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Card |
Features | Compatibility* | Cnx | Price |
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Comments |
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| Pinnacle DC20 Plus | Analog VideoIn MJPEG hardware |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $100 | 8.4/10 5 votes |
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6 comments (10673 views) Post comment |
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Works with MacOS <=9.22 very well. Has (S-)Video in/out. Miro/Pinnacle comments very poor here... Comments posted by Axel from Germany, May 04, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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As I understand it, the 3rd party driver offered by Maik of mirosupport.de is not freeware. Nothing wrong with that, but it's probably useful to know before you decide to buy one of these on ebay. You can always email him to ask him how much he charges. I don't think it's a lot. Comments posted by Robert from Canada, February 27, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Now available WDM-driver for Windows 2000 and XP. There is no capture -limit by using NTFS. Datarate now up to 6000 kB/s For more informations visit my homepage www.mirosupport.de and send me a e-mail. Bye Maik ------------ Webmaster www.mirosupport.de PS: Also available XP-drievr for miro Video Dc50, Dc30, Dc30plus, Dc20, DC10 and DC10plus Comments posted by www.mirosupport.de from Other, December 06, 2003: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? |
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(First of all, sorry for my terrible English, it's not my native languaje). Made in 1997, this video capture card is one of the best that I have tried. Nowadays I use it with a processor Pentium III 500 MHz and motherboard MSI 9928A. Previously, it was using in a motherboard TX-Pro with AMD-K6 233 Mhz. Now already they do not find drivers for Miro DC20 Plus. I have the last version of the drivers, necessary in order that this card works with a Pentium III. If someone possesses one Miro DC20 Plus and has problems with the same one, please send an e-mail to: lonewolf_home@hotmail.com, and may I will someone. Bye. - LoneWolf- Comments posted by LoneWolf from Other, October 06, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? |
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Just found a solution, to use the NT-driver for Win2K! Go to: http://www.geocities.com/trv890/dc20/dc20-nt.zip Comments posted by TRV890 from Other, May 24, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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good capture card can capture at a bitrate of upto 3200kb/s in hardware based motion jpeg will capture at 768x576 30fps without dropping frames only resolutions of 768x576, 768x288, 384x576, and 384x288 using other resolutions will result in cropping Comments posted by Paul Dookie from Other, March 20, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 |
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| Pinnacle DC30 Plus | Analog VideoIn MJPEG hardware |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC *based on user reports. |
PCI | $200 | 8.5/10 16 votes |
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22 comments (70718 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| The miroVIDEO DC30 series system stands out for its quality (Hi8),
compression capabilities, performance, and digital video editing capabilities. Combined with a suitable graphics board, the miroVIDEO DC30 series offers digital real-time overlay. |
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I didn't think I would be writing a review of the good old DC30 nearly a decade after I bought it. It spent most of its life in an Apple 9600 server, running under OS9 and because the card does all the compression on board, the eventual data rate into the PCI bus was about 250 MB per minute or 4 MB per second. The 9600 finally got pensioned off and the DC30 doesn't fit in my G5. In the meantime, I had set up a Dell to do my DVD archiving off VHS. Her indoors is a TV director and has been murmuring broodily about the fate of her 1,500 VHSs since 2 of our 4 VCRs packed in. I tried the Compro 350S to speed things up but this has put me off real time mpegging unless I up the budget. (See my review there) So I looked again at the DC30, so well made, but lacking a driver for XP. Well, as previous correspondence here shows, there is a driver and it is simply a question of whether you consider the modest fee that Maik charges to be worth it. It's single figures £ and who the hell can quibble? His driver and other software work and you get a disk full of useful stuff as well, and instantaneous support from him if things don't go well. I paid him by Paypal and the disk arrived from Germany in 2 days. Here's what the DC30 does now on XP SP2, with driver and software from Maik. • Captures in 4:2:2 space (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling) • Adjustable on board compression into M-JPEG • Full A/V support within the DC30 using either the Y connector or the internal 4-pin for the audio. I ran a flying lead from the 4-pin socket with phonos on the end because I have a) mislaid the Y lead and b) the Y lead tends to fall out. • All the info you need, including pin outs for the 4-pin connexion are in the full manual which you can get from http://www.pinnaclesys.com/support/miroVideo/DC30/UserManuals/dc30_e • The XP driver turns a DC30 into a DC30+ • It is STILL one of the best capture cards around. • The supplier of the driver, Maik, has received unwarranted abuse in some forums. Without him, hardly anyone could use the DC30 under XP. Any complaints are more reasonably directed at Pinnacle who could have, but didn't, give XP support to the DC30. Pinnacle made a lot of money out of the DC30. They just took the money and ran. • Yes, it is fiddly to set up and I am Mac expert and PC average: it tested my abilities, but I learnt. Comments posted by RobinMarshall from United Kingdom, December 04, 2007: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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No comments Comments posted by GHASSEM SAFFARI from Iran, Islamic Republic of, September 16, 2007: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? |
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No comments Comments posted by mo from Iran, Islamic Republic of, January 06, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Hi. Just wanted to update my old comments with something new I've tried. I don't use iuVCR with the card anymore, ever since it started causing AV syncing problem. And its scheduled capturing function does not work for PAL/NTSC but only SECAM which is the driver's default setting. iuVCR doesn't remember DC30's setting for scheduled capturing. I don't know why. But thanks to that, now I've found a much better replacement, and it's free too! The latest VirtualDub beta (v1.6.5 atm) includes a command line interlace (CLI), vdub.exe that can perform sceduled capturing easily with the Task Scheduler of Windows by creating a ".bat" file comtaining the commands. It remembers every setting for the card and captures perfectly without the AV syncing problem. Now I've set the computer to perform different capturing tasks at different time. I still enjoy capturing analogue/digital TV shows with this old card in combination with my VCR. Then I would use ProCoder for encoding if I want to save the programme onto DVD. Hope to hear from you too if you still making use of this card in any way! Comments posted by Bedshaped from Hong Kong, April 28, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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In reply to the post above, the links to the drivers available at http://www.driverguide.com/ aren't responding anymore :( Could anyone please suggest another place for the XP driver? Thanks A MILLION!! And to Dan: To convert video to VCD with this card, first capture at 384x288 resolution, then load the captured MJPEG AVI to e.g. TMPGEnc (with "interlaced" set to no because the x288 means progressive). Can't think of any way simpler than this :/ This card is great btw, except for no having proper Windows 2000 (can't capture more than 2GB) and Windows XP support. It's capable of producing great quality captures. I always do TV captures at 2.5-3.5MB/s. That sounds low because the card is capable of doing 6MB/s (for DC30) and 7MB/s (for DC30 Plus/Pro) but it's great enough to me. Recently I tried the DC10+ tweaked WDM driver for the DC30 to work under Win2K/XP. (I think it's not the same one mentioned above/someone sells.) With the audio taken from the 'line in' of a sound card, it works almost flawlessly under any WDM programs like iuVCR (my favourite - turns the card into a VCR with scheduled capturing), VirtualVCR, AMCap, etc. EXCEPT for one BIG problem which is frame dropping... BUT the problem is not frame dropping itself. It's that the AV don't sync anymore after a frame's dropped, unlike the old days with the official driver where frame dropping doesn't result in AV unsync. That's why I would really like to try the drivers in http://www.driverguide.com but NONE of the links work... It would be much appreciated if any happy users could point me in the correct direction. Thanks! Comments posted by Bedshaped from Hong Kong, January 30, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Now the Driver is free for DC30 in WinXP I have tested it ! http://www.driverguide.com/ free download it and enjoy. if anyboady can help me to suggest an esay eay covert video to VCD by this card. Thanks. Comments posted by Dan from Iran, Islamic Republic of, April 22, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Just so you know, the WinXP drivers offered by Maik of www.mirosupport.de are not freeware as far as I know. Nothing wrong with that, but you would do well to email him for the price before you decide to buy one of these cards. I don't think it's that expensive. Comments posted by Robert from Canada, February 27, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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miro DC30 (plus) is a very good capture hardware. Now it is available to use this card in Windows 2000 and XP without capture-limit. Also available a Plug-In to capture direct in Premiere 5 and 6.x in W2k. For more informations visit my HP www.mirosupport.de in section Video. Bye Maik ---------------- Webmaster www.mirosupport.de Also available XP-W2k driver for miro Video Dc50, Dc20, Dc20plus, Dc10, Dc10plus Comments posted by www.mirosupport.de from Other, December 06, 2003: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC Linux - Rated: No rating. |
