Pinnacle PCTV Pro at Compusa Free AR

[KLineD]

<< to you guys who wanted to know how to control your computer with the remote..
look in c:\program files\Pinnacle\Studio PCTV\Remote
profiles.ini is the remote configuration file
read the remote_en.doc file for learning how to do it
here's the guide to each button's code. this took me a little while to find..

Press short time
------O------
49 50 51 47
52 53 54 46
55 56 57 31
45 58 30 43
27 60 37 23
15 28
63
61 26 59
62
29 25
22 39 21 19
14 13 11 7
38 41 42 24
-------------


- AND -


Press long time
and it will repeat
--------O--------
113 114 115 111
116 117 118 110
119 120 121 95
109 122 94 107
91 124 101 87
79 92
127
125 90 123
126
93 89
86 103 85 83
78 77 75 71
102 105 106 88
-----------------

because of the way the program works, i haven't been able to control winamp since the title of the program changes to include the name of the song that's playing. you'll see what i mean when you read the documentation. i use it to control windows media player, aim, tv, radio, and launch certain apps like IE and winamp. >>



Hehe good job but i already posted this stuff... those who sed thanks... no prob, thanx to AT for the first deal that i got in on
Anyway um the way i got it to work with ALL apps is simply assigned stuff in GENERAL.....left/right/up/down work as said...and i guess that leaves next/previous songs out for winamp...but you can assign 2 more buttons to that whatever. I don't use it for much other than winamp/tv/radio (which works fine in xp) ... but i could picture some1 using it as a joystick i'll have to try that sometime lol.

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

I heard there is software around someplace that will (with this TV capture card) allow your computer to act like a TIVO or a Replay TV. Anyone know anything about this? thanks....

 

[GooberedUp]

<<

<< Actually, they did advertise the $50 rebate at one point because the final price on the website was -$0.01. But knowing New Rochelle, they'll just send $20. >>



A price on a web page does not constitute an advertisement under current UCC code. If you don't like this exclusion that you can thank AL Gore as he was the one of the primary sopnsores of legislation that created this loophole for ecommerce. Anyway, officially CompUSA advertised a $20 MIR in the Sunday Insert and in their stores. This is they only legal advetisement that they are required to honor since CompUSA.com and COMPSA are two different legal entities and neither can be held accountable for the actions of the other. It is already confirmed that New Rochelle is paying $20 for offer #6972 if you want the additonal $30 then you will have to fight for it. >>



Regardless, the rebate form that I received (it was taped by an employee onto the box that was being held for me at the store) is from a tear off pad and explicitly states that the product maybe purchased at a CompUSA. It is also offer #6972 and has valid dates of purchase between 4/6/02 and 4/13/02. I doubt they'll refuse to honor the rebate.

I know you're skeptical about a lot of these (I think the Viewsonic LCD monitor was one that you were pretty certain wouldn't pan out--admittedly it did take a little bit of a fight), but I jump into almost all of these with pretty reckless abandon and haven't been burned yet. The last CUSA one I did was awhile ago on a netgear RT314 router that I pricematched to BB. They may say that the rebate won't exceed the amount paid, but I ended up making money on it.

I would imagine that the employee taping the $50.00 rebate coupon onto the box would imply the validity of the $50.00 rebate, even if the card is purchased from the B&M store. Don't know if you took BarBri, but I still remember Prof. Spak saying that you can create warranties by asking questions in the right ways during checkout (can't quite remember the examples, but it was something to do about hammers or something). In my case, I confirmed with the assistant manager that there was indeed a $50.00 rebate. He looked at the computer and looked at me and said it was $49.99 with a $50.00 rebate. I suspect laws of agency apply here.

 

[GooberedUp]

<< I heard there is software around someplace that will (with this TV capture card) allow your computer to act like a TIVO or a Replay TV. Anyone know anything about this? thanks.... >>



PowerVCR II has some feature like I-power or something like that which is supposed to work with the card to schedule automatic recording. Go to the Cyberlink site and see if it's under the PowerVCRII description. It should be there that you can find some additional information. Good luck.

 

[khstudios]

has any1 looked at the side of the box where it has the gfx card compatibility list? lol, Nvidea

anyhooo, thx for the great deal!!

 

[SCRacer]

I picked up one of these cards at my local B&M and did both pick up the in store rebate form for $50 (two copies) and print he online form for $50 (the in store form i got was a light purple, while the online rebate form was orange)....so i feel pretty good about having the goods on these guys about the rebate.

but...i'm not really in the mood to start swinging away at someone on the phone to enforce the $50 rebate if they start giving us crap about a misprint of something. says on my rebate form "Rebate value will not exceed pruchase price."

so...Anandtech...what's the confidence rating that we'll actually get the 50 bucks?

this may not be worth the hassle!

