Anybody tried the Pinnacle PCTV HD USB2.0 Pro Stick?  How does it compare to other HD tuner cards?

Hmmm.... Looks like it is still too new for any feedback.  I guess I'll either wait a little longer, or pick up the fusion 5 USB model, that seems to get pretty good reviews.  I hate spending $150 to be a guinea pig.

Well, I couldn’t tell you either way,….

However, it looks a lot like the new Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950 hybrid USB 2.0 tuner here:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_hvr950.html

Since Hauppauge is much more popular in MCE use you may have better luck inquiring about it then the Pinnacle PCTV HD USB2.0 Pro Stick.

The price of the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950 hybrid USB 2.0 tuner is about ~$99,….I think,…

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Q6600 | Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R | Corsair XMS2 DDR2 2x1GB + OCZ DDR2 2x512MB | eVGA 8800GT | 2x 650GB HDD | LG GGW-H20L | 2x AVerTV Combo PCIe | Coolermaster 650 Extreme SLI PSU | XBox 360 | XBox 360 HD DVD Drive | Vista Home Premium | WHS | Hauppauge HD PVR

I would stay away from Pinnacle if at all possible. They seem to have only a very small knowledge base, and what is there on their website is often hard to understand, it reads as though someone translated it to english using a webbased translator.
This is of course my opinion, and perhaps others have had great experience with Pinnacle. I recommend that you go with Hauppauge or Avermedia and not Pinnacle.

Well, I don't have previous experience with HD tuner cards (just the Hauppauge PVR 150).
I recently got the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick for my laptop (Intel Core Processor with MCE). As often seems to be the case with many products, the included software isn't too great. I found that the Pinnacle software locked my system up a couple times. However, once I loaded a copy of Beyond TV 4 that I had previously purchased, it was a snap to set up and the tuner works brilliantly. In the Seattle metro area, I receive 10 or 12 digital stations using just the included antenna. I recorded some 1080i HD programming and it worked great with Beyond TV, though as you would expect, it ate hard drive space at around 9.5 gigabytes per hour.

Does the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick work in MCE 2K5???

Why did you feel the need to use the included software or BeyondTV,…..???

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Q6600 | Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R | Corsair XMS2 DDR2 2x1GB + OCZ DDR2 2x512MB | eVGA 8800GT | 2x 650GB HDD | LG GGW-H20L | 2x AVerTV Combo PCIe | Coolermaster 650 Extreme SLI PSU | XBox 360 | XBox 360 HD DVD Drive | Vista Home Premium | WHS | Hauppauge HD PVR

Hi, i bought this right away as soon as i could find it at a store.  I have it hooked up to a Dell Inspiron 6000 Laptop (1.6ghz, 512ram, 128mb ati x300)  Not the fastest out there, but this works like a champ.  I have slight deinterlacing issues on some HD, which is do to the system specs, not so much the HD Pro Stick.  It has special drivers on the cd just for MC2005 or you could use its own software (dont)  The remote is handy (dosnt work in MC), but not needed if you have the MC Remote.  I have recorded HD and watched several shows that range from different resolutions and all seem just fine.  There are no 64 bit drivers though. Ummmmm i think thats about it... oh and the included Antenna works wonderful, i was a good Hr drive from the source and still picking up HD content.

Hi.

I purchased one of these units yesterday, from Best Buy. 

I was quite skeptical as to its ability to receive HDTV via such a small device (it's roughly the size of a thumb drive), but I must say, so far, it works perfectly.

I have it installed along with a ATI HDTV Wonder, and 3 Analog tuners. I cannot tell the difference between HD content recorded (or viewed) with the HDTV Wonder and the Pinnacle unit.  I have not tested the analog tuner in the unit, because it is software encoding, and therefore won't impress me much.

Trust me.  This amazing little gadget is WELL worth the $100!  I am now considering the purchase of another one, which would give me 3 HDTV tuners!