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i've tested this card on a pIII550 with 512mb ram and win98se... and it works very fine for me. i prefer using virtualdub for capturing (there is no file size limit when capturing to multiple files!). when using pal-resolution 720x576, 3000kbit video, 44khz audio the quality is great!!! i couldn't detect any sync problems. postprocessing (divx, mpeg and so on) is easy and fast because of the mjpeg-format. so i would give it a 10. but where are the drivers for xp or 2k??? hello support??? just 8 points for this card... Comments posted by dangermike from Other, June 04, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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winxp? studio 7, studio 7.13 upgrade, dc10plushardwareinstaller. setup in that order. works fine. audio through soundcard. Comments posted by juan from Other, March 19, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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. . . remains one of the best capture cards ever! It really brings tears to the eyes that the DC30 was around when other capture cards were still twinkles in some designer lab, and even today where it is still used, still produces video's that does not stand back an inch! But it would seem that if you have to give up using Win98, or upgrade to a P4, this card goes into the dustbin. It is easy to speak about the Pinnacle support in bad language, but consider the fact that this card is about/almost/giveortake 8 years old (???) One can almost not blame them for not wanting to spend time on museum pieces. How many of us still makes use of 486 machines to do editing? Mine still works alongside it's brother (DV500+), and with AVI-IO, still has a lot of life in it. Comments posted by Jury from Other, November 21, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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This is an update to my previous post... I have been able to get the DC30+ to operate under XP and 2000 using the drivers for the DC10+ for use with Pinnacle Studio 7 AV (I'm not sure about the exact version number, I bought the software without the DC10+ that normally comes with it). I heard Studio 8 AV works as well. With my NTFS file system, I'm able to capture files > 2GB at 640x480. However, that seems to the max capture resolution. TV out works too. The DC30's sound card does not function, so you will face problems with sync between audio and video. Too bad the Pinnacle software has such an odd interface. I'm glad there is still life after obsoletion for my DC30+. Comments posted by Billy from Other, September 26, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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The system I used with this card was Win 98 then Win 98 SE, on a PII 300MHz. It needs a powerful video card to do overlays, I used to use a 4MB card with overlay turned off, later, upgraded to a ATI AIW 128 Pro, but only for the video, the multimedia center had to be turned off. Likewise, I used to use an older ALS 100 sound card. It made great Hi-8 video SVCDs, better than tape, using bbMPEG, and Nero. Quality was way better than what the video card ATI AIW does. I wish I could still use the miroDC30+. I loved it, Especially with overlay and Premiere 5.1 The computer was hit by lightening while making a SVCD encodeing. I don't know if the board is still alive. The new MB won't accept it, it won't load the CAPCDC.DRV, not even with a new install of Win 98 with nothing else installed except Premiere. The problem may be the MB and not the lightening. These cards were not made for new OSs. Confirmation will have to wait till I have access to a Pentium computer. THis one is an ABIT-KT7A-RAID Athalon 1050. The video card still works, It was in there during the lightening strike, so, I think that the miro card may still be alive and I hope to use it again some day. Comments posted by Michael from Other, September 07, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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this card will not work on all p4 motherboards, i finnally got it to work on my intel 845WN, had to move every pci card i had to every config possible. utilities are usefull and when it works it captures very high quality stuff. Support kinda sucks too. Comments posted by wilson from Other, April 05, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K |
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the suport in spain is very bad Comments posted by juan from Other, March 08, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I picked this card up used on eBay. I had been searching for a decent card to compress my favorite TV shows to SVCD. I had used many cards in the past, but audio drift and dropped frames always happened. After reading the installation directions, the driver installation was uneventful. I used Premiere 6.0(included in the auction that I won) with the 6.02 patches. By the way, I have an XP1900+ with a MSI Pro2 motherboard, 768M RAM. The older technology card still worked, and I haven't had to the performance booster app that Pinnacle said was required for VIA chipsets. My first capture at 640x480 went great, but for some odd reason I only recorded the left channel of audio, and audio wouln't play back to the TV from the command line. After a couple of days of checking drivers, etc, I realized that I had installed the audio connector plug 90 degrees out of whack. Pinnacle should have used a better keyed connector, so that knocked my score to 9.5 (I know, I'm picky :) Since I dual boot between Win98SE and Win2000, I am lucky enough to have full driver support under Win98, but Pinnacle states that Win2000 requires input and output from the system audio card, and cannot use the DC30's audio. This knocked my score down to 9.0. But, what can I expect from a discontinued card? Picture quality is great, even at high MJPEG compression rates. Using Tmpgenc, I can encode superior looking SVCDs. And I have the ability to blast any "toy" productions that I want back to a VCR directly from the Premiere timeline (after rendering any transitions or effects). I highly recommend this card if you want a card that can capture with no audio sync problems and output to TV, and you don't mind using Windows 98. Comments posted by Bill Byler from Other, March 05, 2002: Compatibility: |
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Ok, First let me review the hardware - if you assume that the hardware side makes ut half the overall score - i.e. 5 out of the 10, then this card gets all 5 marks. I bought this card 3 weeks ago, on ebay. As soon as I set it up correctly, I realised just how amazing it was. At that time I was using a Win98, P3 600Mhz, 128Mb ram, 5400rpm 10GB HD and capturing with a crappy composite cable (I'm not saying that 'composite' itself is crappy but the cable I had sure was! Anyhow, three days later I realised this card deserved a better PC than I was using. First I got a gigabyte of ram, next a 7200rpm 1GB HD and THEN a new motherboard with a 1.1Gig AMD CPU! I spent about $800 on this stuff and when I did, I realised that I was going to dedicate my PC entirely to this. I formatted the HD, installed only the utils I needed (Premiere, software codecs, etc.) and NO games at all. From now on, all my time on the PC would be devoted to video editing (it's totally better than ANY game you'll play!). A few days later I finally bought a s-vhs cable and WOW, what a difference! Capturing from DVD went from good to unbelievable! I got some dropped frames if I tried using too high a capture rate but even with more compression, the video quality didn't suffer too much, it always stayed great. Now the BAD part and really, this hurts me to criticise this card... I upgraded to Win98 as my friends told me that the NTFS file system was far faster than FAT32. I found this to be very true, I could capture at the highest possible rate (around 7000kb/s - that's with 44kHz audio too! However, when I tried to capture with Adobe Premiere, it didn't acutally recognise my Dv30. I downloaded EVERY possible update driver/patch for the card and Premiere but nope, nothing recognised in Premiere. This wouldn't be so bad but even the updated software has a 4GB capture limit - useless for more than 10 minutes of capturing at the highest rate. Frankly, this is disgraceful. From what I can understand, Pinnacle do NOT intend to manufacture an updated driver specifically for Win 2000. To make matters worse, they have no plans to develop a driver for Win XP. So what do I do? Re-install Win 98 so that Premiere recognises the card but then suffer from frame losses at the higher capture rates, or, use Win 2000 and capture at the highest rate but be forced to constantly restart the capture process and then join dozens of avi's together in Premiere? Neither of these are acceptable solutions and though I hate saying this, I cannot recommend this card unless you can find a stable hack for the miro software that lets you capture over 4GB. Based on my experiences, I'd recommend you to go for one of Pinnacle's DV capture cards, then buying an external analogue to DV converter. If you cant find a hack, for God's sake don't buy this card. If pinnacle think they can release drivers that don't fully support more modern operating systems, then they're no better than Microsoft. To add insult to injury, Pinnacle are releasing XP drivers for the Dv10 card (a cut down version of the Dv30), I had to look twice when I read this - what the hell are they thinking? It seems that Pinnacle think that, because the Dv30 doesn't fit directly into the home user or professional use categories, they can just ignore it. <sigh> What's worse, is that the capture software NOW has problems sync'ing video and audio after installing the updates, then removing them and re-installing the originals. Looks like I'll have to re-install windows AGAIN! The word HELL comes to mind! Comments posted by James DeBriggs from Other, February 06, 2002: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 |
