Laptops UK
Pinnacle PCTV USB 2.0 | |
Brand: Pinnacle EAN: 0613570213468 Label: Pinnacle Systems Manufacturer: Pinnacle Systems Model: 202261887 Platform: Windows XP, Windows XP Professional Publisher: Pinnacle Systems Release Date: May 28, 2004 Sales Rank: 58949 Studio: Pinnacle Systems Accessories:
Editorial Review: Product Description: Pinnacle PCTV USB2 is an affordable, external PVR that plugs into the USB 2.0 port of your computer. It offers easy, one-button TV recording and CD/DVD burning. Perfect for mobile users, it is small and compact, and draws power from the USB port, therefor Pinnacle Systems See more information on Pinnacle PCTV USB 2.0 at Amazon UK or at Amazon.com Average Rating:  Rating:  - Great device!Having tried various methods to capture video from a VCR to convert to DVD I tried this gadget. The TV tuner works a treat. Install drivers, plug the VCR or aerial coaxial cable in and auto tune. I was able to convert an ad filled two hour program from VCR to a one and a half hour ad free DVD with no problems using Ulead Video 7 to do the final edit after capturing. ANY kind of video editing requires a powerful PC. The other reviewers giving this product poor reviews are more than likely not aware of this. You NEED XP, a 2.6ghz or over CPU which should preferrably be an Intel with Hyper Threading. AMDs are not the best for video editing. And you NEED at least 1gb of RAM. This is a great option if you are looking for cheap and easy way to record from any TV signal to your hard drive. Rating:  - Felt obliged to warnI purchased one of these from Amazon along with a pinnacle showcenter 100g. This product is still sitting in its box on the shelf... I have wasted days of time trying to get it to run in a stable fashion on 4 different PC's all which exceed the minimum spec. Expect the blue screen of death regularly... expect pinnacle support to divert you on many pointless time consuming diversions rather than fix the flaky software drivers. I have got it to run on a compaq evo with no other USB devices connected .... but failed on 1 other compaq and dont even try on a Dell as even a brand new one with all patches failed to run it for more than 5 minutes without crashing. When Pinnacle support finally advised me to trash the entire hard drive and start a full system rebuild I conceeded defeat and clocked it up to experience ... steer clear of pinnacle. The problem is the co-existance of the device software with other usb devices ... Pinnacle may release a patch and i will try again ... or one day I might fancy a Rubik's type techie challenge and i will try again. I am not a PC numski and work with them for a living...this is just a poor USB implementation. You have been warned Rating: - Hmmm - not for those with a low end spec PCTried this on a PC just within the specification (2600 AMD) and EVERYTHING (and I mean EVERYTHING) switched off to allow only this device to function and the dropped frames were still noticeable when recording at DVD quality (having PAID EXTRA for this feature). Tried Pinnacle's support but no improvement (how many times do you have to tell someone you've turned off, nay uninstalled, anti-virus before they stop asking you to switch it off). I'll wait for a faster PC (3000MHz perhaps) before even trying to use this sophistimacated dowhacky again. Rating: - Fantastic piece of kitThis is a great product! Its light, small, but it works really well. I currently have a PCTV Rave card in my PC, and bought this product because I will be going to Uni in September, so I needed something for my laptop. The picture quality is fantastic, as good as (and maybe even better than) the PCTV Rave. Recording works well, timeshift works as it should. There is a tiny blackout of maybe a second or 2 when you first press pause though. The inputs for the device include tv tuner, s-video and composite. The device also comes with a remote control, the same size as a standard one, not one of the small fiddly ones! This works really well. You can timeshift from the remote, bring up the matrix screen (allows you to see all channels at once), record, make the tv screen into a window or fullscreen, and practically all other functions you are able to do through the remote. Bear in mind when buying this product you NEED to have XP on your system, that is the minimum requirments. Also, you will need a fairly fast PC to deal with the product and even faster for timeshift. Dont forget you'll need USB2.0 compatibility too. I'd thoroughly recommend this item! Pinnacle PCTV USB 2.0 | |
