Pinnacle PCTV To Go HD Wireless

by Pinnacle

Product Details

• Item Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000N20O06
• Item model number: 230100181
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,102 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 1, 2007

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Introducing Pinnacle PCTV To Go, the ultimate wireless TV viewing solution. Now watch and control high quality TV on your PC from anywhere. PCTV To Go version 1.1 now includes HD support! Watch HDTV wirelessly from your home network wherever you go. In addition to full HD compatibility, PCTV still offers these incredible features for your new TV experience:

• No set-up or monthly service fees
• Watch and control TV in full screen MPEG-2 DVD like quality in and around your home on your PC
• Watch and control high-quality MPEG-4 TV content remotely anywhere in the world on an Internet connected PC
• Wireless set-up makes installation of PCTV To go a breeze
• Control all your TV features from your PC -- remotely change channels, video sources, and even control your home digital video recorder
• PCTV To Go wirelessly communicates to your existing network or directly to your wireless PC
• Pause and rewind live TV or record your favorite TV shows with the included PCTV To Go Player
• PCTV To Go seamlessly works as a TV source within a wirelessly connected Microsoft MCE equipped PC

What's in the Box
Pinnacle PCTV To Go hardware, two WiFi 802.11g antennas, composite (RCA) cable, coaxial/RF cable, IR blaster cable, power adapter, quick start guide, CD-ROM

Product Description

Introducing Pinnacle PCTV To Go HD Wireless the ultimate wireless TV viewing solution. Now watch and control high quality SD and HD TV on your PC from anywhere. Easy wireless setup. Integrated Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition support and built-in comprehensive digital video recorder capabilities make Pinnacle PCTV To Go HD Wireless a must-have for anyone interested in watching high quality TV shows sporting events movies or news anywhere on a PC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great alternative to SlingBox if your router isn't near your cablebox, July 14, 2007

By 

M. Choi "MC" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pinnacle PCTV To Go HD Wireless (Personal Computers)

I reviewed three different products before buying Pinnacle PCTV:

1. Slingbox
2. Sony Location Free
3. Pinnacle PCTV

My requirements were:
1. wireless connectivity (Slingbox can't)
2. ease of installation (Sony is difficult)
3. accept HDTV (Sony can't)

PCTV fulfilled my needs and it works great with DVD like quality. We don't have a TV or a cablebox in our living room but now my wife uses her laptop to watch cable TV while nursing....

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars decent gadget, April 2, 2007

By 

gadget lover (CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pinnacle PCTV To Go HD Wireless (Personal Computers)

This device implements a nice concept and mostly delivers what it promises. Once set up properly, a non-geek could easily use this. Setup is ok but not that simple, but since this device requires that you also administer a router, that is not a very big deal. The display and recording interfaces are clean and simple. The picture quality is great, but don't expect 720p because it is not 720p. I would strongly suspect that recording in 720p would get this into some legal issue. But still, quality is equal or slightly better than dvd quality. Some cons: cpu intensive, some laptop cards don't work, can't record at predefined times using the software provided, and there is no keyboard control.

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty decent product, June 26, 2009

By 

K. McKirahan (Jessup, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pinnacle PCTV To Go HD Wireless (Personal Computers)

Overall, I am quite pleased with this product. It is nice to be able to watch all of the channels from my main TV on my laptop out on the porch. The video is near DVD quality when viewed on a laptop screen.

Initially, I had problems setting it up. That was because my main PC has a wired Ethernet connection to my router but the Pinnacle did not. On the other hand, I had no problems getting it to work with my wireless laptop (both running Vista).

Fast-forward 2 weeks later and now I have a NetGear wireless printer server. I bought this device to allow my new TV to get on the Internet since I don't have an Ethernet cable by the TV. Yeah, it was designed to allow you to plug a USB cable from a printer and wirelessly connect to my wireless router but it also has 4 Ethernet ports so you can use it as a wireless bridge.

So, configured in that manner, the TV can now get out on the Internet. I then figured I would try installing the PCTV To Go software again on my main PC. This time, the PC found the Pinnacle device and was able to display the TV signal from it. Great!

I then figured I would be equally successful at getting the remote viewing feature working. No such luck. While my PC can communicate with it through an Ethernet cable to the router, then wirelessly from the router to my NetGear "bridge"; and my TV can get out on the Internet through the NetGear bridge and the wireless router, the Pinnacle device cannot. Bummer. Although the main reason I bought this device was to receive TV broadcasts from my cable box to any wired or wireless PC in the house (which now works well), it would have been cool to be able to watch my TV channels from any PC in the world. I suppose this would work if I had a wired connection from the Pinnacle device to my router but since I don't want to drill holes in the walls and floor to run an Ethernet cable over to it, I will have to live without that feature.

Overall a really cool product, but I have to knock a star off because of this limitation.