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Excellent capture, crisp, actually cleans up VHS, incompatible with NVidea video cards currently standard on Macs. Once incompatability issues are understood it is perfectly stable. Using it with FCP 1.2.5 Comments posted by Peter Rooney from Other, January 18, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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An excellent card. Capture quality is outstanding, even at 8:1! It will capture at 704x568 and 352x288. At the moment, I am in the process of converting my old VHS to VCD at 352x288, PAL, 25fps and capturing is flawless. The really amusing part is that the machine I use to do the capturing is a Celeron 400 with a 5400rpm HDD. However, 384mb RAM makes a big difference. :) The only disappointment is that Pinnacle still sell this card, yet they refuse to release drivers for WinXP. I have heard that this may be due to a technical issue, however Pinnacle have not said anything about this - they have just said they will not release drivers for WinXP. This is very disappointing, considering that there is already a Win2k driver, and the DC10+ (which is a cut down version of the DC30+) has XP drivers. This is why this card is not rated a 10. The card itself I would rate a 10, Pinnacle is lucky to get 3 out of 10 for support, hence i've knocked 3 points off. All Pinnacle have to do is release a driver for WinXP! It's a case of excellent hardware that was years ahead of its time but with poor manufacturer support. Can anyone say 'Amiga'? Comments posted by Tony Sander from Other, January 17, 2002: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 |
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Board to do full editing video and more, it's sell with Premiere and instant video for render only the part of the project changed. Comments posted by Anonymous from Other, June 29, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 MAC Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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excelent video capture card with great picture quality even at 7:1 compression. It can do down as low as 2.5:1 compression which requires pretty speedy drives. Resolutions supported full screen, half vertical, half horizontal, and quarter resolution. Pixel aspect ratio controls are also allowed including square pixel, and CCIR601. Screen aspect ratio of 16:9 is also supported. Has integrated audio capture and playback hardware which eliminates any problems with synchronization. Driver support is great from Pinacle, along with compatability reports with motherboards. This is the older version packaging of the DC30 Pro. The "Pro" version has a desktop breakout box. Newer version also supports MAC. Hardware MJPEG codec makes decoding of captured files very speedy. Comments posted by Steven Lam from Other, June 06, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 |
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Very good card. Audio stream is captured with video so you don't get audio sync problems. Max capture rate is around 6Mbps at 1:3 video rates. The Asia/Europe version supports both PAL nad NTSC. The only down (??) is your locked to using the onboard Hardware CODEC and can't change. Comments posted by Jeremy Ryan from Other, March 18, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 |
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| Pinnacle DC30 Pro | Analog VideoIn MJPEG hardware |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 *based on user reports. |
PCI | $400 | 8.6/10 7 votes |
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10 comments (14985 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| The miroVIDEO DC30 series system stands out for its quality (Hi8),
compression capabilities, performance, and digital video editing capabilities.Combined with a suitable graphics board, the miroVIDEO DC30 series offers digital real-time overlay. |
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Good card, No problems setting up with xp sp2, just follow the instructions. I'm using a P4 3.2Ghz Dell, 1GB Ram. Had to use a seperate sound card to capture the audio. I converted all my vHS tapes to DVD and worked flawlessly with Pinnacle Studio 9 SE. Comments posted by Mike from United Kingdom, December 05, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Didn't work. Oh, I should mention that Malik is a FRAUD as his drivers cost money and he isn't affialiated with Pinnacle in any way. The only reason why he doesn't mention that the drivers cost money on his site is to keep from getting shutdown! Comments posted by Zagreus from United States, November 28, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? |
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miro DC30 (plus) is a very good capture hardware. Now it is available to use this card in Windows 2000 and XP without capture-limit. Also available a Plug-In to capture direct in Premiere 5 and 6.x in W2k. For more informations visit my HP www.mirosupport.de in section Video. Bye Maik ---------------- Webmaster www.mirosupport.de Comments posted by www.mirosupport.de from Other, April 13, 2003: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux - Rated: No rating. |
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Regardless of what you read in other places, this card will not work in XP and it barely works in Win2k. If you are running win98, this is one great piece of equipment. It captures full res at over 7 mb/sec flawlessly for me and simply does not disappoint...but only in Win98. Its a well built card, the only drawback is Pinnacle themselves. They simply do not care about the people who purchase their stuff. I, and many many others have tried to get their attention about the XP drivers situation, and below was Pinnacle's reply to me: Response (JasonPCLE) 03/19/2003 08:50 PM This decision was based on the fact the card is over 5 years old. The cards technology is very outdated and has been repleced with cheaper and better equipment. As you can tell, they really aren't interested in customer service. :/ I suggest you go elsewhere for your Capture Card needs. Comments posted by Mindhunter93 from Other, April 08, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K |
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does run under winxp. www.mirosupprt.de Comments posted by juan from Other, January 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Quite a good capture card. It captures 702x480 video at 29.97 FPS no problem. Very flexible interface, and high quality capture. Perfect for making VCDs, SVCDs, and DVD video. Comments posted by Dan from Other, July 16, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Great card, however, there will be no updated driver for WinXP (and that's to bad when you want to work with files greater then approx. 18 min.) So the rating (9) would be a 10 if Pinnacle would be so kind te make a usefull driver for WinXP. Comments posted by Steven from Other, April 26, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? |
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Fanatastic Card, Capturing is as easy as pluging in and selecting what you want to capture when you stop the capture you have an AVI waiting on you. I've made 2 VCD's so far from the captured avi's and the quality was flawless. I highly recommend this card, it is a little expensive but not having to wait 15 to 18 hours for conversion to vcd was worth it. Comments posted by Dan from Other, February 03, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? |
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This card is a perfect dream. Lost 1 point for expensive price tag. Lost another point for not being able to capture longer then 10 minutes at 720x480. If you use VirtalDub and Capture at 720x480 you get frame drops, but if you use the pinnacle software you get pacticly no drops at all. What I do is fuse the files together with VirtualDub after I made 10-20 10 min clips. I tested many products and this by far is the best. The final verdict is: If you have the 400-500 bucks to spend on this, get it. Comments posted by Steve from Other, June 01, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 MAC? |
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Max data rate is 7125K. Outstanding quality, would not go with anything else after owning this for 3 months now. There are some issues with the card, which can be resolved if you have them, intermittent lockups rendering, etc. New drivers should help alleviate this issue. Any probs you have with this card will be worth it after you experience the quality output it is capable of. The Breakout Box is the only difference between this card and the Plus version. It basically is a box with all the plugs, and a 8ft cable which plugs into the back of the card, so you do not have to reach around the back of your system to get access to the jacks. VERY cool. Overall, I love this card. Outstanding output, fast editing, worth every penny! (check out ebay for this card!!). Comments posted by Jim Hirte from Other, March 19, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 |
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| Pinnacle DC50 | Analog VideoIn MJPEG hardware |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $1000 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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1 comments (2345 views) Post comment |
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Now available new XP-drivers for miro DC50. All functions like in NT or W2k will be supported. You can use Premiere 5.x or 6.x. There is no 2 GB-capture-limit. For more informations visit my homepage www.mirosupport.de in section video. Bye Maik Webmaster www.mirosupport.de PS: Also available W2k -Xp-driver for miro Dc30, Dc30plus, Dc20, Dc20plus, Dc10, Dc10plus, DRX Comments posted by www.mirosupport.de from Other, December 06, 2003: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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| Pinnacle DV500 DVD | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn MPEG1 hardware MPEG2 hardware |
Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $400 | 7.6/10 9 votes |
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10 comments (16881 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Powerful Features:
