Studio PCTV pro (tv tuner) $29 after MIR @ Compusa (Win XP compatible)

[Relayer]

<< Look a little closer at the IOMagic Card... It is a Pinnacle card. >>



Ummm, yeah, I know. I have both. Read the whole thread. I was asking spacemanspiffy, BCSeaMonkey, and dteague which card they were talking about.

 

[luv2liv]

this is hot!!!

but im not sure if i should get one. HDTV is coming out and all. does anyone know how HDTV is gonna be like for the comp? how long is broadcast tv gonna last? im thinking these tv tuners r on sale cause HDTV is rolling in.

 

[LiLRiceBoi]

mine works right out of the box. using the software they provided AND i'm running 2000.

even though mine works, is there any other software that you guys would recommend?

what software should i use for the remote? possible something that will allow me to use it for other apps as well.

 

[Ionizer]

Anyone pick up an extra one and want to get rid of it?
let me know!

aim: ionizer5
or email as listed below

 

I bought one the last time they had it on sale... when using powervcr II I cannot get the sound to work right.. I have tried different sound cards, but the sound always has this echo effect... drives me crazy!!

 

[ptaylor874]

Anyone out there using the SoulForge drivers for this card... Few questions:

Did it autodetect the card when you ran the installer? (If so, which version of the installer did you run?)

I know it has the MSP34xx sound chip on it, but under advanced settings in the installer utility I don't know what to put in the last box... (The hex value).. Autodetect doesn't seem to work as I get great video, but no sound...

Any help???

 

[lightiv]

Ok, I went to the Pinnacle site and got the XP drivers and everything installed just great except for the FM tuner. I don't see anything to start the tuner. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks

 

[Chrono]

anybody know how to finetune the channesl for powervcrII?
kinda annoying not being able to see anything but hear the sound

 

[lightiv]

I installed the WDM Video drivers from http://btwincap.sourceforge.net and they installed fine but now I can use my Pinnacle TV Tuner software. It says the device is already in use. I don't see it installed in Device Manger but I do see the new WDM drivers installed. It didn't install any software for me to use the card.

What am I missing here???

 

[Chrono]

now you have to get powervcr II
www.cyberlink.com

eek
i can't seem to fine tune the channesl with the software : /
driving me nuts

 

[doodoodoo]

This card is dm good.
I have used STB and ATI VE TV cards before this one. Ati is crappy, STB is good, PCTV is the best.
At the beginning, I have a lot of problems with my computer after installing this card. When I deleted all previous drivers and used PPE(PCI performance enhance), this card works like a rock umder win 98 se.
I used VirtualDub to capture tv using divex codec, audio: cd quality; video: best. The quality is almost identical to tvs and it only needs 1 GB for 110 minutes TV when audio is converted to mp3 format.

 

[ptaylor874]

I'm still having trouble with drivers... Can anyone with experience offer any suggestions?

Tried the beta WDM drivers from Pinnacle. With these I get both Video and sound (using WinDVR), but the TV tuning stinks. About half the channels I get have static and the sound is "fuzzy". On the channels that it tunes in correctly, they look great and the sound is clear.

Tried the iulab drivers and have interesting results with them. The TV tunes in all channels fine. The weird thing is the way the sound works. When first booting the PC up, I instantly have sound from whatever channel I was last tuned to. When I run WinDVR, though, the sound stops. When I exit WinDVR, the sound starts up again.

Tried the BtWincap SoulForge drivers and they look like the most complete set for any TV Capture card. When I go to install them, it doesn't autodetect my card. No big deal, I just select it from the pull-down. I have tried multiple settings with these drivers, but get absolutely no sound out of them. I've also taken the card out and found the sound chip (MSP3451G). Under "Advanced" when installing these drivers, it tries to autodetect the sound chip. It has all the different sound chips it supports listed there and you can even tell it specifically the hex address to try. The tooltip next to the MSP34xx option lists 0x80, 0x84, and 0x88 as ones that are valid.. I've tried hard setting all three of those values with no results... I'm at a loss on this one..

I have read a lot about people having conflicts with IRQs, but don't think that is my case due to the fact that I get sound working properly with one set of drivers.. (Just the TV tuning stinks)

I've even tried to mix & match drivers... Tried using the Pinnacle audio driver with the other two video drivers, but it results in no sound too....

Any ideas, anyone?

 

[wesbc]

<<

<<

<< If you have this maybe you'll know. Can I connect a digital camcorder directly to this or do I need a firewire. >>



If you have a DV cam, you'll get much better quality with a firewire card. They aren't too bad, have seem them for the same price as this. But it will do what you want via the composite out from your camcorder. >>




I'm just looking to watch what I took with a JVC Camcorder on my computer screen. I guess it's good for that, no? >>



Well if that's what you need it for, then it's more then enough.

 

[Pakaderm]

I rushed to CompUSA yesterday about 12:30 (San Diego, CA). There were about 10 of these cards there. The deal was in the circular, but on the shelf, the card was still marked at $89.99! Not a single way to tell it was on sale. So I snagged one and brought it home.

