Ever taken that road trip with the family to that little no-name town to visit that strange smelling relative you barely remember? Ten years ago, it would have been barely tolerable even with your Discman. Five years ago it would have been a little more tolerable because you can fit more music on an iPod than you can on a CD.. takes up a lot less space too. And now with the extreme portability of laptops and all the spicy new gadgets that come out for them seemingly every day, boredom is a thing of the past. Tuning out Uncle Joe-Bob’s stories about what really happened at Area 51 is about to get a whole lot easier.
Ladies and Gents, feast your eyes on the Pinnacle PCTV HD Mini. Ultra compact, brilliant HDTV in 100% digital signal interface. You hook this bad boy up to your laptop and you can receive wireless HDTV to your desktop for free. Or you can plug it into your cable and watch from there. Do you realize what I would have given for something like this when I was a teenager? My left nut, that’s what…
- Ultra-compact HDTV tuner stick with super-strong reception
- Watch free HDTV on your PC – no service fees
- Supports both digital over-the-air TV (ATSC1) and unencrypted digital cable TV (ClearQAM2)
- Includes mini-remote control and high-gain telescopic antenna
- Turns your PC into a PVR with TimeShifting: pause, rewind TV
- Stereo sound
- Electronic Program Guide (EPG3)
- Automatically record shows to your hard drive in MPEG-1/2 or DivX4 formats, or direct-to-DVD
- Compatible with Windows® Media Center5 (Windows Vista™ Home Premium or Ultimate; remote kit sold separately)
- New: built-in slide-cap to protect the USB connector
- New: integrated signal booster improves sensitivity for over-the-air HDTV reception
Specs:
| TV Standards | • ATSC (HDTV up to 1080i, SDTV) • ClearQAM (HDTV up to 1080i, SDTV) |
| Inputs | • TV antenna input (F- connector/Coaxial) |
| Recording Formats | • MPEG-1/2 • DivX® • MPEG-4: compatible with Sony PSP or Apple iPod (Trial Version) |
| System Requirements | • Windows® XP or Windows Vista™ (32 bit) with latest service pack • Intel® Pentium® 4 2.8GHz, Pentium M 1.7 GHz, equivalent AMD Athlon 64 processor or higher (e.g. dual core processor) • RAM: Windows XP – 512 MB; Windows Vista – 1 GB • Free USB 2.0 port • Sound/graphics controller with support for DirectX® 9 or higher • Hard drive with minimum 1 GB free space (20 GB recommended for TV recording) • CD drive (DVD burner required for DVD recording) • Internet connection for registration/activation |
So it lets you watch, record, pause and rewind live television? That can’t be right Bob! It is, Harold! It’s like your own portable TiVo that hooks up to your computer. Wow Bob, that’s wontastic! And what do you think something like this might run you retail? Go on. Guess.
You’re looking at $119 big ones to own one of these little wonders. So now that I have one to check out, let’s open the plastic casing that is harder than freaking dragon armor and see what comes in the package. First out is the tiny USB connector. Then you have a little remote control so you can change channels and stizzuff. How nice of them to make us lazier. Just kidding Pinnacle! Then out come the High Gain Antenna, the Coaxial connector, USB cables and last but not least, the VideoSpin software. I am so excited I can barely contain my bladder.
So, everything is out of the packaging. I put the software disc in to install and took the rest of the goods out to set them all up. Everything goes together nicely, really couldn’t find anything complicated that would prevent a non-techy person from using this. I gotta hand to those guys at Pinnacle for their ability to put such high-tech products in layman’s hands without dumbing down the product itself. So when everything was installed, I connected all the hardware and allowed the program to search for all radio and television channels that were floating nearby.
Silly me. You don’t get signals like that when you live on the bottom floor of an apartment complex. The walls block all the signals. But I was able to hook this up to my indoor cable connection and channel surf for a bit.
I even recorded a little video to check the quality. Not DVD, but it’ll do the trick. It’s a great buy, if only a little pricey. The software is easy to use, much like the modern navigation on today’s cable and satellite menus. And the little remote that comes with it, while easy to lose, as I found out, is very handy when it comes full featured entertainment.
So what did I think of this little critter? While a little pricey, if it delivers as it says it does when you are out and about and want to catch that episode of House MD on the fly then it is more than likely going to be worth it.
The ability to watch television anywhere at any time is right up there with being able to access the Internet at any location. I found it very entertaining, nice and compact for those long travels, and a great enjoyment when someone else is watching Animal Cops Houston and you want to watch Family Guy.
So I give this one and 8/9 of a thumbs up. The pricing is a little high for a digital HD receiver, but in the long run it will probably pay for itself in no time if you value television that much.
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