Digital and analog input/output Real time keyframeable effects Fast and slow motion effects Optimized workflow for DVD authoring Create CD / DVD / Videotapes and internet streaming formats Adobe Premeire 6.5 Pinnacle DV Tools Analog and DV capture without file size limitation Analog cutlist playback DV cutlist playback Automatic scene detection to Premiere Storyboard Real time slow motion in preview quality Even faster Pinnacle DV² Codec Pinnacle Impression DVD SE with CD-R support and direct disc burning MPEG2 import for re-editing of DVD projects with intelligent rendering T-Rex universal multimedia file converter New break-out box with Analog and Digital Input and Output |
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pls i use a pinnacle dv 500 and for a while now when i want to capture with composite from a VHS machine it sundenly turns to black and white pls any body has a solution to that should pls mail me at kevinaladi@yahoo.com i will be very gratefull Comments posted by kevin aladi from Nigeria, February 22, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Good for work with DV , analog capture quality sucks complety Comments posted by Fos from Spain, December 02, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I have two DV500 DVD. One installed at my Company workstation and another on my home. The first one works with Win2K, the other with WinXP. I have no trouble since I began to work with, four years ago. I use all kind of sources: analogue tapes, DVD, digital video (Sony DV), sometimes all mixed up on the same Project. The system digests everything without complain... I use Adobe Premiere 6.5 for edition and Adobe Encore to produce the final DVD´s. Comments posted by Paulo Ribeiro from Brazil, May 12, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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My card has been worcking for a couple of years without any trouble. I've been upgrading the drives from pinnacle site, and now i'm using 4.5 with premiere 6.5. Very stable with win 2k. Now i'm using XP, and no trouble at all. The encoder included in premiere, made by Media Concept has been very usefull, because it lets you change the settings. You can make your own codec. By the way did anyone try this card with Premiere Pro? I think it can handle, but anyway i'll try it. Comments posted by Marçal Bernardo from Portugal, November 19, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I have had this card for a couple of years and have found it to be excellent. The fact taht it comes bundled with Adobe Premiere is a real bonus. I have upgraded to the latest DVD500 software and Premiere 6.5 both of which have proved to be very good. I know a lot of users have had trouble with DVD Tools but that has not been my experience. The new version works very well in deed and simplifies the capture of video. I use a Panasonic DV camcorder. I would recommend this product wholeheartedly. Comments posted by Don from Other, May 28, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I've had the DV500 for about a year with no problems. The AVIs are great quality and I use Cinema Craft for MPEG-2 encoding. The DV500 can encode MP2s using the hardware but you end up with 2 files, the MP2 and WAV. I use the transitions alot and there's quite a selection. Premiere 6.0 took some time to learn but it's well worth it. Using a Sony DV camera works fine with the DV control feature. Overall I would recommend this card and software. Comments posted by JonF from Other, April 30, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Very nice card ! No problem with bundled softwares : I use DVTools for DV capture (Sony TRV330E) and Adobe Premiere 6.5 for analog capture and export VCD/SVCD. The both softwares work very fine on my computer. Remy Comments posted by remy mallard from Other, March 30, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Not every camera works with the Pinnacle DV 500 DVD. If you have a Sony DV you're probably going to be okay if not, you might wanna check before you buy. Installing the software for the card was a made very hard because Pinnacle really did a lousy job with their installer. It keeps installing the software over and over again unless you stop it Also Pinnacle replaces the standard Windows firewire driver with their own driver and the Pinnacles driver only works with your Pinnacle card. So if you make heavy use of your fire wire port, it will be rendered useless for anything else but capturing film from you DV. Also when I bought the product it was new and costed almost $700. But it came with Adobe premiere 6.0 so that's not a bad price at all. But for that price you get NO, nada, nix, costumer support. You can't even Email them. That is why I give the product a low rating. Having said all that, the card works great. It comes with all kinds of very, very need effects. Also Pinnacle had an offering that you could update Premiere from 6.0 to 6.5 for only $25 dollars and that's a real steal. For that price Pinnacle threw in some more effects. However you must know where to look for it because it's not an upgrade you pay for but it's on one of the CD's intended to upgrade an other capture card. If it wasn't for the crappy support I would give the card a 9 but I think it not right how Pinnacle treads their costumers so a 5 it is. Comments posted by Kees Verhoef from Other, February 06, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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This is an excellent card. Prior to having this package, I used TMPenc for all of my MPEG-2 exports from Adobe Premiere. Well, now I use the built-in Adobe/Pinnacle export tools, and it's easy, fast, and the quality is nice! This card is well worth the money, and has saved me a lot of time. Comments posted by Stormin from Other, December 16, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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- Exceptional quality, if your keen. - Comes with loads of cool software but requires at least a gig of ram to run smoothly. - DV Tools capture is prone to crashing. - Really good looking breakout box. Comments posted by Matt from Other, November 21, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle DV500 Plus | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 *based on user reports. |
PCI | $400 | 8.3/10 38 votes |
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40 comments (59531 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| DV500 PLUS combines exceptional analog and digital I/O with real-time features where they matter most. DV500 PLUS is the only real-time editing solution which takes full advantage of all of the new Adobe Premiere 6.0 features:
Real-time multi-track audio mixer with VU meters and volume adjustments Real-time 16:9 wide screen video processing of effects, transitions and titles Real-time image correction for saturation, contrast and brightness changes DV² Speed Codec with dual processor support for ultra fast DV mastering Export formats: MPEG-2 (DVD compliant),MPEG-1, MP3,Real Media, Windows Media |
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I have a Crashed XP Pro system from 2004, trying to upgrade the motherboard, processor, ram and operating system. Needing suggestions; that will allow me to still use DV500plus and Creative SoundBlaster (Live), Expansion card and WiFi I can not find a mother board with over 3 expansion slots Not even sure if the DV500 plus card will still work with the newer operating systems? Any Suggestions? Comments posted by 1BraveHeart from United States, January 07, 2012: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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ABSOLUTE RUBBISH. I had expected a lot as I spent $900 for it. ($600 of which effectively going for Adobe Premiere 6) Got very little. On two computers, an Athlon 1GHz T-bird and 2GHz T-bred, with 7200RPM drives and following Pinnacle's own manual (busmaster slot, yadda yadda, my machines were WELL EQUIPED), I often had problems with sync during capture. EVen when doing 2 separated runs (one for audio, the next for video). One dcay the capture would work without fail, the next it'd be a nightmare. Even on the faster machine, the problems remained the same. Worse, capture quality is not good as the picture in general, but especially reds have a vertical deformity in them. When capturing, I'd often see rainbow artifacts, requiring separate filtration to remove. Yuck. In VirtualDub, when using the Pinnacle CODEC (even the version they released where they claim they fixed the bug), the AVI export would fail. Even when using a frameserver, the problem still occurred. I recently bought a WInTV PVR250 and it's eminently more effective. No rainbow artifacts, it syncs fine, it's great. I can even save in 15Mb CBR (they say 12Mb is max) without problems, allowing me to retain quality for when I do editing/cleaning. And it works in Linux too!! Windows is such a joke... Comments posted by D. P. Cole from United States, April 04, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? |
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Can not get this card to work. Have had professional computer techs, network techs, programmers, and a graphics person load and reload the machine. Two days is the longest the thing stayed working. Am planning on trading it in for a Matrox. Comments posted by Bill from Other, October 22, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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This is for a Pinnacle DV500 DVD w/Adobe Premiere 6.5. Wow! What a step up from ATI AIW or Hauppauge hair loss formulas. As a relative newbie to video capture and editing, I find the Pinnacle software to be slightly confusing because it is not very well explained as a package. Otherwise, the capture is very impressive. 0 frame loss with AV capture, good quality, up and running within minutes of hardware and software installation. Feeding three nonDV sources into the BlueBOX using an AV switcher - DVD, VCR, and TiVo - and then out to a TV/stereo system for monitoring. Works with both Composite and S-Video without hassles. Haven't checked out the DV capture, but don't expect any issues. I wish that Pinnacle would break up the 4.5 driver software. Although my system is on a 768Kbps T1, the connection is wireless through a WAP which has the tendency to 'konk-out' during large downloads. 