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: Get ready to reboot. Often.
Summary: 1 Stars
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.
Customer Review: A disappointment from the 1 Stars
I agree 110% with this reviewer. I am an advanced PC user with much experience with hardware and software issues. This may be a good hardware tuner, but it is nothing without dependable non-buggy software to run it. My impression is that this is a terrible attempt at producing a cool gadget. Pinnacle should have tested it more throughly before rushing to market, in my opinion. My advice to anyone considering this product is to stay as far away as possible. It is a disappointment from the start. Tech support is a disaster. I think they know there are serious problems. Don't even call and waste your time. When it works it is amazing to behold, but therein lies the biggest problem....getting it to work. It crashes every time I change channels, just blackscreens on me and won't start again unless I reboot. Then when I restart it just crashes again. I get an error message as big as a magazine. Every time I try to load the EPG (electronic program guide) the app stops responding. Without a progam guide most of its functionality is gone. I will be returning it to the store promptly for a refund.Customer Review: All I can say is "Wow!"
Summary: 4 Stars
This little gadget is amazing! It actually did a better job pulling in HD signals over the air than my standard TV setup, all with just 1/2 of a rabbit ear (looks like a car antenna)!
It's very easy to use and perfect for laptops. Now my honey can watch TV where ever she is, inside or outside of our home.
The included remote is just as small, and works from a good range. I could change channels from across the room just fine.
The DVR software seems to work fine, but I haven't given it the full blown test using schedules and recording long programs. The time freeze and backup works fine.
The only drawback is that if you loose and HD signal, but it's still in your channel line up, when you select it from the remote, the program throws up a dialog box you can not acknowledge with the remote. You have to get up, go to the machine and click it (so much for remote, eh?)
Otherwise, great product. I did heed the warnings to not update the software. I would research it more to find out if the update is fixed before downloading it.
Customer Review: Awesome organizational tool for purse-lovers!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought one of these for myself earlier this year, as I got tired of rummaging through my bag looking for my odds and ends. I found the Purse Brite extremely helpful for all those little things, so much so I can now carry a few more items for on the go, all without sacrificing being tidy. I also found it extremely helpful when traveling. For a recent trip, I pulled the whole organizer out of my purse and put it in my travel carry-on in mere seconds. When I got to my destination, it all fit very quickly into a foldover clutch I'd brought along for business - so simple and useful. And the little light itself is worth the price. I loved the organizer so much I purchased this one for my mom. She's recently become handbag-addicted, and it's so much easier to change bags when you don't have to repack every little thing. Room for pills, glasses, lipstick, magnifier, etc with plenty of room in the middle for your wallet. Couldn't be easier! I highly recommend this organizer for anyone who changes purses or just wants to corral all their little items into some semblance of sanity!Customer Review: Sweeeet at First than Disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
When I first got this tuner it was easy to connect and search for channels and everything was simple. It was so sweet at first watching tv and recording whatever I wanted to with local digital stations. It happened rather quickly though it would stop working and sometimes never start all together. I have even had it in the middle of recording something and shut down and sometimes my whole computer goes off. This thing pushed my buttons a few times like setting the record timer just to have the program close down because of an error. I think it was the updates for it since it seemed problems got worse after one came. If not for the cheap price I would be more angry but this is my easiest way to record shows on digital channels. If I had a time machine I would probably go back and stop me in the past from buying it but we all know that's silly since it could break apart the space time continuem with terrible future consequences. I would say overall avoid yourself the trouble unless you have a time machine of course and venture the risk.