Pinnacle PCTV USB Stick puts digital TV on your screen

Adding a digital TV tuner to your laptop is now as easy as putting a thumbdrive into a USB port -- if you live in Europe or Australia, that is. Pinnacle Systems has launched the PCTV USB Stick, a tiny digital tuner that looks like a thumbdrive, and comes with a handy remote and software to save shows in DivX and other formats. Plug it into your USB port, and you have full access to terrestrial digital broadcasts using the DVB-T standard, which has been adopted in much of Europe and Australia. The rest of us will just have to settle for BitTorrent.

[Via TechDigest]

[matt @ Feb 22nd 2006 4:42PM]

erm, these have been around for ages, i got one for �40 for christmas

[Tom @ Feb 22nd 2006 4:46PM]

Freecom did this ages ago!

[m @ Feb 22nd 2006 4:52PM]

Bit lame - They advertise it with pictures in a PowerBook but it's not even compatible with mac's!

Also, this is barely news, DVB-T pen drives have been around for almost a year now. Love the site though ;)

[Marauder @ Feb 22nd 2006 4:56PM]

Okay, whoever made the advert really screwed up. The PowerBook in the background is mirror images (the PC Card slot, as well as the charger connector, and the USB port shown) are on the left hand side, not the right. But, the best part is, the remote is facing the right way.

[George @ Feb 22nd 2006 5:04PM]

Similar devices have been available in the UK for some time. I have the Freecom DVB-T stick, which is fractionally longer than the Pinnacle device.

The only problem with these smaller mobile tuners is the need for a decent aerial. The ones supplied are often not good enough to pick up any kind of decent signal, making the mobile nature of these devices somewhat pointless.

[Kevin @ Feb 22nd 2006 5:13PM]

It is funny how it is connected to the DVI port of a Mac which does not work with it.

[Marauder @ Feb 22nd 2006 5:21PM]

Number 5, it's not connected to the DVI port. I thought the same thing too. The PowerBook is mirrored for some reason, while everything else is correct. My guess is they did a bad photochop so they could angle things the right way.

[Mark @ Feb 22nd 2006 5:38PM]

As has already been said, Freecom have had a version of a usb digital tuner out for a while now. It's got a great recepeption, even from the supplied aerial:

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10284111&pid=44&rstrat=0

[Justin Clifford @ Feb 22nd 2006 5:39PM]

You should see the new Slinbox. It's at http://www.slingmedia.com/ .I have it and it's even better than everything else.

[aptmunich @ Feb 22nd 2006 5:50PM]

Yeah, miglia make one that looks just like the shuffle and actually IS compatible with macs.

[Matt S. @ Feb 22nd 2006 6:39PM]

Such a great idea, but I am a Mac user and I wish there was a small device like this for me. Oh well, I'll wait!

[Mikey @ Sep 21st 2006 9:39AM]

Matt S.

There is something available like this in the US and for Mac's. It's from Elgato. Mine just came in and it works great! Free HDTV never tasted so good. If you like in the UK, they also have a DVB-T tuner.

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvhybridna&PHPSESSID=73ebb14c6bbeee86ad6d0ec385468197

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvhybrid

[K Spec @ Feb 22nd 2006 6:55PM]

All of you Britts need to shut up, just because you can get something in the UK, doesn't mean you can get it everywhere.

[slash @ Feb 22nd 2006 6:55PM]

Daily Show bittorrent here i come!

[Tarandeep @ Feb 22nd 2006 7:24PM]

so what channels can this thing and similar products pick up?

are we talking about freeview channels?

i might get one, depending what channels i can pick up.

ive only got channel 1-5 at uni :-( (uk btw)

[Alone2Gether @ Feb 22nd 2006 7:29PM]

Is that a Mac? It looks a lot like it but at the same time, it doesn't.

[word @ Feb 22nd 2006 8:49PM]

that powerbook 15 inch is flipped horizontally. notice there's no power-on button in the speaker grill and those ports are definitely the left-side ports, not the right. crazy bizarro mac.

[thanggnguyen @ Feb 22nd 2006 9:43PM]

Darn, it's only available in internatinal markets. The story states that the portable tuner works on DVB-T standard, is HDTV part of the specs. I hope this add on will make to the US because I would seriously consider it.

[SteveoDBGT @ Feb 23rd 2006 12:46AM]

*Yawn*

http://www.yuan.com.tw/en/products/vdo_pd300mini.html
http://www.yuan.com.tw/en/products/vdo_pd300.html

Mine: http://www.yuan.com.tw/en/products/vdo_ub300.html

[Howie @ Feb 23rd 2006 4:33AM]

The theory behind these USB DVB is great - HOWEVER - the signal is very poor and not worth using indoors. For best results, find your nearest tall building, climb to the roof, drag some comfy seating together, power up and tune in - brace yourself for the wind. Otherwise, you might prefer to just sit at home and watch the TV like everyone else.

[JAn-Dirk @ Feb 23rd 2006 6:56AM]

This is nice for you that live in countries where a special card is not needed. You can only watch Free To Air channels. In the Netherlands, there is only 1 FTA channel available, if I am correct.

Seems a great item to see the World Championship football (soccer for the US readers) this summer.

[James Grinter @ Feb 23rd 2006 7:55AM]

There is a mac compatible one - the Miglia TVMini (with ElGato's EyeTV software). Same comments about the aerial apply.

[dspen @ Mar 7th 2007 12:29AM]

Pinnacle have just announced that they will be launching three new USB TV tuners for the Mac.

• Pinnacle TV for Mac DVB-T Stick – this allows European users to watch, TimeShift and record their favorite digital TV and radio (DVB-T) programs
• Pinnacle TV for Mac Hybrid Stick – this delivers the same functionalities as the DVB-T Stick and adds analog TV reception. It also acts as a video capture device
• Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick – which gives US customers access to ATSC HDTV directly on their Macs, in addition to standard analog TV.

No word of these products on the Pinnacle site, but MacWorld reported the new Mac Sticks
http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/03/06/pinnacle/index.php

[J de B @ Oct 17th 2007 3:48PM]

i come from jersey in the channel isles we dont have digital tv yet..........boring......ive installed the pinnacle usb digtal pctv stick ....went to the north of the island where we can almost touch France....scanned.....found 28 digital french stations ........cant fault the sound or picture....almost like HD..But not quite .problem is i have to stand on my head to view the picture sometimes its the right way up cant find nothing in the settings to explain why this is happening ..any ideas please