374MB is just not happening. Break it up into 4 parts and it's guaranteed to finish downloading. Specs: Antec Workstation Tower - 400W PS GigaByte GA-8IGX P4 Titan 533 Intel 845G motherboard - latest BIOS firmware Intel P4 2.54GHz 1.0GB PC2100 DDR RAM 4 case fans IDE 1 Master: Maxtor 30GB 7200RPM HDD (OS and Apps) IDE 1 Slave: WD 80GB 7200RPM 8MB-Cache HDD (vidcap) IDE 2 Master: Sony DRU500A DVD+R/W-R/W drive IDE 2 Slave: Lite-On CD-R/W 52x24x52 drive PCI IDE: WD 80GB 7200RPM 8MB-Cache HDD (data) AGP: GeForce4 Ti 4600 128MB AGP video card (masquerading as a Quadro4 900XGL via SoftQuadro4) PCI 1: Pinnacle DV500 DVD PCI 2: Creative Sound Blaster PCI 512 audio card PCI 3: LinkSys WMP11 Wireless Network PCI card PCI 4: - PCI 5: ATA100 IDE card Onboard 100BaseT Ethernet Windows XP PRO SP1 All drives formatted NTFS Intel Accelerator drivers installed All fancy-smancy Windows display candy disabled Capturing via Primary Display within Premiere Comments posted by Robert Templeton from Other, May 23, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I bought my DV500 Plus card off the internet on Ebay. Everything worked fine except for building. But when the new driver AP4.5 came out, it worked fine. It's great to use and work with. Comments posted by Norman from Other, February 01, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Nice Card! Not so nice V4.5 Driver download size! (374Mb) Seems that new always means bigger as well . . . Comments posted by Rocco from Other, December 31, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Excellent card if you FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. Using their recommendations for hardware and not trying to use the machine for everything under the sun including video editing, I have seen excellent results. Using Premiere 6.x I can capture from VHS, SVHS, DV or anything else I can hook up to any of the DV/SVideo/RCA connections without a problem. The software that comes with this card is far and away the best I have seen. Comments posted by Allan Hall from Other, December 28, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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I bought the card about 6 month ago. I like the performance and the softwares bundled in the package. After a few hickups I get the cards running great. Problems encountered when I change my platform to WinXP. solve it by downloading the update. Capture window display does not work with ATI Radeon 8500 and I have to use the loopthrough connection to TV monitor to see the captured video on progress. Problems with 15 minutes cature can be solve by formating your hard disk to NTFS. It capture my video to the end in one file. Since the capture software not work perfectly with my ATI Radeon card I have to give 9 out of 10. Comments posted by RobbyA from Other, December 04, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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This is an awesome editing card. Reading some of the comments i personally have had no conflicts with the DV500plus package. One thing i disliked was the lack of low resolution capture for vcd creation but when updating to premiere 6.5 (and latest pinnacle drivers to suit) i was able to export avi or a project to the adobe mpeg encoder which caters for dvd ( direct import into dvd it! ) mpeg1 & mpeg2 conversion which i might add has some impressive features. I previously used the latest tmpgenc program but the adobe conversion tool is twice as fast with the same if not better quality. Timeline markers also created in premiere can directly be exported to impressions pro as chapter points....too easy for creating dvdz. Personally i use acid pro 4 for handling audio then import it back into premiere. Because i use impressions 2.2 pro i convert the project (export to movie option in premiere instead of adobe encoder) using pinnacles MP2 compressor which can be changed between 2 and 15 M/Bit/s depending on desired quality and between cbr and vbr. I have used this card for 1.5 years and have never had any frames dropped or noticeable irregularities on picture quality after creating about 20 music dvd compilations and 7 one hour movies and countless vcd music titles. I would give it a 10 if it had native mpeg1 and mpeg2 capture and on occasions more real time features but frankly its not really a big issue. I recommend DV500+ users get 6.5 and latest pinnacle 4 drivers. My current system is a p4 2.53-msi 845pe max2 m/board- 1.5 gig 333mhz kingston ram-Gforce 4 128 m/bit v/card-yamaha dsp s/card-pioneer 16xdvd-rom + A04 burner-21" sony crt-second 18" sony lcd but i believe problems could arise from irq settings and system setups. LOYAL PINNACLE USER TIM Comments posted by Tim from Other, November 23, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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The DV500 will only capture AVI with DV codec. If you want MPEG1, rather use sonething like Nero to convert to MPEG1 for VCD. For what the card is supposed to do, it does well. Comments posted by Jury from Other, November 21, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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My company had me purchase a DV500 DVD card about a month ago. I had problems with the card freezing after a few captures, and after a few calls to Pinnacle, received a new card. That one has worked great. I found it pretty easy to install and have it in a Dell Dimension 8100. I know many other Dell computers don't work well with the Pinnacle stuff. I have only captured from a Hi-8 camera using the composite input, and have found the abilities of the card very impressive. The software package is great with Premier and Impression DVD Se, along with several other titles. I recently purchased a DVD writer and am now creating DVD's. I find the Pinnacle MP2 export ability, directly from the Premier timeline, to be as good if not even better than the MPEG-2 files I've created using TMPGEnc. I will say however, that coming from analog sources, there are artifacts and nothing I've tried has been successful to remove them, but they are very minor. I give it a 9 because of the struggle I had with the first card I got. Sounds like another user experienced the same issue, so if you get a DV500 DVD, and experience problems with lock-up and only being able to capture a few times, check with Pinnacle and get another card. For the money, you can't beat it!! Comments posted by luv2fly from Other, October 25, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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work perfect as long as you do what manual say to do, must make sure you load prem first or you will have problems.capture perfect images. Comments posted by james from Other, October 17, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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It works great with my MSI(Turbo Limitted Edition)motherboard under Win2k. No conflicts with the Via chipset either. No dropped frames (captures from Hi-8). Premiere 6.0 + Pinnacle hardware mpg2 export is way faster than TMPEG. Good quality with high Constant Bit Rates, 6MB and above. Variable bit rate function very limited (no settings), maybe it will be better under Premiere 6.5. This card would have gotten a 10 from me if the Impressions DVD SE wasn't so limitted (only 10 items in a menu). Make sure you install Premiere first and than the Pinnacle drivers. Comments posted by Ricardo from Other, October 15, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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No comments Comments posted by Henk from Other, October 15, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Works as advertised. Old drivers or new drivers they all work. This is a "Got to" have card if you do DVD! Comments posted by SteveReno from Other, October 11, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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No comments Comments posted by Pagotto from Other, September 28, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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This card works fine on Win2K and XP as long as you follow the instalation instructions. If you don't, you will be dragged through hell and back trying to get it going and will usually end up having to reformat. For a hobbyist, this card is excellent. As soon as you start to get good at Video editing in Premiere you'll discover that this card has its limitations. You can't have more than two real time effects and as soon as you try two real time effects with a transparency layer, the rendering engines dies and you get corrupt pixels through out your film. I have a DV500 but now want a Canopus DV Storm. Comments posted by Fred Snerk from Other, September 12, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I actually have a DV500DVD, but it is same as DV500 Plus, except came with a Breakout box/panel for DV I/O, and S-video/Composite videos both in/out. The package also included Adobe Premier 6.02 and other very useful editing & video conversion SW. I have had some CPU interupt sharing conflicts (with USB), but my Tyan (S2466N-4M) Tiger MPX-USB, Dual AMD mother board is full-up ( 1GB RAM, RAID 0, Dual 60GB ATI drives,sound card (Santa Cruz), Pinnacle PCI, and added Firewire PCI card. Pinnacles TRex Encoder/Translator does a great job converting .avi (DV) files to MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files, with excellent & good video quality respectively. Happy! Comments posted by Nahow from Other, September 07, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Great card, cute breakout box. 1 problem i found with it, and really isen't a problem at all with windows xp, and that is it doesn't support WDW so other programs like Virtual Dub, AVI_IO do not work with it. But since it comes with adobe premiere, and i have XP there is really no problems at all since XP uses NTFS and can support big avi sizes.. Cheers Pinnacle great product! Comments posted by Kris from Other, August 29, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Excellent product for the price. I was requested by my "penny-pinching" boss to pursue the possibility of doing DVD and VCD "on-the-cheap". Ran across the ad for the Pinnacle DV500 Plus for $600. Went to the forums and did some research on the product. Installed it according to the manual and could never get it to work on Win NT 4.0. Tried all... the PCI bus mastering... better video card... faster HDD... Nothing worked. It seems that Win NT has some serious problems with multimedia (DirectX problems to be precise). Took the card home and installed on a Win98se PC and worked like a charm. So installed Win2K on the suspect system...and BAM!!! worked great. Had nagging troubles with audio synch on some poor VHS analog