 

[punkrock]

im usin descaler with this card. (latest ver)

much better UI and no hasle, with drivers. The prog uses the chipset of the card directly.

The german drivers do make a difference when using the dreaded bundled software.

also, the FM tuner is still inop in XP... Havent figured out a prog to recognize it yet.

 

[Rab]

Thanks for the post KLineD, I used your legend and one from the Girder forums to cobble together a fairly complete PowerDVD script.

Here's a fix I found posted at Girder for a problem I was having with the volume controls.



<< Try adding these lines to the profiles.ini, inside the [PCTV Vision], [PCTV Vision - VCR] and [PCTV Vision - Camera] sections:

; Zoom button changes a.r. to 4:3 (16:9 if you press it longer)
key30=KEYBOARD F2+^F2 A+^A S+^S
key94=KEYBOARD F2+^F2 A+^A W+^W

; Menu button pops up the menu (ESC if you press it longer)
key29=KEYBOARD F2+^F2
key93=KEYBOARD ESC+^ESC

; ENTER - button in the center of the "cursors keys"
key26=KEYBOARD ENTER+^ENTER

; volume and channel buttons
key27=KEYBOARD RIGHT+^RIGHT
key15=KEYBOARD LEFT+^LEFT
key91=KEYBOARD RIGHT+^RIGHT
key79=KEYBOARD LEFT+^LEFT
key28=KEYBOARD DOWN+^DOWN
key23=KEYBOARD UP+^UP
>>

 

[kazanjig]

CompUSA page now lists it as $29.99 AR.

eek


kazanjig

 

[buyitall]

Just got off the phone with compusa -
Quote the CSR
"the $50 rebate was a mistake. The checks will only be for $20" "We caught the mistake yesterday"

I confronted him, told him I didn't see the print ad, just the website and the $50 rebate coupon I had gotten from the store.

Then he put me on hold - came back and said that they would honor the $50 rebate in my case.

Sounds like to me it depends now on when you purchased the card - if you got it before they caught the mistake, and got the $50 rebate form they will pay it. (He also told me to call back if the rebate check came and was not $50)
I would suggest that if:
you bought the card on or before 4/9/02 and:
you have the $50 rebate form from the store,

that you call compusa and clear it with a CSR - get their name and extension #

BTW he never asked my name or address - so that's why I think they may be going to honor the purchases before 4/9.

Good Luck!

 

[Joyride]

<< BTW he never asked my name or address - so that's why I think they may be going to honor the purchases before 4/9.
Good Luck! >>



Bought mine and sent it in with the instore $50 rebate yesterday.

I downloaded those 3 drivers from Zeeter but don't know which one to use.

 

[BigPlastic]

Does anyone know if it's possible to only install the software for the remote?

I finally got this one working in a new XP installation (3rd party drivers already posted) and I'm hesitant to install even the German package as the drivers have caused lockups/reboots, etc. in the past.

BTW, with the 3rd party drivers, has anyone else experienced 1 min+ initialization times with PowerVCR/VirtualDub?

 

[GetReal]

<< Just got off the phone with compusa -
Quote the CSR
"the $50 rebate was a mistake. The checks will only be for $20" "We caught the mistake yesterday"

I confronted him, told him I didn't see the print ad, just the website and the $50 rebate coupon I had gotten from the store.

Then he put me on hold - came back and said that they would honor the $50 rebate in my case.

Sounds like to me it depends now on when you purchased the card - if you got it before they caught the mistake, and got the $50 rebate form they will pay it. (He also told me to call back if the rebate check came and was not $50)
I would suggest that if:
you bought the card on or before 4/9/02 and:
you have the $50 rebate form from the store,

that you call compusa and clear it with a CSR - get their name and extension #

BTW he never asked my name or address - so that's why I think they may be going to honor the purchases before 4/9.

Good Luck! >>



Two problems here. ...

First the rebate is from Pinnacle and not CompUSA so CompUSA has absolutely no say in Pinnacle's rebate program even though CompUSa screwed up the rebate forms. It has been confirmed several times already that New Rochelle will be sending you a $20 MIR regardless which rebate form that you submitted or when you purchased the product because that is how Pinnacle has the program setup with New Rochelle. In fact, New Rochelle does not even look at the rebate amount of the forms forms so they would not know if your Sent the $50 vs the $20 anyway.

