Pinnacle PCTV HD Ultimate Stick

[bigjimmpls]

Just thought I would let everyone know that I just bought this TV Tuner today at Best Buy. They had them on sale and I had a bunch of Reward Zone certificates. The reason I bought it was is that it is supposed to tune QAM channels on the tuner which I thought was cool if it worked. But I tried to tune them in today and it wouldnt pull in the channels. SO I got on live chat with Pinnacle and they tell me it will work when they have the software available but it wont be ready till the end of November or 1st part of December so anyone looking to buy one might as well wait. I had enough certificates to almost pay for it so will keep it but I think it will be cool when it does work.

[lacywest]

interesting

[vhelp]

Interesting. I wonder weather or not this will work with my non-Ultimate stick.
Mine is the PCTV HD pro stick. But then, I don't have a subscription to digital
cable. But, since you menitoned something about "software" one can't help
but wonder if that might work with other models.

-vhelp 4411

[bigjimmpls]

According to Pinnacles website only the HD ultimate stick has QAM tuning. But who knows. Stranger things hae happened. After using the stick for a few days it isnt much different than the Pro stick. I am using it on my laptop and seems to be memory hungry. And also when I load the software and I try to go into the Device manager or try deleting a directory my screen goes blank. I have the newest video driver so not sure what is going on. Hopefully the next update for pinnacle will fix that. But all in all I like the fact that it stores the software on the Ultimate stick and not on the computer.

[bigjimmpls]

Just a follow up that there is beta software for the Pinnacle PCTV HD Ulitmate stick now. Have not tried it yet but will let you know how the software works.

[bigjimmpls]

Ok so I installed there beta software and after it was done scanning it says that I have 332 Qam channels. Seemed like an awful lot to me. LOL After editing all the blank channels which takes forever I had 78 QAM channels. I have to admit I get pretty angry sometimes at Pinnacle. But this tuner is cool and has a great quality picture. It is better than my QAM tv in the bedroom. I am pretty impressed with the quality.

[alanpgh]

I bought an Ultimate Stick about a week ago for over the air HDTV and analog NTSC TV.
Everything works spectacularly, including the remote. No problems. And the HD picture is great quality; no pixelation.
I have a Pentium D, 3.2GHz, Dual Core PC with 3G RAM. Video card is an ATI Radeon 1650.

By the way, it has been on sale at Best Buy for $99.99.
This week, it is on sale at Circuit City for $79.99,

Good Luck!

Alan

[edDV]

Ok so I installed there beta software and after it was done scanning it says that I have 332 Qam channels. Seemed like an awful lot to me. LOL After editing all the blank channels which takes forever I had 78 QAM channels. I have to admit I get pretty angry sometimes at Pinnacle. But this tuner is cool and has a great quality picture. It is better than my QAM tv in the bedroom. I am pretty impressed with the quality.

Can you tell us which channels are coming in under clear QAM on your cable system? I assume all your local channels are there. What else?

[alanpgh]

I forgot to mention in my post above, that I am running Vista Ultimate.

Good Luck!

Thanks for all your comments!
Alan

[jman98]

I forgot to mention in my post above, that I am running Vista Ultimate.

Good Luck!

Good luck to you too. You'll need it (see the first sentence in what I quoted).

[alanpgh]

Yes, I agree that I will need some very good luck with Vista.

The only saving grace is that I also have a Mac Mini running Leopard, and there are not any problems with my Mac. This is part of my transitioning to the Mac for much of my work. I have a KVM switch, so it is easy to switch back and forth.

Alan

[edDV]

Yes, I agree that I will need some very good luck with Vista.

The only saving grace is that I also have a Mac Mini running Leopard, and there are not any problems with my Mac. This is part of my transitioning to the Mac for much of my work. I have a KVM switch, so it is easy to switch back and forth.

Alan

Has anyone confirmed the PCTV HD Ultimate Stick works with an Intel Mac running Leopard?

[alanpgh]

Good question. I haven't confirmed this. There is a Mac version of the stick. I wonder if it is the same hardware.

[vhelp]

Well, I got an black friday e-mail from them (Pinnacle) this week, that they
are having them on sale for $79.99 dollars.

This is virtually the first actual merchandise that I've ever registered online with
the makers. So, I kind of feel a little proud about it in all. It would take a lot
to move me like this for a product. But this item really shines. I mean, its
quality in all aspects is just number one, imho. And jus like the other poster
mentioned, the product performs very well. And like I said basically, I threw out
the Hauppauge HVR-1600 (I shelfed it in the closet) and the PCTV Pro is full time
in my XP Home computer, and operating with no glitches or studderness or whatever,
and all-the-while, using its own propriatory recording software of which I am totally
satisfied with. Boya!