capture, but attribute it to crappy tapes. Had initial problems with the DVD authoring but went to the forums and got great advice from real die-hard pros. Comes with great software! Love Premiere, love Impression DVD se, love Prassi PrimoDVD pro. Not happy with the Lite version of Cleaner though. I have the full version at home and believe me, it kicks the lite version 9 different ways to sunday. Recommend you use the free demo TMPEGenc for VCD or SVCD production. Of course, full version Cleaner 5.0 kicks TMPEGenc's butt, but it better for a $400 price tag. Have captured, authored, encoded, and produced 5 DVDs, 1 SVCD, 1 MPEG-2 CD and 2 VCDs. Have no qualms about taking this to broadcast quality. Oh yeah... don't buy Memorex DVD-R... it sucks big green donkey schlongs. I hope this company gets sucked down to the 7th level of Hell. TDK, Sony or Maxell is much better Comments posted by dricks4509@aol.com from Other, August 03, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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This is an excellent card. Nothing much I can say about this. However, I would like to see the card natively supported by Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video instead of Adobe Premiere. Comments posted by dex8472 from Other, July 25, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I gave this card a 9. For the price you get pro level editing capabilities for a great price. You do have to know your PC well to make it work. For all the tweaking and frustrations in setting it up, I didn't give it a 10. I use the 2.1 drivers now and convert for VCD & SVCD using TMPGenc with awesome results. Another user reported issues about clicks in the audio. That is a Premiere issue handling audio tracks and video tracks that result in a CPU bottleneck. The program hiccups on the audio. Force a render on the audio or export the video out and then back in over the affected area and clicks are gone. You just can't expect a two stream DV card to handle that much data without hiccups... oh unless you pay more for a card that does... The new 4.0 drivers should take care of direct export to MPEG2 with some really fast work. Still for MPEG1 export your avi's to TMPGenc and watch it go. For most video applications you will get better results with faster gear. Real Time works with ATA66 but not usually dual stream. It works with ATA100 drives until they fill up. IDE RAID and SCSI work much better. I use an IDE RAID and have never dropped frame one, ever in 3 years with this card. With these cards, I would not buy any card, like the DC10plus, because they usually aren't made for newer OS's. Video Editing requires some seriously dedicated hardware. If you aren't doing major surgery you probably won't ever even notice but doing any serious work requires serious investment and thought into what you're putting together. My caveat in this card is to check the forums and ask questions. Dells aren't popular choices to install the DV500, for instance. Some motherboards and videocards just don't work. A little research will help a lot into whatever choice you make. I for one, love my DV500 and have paid for it over and over again already. Comments posted by Matt Sowder from Other, July 17, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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(price in Europe, for some reason these cards have to be a lot more expensive overseas) Great card - IF you get it to work (and that's a big IF). If you don't - don't expect to get any support from Pinnacle. There were problems with the drivers, and with the DV encoding (red stripes). The 2.x drivers make the screen become slightly lighter during every Pinnacle transition or title (extended color space bug, the 8-235 range gets translated to 0-255), but the new drivers should have taken care of that (I dunno, still use the old drivers because of sound issues - see below). Still, this bug has been present in the drivers for over a year, in a card that targets the semi professional. The new drivers always RE-sample the sound to get rid of some rare audio sync problems with one particular Canon camera. This results in the loss of functionality of capturing the 3rd and 4th audio track. Also there are reports on the Pinnacle web board of clicks in the audio, which could be very well explained by the resampling. Not very pretty. I do own the DV500 for 1.5 years now, but IMHO it is better to own a standard firewire card, and a D8 camera with analog in, that has RealTime AN-DV conversion for capturing analog sources (or a mini-DV camera that has this option, if you can find one). This solution is a lot cheaper, and works just as well, if not better. For pure DV capture it should work better IMHO, though I don't know which DV codec a standard firewire card uses. The advantage of the DV500 is that Premiere is standard in the package, which is quite a good software package, but complicated as well. Disadvantage: the card ONLY works with Premiere. My rating is 6, because it works for me, but that's about it. For the *price* I'd expect a lot more professionality from the Pinnacle driver development, because the solutions they come up with are pretty flimsy (re-sampling perfectly good audio of all cameras because of ONE camera that produces out-of-spec audio and therefore sync problems). I am annoyed by all the transitions in my older movies after I discovered (with my own eyes) the extended color space bug. If I had to do it all again, I would stay away as far as possible from any Pinnacle product, including the DV500. It was a mistake on my behalf to buy it. However now I have it I will make the best of it, which can be done, but only because I'm an expert in computers and video work arounds. If you read the DV500 web board that is in the link you can see all the problems that the card has - and some of the solutions, given by users, and, *very* occasionally, by Pinnacle staff. Erwin Timmerman Comments posted by Erwin Timmerman from Other, March 06, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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He estado probando la DV500 en sistemas WINDOWS 98SE y en Windows ME, he tenido problemas cuando capturo un CLIP y lo guardo para que posteriormente lo convierta a MPGE1 con TMPEGeng, FlaskMPEG, algun convertidor de AVI a MPGE1 para crear un VCD. Al Burned un CD para vrear un VCD a traves de Impresio SE no funciona en un Player de DVD. Si alguien me puede ayudar, mi email: jsnchezruiz@hotmail.com. Vivo en Tapachula, Chiapas México. Comments posted by José Francisco Sánchez Ruiz from Other, March 04, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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Hmm... What I can say? I use this card over a year. There is two things what I can say: 1. (about the card)- For all time I using this card I didn't have any problems with capture, edit, encoding or other stuff. Great card for makin' everything except VCD's. It doesn't do low-res, but it works perfectly with hi-res. If you looking for the card for making hi-quality video with acceptable, not to high, price - DV500+ is the BEST OF THE BEST! 2. (about Pinnacle Sys.) - Thanks to them for creating and selling this product. And only one thing, that I can't forget - so much time for waiting driver for WinXP!!! More than two months for the 1st BETA driver ... VERDICT: THE BEST SOLUTION FOR MAKING HIGH QUALITY MOVIES, DVD'S OR ELSE FOR THE VALET WITH A FREE HALF-OF-A-GRAND OF THE "GREEN" MONEY Comments posted by Jaffarius from Other, February 12, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Express DV | DV/Firewire |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $40 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Pinnacle Linx USB PLUS | Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB1 | $50 | 4.4/10 7 votes |
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8 comments (10052 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Capture in digital
Simply hook your camcorder or your VCR to your PC with the LINX cable and copy your movies onto your hard disk. Assemble your story Select your favourite scenes, crop the length if needed, add a title and some background music… it will take you just a few minutes to make your film. Archive your films on disc Automatically create a menu with chapters to index and sort your films, and burn them direct onto a CD or a DVD. Watch on your DVD player All your movies are now stored on digital media that you can play on most DVD players ! Video Input Cable : • Analogue Video IN • Stereo Audio IN • USB Connection |
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We received the LINX USB as a gift from a friend. She was advised by someone in a big-box store, and we love her for her generosity, but this unit would not have been my first choice. Nevertheless, as the designated techno-babe (aka geek) in our relationship, I dutifully installed it on my IBM T20 laptop. This is a 700 MHz P3 machine, with 10 GB or so internal hard drive, and USB 1.0. I am running Win2K SP3, and the installation went smoothly and quickly. I used the software right out of the box without upgrading, and it recognized the unit right away. Minutes later, I had my first capture! I've spent a couple of days doing captures, and I'm not sure this is the best device for moving our old VHS movie collection to DVD. The capture resolution is limited to 320 X 240, and even at the highest capture rates, the images have a slight jerkiness in pans and fast scene movements. There is some loss of detail compared to the original VHS image. The unit captures in some kind of proprietary compressed AVI format (or maybe AVI is already compressed - not sure guys!), so it should be possible to capture long movies without gorging a hard drive. But Studio 8 software has to render it to an MPEG1 or MPEG2 before you can burn it, and that will take hours. I made a standard VideoCD of "A Charlie Brown Christmas", doing the capture in Custom mode (320X240, 440 Kbit/s), which resulted in an AVI file of 1.2GB. I rendered it to VCD standard MPEG1 and burned the encoded 255 MB file to a CD using Nero. The Studio 8 LE software out of the box does not support burning to disk (upgrade required). My resulting CD looked good on our Sony DVD player. I had no audio sync problems and no dropped frames. Of course, this was an animated feature, and its natural jerkiness and simple images masked the imperfections in the LINX capture. I captured some samples