I hooked it up to my Athlon running Windows 2000. At boot up, the BIOS told me it was sharing the same IRQ as my RAID controllor and hopefully the device supported IRQ sharing. I hoped so too. I continued the boot process and installed all the packaged software. I connected my cable to the back and wa-lah! It worked fine. I watched much of the St. Louis/Packers game on my computer yesterday. I've got the remote working to change channels/volume/full screen/mute/direct entry with the bundled software. I tried to record a bit of a show, but the playback was not as good as my regular reception, tho I didn't tweak with any of the settings.

What I'm saying is, this card works great with Win 2K. Oh, I'm outputting it on a GF2 Pro AGP card. I don't remember which drivers I'm using.

-Pak

 

[ptaylor874]

FYI to all in Jacksonville, FL. looking for this card.. Just went by the CompUSA in Regency minutes ago and there are two more on the shelf and one more still hidden behind the PNY video cards.

 

[LiLRiceBoi]

my card works fine, but the cable is slightly fuzzy. is it supposed to be like this?

BTW, i'm running 2000 w/ pinnacle's software

 

[wesbc]

For those who are looking for this, you can easily check local stock by going to compusa.com and check it out. Now how accurate is that I can't say.

Here's the linky at compusa.com

 

[huesmann]

Does CrapUSA offer rainchecks?

 

[Nutzo]

The Hardware's great, but the Windows 98 software sucks...... Nothing but hangs & lockups even when just watching TV.

So, I loaded the IUlab drivers & downloaded the demo of PowerVCR.
The picture & capture is great. I can capture at 640x480 Mpeg2 & the picture looks as good as the source.
Works great to directly capture XSVCD (640x480 2500 kb Mpeg2) from my VCR. Saves me alot of time re-compressing the files.

Only 2 problems.

1. There is something wrong with the format of the mpeg2 files (easily fixed in a few minutes with TMPGEnc utilities)

2. I don't know if I want to pay $100 for software just so I can use my $29 card :disgust:

What resolution/quality captures are anyone getting on Windows 2000 / Windows XP ? This might finally force me to upgrade.

 

[HepDude]

I'm not interested in the TV tuner aspect, but I would like to have Video Capture.

I run WinXP and I could use either PCI or USB to connect a device.

Anything anyone can recommend at a reasonable price?

I see various things on Ebay, but each time, when I check the manufacturer support site, I find that the item won't work with WinXP.

 

[Sept1967]

Went in to get a $9.99 Tribes2...

And there were 10 boxes left of PCTV Pro. No sale popup, but it was in the flyer. Grabbed one, rang up $49.99 ($20 rebate was there).

Im not sure what my local CompUSA manager was thinking, but like another person said, it wasnt even listed as a sale item on the display.

 

[Pothead]

luv2liv,

most of us have the Happauge High Defintition TV card with remote from the J and R deal about a year ago. You might still be able to get it at staples for 9x.xx at staples through Ingram Micro

 

[lightiv]

I downloaded and installed the WinXP drivers from Pinnacle. The first time I installed I only got the TV Tuner and the WebSever. I spent over 6 hours yesterday messing with all this. I tried the Bt SoundForge drivers and PowerVCR II...video great but no sound. I guess I'll wait for newer versions of the driver. I haven't tried to record anything with the Pinnacle software so I don't know how that will go but I won't be recording much anyway. I have Satellite TV so I get only one channel at a time. I guess this is when Cable TV comes in handy. DirecTV is much cheaper than cable so that wont be changing besides I only wont to be able to listen to the FoxNews channel via the internet. Secure connection of course.

I think it's lame that Pinnacle wants us to buy the new software version 7 when we purchase the cards today and version 7 is already out. Nothing like poor service and greed from Pinnacle! I've been reading some on there site and I must say that I'm not impressed at all with them. Looks like they are of the same yoke as Buy.com. Buy.com is a long story so please don't ask. :Q

I think people would pay $10 for an upgrade. I know I would but Pinnacle's greed is going to push people to find other means (not advantagous to Pinnacle) of using the card to it's fullest. Poor business practices on Pinnacle's part. It amazes me that there are still companies in business like this. :Q

Well the price is right for this card and I think we are definately getting our money's worth here. The card was listed at $89 on the shelf and rung up at $69 and then the instant $20 off.

The TV & FM Tuner works great so I'm very please. I guess eventually the BT SoundForge drivers will work and I'll be able to take full advantage of the card.

Anyway...I'm rambling so I'll go now and see if I can get the card to stream over the Internet.

 

[lytylim]

I tried the IULab and SoundForge drivers and could not get sound right. Ironically, the drivers that came on the CD work great in XP Pro. I can record and the remote works too (I couldn't get Girder to read any IR signals).

Could someone explain how you hook up an radio antannae to coax in (FM) of the card?

Lyty Lim

 

[Relayer]

lytylim,

Get one of these Connects 300-ohm (flat) antenna wire to 75-ohm (F connector) input.