-Robert (TheGadgetGuy)

 

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HP M1070n Media Center PC

• 1GB PC3200 RAM
• 160GB SATA HD - OS and Audio Storage
• 2.5TB HD array - Video and DVD ISO Storage
• x600Pro 256MB PCI Express Video
• 2x ATI Analog Tuners
• 1x ATI HDTV Wonder Tuner
• Linksys Media Extender
• Xbox Media Extender

Thanks for all the feedback.  I ended up getting one of these the other day from Best Buy.  It seems to work great, but I'm having a little trouble getting it to play nicely with my setup.  I would like to use the pinnacle device to receive OTA HDTV broadcast, and use my existing analog tuner to watch my analog cable signal.  I'm not having any luck getting both tuner cards to work at the same time.  If I choose to setup just the analog tuner in MCE, the cable comes in fine.  If I choose to setup both the digital and analog tuners, I can watch the OTA stations, but the analog cable has no signal.  Any suggestions?  I'll try posting in the general forum for this question as well.

Hello.

You CANNOT use the analog and digital tuners in the Pinnacle at the same time.  It's one or the other.  You wouldn't want to use the analog tuner anyway, because it is a 'software encoding' tuner.  It uses your computer's processor to compress the analog signal.  Won't look very good, and makes your computer work harder than it needs to.

Only use the Pinnacle for HDTV receiving.  Disable the analog.  You should be quite happy with that setup.

-Robert

 

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HP M1070n Media Center PC

• 1GB PC3200 RAM
• 160GB SATA HD - OS and Audio Storage
• 2.5TB HD array - Video and DVD ISO Storage
• x600Pro 256MB PCI Express Video
• 2x ATI Analog Tuners
• 1x ATI HDTV Wonder Tuner
• Linksys Media Extender
• Xbox Media Extender

Thanks for the feedback.  I too bought this tuner and was wondering about two things.  First, how do you disable the analog tuner.  Second, I notice as I use the digital tuner in MCE 2005, that the live picture is jerky, like the pc can't keep up with the quantity of data.  I assume this is because it is recording a rolling 30 minutes and displays the recorded signal.  I am using an HP M400y media center with a 3.2Ghz processor (P4).  I haven't had any problems with the analog tuner in the past.  IT seems like you have done a lot of testing with this unit and I appreciate any thoughts you may have.

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear.  I'm not trying to use both tuners in the pinnacle device at the same time.  I have a seperate stand alone analog tuner.  MCE seemed to be ignoring my analog tuner and giving me a "signal not found" message for all my cable channels.  I have got the problem fixed now.  I had to choose to install both tuners, set up the guide info, then go back and choose to setup just the analog tuner and tell MCE to leave the guide info alone.  They both are working correctly now.

Quickwit, I noticed this problem on the HD station that I have the weakest signal on.  I think for me it is signal related.  The fact that the weather was pretty bad in Vermont over the weekend probably didn't help.  Your analog tuner probably has hardware built in to do the decoding, where the pinnacle device uses your cpu.  I have an Athalon 64 3200+ and it seems to run at about 25-30% decoding HD.

I don't think you need to disable the analog tuner in the pinnacle device, and I don't think you can even if you wanted to.  The device only processes one station at a time, and uses whatever tuner is appropriate for the channel.

Another thing I noticed is probably need to get a seperate USB hub to plug this into.  When I had another USB device plugged into a port that goes to the same USB header, I was getting spontaneous restarts every now and then.  I think the two devices together were drawing to much power from a single USB header.

Actually, the channel I was attempting to watch had nearly full signal strength.  I will play with this a bit more.  I got it instead of a PCI card tuner like the ATI HD card to use periodically with my Media Center laptop.  Maybe I should just opt for the card instead.  Thanks for the response

Thanks very much for the info.
But could I trouble you to give us an outline of how you installed this tuner?

I have been ripping my hair out all night long trying to get DTV via antenna  onto my new MCE2K5 box.

For some reason I can not get it to recognize any of the DTV channels.

How would you go about disabling the analog tuner in this thing?

Thanks very much.