PCTV HD Pro Stick USB2 HDTV Tuner for Free HD
by Pinnacle Systems
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List Price: Our Price: $45.00 You Save: $54.99 (55%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of PCTV HD Pro Stick USB2 HDTV Tuner for Free HD
Customer Review: Does not work with MCE 2005
Summary: 1 Stars
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The included software is outdated, I had to download the updated software from the pinnacle website.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.
Customer Review: Serviceable, but no substitute for a HDTV
Summary: 3 Stars
The Good: Windows Vista 32 bit detected the stick right away. All my normal (analog) channels were auto-detected. Works nicely with Vista Media Center.
The Bad: The analog (SD) video quality varies from average to terrible. The image is noticeably pixilated, grainy, and colors are grossly inaccurate. Even after fine-tuning the default video settings, the analog quality did not improve. In fact, depending on the station, the analog stations are noticeably worse on my new 22" LCD monitor that can output to 1080i. The only saving grace is if you can get HD broadcasts. However, I reside in central MN, and as yet, there are no over-the-air HD channels. If you CAN find HD broadcasts, your video quality might improve dramatically, I would hope. Seeing has how I have a high quality monitor and a 8800gtx video card, it is quite disappointing to get such substandard video quality. I can't see myself utilizing this product as it displays worse than my standard TVs.
Additionally, the tiny antenna that comes with the product is woefully small and inadequate for strong reception. Buyers should consider purchasing a separate, larger antenna for clearer reception.
The Bottom Line:
Analog video quality is worse than my two standard TVs. Unless you can get HD (digital) over-the-air reception, pass this product over and stick with your current TV. This is NOT a worthy substitute for a quality HDTV. Save your money for an actual HDTV.
Hint: Do an online search for broadcasts in your area before purchasing this product!
Customer Review: Not able to receive ATSC cable channels
Summary: 1 Stars
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.
Customer Review: DO NOT UPGRADE THE SOFTWARE
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm one of the unlucky chumps who upgraded to Pinnacle's software version 4.53 after loving what I was seeing after the initial installation of 4.50 from the cd-rom. Once I installed 4.53, the system crashed when changing channels, was extremely sluggish, and HD channels no longer appeared smooth. Some upgrade!
I immediately went to Pinnacle's support forum for help. Not surprisingly, there are several other users with my exact same problem. Also not surprisingly, these "early-adopters" were mostly experienced computer users. Pinnacle's canned responses on the forum provided no assistance whatsoever. (Check it out for yourself before you spring for this product.) Great. I'm on my own.
Worse, it won't un-install, even with a Microsoft system rollback. After rolling back to a previous Microsoft restore point, I reinstalled 4.50 from CD-ROM. Even after the attempted uninstall, my channel list from a previous channel scan was still in my system, but it would no longer display HD channels. I tried uninstalling 4.50 from the Uninstall function on the cd-rom, then re-installed. Now the program will no longer scan for channels at all. It's completely caput. It's going back today and I'm spending the extra cash to get another USB TV Card.
HOWEVER, the hardware seems to work with BeyondTV software. The OEM software that comes with the unit is just plain poor. The company would do better to partner with this company than shipping their own software.
Customer Review: Not their yet!
Summary: 1 Stars
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.