Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick

I just unboxed this 15 mins ago and it's up and running and brilliant!

There aren't a whole lot of digital HD channels yet here in brooklyn, about 10 that I can pick up in fair quality, and about 4 in great quality.... but you can pick up all your regular analog channels too. NBC HD looks amazing and the color fidelity is more than I expected.

I have a macbook pro core2duo 2.2ghz. Receiving the NBC HD channel takes about 90% of 1 of the 2 cores of this processor on Activity Monitor -does not skip or jitter, no lag running other applications. I've posted a screenshot of it on this review also... but the small size doesn't do it justice. Native resolution is about 1420 x 800 in HD.

The software it comes with is also quite intelligent... eyeTV Lite.... and the remote is functional and almost has a Front Row kinda feel, appropriate for an apple device. Has tivo like controls built into the remote... you can pause live HD, and record-yes. I didn't think it would work so easily, but it works without configuration. Comes with a free subscription to TitanTV to receive your program guide info. You can also plug a cable box into it and use the titan TV software to get the cable guides..

The device itself is compact, and I expect it'll be easy to "pack your TV" along with you anywhere you go.

It also functions as a DV bridge and has inputs for S-video, yellow RCA video, and a headphone like line-in for audio (you'll need a RCA to mini patch cable if you wanna use RCA audio inputs)... so you can hook up your cable TV, VCR, playstation, xbox, anything that uses standard outputs -and use your computer screen as a TV replacement.

Overall I got much more than I expected. A+

Thanks.

The Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick is a nice compact product and comes complete with everything you need to watch television anywhere. With the included antenna, you can watch regular TV broadcast channels and HDTV as well. It can also take cable/sat TV as well. All you really do is insert the USB hookup with the antenna or cable TV line and install the software. Once installed and work with the setup, you are good to go.

The quality of the programs looks great in HD, and is a great alternative to purchasing a HD television. I use a Macbook (1st generation), and it meets all the requirements to view high definition programming.

One of the small issues is that when you set-up your channels, it does an auto scan. If you live in a place that has some difficulty getting reception, you might want to do your autoscan somewhere near a window where the antenna can lock-into the channels. Once autoscan is done, you should be OK. It took me a couple of tries to get all the channels that are available.

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I purchased this product to connect to my MBP to capture from VHS tape. The product works flawlessly. Audio & video sync perfectly and the integration with Toast is awesome. That makes it very simple to capture and convert to DVD. It allows conversion to different file formats (AVI MPG etc)in case you want to save a digital file rather than burn directly to DVD, which is nice for me because I like to keep an archive copy on a portable drive.

I took off 1 star because when you convert to AVI MPG DVD etc, you don't have much control over the output filesize. If you are capturing a 1.5+ hour long video, chances are you will not be able to fit the conversion to a standard DVD, you will need a dual layer burner.

The over the air HD reception is a neat feature, but wouldn't be and wasn't my primary reason for buying. It's tough to receive OTA HD signals from INSIDE so your channel selection will be limited without an external antenna.

Things to note:

1. You will need a 2 RCA to 3.5mm stereo audio patch cable to connect left and right audio from the source (like a VCR or DVD)

2. The package comes with a lite version of EyeTV. I highly recommend upgrading to the full product right away if you are planning to use this a a DVR. The lite version just doesn't cut it. Even if you choose not to upgrade go directly to EyeTV and download the latest lite version as the one on the disk is outdated.

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The Pinnacle Stick is great as I can view TV on my 24" iMac and record programs or movies. These can be saved to a CD or DVD for viewing on a large screen TV or on my IMac. I am totally satisfied

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The Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick provides broadcasts and recordings of television programs conveniently and simply. It's worth upgrading from the provided EyeTV lite to the EyeTV full application that enables scheduled program recording as well as burning recorded programs to discs or converting them to various formats, including the iPod. I have a 24-inch iMac and the HD stick turns my computer into a high-quality HD television and DVR (I use an external drive to archive the recorded programs). I highly recommend this tuner for its price and ease of use.