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After spending hours trying to get the card to function properly I finally realized why Compusa had placed it on sale: they were trying to dump this loser on me by dangling a low price in front of my nose. I shudda read the reviews before I bought this POS. Well, price isn't everything, obviously; like the man said, lets see how good the return policy is.
Every card created earsplitting static at max volume when using the audio jack. Continual installation errors and application lock-ups forced me to eventually give up on this card.
When trying to use audio signals delivered directly to the video card, the audio/video sync was never accomplished, and continued to degrade indefinitely. The drivers are another story, never installing correctly despite all efforts.
Unfortunately I fell prey to not researching peer review of this product. I learned an important lesson from this: don't purchase items without first reading peer reviews, and don't purchased items from Pinnacle Systems.
I must admit that in the end, I find the product a worthless collection of electronics, worth little more than 'dot.com' cube-art. I took Pinnacle System Support's word (found with great difficulty navigating their poorly developed FAQ) and exchanged the card 3 times, trying it in multiple systems with different OS's.
This is not the only item from Pinnacle Systems that I have had problems with.Hopefully those that read this will look into another TV card tuner; and hopefully Pinnacle Systems will begin practicing ethical business.
Besides most of the other *bugs* listed,(eg. audio-sync problems, lack of basic editing functions in the main program, and no radio tuner) I have found that the PCTV mysteriously turns itself on at random times throughout the day even when nothing has been scheduled to record. I am in complete agreement with the other reviews I have read about this product. The documentation is terrible. The support website is full of dead links or loops that send you back to where you started without an answer to your question or a hint of how to find one. Unfortunately, I didn't read them before I bought the Pinnacle Systems PCTV Pro. I would not recommend the Pinnacle Systems PCTV Pro.
or lack thereof. Most TV cards that permit recording and PVR functionality - such as the Hauppage 350, available through Amazon - accomplish this with built in hardware MPEG encoders/decorders. I was using an Athlon XP 1800+ with 768 megs of 333 Mhz RAM, two 40 GB Maxtor Diamondmax 7200 RPM Hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration, and Windows XP home. I could talk about the included remote that turns the software off, but won't start it again. When you hit pause, the screen freezes, and the video signal is diverted to your hard drive as a digital datastream. After that point, the software locks up, and you are expected to purchase it, at great additional cost. but you must get the picture by now.This is a lousy product.
The card also has an internal audio out jack, but no cord is supplied; and the unconventional plug is difficult to find.The card offers you the opportunity to watch TV in a variable sized screen; to record TV; and to pause live broadcasts, giving you the rough equivalent of a Tivo or Personal Video Recorder. There's a lot of amateur freeware that is better written than is the software packaged with this product. The lack of ethics in marketing, production, and execution all speak volumes in describing Pinnacle Corporation as a company desperate to sell a fundamentally defective product in any way possible, including lies, treachery and deceit. This software has more bugs than a cheap, inner city flophouse.
Even with all nonessential programs and services shut down, the performance was still unsatisfactory. Not so the Pinnacle card; it makes use of your computer horsepower, substituting a software program for a hardware chip. In this fashion you can jump forward and back through the program, playing the same section over again, skipping past commercials, and generally having a merry old time.At least, that's the sales pitch.The difference between the Pinnacle PCTV and the Pinnacle PCTV Pro, is that the pro includes a stereo TV decoder (the non-pro version is mono only). But even then, the software is so glitchy, buggy, unreliable and undependable as to make the whole procedure an exercise in frustration.Oh, I could go on. The software was written by an individual or group without the faintest concept of the procedures necessary to write quality software - and it shows, all over the place. I could talk about the audio drifting out of sync with the video every time you change channels, making it impossible to channel surf. but they fail to mention that the Studio software supplied is a 30 DAY TRIAL. You see, there's not much hardware here, and that's a problem.
and it wasn't enough. Audio handling is sparse at best; the card has an audio out jack (no audio in) and you are supplied with a small external jumper cable, which you are expected to run from the audio out jack to the external input jack on your sound card. Without this software, you can still record TV shows; but you cannot edit out commercials, string multiple shows into one presentation, or any other commonly done VCR-type tasks. "Create your own movies from video captured from TV, VCR or Camcorder with the easy to use Studio software." Well, true enough. If you read the enclosed advertisng material, you will be told that the Pro also includes a stereo FM tuner; and indeed, the Pinnacle PCTV Pro website states, "Watch TV or listen to the radio on your PC." However, when you purchase the Pinnacle Pro card, you will find that there is NO radio tuner, there is NO FM antenna input (even though one is clearly illustrated in the enclosed advertising), and indeed there is virtually no hardware difference between the two cards.But the lies and deceit don't stop there. A minimum 2.5 GHz processor and 1 GB of FAST RAM - and a state of the art video card, like a high end Geforce FX or equivalent Radeon - would be a minimum requirement. (Lets hope you're not already using it for something else). You can start recording, stop recording, and that's it.
The digital conversion takes a lot of processing power, and the conversion from raw digital video to MPEG format takes an awful lot more. The video signal is displayed on a resizable screen, which operates much like a conventional window; or as a full screen display. I could tell you about the amazingly unhelpful technical support, the fiendishly confusing driver downloads section, the dozens of bugs. This is fine, at least in theory; but to make it work, you need to have well written software, and enough computing horsepower to dim the lights in the neighborhood whenever you boot up the machine. It was implemented by a rank amateur with no concept of quality, and a keen desire to save money on manufacturing.
I don't think I've ever been as disappointed with any electronics component as I have been with the Pinnacle TV tuner card.Here's what you're SUPPOSED to get: the Pinnacle TV tuner card accepts incoming video signals through an included S-video in, composite in, or conventional cable/Antenna input. That conventional NTSC or PAL TV signal is analog, and it needs to be converted to a digital format FAST. Software supplied allows you to switch between those three inputs; in the case of the cable/antenna input, a built in tuner allows tuning in VHF/UHF channels 2 to 83, or cable channels from 2 to 160 (or therabouts). No pause, no nothing.Let's talk about the hardware for a moment. Hit pause again, and the data comes off your hard drive and is displayed on your screen, while new data continues to be recorded to your hard drive.
Let's go back to the claims made for the card on the Pinnacle website. However, all the glitzy packaging, the loud promises and enthralling hype can do nothing to change this product from what it really is: a sad little electronics disaster.If, after all I've said, you're still contemplating buying this card, let me offer you one last word of advice: buy the card from a retailer with a very generous returns policy.Because you're going to be taking advantage of it.
I bought this card mostly to copy my home videos to DVD, but if your VCR doesn't have a s-video out, you must use the composite video line. BUT, THERE IS NO COMPOSITE AUDIO INPUT. The previous review sums up this junky product. Who wants to burn silent DVD's. This is being returned first thing tomorrow. All 4 times I launched the product it locked up the PC. What a waste of time.
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