, so you can use the Pro Stick in cramped quarters. Ignore the software on the provided disc and immmediately download the latest version of Pinnacle TVCenter Pro from Pinnacle's website. I used the Windows XP SP 2 version and the software installed flawlessly. You have to restart after installation.
On the first launch of the Pinnacle TVCenter Pro software, as you might expect, there is a wizard to help get you started. You are given a choice of a free one-year trial of an online scheduling service, for which you'll have to pay $ 20 annually thereafter, or using an onair guide if one is available. In my area, a perfectly adequate onair guide is available. For my initial test, I chose the latter. Pinnacle TVCenter Pro initiates a scan for analog and digital broadcast stations. In my case, it found all of the analog stations and missed at least two of the digital stations.
Analog reception using the provided stick antenna which was some distance away from a window was, as you would expect, pretty bad. Barely visible pictures with lots of snow in most cases.
Digital reception was stunningly good.
Pictures were tack sharp with minor artifacting, possibly due to my running this on a slower processer than is suggested.
The Pinnacle TVCenter Pro is tolerable. You can receive internet radio stations using it, though I think it is a bit on the clumsy side. Same for playing music. I think there are better solutions for both.
Recording setup is simple enough. I did a test in MP4 on the underpowered machine I was using and it worked well with only a few stutters and minor pixelation.
I did not install the Pinnacle Studio software supplied on my computer since it would have duplicated another program, so no comments on that.
On the whole, if you can get one of these at a good price, I think it is a nice addition. It certainly provides a taste of HDTV in an economical fasion and for those with a yen for portable TV and a sufficiently powerful laptop, this is a fine combination. Overall a good value I think and a kind of fun device.
Jerry
Get ready to reboot. Often. May 14, 2008
Pros: Good overall picture quality; decent reception with only the included magnetic mount indoor antenna; accepts s-video and composite inputs; can achieve smooth HD playback on a low-spec machine with ~60-70% CPU usage.
Cons: The software is quite simply the worst I've ever purchased. It often crashes during channel changes, and will not restart until the PC is rebooted; enabling hardware acceleration causes an annoying constant tone and renders the entire box unresponsive until I reboot it; using the composite input often hangs the machine hard, once again forcing me to reboot.
Other Thoughts: I'm running a fully patched XP Pro box with an Athlon 64 3700+ CPU, 1.5GB RAM, and a HIS X1950 AGP with Catalyst 8.3. Pinnacle software is TVCenter Pro 4.98. Note that this version is a beta for this hardware; but Pinnacle recommended it as a fix for a video noise problem I was experiencing (which it partially fixed). All of the other problems listed above were present in the previous version of the software, and they're still present in 4.98.
I regret wasting money on this borderline unusable product.
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