Pinnacle Systems 8230-10023-51 PCTV HD Card - PCI

I got this item off of Woot a few weeks ago, and it's been sitting in the box/clear plastic casing until today. So far (after 3 hours or so), it looks good. The card initially did not like scanning for over-the-air channels without an external antenna, but when I ran out to Best Buy to get one, it was appeased. I've since disconnected the antenna and returned it to Best Buy, and everything seems to be OK. I guess it just wanted an antenna to be present at the get-go, and then it doesn't bother checking again? Maybe I just did a mis-configuration during the initial install; I can't blame the manual on this one, as it was (shockingly enough) well-written and easy to understand. One thing I noted is that scanning for channels is definitely worth the wait for the Best Quality mode. It takes *forever* (especially scanning for over-the-air HD), but you will only get the channels that look good (no fuzzies, for example). If you don't care much, then Quick and Normal are both fast, but Quick obviously won't search as "hard" as the Best Quality and Normal modes will.

The software that comes with the card is OK. It's a bit confusing at first, but a little bit of looking around and playing with it has sufficed for me to learn it. I have managed to get some strange errors when trying to set Favorite Channels; I think a developer somewhere needs to check his code. I had to uninstall/reinstall to fix it (hence the 4-star rating). Recording is good (I've not seen the lack of sound/picture mentioned in a previous review), but it is highly system-dependent. I believe the minimum requirements for HD recording/viewing are a gig of RAM and 2.8 GHz on the processor; I meet the RAM requirements but only have a 2.4 GHz proc, but it still works fine.

The remote is sound...after you connect the receiver to the card. Don't do what I did and expect the remote to work right out of the box (well, after you put in the batteries); it won't do anything, and you might think it's broken. Once the sensor is installed, though, it works great. Being able to channel-surf from the comfort of my computer chair is hard to beat ;)

It's also got a built-in radio tuner for both Internet radio and radio-radio. I know that this isn't a hard thing to do, but it's nice. Sometimes you just want to listen to the radio instead of watch TV, especially when that game you want to follow isn't televised and you have to listen to it over the radio instead. It's a nice touch on the part of Pinnacle.

Overall, I'd recommend this card. I've used products from Pinnacle before and found them wanting, but they seem to have gotten this one right. Not a bad buy!

After reading a number of so-so and negative reviews, I almost didn't buy this tuner, but I couldn't resist the (relatively) low price. Pinnacle just recently (June 2008) posted an upgrade to their PCTV program, so if the claims others have made about outdated software were an issue for you, they aren't anymore. Also, I think most people who've had problems with this tuner are using Windows Vista. I personally can't stand Vista and use Windows XP Pro on my system. I followed the simple set up procedures which involved first installing the card into my PC, connecting my cable and the included FM antenna, and then installing the software. Once the software was installed, I ran it, and it picked up every channel I currently get from cable, including all the "free" HD channels, which included 10-15 local stations. I've been using it for a few days and so far no problems. One suggestion though, make sure the remote receiver is directed straight toward where you will be sitting while using the remote, because it's a little picky about getting a signal from the included remote if there is something in front of it or if it's aimed off to one side or the other. All in all, this is a great tuner, and I'm glad I wasn't turned off by the negative reviews.

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I bought this card so I can watch HDTV on my PC. I was not expecting super duper HD experience on PC, but was simply wanting a better quality than my expereinces with WinTV, Lifeview PVR, Avervsion, etc...

I was also looking for a TV card with ClearQAM demodulation capability. Most of the ATSC TV cards only demod over the air (OTA) modulation with is a 8-VSB modulation, but cable TV uses a 64-QAM and I prefer watching the unencryted HDTV from my cable company than figuring out where to aim my HD antenna...

Out of the box (if you can call the clear plastic casing box), this card is small, simple looking and easy to install. Once it is installed, I turn on my computer, pop in the CD, the software installation is a cinch, but there is no ClearQAM channels. Upon a closer look and a search on the web, I found that this product is ClearQAM ready (not ClearQAM already). To actually see the ClearQAM channels, you need to download the beta version of the TV software from Pinnacle. That make you think that there must be something really wrong with the software, else they ship it with the box.

The beta software installation looks just like the included software, but this time in the configuration stage, there was the ClearQAM scanning, and it found all the unencryted HD channel from Comcast cable. I think the software could have done a better job asking whether the user is connected to cable or antenna, as it took a while to find the right button.

So I started watching. Although I do indeed receive HD and standard TV, the HD program is choppy, it stops or the picture turn into rough pixels when there is an action scene or if I attempt to run something else. Recording HD results in similar choppy pictures and sounds.

The standard TV is okay, but when I start to record, the sound and picture stops. The recorded file is okay.

I tried to accelerate my PCI bus, but the problem remains. I then find on the box it says minimum system requirement for SD is Pentium 4 2.4GHz and for HD is Pentium 4 2.8GHz. I only have a Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 768M of memory so it is insufficient.

At this point, unwilling to upgrade my system just to find out if the problem will go away, I returned the product. The search on the web I don't see many people with my problem so I am willing to believe if only I have a better system...

Overall, I think the concept of a ClearQAM enabled TV card is good, the installation is straight forward. Maybe a little too much system dependent, so I give this product a 3.

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This is now a great product. When I first purchased it, I used it on 32-bit Windows XP, and had to use the Pinnacle software it came with for watching TV. The software sometimes crashed, I would have to uninstall and reinstall, and it wasn't very usable software either. But it mostly worked. The software and the drivers have since become much better, so a lot of the reviews from several months ago are really outdated.

I've since switched to 64-bit Vista Ultimate, and use Media Center to watch television. I only watch over the air TV, not ClearQAM, but for ota it works perfectly. Even though the drivers are technically in beta, it hasn't had any problems whatsoever. I also use it with an Xbox 360 Media Center. It handles minor static during bad weather a heck of a lot better than the Pinnacle software did, too. If you're going to get this card, which is a pretty good card, I'd highly recommend getting Media Center as well.

I'd also like to note that although this tuner card works great alone, if you buy two of them, they will not work together, so avoid that.

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I bought this thing a few years back. It is perfect for recording tv shows. I use Titan TV to schedule recordings.