from "Full Metal Jacket", and you could definately see the differences. The Studio 8 software crashed on me several times, almost always during the rendering process. Win2K closed and ended the process nicely without bringing down the whole computer, but the jury is still out about whether the installation has damaged my system files. I did get a "funny" error message during the last reboot that I have to investigate. During capture, the audio and video became seriously out of sync on the capture screen, but could be played back perfectly in sync in the captured file. The color and brighness adjustments are also disabled in the version you get, which is a bummer. It will encode to MPEG2 in standard DVD formats, but I couldn't test them completely because our friend sent an internal DVD burner instead of an external one... However, I have rendered sample captures to MPEG2 and played the files back through my PowerDVD software -- no problems. I give the hardware a rating of 10, for what it does, and the software a 6. I tried capturing part of an old VHS tape where the tape machine lost sync and got stuck. I had to stop and restart the tape, with LINX running all the while. It captured without a hitch, squiqqly torn lines and all, without a single dropped frame. Wow! And the audio stayed in sync as the tape continued on. If the resolution works for you and you're not fussy about smooth movements, the hardware may be for you. I give the software low marks for its stability problems and disabled features. Comments posted by Karen from Other, December 03, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Honestly, this hardware is horrible. I've gotten by the bugs and have managed to come up with some decent results but it took a while. Studio 8 is one of the worst programs I have ever worked with. It freezes constantly. It's not good for capturing the video, and it won't let me edit or make an mpeg file. It only works with avi. There are also serious programs with the cable. Using the audio inputs on the cable caused my computer to seriously lag. It also caused the audio and video not to be syncronized. I fixed this by splicing a few of my cables to make my own analog to digital audio cable so I could plug it into the line in plug on my computer and record from there. I haven't tried any other hardware but there are definitely other software options. I really like Ulead VideoStudio. It's the same concept as Studio 8 except it performs a lot better. Comments posted by Brian from Other, September 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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If there was a minus rateing for this lead and its software, it would get a minus 5. After installing the sofeware and plugging in this lead, opened the software up and tryed to get some of the kids video onto pc. What happened massive lock up, had to reboot, by hitting the piss off button. When restarted pc the drives for the linx lead would not run. Tryed unloading drives, software and reinstalling it but to no avail. This has been a nightmair and a waste of time and money. Comments posted by Mark from Other, September 24, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? |
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When I first set it up I knew nothing, and thus was somewhat impressed. Studion 7LE let me select good, better, best quality (& maybe custom, I don't recall). Recorded from a VCR (TV and also off a tape recorded from TV) and made MPEGs to distribute on CD (my kid's choir was on TV). Months later I tried again and got the problems that Jim got. Got the system badly hung problems. Had to unplug first to reboot. Got all the horrible problems Jim reported. Tried uninstall, reinstall, ... Wasted way too many hours rebooting, ... Got Studio 8 (I like the software if not the card). FINALLY, I stumbled onto the problem. The external USB hub I was using couldn't keep up and caused the hang. It worked fine with other USB devices, but not this one (It used to work with this one, maybe it got tired or maybe one of the dozens of Windows updates did something). Any, it works fine now with a different external USB hub. These results (good and bad) are reoeatable. Using Studio 8 I get much better resolution using custom settings. Strangely, the preprogrammed "best" setting is the same as the good setting (obviously a bug since I'm pretty sure this worked in Studio 7LE). All that being said, it now works. I'll post again as I get some experience with it. Comments posted by Amos from Other, May 23, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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this is the most frustrating piece of "virus infected" like crap I've ever felt like I've got hosed over! In the forty or so times I've tried to use it, it's worked once! Every other time it's froze causing the infamous CTL-ALT-DEL. On top of that, every time it happens, the PC will not shut down causing an incorrect shut down proceedure. uninstalling/reinstalling has no effect, other than taking another 10 minutes of your time (and that's on 1Ghz CPU and 512 RAM). Pinnacles forums don't help...oh but wait, after the app freezes, your browser won't work until you restart your PC, but that won't happen correctly. Tried using Premier, though it was my first time, it gives you the option (the only option) of setting the Linx cable as the connection for capture, but it can't find the "capture driver." Since I went ahead and defied my better judgement and bought this online, I guess I took this one in the you-know-where! Should have shelled out a few more pennies for a PCI set up. Comments posted by Jim from Other, January 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? |
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I found this device excellent for VCR capture using Pinnicle Studio 8 Quite resonable for the price. Comments posted by ewated from Other, January 14, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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if you want to capture video to make a vcd, don't waste your time, this device isn't good enough. you can use it for illustrating some web pages or to save small documentary films, that's all. the major problem i had, was that the pinnacle studio 7 software was unable to capture from the linx cable, even with the lattest drivers loaded in. so i used to capture with the amcapture program, but with only a few settings possibilities. Sylvain, France Comments posted by Sylvain from Other, January 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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Can't capture larger resolutions than 320x240. Capture is a bit lossy. Simple to setup, perfect for streaming video, e-mail, etc. If you want to burn this as a vcd, svcd you are going to be disappointed with the results. Pinnacle 7 SE is included in package. Trial software sucks in that you can't capture from DV camcorder with it, burn any svcds, encode to mpeg2, or edit contrast, etc. The options are grayed out and available only through upgrade. If you are capturing from any analog tape Don't Waste Your Time, you will be capped and not able to capture at other resolutions. Works with ulead, didn't try virtualdub. Comments posted by steve from Other, December 19, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle MovieBox Deluxe | DV/Firewire DV Converter Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $200 | 1.0/10 1 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Deluxe is a complete video capture and editing solution for the PC. An easy-to-connect, external USB 2.0 device, MovieBox Deluxe supports both digital and analog camcorders and VCRs. In addition to Pinnacle Studio Plus version 9 video editing software, Studio MovieBox Deluxe includes Pinnacle Hollywood FX plus for 300 additional 3D video effects and transitions.
Software specifications: Input formats: * Capture from DV, Digital8 and MicroMV camcorders or VCRs * Capture from analog camcorders (8 Millimetre, (S-)VHS(-C), Hi8) or VCRs (NTSC) * Capture directly to DVD quality MPEG-2* * 120 MB of disk space for every 20 minutes of DV video captured at preview quality (4 GB for every 20 minutes of finished movie) Output formats: * Output to DV or Digital8 tape (requires Camcorder with DV Input port) * Output to analog video tape * Video CD (VCD) or Super Video CD (SVCD)* with optional CD-R or CD-RW drive * DVD* with optional DVD-R DVD-RW or DVD+RW drive * MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4* • AVI • RealVideo 8 • Windows Media 9 • Dolby Digital Audio* |
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I was the owner of Studio 8 for about 1 year. I have always considered this a quality product, but very slow. I decided to upgrade to Studio 9 and purchase the USB Capture box that comes with the product to make it easier and what a mistake that was. Since installing V9.4 out of the box, I had to apply multiple software upgrades from the Pinnacle web site. This was no easy feat as it had to go in a specific order (and only after some of the installation from the CD had to be de-installed). After about 1 week of struggling with their web site and all information, I called their help desk - they were able to get the USB driver to finally understand their USB capture device. Now another problem ensued. The application would now crash 1-2 minutes into any portion of the software! After at least 40 e-mails with the help desk, multiple installations and de-installations, spending a few hours on the phone to try different things, I am no better for it. I am now past the 30 day return period and stuck with this junk. I am trying to see if they will at least provide me a V10 upgrade at no cost to try and recover from this products exceptionally poor performace. I also just recently upgraded my machine to accept all this (prior to purchasing this product) and have a Pentium 4 Running 3.07 GHz with over 200G Hard drive - so it is no slouch. Looking for a minor miracle. Comments posted by Andy from Canada, November 13, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle MP20 | Analog VideoIn MPEG1 hardware MPEG2 hardware |
Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $200 | 6.3/10 7 votes |
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9 comments (5990 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Complete MPEG Encoding and DVD Authoring Solution to create and author your own VCD, SVDC and DVD compatible video files.