Second, CompUSA could pay the extra $30 out-of-pocket, but the will not based on their current financial situation. CompUSA has been under ch11 bankruptcy protection since early 2000 and is on the verge of ch7 liquidation anyday now. The chances of the being around in 4-5 months when you receive your $20 check is very slim. In the slim chance that they are still around CompUSA will not pay you the rebate at their B&M as they now have a strict policy about this. The CSRs at CompSUA corporate change on a daily basis as most are temp employees anyway. They only permanent customer service employee at CompUSA corporate is Ron Majors who is the manager of the department and he will simply deny that they ever spoke to you. The bottom line is that you are dealing with two of the worst customer service related companies in the rebate business and neither is going to pay you the additional $30 especially since they never advertised it in the first place. If you are comfortale purchasing the card at $30 after the MIR as CompUSA advertised then you are OK. Otherwise you are basically screwed and have little recourse under current US law since neither CompUSA or Pinnacle ever promised or advertised a $50.00 MIR.

 

[jbloggs]

I have read in these posts, people talking about PowerVCRII and DScaler. Where does one get these? Are they to be used instead of the bundled drivers & Software from Pinnacle?

Also I saw links (for XP) to Drivers from the German site and another link to drivers version 4.02a. Which one should be used, Is one better than the other?

I'm so confused

 

[LiLRiceBoi]

Dscaler can be downloaded at Text Dscaler gives better PQ... by far

PowervcrII, I think you can download a trial at Text

I'm using the included drivers v. 4.02a with Win2k, which were included on my installation cd, but i heard others got older driver versions.

BigPlastic, I stronly suggest using Girder rather than the included software for the remote. Girder is much more powerful. For example, allows you to switch between group of tasks, so you can use the same buttons for different applications.

 

[chanfo]

I've had trouble getting girder to control my remote. I'm currently using IRAssitant which in my opinion is better and easier to use. Also its freeware like girder is. You can get it at www.irassitant.com.

 

[BigPlastic]

Thanks, I'll give both of those apps a shot instead of taking my chances.

 

[SolderSucker]

BigPlastic, the 5.2.5 drivers of btwincap cause this for some reason with PowerVcr 2. I use the 5.2.3 version which doesn't do that. Also, PowerVCR 2 isn't free. I got it from the rebadged PCTV Pro that came with the IOmagic version.

 

[Joyride]

I got the drivers from Sourceforge and i notice a big difference

Now all I need to do is get my sound back and remote going

EDIT:Can I still install the stuff that came on the CD and just choose not to install their drivers or do I have to find other software to use all together?

 

[jhook]

CrapUSA Sucks. Last night I called the them to see if they had the card avaivable in White Plains, NY. According to the Customer Service rep she said they have 6 in stock. I went there about one hour later and the idiot retail manger said they were NONE. I told him that I called and was told six were in hand. His attitude was really crappy and gave me the brush off. I told him to call another store to see if they had one. The moron told he won't do it and go call myself. This guy was a really a pr*ck. A nice young lady helped me and told me that sometimes that inventory is not really accurate.

 

[tolbyn]

Nice deal! Thx!

 

[BigPlastic]

DScaler is a much better application than the StudioTV application that came with the card. Not sure what would replace the FM tuner?

If you're going to do capture, you don't want to use StudioTV anyway, get VirtualDub. Go to vcdhelp.com.

 

[Nightwatch]

I have the $50 rebate in PDF format if anyone needs it. $50 Rebate PDF. I am looking for a copy of the website listing the price at $.01 if any has it.

I had to order mine with a rain check but the sale rep at the store told me the price was free after rebate, so I am holding them to that.

This is still making me nervous. I hate CUSA rebate with a passion. I sent in the $100 rebate for the 120GB WD hard drive on Dec 17th and still have not received it. Their rebate site says it due to mail soon though.

 

[JeeMan2002]

Thanks for the $50 rebate .pdf. I was about to ask for a copy, since I sent my copy in with my rebate submission 3 days ago. But you fulfilled that! Thanks!

Jee

 

[Pin87a]

<< I have the $50 rebate in PDF format if anyone needs it. $50 Rebate PDF. I am looking for a copy of the website listing the price at $.01 if any has it.

I had to order mine with a rain check but the sale rep at the store told me the price was free after rebate, so I am holding them to that.

This is still making me nervous. I hate CUSA rebate with a passion. I sent in the $100 rebate for the 120GB WD hard drive on Dec 17th and still have not received it. Their rebate site says it due to mail soon though. >>



Here is a copy of the original page.

I'll keep it up 'til the end of the day.

If someone could host it, I'd appreciate it.