PCTV HD Pro Stick USB2 HDTV Tuner for Free HD Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this tuner about two weeks ago or so. I thought I'd settle into using it for a while before I remark on it. So, after using it for a while, here's what I think: depending on what you are expecting from it, it might suit your needs just fine, but then again, it might not.
Here's what I wanted from it: I wanted to receive HDTV broadcasts on my laptop (Dell Inspiron 1505 with Core Duo 1.83Ghz + 1Gb RAM + 80Gb HD); record shows of interest to me; burn a DVD from the recorded shows; project live broadcasts onto my DLP projector for a home theater experience on the cheap.
The Good:
The USB device *does* work. After setting up the required software to recognize the USB device, I was able to receive digital broadcasts just fine. When the broadcast was in high definition, the resulting picture on my laptop was really very good -- and Dell doesn't have the nicest laptop displays, either. Overall, I can't complain about the USB device other than it gets very hot, hot enough that if you touched it with, say, your upper arm, you'd jerk your arm away quickly because it's that hot to the touch. The little antenna that's included should receive nearby TV stations just fine.
On my laptop, high-def broadcasts used about 35-45% of my CPU. Recording a show in native format jumped it up to about 50-60% (the native video format is MPEG that requires about 6Gb of space for every one hour recorded). I didn't try compressing on-the-fly because I feared for dropped frames -- I'd rather compress later knowing I'll not lose any frames along the way. If I had the very latest Core Duo 2 chip and the fastest speed available, I'd probably feel okay about compressing on-the-fly.
The Bad:
The software that comes with this device is awful when it's working, and often times, the software isn't working at all. There are two software programs -- the one that runs your TV tuner, and the one that manages your recorded TV shows (that one is called Studio 10 QuickStart).
The software to run your TV tuner comes on CD, but it has to be updated several times by downloading patches over the Internet during the install process. Stupidly, the documentation says you're supposed to plug-in your TV tuner before you start the installation -- every other USB hardware device out there says DO NOT plug in the device until the software is installed firstly. Plan on spending at least 30 minutes to install, patch, patch, reboot, and patch again. The installation is really bad -- if you try clicking "Back" to return to a previous screen in the installation process, the whole installation process aborts unexpectedly. So, read carefully each screen before you click Continue!
As bad as the TV tuner software is, Studio 10 is even worse. You'll need to patch this software, too, which takes it from version 10.5 off the CDROM to 10.7 after all the patching is completed. Plan on spending another 30 minutes for this installation.
I've been trying to use Studio 10 for several days now. Sometimes it produces a DVD file (in the .iso format) and sometimes I get "Buffer overrun" errors when it's creating the DVD file. I've got a support ticket open with Pinnacle on this...I'm hoping it's a problem with free disk space on my harddrive (I've got between 12-20Gb free). I guess if the software were reliable, it'd be okay, but the whole process of creating a DVD from a recorded show is S-L-O-W.
There are numerous other things I don't like about the software. Poor Help documentation to explain things (if you're not a video editor expert, heaven help you). The program doesn't correctly determine whether the aspect ratio is 4:3 or 16:9 from the first frame of the video file (but you can manually set it the way you like). No estimated time remaining for how long it's going to take to create that stupid DVD file or burn a stupid DVD. Sheesh.
And if all that I wrote wasn't bad enough for you, there is one more complaint: I can detect an out-of-sync condition between the video and audio playback, both during live broadcasting and on recorded shows. So, if you're watching someone talk, the audio you're hearing doesn't align *exactly* to the video you're seeing. It's a definitely perceptible lag of maybe a tenth of a second or two, so it's bad enough that it's annoying but not quite unwatchable unwatchable. If you've got perfectionistic tendencies, this may be a problem for you. If you're just watching football or any other sport or show where you're just listening to a narrative, this isn't a problem for you.
So, if all you want to do is watch NFL football or other sports or nature shows in high-definition on your widescreen laptop, and you're reasonably close to a TV tower (probably within 10 miles), you're probably going to like this tuner once you get past the software installation. It's a four-star product.
If you're wanting to do anything at all with the recorded TV shows, you're not going to be pleased. You may be pleased with the final DVD you create, but you'll think to yourself, "There has to be an easier way...". That's what I'm thinking, anyway. For you, this is a two-star product if you can get the software to work, and one-star if you can't.
Also, if you're watching shows where people talk on-screen (not off-screen), the out-of-sync audio/video issue will annoy you. If old-fashioned TV sets can master audio/video synchronization, why can't your laptop do the same?
Good luck!
Update on February 16, 2007: I discovered a bug with Studio v10.7 that Pinnacle Support confirmed. If you try to create an .iso filename that is too long, the file creation will abort unexpectedly as it tries to write-out the last frame. You could be creating a file with 100,000 frames and you'll die after an hour of processing! How long is too long? I don't know, but here's my advice. Create an .iso file with your name of choice, but create it with just a 100 frames or so. If it works, fine, you'll have no trouble. If it fails, then shorten your filename and try again. This is testimony to the "quality" of a software product that is in a version 10.7 release!!!
UPDATE on September 10, 2007 ---
After setting this product aside for the summer, I dug it out to watch a preseason football game. Egads, the stupid thing didn't work!! Nasty error messages during software start-up, but what was different? Seems like a recent Windows XP patch went afoul of the Pinnacle software that runs this HDTV device. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Pinnacle software from the original CD -- no dice. I went to Pinnacle's website, and found several later versions: 4.9.2 and 4.9 (neither is fully tested for this PCTV HD Pro Stick), and 4.7, which is what I chose to use. The 4.7 version at least got the Pinnacle device to work...BUT my laptop freezes up often (maybe 8 times during a full football game) if I use the time-delay recording feature. The channel switching is terribly slow, and even if I don't use the time-delay feature, the software still locks up. In short, Pinnacle has yet to offer users a solid version of their software that will run this product as you'd expect. Maybe the 4.9 releases are that type of version, but then, as of this writing, Pinnacle says "install at your own risk" -- not a very good sign. Hopefully this will still work during a hurricane outage, which is one key reason why I bought this in the first place. Pretty disappointing. I originally rated this product 3-stars, but if I could change it (I can't), I'd make it a 2-star product.
UPDATE on March 19, 2010
Well, this little tuner has become an orphan, of sorts. Pinnacle, the company that made this tuner, sold there hardware business off to a former competitor, Hauppauge. But there is a way to make this tuner work pretty nicely now with Windows Media Center. Do a Google search on "pctvsystems" and then click Support > Downloads > Windows Media Center. There, you can download a plug-in for Windows Media Center that works very nicely. My Windows Media Center is running on a Windows 7 laptop. Using Windows Media Center, I've not had any of the troubles using the time-shifting and recording functions.

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