Pinnacle PCTV Pro Stick
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This connection allows you to view television on your computer from a cable signal as well as record using the digital video recording features of the TVCenter Pro. The TV Center Pro is your all around viewing, recording and setup program that has an easy to use quick setup as well as being able to define certain recording functions like time and day for a scheduled recording.
The PCTV Pro Stick also works with other programs like Windows Media Center without any programs other than going into Media Center and installing the stick as a TV tuner. I did not receive nearly as many channels using the PCTV Pro Stick and Windows Media Center though which is not very surprising to me.
Windows Media Center is not able to receive the secondary channels often present on digital TV signals as well as not being as good a program than others I have used in the past. I have always gotten better TV reception and signals through other programs such as Hauppauge’s WinTV and Pinnacles software.
I do receive all the channels through the Pinnacle TVCenter Pro I normally get with my television or through a DTV converter on my analog TV. The TVCenter Pro is a nice and simple to set up program that includes a DVR to record your favorite shows using a schedule or one click recording.
You can also use the TVCenter Pro to receive internet and FM radio which worked fine with a little fine tuning because the scan did not match the channels very well. If you know a local radio stations frequency it is easy to simply add a station using the settings pages for both television and radio.
The settings have several pages of channel listings, electronic program guide, capture settings, time shifting and other settings. The remote control has a settings page that allows you to use not only the remote that comes with the PCTV Pro Stick but others from Pinnacle.
On the main viewing page you can right click anywhere on the window and get the channels list, the settings and several options like record and time shift controls. You can use the small arrows on the main page below the window to change channels on screen or pull up the main channels list. Of course you can also use the remote which makes the viewing so much easier as well as convenient.
The remote is small but a nice size for being able to take along with a laptop for watching television on the go which works pretty well. The remote has the usual channel and volume up and down buttons as well as a number pad and a few play and record controls. The center button on top is for both turning on the Pinnacle TVCenter Pro and calling up the settings page while the on off button turns the TVCenter Pro on and off.
I only have one concern but have had no problems with the PCTV Pro unit; it gets hot, really hot. I am not sure exactly how hot the two large chips inside get but it gets almost too hot to touch the coax connection to loosen it right after it being on for awhile. I did open up the unit and found out that two chips inside are putting out most of the heat but I did not have any problems from heat.
I have used the PCTV Pro Stick for hours on end and had no problems with the heat or anything else for that matter. The PCTV Pro Stick is a great television tuner that receives both analog and digital TV as well as FM radio for your computer.
I highly recommend the Pinnacle PCTV Pro Stick for a great TV tuner for your computer, just be sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements. I tried this out for an older laptop and could just not get the digital signals but the analog works fine, of course this is on a single core 1.8 GHz Athlon processor but, hey it does work.