Be good, you guys, and..

.. !! .. !! .. Happy Thanksgiving eve, you all

-vhelp 4448

[alanpgh]

The Black Friday Email I received from Pinnacle shows the Ultimate Stick at a price of $99.99, (The Pro may be $79.99; not sure.)
There are some great deals out there:
This week, the PCTV HD Ultimate Stick is $79.99 at Circuit City.
It is $99.99 at Best Buy. There is a $10. rebate coupon for Best Buy at
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/save10/

I love the Ultimate Stick. It works flawlessly for OTA HD and Analog content!

Great Job Pinnacle!

[edDV]

Here's the Circuit City ad. Can be ordered online now.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Pinnacle-PCTV-HD-Ultimate-Stick-82301002071/sem/rpsm/co...oductDetail.do

PS: Strange, last night the price was $79.99 (with $50 rebate). Today 11/22 it it is back to full price.

[vhelp]

I just wanted to note a couple of things that cought my attention to this topic as I was
re-thinking my comments here..

First, I wanted to address my error about my e-mail from Pinnacle, B.Friday sale for the
PCTV Ultima that I quoted earlier -- It's no $79.99, but rather, $99 dollars. Sorry.

And second, (regarding the quality and performance, etc for the PCTV Pro) my experience is
based on the 720p captures that this usb-2 PnP device gives me, and my reviews/comments
are based on that aspect. I have not tested it against 1080i sources because at my current
location (on the gloab) I can not receive those channels (NBC, for instance) for testing. So,
I don't want some of you to go thinking that I'm commenting all resolutions with this hardware.
My appoligies to anyone who thought I was refering to *all* resolutions. And, fwiw, my notes
(in comparison to hauppauge hvr-1600) are still true, because my problems with that card
was a bad experience at 720p resolution, while with the PCTV Pro, it was the opposite!

I'm sure others would like to hear your experience with 1080i sources so that they can continue
to back up the true quality and performance of the PCTV Pro, as well as the PCTV Ultima.

Live long and Capture, always

And, thank you all for your understanding of all this.
-vhelp 4449

[robandjeanne]

Does this work with regular Windows XP or do you need MCE (media center edition)? I'm guessing it will work to record up to 2 hours on the stick even though the PC is lacking in memory? Thanks.

[breny]

I purchased the PCTV Pro about 6 months ago. The only HDTV I could get was 1 channel using the antenna. I was able to use the cable inputs but I'm not sure I got true HD recordings. I was able to use windows media center OR the software they provided. When I upgraded to winxp sp2, the pinnacle software stopping working. Pinnacle sent me a new version which didn't work either. So.......I'm wondering, is there workable software from Pinnacle now for the PCTV Pro? and what is the difference from that and the Ultimate several of you are talking about. What is QAM?? I have comcast cable with a HDTV box. I want to record HDTV programs and the only thing I can find is that BlackMagic Intensity card. Any other ideas?
Thanks

[edDV]

I purchased the PCTV Pro about 6 months ago. The only HDTV I could get was 1 channel using the antenna. I was able to use the cable inputs but I'm not sure I got true HD recordings. I was able to use windows media center OR the software they provided. When I upgraded to winxp sp2, the pinnacle software stopping working. Pinnacle sent me a new version which didn't work either. So.......I'm wondering, is there workable software from Pinnacle now for the PCTV Pro? and what is the difference from that and the Ultimate several of you are talking about. What is QAM?? I have comcast cable with a HDTV box. I want to record HDTV programs and the only thing I can find is that BlackMagic Intensity card. Any other ideas?
Thanks

QAM is the modulation scheme used for digital cable. A digital tuner needs QAM cabability to tune digital channels on cable. This is separate from analog tuning which uses NTSC RF modulation. An ASTC tuner will do nothing on cable. ATSC VSB-8 modulation is used for over the air digital broadcasting in North America.

My understanding is the USB PCTV Pro does not support QAM and the Ultimate has hardware for QAM tuning but not drivers/software. I also understand that QAM tuning is not yet supported in MCE.

Even if you do have a QAM capable digital tuner and software, most cable digital channels are encypted. You can expect to receive local channels (SD and HD) without encryption as required by the FCC. The cable company may leave other channels open at their option.