Pinnacle PCTV Pro

I have been using this Pinnacle PCTV Pro system with my Celeron 2.1GHz PC with 256Mb of RAM and Windows 98SE.

The card is supplied with a full function remote control, remote control cable that fits in a COM port and software. ( ****If you only have USB the remote cannot be used ) It has analogue TV, FM Radio and Teletext as standard that work from an antenna. It also accepts input from S-Video and Audio / Video sockets.

The nice red Card was easy to fit, during start up the disk was required followed by the Windows 98 disk. I had heard that there can be problems if using DirectX 9.0 but the 9.0b is OK (Supplied on CDROM) When it had finished it launched the self test software. This was ok until it performed the DirectX tests. I had previously installed version 8.0 and it told me that the card was not compatible with my video card. I solved this problem by removing version 8.0 and freshly installing the supplied version.

Using the card is easy and tuning is automatic. I used it with a "One for all" TV and FM Radio aerial and the results are good. I also use the s-video input with my old analogue Satellite system. It could equally support a video recorder or camcorder if needed.

I especially like the software as you can capture audio and video in all formats from MPEG to DVD quality and even web streaming!

Teletext is really impressive, I have never used it much as it is very slow on a TV but this card opens it in a web browser and allows you to click on links by using the mouse, the pages are displayed instantly!

Overall a great card but make sure your video card is Direct X (Direct draw) compatible.