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Manufacturer’s Description
The jewel-sized Pinnacle PCTV HD Mini Stick picks up digital TV even if the signal is weak, thanks to ultra-sensitive reception technology. Watch TV in full-screen or scaleable-window mode. TimeShift and record TV using the easy to use Pinnacle TVCenter Pro software. And it’s ready for future terrestrial HDTV service (if available in your region).

Pinnacle PCTV HD Mini Stick

Product Description: Pinnacle PCTV nanoStick – DVB-T receiver – Hi-Speed USB

Device Type: DVB-T receiver – external

Compatibility: MS Windows XP Media Centre compatible

Interface Type: Hi-Speed USB

Video Input: – external

Digital Video Format: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DVB, DivX, H.264

Audio Input Support: Standard

Sound Input Mode: Stereo

Features: Remote control, time shift function, teletext, Electronic Program Guide

Cables Included: 1 x aerial adapter ¦ 1 x USB extension cable

OS Required: Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista

System Requirements:

PC System Requirements
Windows XP or Windows Vista (32bit) with latest Service Pack
Intel Pentium 4 2,0 GHz, Pentium M 1,3 GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon XP
Windows XP: 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended)
Windows Vista: 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
Sound/graphics controllers with support for DirectX 9 or higher
Hard disk with min. 1 GB free space (20 GB free capacity recommended for TV recording)
Free USB 2.0 port
DVD-ROM drive or DVD writer
Internet connection for software updates and activations

However I reckon you need to up the PC CPU Spec up quite a bit as a 1.3 Ghz processor sounds a bit optimisitic to me.

My computer is 10 feet from the window and the stick does not have any major problem picking up the TV signal, given that the analogue signal at my house tends to be weak. The only problem is sometimes the picture and the sound are slightly out of sync – I’m not sure if this is due to signal / stick / my computer / software. The software on the CD installed without problems but it took almost 15 min. However, it seems a bit bloated and is slow to install and to load each time you want to watch TV.

Installation was much more straight forward in Ubuntu Linux 8.04 if you know what you are doing despite the manufacturer says it is not supported, and the Linux software is quicker and easier to use as well. I am using Kaffeine from Ubuntu’s repository, and you will need to download drivers for the stick. Details on how to do this are here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=856069

The Linux / Kaffeine software also seems to be faster at scanning for channels than the Windows software supplied. Bought the Pinnacle Nano stick after testing a cheap noname DVBT stick. With the old one I had fewer channels and unacceptable performance after 20 minutes of uninterrupted usage (probably due to overheating of the device). The Pinnacle stick performs absolutely fantastic and is worth investing into.