Pinnacle kicks out $100 PCTV HD Stick USB tuner

The Pinnacle PCTV USB Stick that you may have grown quite fond of over the past year has finally decided to get with the times, as the newest iteration throws HD capability into the minuscule tuner while still ringing up a penny under a Benjamin. The Pinnacle PCTV HD Stick steps it down a notch from its Professional sibling, but still allows users to "view live television on their PC with pause, rewind, and fast-forward timeshifting functionality." Pinnacle's latest USB 2.0 tuner is "about the size of a key," gets all the necessary juice right from the USB port, supports NTSC and ATSC broadcasts, and comes bundled with the firm's TVCenter Pro software. Best of all, this no frills portable TV tuner can get live programming on your laptop or desktop right now for a mere $99.99.

[akijikan @ Jun 7th 2007 3:34AM]

I can't wait to see some reviews of this...looks promising

[John @ Jun 7th 2007 3:36AM]

Will these same sticks work in Europe w/ PAL?! I'm mobile, I need something worldwide!

[ddinch @ Jun 7th 2007 3:38AM]

I bought this back in January: it was shite. Actually, the actual tuner may have not been too bad, but wading through pinnacle's software was like swimming in mud. If this would have worked with vista media center, I wouldnt have returned it.

[Megs @ Jun 7th 2007 5:55AM]

Hmm.. i bought this thing months ago. id say like february.. and it actually does work with vista media center.. thats why i bought it. its running on the mac mini im typing this on right noe.

[dave @ Jun 7th 2007 6:25AM]

amazing idea, but now they need to come out with one that does FiOS TV. i think its NTSC but im not sure if it uses a regular sable signal?

if it does, expect to see me saving up for one, alongside a nice new viewsonic 1080p panel.

[Sam @ Jun 7th 2007 12:09PM]

From my understanding, FIOS uses QAM. I haven't seen a portable and inexpensive solution that supports ATSC/QAM yet.

[andrew harrison @ Jun 7th 2007 6:55AM]

does it work with mac? if so, with what software?

[Constable Odo @ Jun 7th 2007 8:14AM]

ElGato's EyeTV software should work with this stick under Mac OSX.
http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvmain_compatible
Check the last row down under Pinnacle. It supports the STV USB stick so it should support the HDTV as well. You can email ElGato to confirm this.

[Rick Lyon @ Jun 7th 2007 8:24AM]

So the Pinnicale doesn't come with mac software? Might as well just get an ElGato stick which comes with the software as you'd need to buy the software anyways, right? So this is a pc only out of the box option.

[Frank @ Jun 7th 2007 8:29AM]

Try this for global connectivity (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ITV-721&cat=VID). The software that comes with it is ok, but the tuner itself is a Trident DTV tuner supported by many software vendors such as SageTV, and Microsoft's Media Center. Don't know if it supports HDTV or DVB-T.

[foobarino @ Jun 7th 2007 8:39AM]

The problem with this and others (like the Hauppauge HVR-950) is that they don't have QAM support built in. In my area, Comcast puts all of the unencrypted HDTV out there for you to grab from QAM. If I already have cable TV run to the thing, why would I want to get HDTV OTA when those channels are sitting right on the coax, hmmm?

And by the way, anybody know how you get both OTA HDTV plus analog cable via one coax connector? It would seem that you're not able to use an antenna for digital channels if you already have cable running to it. I haven't stumbled on any posts of anyone saying they're doing this.

Waiting patiently for my USB CableCARD tuner (plus hardware H.264 encoder, while I'm asking)...

[strider_mt2k @ Jun 7th 2007 11:01AM]

It's clunky with hardware, but you COULD attach simple A-B switch on that incoming line to switch between a Cable TV feed and an OTA antenna of some kind.

I imagine you'll have to tell the software somehow that you're tuning in that range once you make the switch of course.
That entire process may or may not be an elegant one, but it would allow you to do what you are suggesting.

[Robert Barbieri @ Jun 7th 2007 9:03AM]

Um this is nothing new... I've had one of these since march, bought it at best buy...

[BatteryAcid @ Jun 7th 2007 4:22PM]

can you tell us how it is?

I wonder it it works with Ubuntu using TVtime.

[Ramonv @ Jun 7th 2007 11:05AM]

Got this 2 months ago and the software crashes all the time on Vista and it doesn't work with Vista's media center.

[Brian @ Jun 7th 2007 2:41PM]

I agree with many comments here. This would be great application to use if you don't want to pay for DVR or it's services!

[Saurabh @ Jun 7th 2007 3:37PM]

This does not work with Vista Media Center. I tried, but it would never playback on he screen. Vista Media Center always complained about one thing or the other

[Megs @ Jun 7th 2007 5:04PM]

I odnt know what you guys are doing wrong.. thats odd that u arent getting it to work with Vista .. ive had zero problems at all.. did you guys DL the update drivers from pinnacle? i believe there is also some vista-specific plug-in you have to get seperately in addition to the drivers. if anyone really cares i can go back and check i kinda did a set it and forget it.. again im watching tv on it as we speak and i dont think i have a magic mac mini. once i installed everything . it just worked.

[Brandon @ Jun 7th 2007 10:21PM]

Do I need an external antenna to pick up the over the air broadcast or does this unit do that for me? Can I just plug this in and pick up local HD channels?

[Phour ZwanZig @ Jun 7th 2007 11:42PM]

I got this off Woot quite awhile ago.. The tuner is good.. I first started to think it was crap til I set it up with MediaCenter in Vista.

If you dont plan on using it with Vista, I must wish you good luck.. Their software is bad, and seems to get worse as they patch it.. Ive tried other Free programs but couldnt get it to work for HD, only analog..

[ilya @ Jun 9th 2007 5:45PM]

i have it. Pinnacle support SUCKS. and for some reason this USB Stick uses 90-100% CPU power and therefore does NOT work good. I have Dell 600M with 2.0 Centrino, 1GB RAM, and 64MB Radeon 9000.

[Megs @ Jun 9th 2007 7:43PM]

@ Brandon: I dont have HDTV so i couldnt even say. I think with all of these types of devices you do need an antenna. And yeah, unless you are using this with vista MC, i wouldnt bother. i mean to be honest I wouldnt use any other DVR type program besides media center anyway... that't just me though.

[aa @ Jul 26th 2007 8:10PM]

I've got this one and put it on MacMini, so far so good! The software come with the package, doesn't allow you to change the record quality, this made my hard disk having less free space. But it seems if you pay 20 some bucks to upgrade it will be able to adjust the recording compress rate. I'm not sure thought.

Anyway it is worth to purchase, I am also willing if the Linux program tvtime can support this device, anyone has this kind of news?