Pinnacle PCTV HD Stick USB TV Tuner HDTV for PC

by Pinnacle Systems

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 9.1 x 2 inches ; 9.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000QFDIIU
• Item model number: 82301001991
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,849 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

Bring analog digital and HDTV with full DVR functionality to your PC. Introducing Pinnacle PCTV HD Stick your key to free high quality digital programming on your computer. The USB 2.0 powered tuner is so small that you could actually put it in your coat pocket but with its good looks you won't want to hide it. No longer must you modify your schedule to enjoy your favorite TV shows. Now you can pause TimeShift and even automatically record all of your favorite shows in HD and SD with no service fees. Mini antenna included.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars core functionality works fine for me, January 13, 2008

By 

E. Cantu "e" (san antonio, tx) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pinnacle PCTV HD Stick USB TV Tuner HDTV for PC (Personal Computers)

I see a few people giving this computer tv tuner bad reviews. I understand why. But for me, it does it's main job just fine, which is take the cable signal and plays it back on my computer screen. If you are a bit of a poweruser, you shouldn't have too much trouble making this thing play back tv on your computer. As for the more sophisticated functions, your mileage may vary. If the average person whose computer probably has quite a few startup programs, and/or vista, I can see problems. The initial scan for channels isn't real informative. It's better to cancel the initial scan, and dig through the settings to set the software to "cable" or to "antennae", that makes a big difference. For now I give it 3 stars. It took me about 30 minutes to get completely comfortable with the basic software functionlity. I did try the over the air HD programming and was able to pick up 4 channels. It was pretty impressive. Standard cable was acceptable quality. When I try some of the other more advanced features, if they work well, I might upgrade to 4 stars. I bought mine at office depot for $99. I didn't want a separate TV, as I live in a small garage apartment. This fits the bill. I prefer it over the PCI TV Tuner that I had.
*****edit*****
I've now had the tuner for several months. It still works good. I like the straight forward recording feature...just hit the red record button and you're recording. I also like the pause feature. Pretty cool to pause live TV (it does this by transparently recording and simultaneously playing back). I'm using it with analog cable (not HD or digital), so all my comments reflect that type of usage. I'm using two 19" monitors under XP, and I use the second monitor to play tv, which can be in a window or fullscreen. I can of course simultaneously surf the web, play a game (windowed mode not fullscreen), etc...on my main screen. I like everything about it, the only thing that bugs me the most is an audio sync issue. When you first launch the TV application, and start watching TV, the audio and video are in sync. As you start changing channels, the audio/video sync starts to drift. I can fix this by changing to channel of choice and then restarting the application OR by using the pause button to pause and then un-pause a second later....seems to clear it up.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works great with Vista Ultimate Media Center, February 20, 2008

By 

Paul Park "paulwpark" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pinnacle PCTV HD Stick USB TV Tuner HDTV for PC (Personal Computers)

I have had mine for over half a year and it works great. I have Win Vista Ultimate and tried using Pinacle's PVR software and it would crash quite frequently. Instead, I tried using Windows Media Player and works GREAT. I can record shows, use the free program guide from the Media Center, burn to dvd... all in a simple package. The only thing I haven't been able to figure out is the secondary channels (like 4-2).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars so far..., October 14, 2007

By 

Byron Levan - See all my reviews
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ive only had this for a couple of hours now but it was extremely easy to set up and picks up a lot of channels. the only set back is that the drive puts off a lot of heat and i can see this leading to problems later. the antenna that comes with it also is extremely short (cable wise, the antenna itself does not need to be long to receive signal). I really cannot compare this however to others because this is the first one i have had.