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October 31, 2008
An HDTV Tuner for your Computer - Pinnacle's PCTV HD mini Stick
More and more people, are watching more and more video on their computers. There are many sites to watch videos, but what about watching local broadcast TV on your computer. Enter the new Pinnacle PCTV HD mini Stick. It is a very compact - about the size of a small USB thumb drive - that plugs into a USB port of your computer.
It comes with:
- the USB HD Tuner,
- a remote control,
- software on a CD,
- a telescoping antenna,
- and a travel bag.
Set up was quick and easy, insert the Stick in a USB port, load the software, attach the antenna to the Stick (you can use another antenna if you choose). Then have it scan for available channels - with the included antenna I got 17 of the 21 stations that antennaweb.org indicated that I should be able to receive with a small multi-directional antenna. The antennas for the stations that I could not receive were from 22 miles to 69 miles away.
Before purchasing this product, you might want to go to antennaweb, enter your address and check the available stations in your area - please note that you do not have to enter your name or email address to get this information. And be sure to go to here and scroll down to make sure your computers specs meet the minimum system requirements.
You can watch HDTV on your computer, use your computer as a DVR, even burn programs to a DVD.
The menu interface is not as intuitive as a TiVo (but what is?), but after a few minutes of playing around with the software, I was watching and recording television shows. It has a rudimentary EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) to help you plan recordings. The video editing software is very basic, but if all you want to do is delete commercials or the boring parts of Saturday Night Live, it works just fine.
The Pinnacle PCTV HD mini Stick works well - the MSRP is $119.99 for PCs, $129.99 for Mac. Comments?
Posted by Bob Gatton at October 31, 2008 10:32 AM
Comments
Went to website "antennaweb" found 50 stations listed. I live in n.central DFW Metroplex{Roanoke,Tx}& all stations are 19.8-48 miles from me. interesting range don't you think?
Posted by: Bill P at November 22, 2008 5:18 AM
Thank's for sharing this
This is really interesting
Posted by: End of the World at October 28, 2009 6:15 AM
