Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI Enterprise AL

The PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI is one of many tuners that Pinnacle offers. Like the Hauppauge, it manages to pack dual tuners onto one small card. However, the Pinnacle's tuners are DVB-T only.



The card is half-height but fitted with a full-height bracket, and no half-height alternative is supplied in the box. The Pinnacle has a PCI interface, and is even shorter than the Hauppauge, so it should be compatible with virtually any motherboard and case, assuming a half-height bracket can be found. We asked Pinnacle whether a half-height bracket was available but have received no reply.



The Pinnacle is compatible with Windows Media Center, but has its own fully featured software that's rather unimaginatively called Pinnacle MediaCenter. Although the 4.2 version supplied in the box had no problem installing under Windows Vista, it crashed when scanning for TV channels. The 4.94a update is available from Pinnacle's website, though, and this scanned correctly when we tried it. However, it picked up fewer channels than Hauppauge's WinTV-HVR-2200.



The software can also scan for Internet radio channels, making these accessible through its interface. An EPG service is built in for TV too. You can use the Freeview EPG, synchronised with TVTV, or Pinnacle's own premium 14-day listing service. An eight-week free trial is included, after which it costs 14.95 euros a year for the rather limited standard service, or 19.95 euros for the complete option. You have to manually map the channels detected to the EPG channels, although you can then easily choose which programmes to watch and record using the IR remote.



As Pinnacle makes such a wide range of products, the PCTV software is designed to work in harmony with other Pinnacle devices, including its ShowCenter media streaming boxes. You can stream recordings seamlessly to the latter over your home media network.



The Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI has much more accomplished software than that supplied with the Hauppauge or AVerMedia's TV tuners. However, with DVB-T only and no FM radio, the hardware is less fully featured, making the AVerMedia the better choice for a Windows MCE-based media PC.

Author: James Morris

Custom PC Online