Input formats : Capture MPEG1 or MPEG2 from any camcorder or VCR with analog video outputs Output formats : Video CD (VCD) or Super Video CD (SVCD) with optional CD-R or CDRW drive DVD with optional DVD-R DVD-RW or DVD+RW drive MPEG-1 & MPEG-2, AVI, RealVideo, Windows® Media Format Import : Video : MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI Audio : WAV, MP3 Graphic : BMP, JPG, PCT, TGA, TIF, WMF HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS : Plug and play 32 bit PCI board with bus mastering Hardware MPEG1/2 encoder Composite (x2), S-video inputs Mini Stereo audio input |
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When I collect the Video and the Sound, ein one File ( for Studio 8) is a good Capture board, When I collect separates files,MPEG2 video and MPA file to work with Impression, I Have problems with the CRC, And the final DVD was very bad With the Sund not syncronized wuth the Video. Comments posted by Rui Silva from Other, February 07, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Great Capture unit using the Pinnacle Studio 8 software. However, it WILL NOT work with any other authoring programs, due to the proprietary Pinnacle USB driver. System hangs using the boxed software, update available fixes XP issues. Nice Manual included, output video is alright (due to vhs source) preview video is pixelated on capture startup then levels out requiring a longer pre-roll. Given the both the good and bad, Studio 8 still beats Premiere and it's XP issues by light years! You don't even have to re-encode either. Comments posted by Say What? from Other, June 19, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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Excellent quality capture on PAL, does need high level video signal. No problems with product or audio video sync. Comments posted by Andrew from Other, April 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Warning ! Lip sync problem for VCD only, there's no problem for other seeting except VCD. Video first then audio late about 400 ms. Using driver 3.12 and still have this trouble. Strange, why brand name like Pinnacle using the same software and drivers with Snazzi III, and Snazzi III using the newer drivers and software then Pinnacle ? Not recommended for VCD. Comments posted by Alexander Gregorius from Other, September 28, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Cheap and good for home video, not for commercial. Pinnacle? Oh no, no more again, thank you. Cheap hardware, expensive software. Why don't try Snazzi? At least saving more time to enjoy your life. Comments posted by bingo903 from Other, September 26, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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I got the card from 5 days and I test it with normal VHS VCR & A Super VHS VCR for more than 20 hours I have me great quality Capturing ,, and with appling some Filtter the output is even better the the Original. Also It save time convering my AVI to Mpag which some time take hours with my P4 2.6G & 1 G RAM Comments posted by hassan from Other, September 24, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Excellent quality for this price Comments posted by Alexander Gregorius from Other, September 23, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Card works well up to about 70min,then slowly slips out of sync by about half a second towards the end of a two hour movieThis is encoding at 5,oooooo bit rate D.V.D. template. ,quality on D,V,D, excellent,quality on V.C.D. S.V.C.D./ A BIT BLOCKIE.No where as good as the decoder in dazzle 4.21 by snazzie.. Paul Comments posted by patricia3470 from Other, September 07, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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BROTHER I HAVE USE THIS CARD UPTO 2 DAYS ITS HAVE NO LIPS SYNCING PROBLEM BUT ITS NOT HAVE VIDEO QUALITY ITS TO POOR AND SOME CHIPS ARE ALSO LOCAL BRAND SO TRY ANOTHER CARDS. ITS NOT HAVE BETTER RESULT AND NO SO GOOD EDITING SOFTWARE . THIS CARD NOT HAVE VALUE WHICH COMPANY DESIDED ITS VALUE BY RATIN IN 4 THOUSAND RS ONLY Comments posted by SHANTY BHAI from Other, August 04, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 6.6/10 81 votes |
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88 comments (108557 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle PCTV is a fully featured TV Tuner PCI card to watch TV on your PC with ultimate quality Powerful features include recording audio/video streams in MPEG-1/2 formats, allowing you to burn direct to disc, and timeshifting to pause or replay even while recording a live show. Includes Infrared Remote Control. |
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Very satisfied with it, 'cept that I've lost my OEM CD, and can't find a download to replace it. used Win 95 for 2 yrs, then changed to 98 in Nov 06, and found disc missing. Any helps to replace??? Worked ok on Suse 9.1 too. Now running 10.1-no sound drivers compiled for kernel-not programmer-not able to do own. Comments posted by Rosscoe from Australia, February 04, 2007: Compatibility: Win95 Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I would like to add my comments about this board. I bought this board Pinnacle PCTV several years ago. At the beginning, I would say I was kinda disapointed about the instalation and drivers to see Television (crashes). I noticed this problem, and imediatly got DScaler to watch TV. After the drivers updates had been available in the website, I installed them, and the Pinnacle Software was kinda reliable after that, no more crashes. After learning how to deal with this board, I'm very happy with it! For those, who cannot install the software, there's a simple process to install the board: Reduce monitor resolution to 800x600x32Bits! Simple as that! This way the board can easily overlay graphics with the lower resolution and default Hertz, and pass the installation process successfully. BTW, nowadays I give 5 stars for money / quality! Be Happy and Have Fun! Comments posted by Roberto from Portugal, August 09, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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I buy this year PC TV Stereo. And I put it in my computer - AMD Duron 1,8 - MB: Gigabyte 7S748-L - GF 4 Mx 440 /64 MB - 256 DDR 1.As TV Tunner this card it's great, it's the best buy, in my cable television network are 61 channels, this card, can tunne all the channels. 2.Has TELETEXT, with the program "PCTV WebText", this program use internet browser, to show the teletext pages. 3.Has Remote Control. 4.Now on the pinnacle website you can find, windows xp service pack 2, official drivers. 5.MPEG-2 capture, but for this you must to buy an activation code from the pinnacle web site. 6.Buy This Card not for the capture, buy for the TV Quality, it's great. 7.It's stereo. Comments posted by Octavian from Romania, December 28, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Well after a couple months owning the Pinnacle PCI PCTV Pro with Stereo dbx Sound without FM Tuner which seems to be drop. I've tested and configured so much I've ended up with something better than what I had before. Before: Picture was just plain and simple awful with the drivers and software on the CD and from their upgrade site. You could watch TV with jitter and wavy lines which would also appear in the video when you record. Sound was excellent from Stereo dbx. Software interface to watch TV and Record was weak and the remote being based on Panasonic/Quasar brand was good for looks usage was bad since the IR was based on Serial input, yeah you could get around that by using Serial to USB why bother you could only get some features to work with their TV software anyway. After: 1. Don't install the software or the drivers from the CD 2. Download; install the free BT WDM Video/Audio drivers 3. Download; install Morgan M-JPEG Codec V3 4. Get WinDVR or WinDVD Recorder, I use WinDVR, better One more thing I've tried this capture card on a Intel PIII 500 MHz onboard 512MB L2, MOBO FSB 100 MHz, 512L2 768MB ECC SDRAM still worked but, I was going to use my PIII 900 MHz but the results won't improve much. What I did was to built a new P4 2.4GHz Prescott A(this one has the option to be over clock to 3.7GHz with FSB 823) 1MB L2, 1GB DDR the results is you can get better encoding and picture quality is very good. Again: 1. BTWDM Video/Audio drivers 2. Morgan M-JPEG codec V3 (uses the CPU as Mpeg Encoder) 3. WinDVR (I had Mainconcepts PVR, but it's to buggy) 4. TmpGenc DVD Author (for cutting out commercials) 5. Regent HT-391 5.1 DPII Sound Systems for your PC/Home The last can be found at Wal-mart for $49.73 bucks worth it! Better than anything you could get for the PC. I have two PCs side by side so the Regent HT 391 has 2.1 to 5.1 Digital Sound, uses Dolby Pro Logic II 5.1 with 3 audio inputs, 1 video input and 1 video output, 140 watt power Amp 8 inch Sub woofer that pumps out air also has 5 (4 inch) SAT speakers with wall mounts speaker wire for each speaker the rear has more than 50 ft of wire each. Center and front speakers are shielded. The box comes with full function wireless remote, batteries, PC audio cables, video cable and more. With the Regent HT-391 and Pinnacle PCTV Stereo dbx, you can turn your PC system into a excellent home theater system. If you have any questions about the Pinnacle PCTV or Regent HT -391 just shoot over an email. Comments posted by tipstir from United States, October 05, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Hi, I own a PCTV Pro Card for the last 2 years. Before that, I had a miro PCTV Card (the lite model). That card came with 4.0x software/drivers' disk, which was practicaly the first attempt fro win2k/xp drivers from pinnacle. Whith these drivers, TV quality in fullscreen mode is not good (and there also an annoying pink shadow behind the mouse cursor). FM tuner works really nice with these drivers. As soon as they released the 5.xx drivers set, I installed them. Wow, the TV quality was great and the reception quality was better than my normal TV (they have some "denoise" filters). And now the bad thing. After installing the 5.xx software/drivers there was NO FM reception at all. The reason was that I was upgrading from version 4.xx and I was only entitled to have the PCTV Rave functionality! If I had the 5.xx version disk, I would be entitled to update to 5.5 and everything would work fine, but now that I have the 4.xx disk I have to pay 49 (29 plus 20 for shipping) more euros in order to buy the latest software!!! All the above are what their technical support team told me after sending several emails to them... I sent them a complaints mail but I got no reply. I think that their product is nice, but they have a very bad way to treat their customers. I would really apreciate it if someone could send me the 5.0 drivers'/software disk, so I can update to 5.5 PRO version. Comments posted by George from Greece, September 30, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I've been using a PCTV capture card and the PCTV Vision software for some years. Impressions are split. I use it for making DVD:S and SVCD:s of my old VHS movies and it works ok, even though complicated. ( A note about the Vision software: In my 5.1 version all capture options except Custom are disabled after install - when i replace the visionID.dll file with a newer version that I have found in different places then all options are enabled.) Now i want to record TV and it works but the files are so huge! About 100 MB for 1 minute of film. Anyone know how to make them smaller? I want to fit a 2 hour movie ona DVD-R. Comments posted by Leif Wikfeldt from Sweden, June 28, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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Great value for the money (25 € - used)!!! Works fine on my XP 2200, 512 MB, 80 GB (ntfs partition of 40 gb for captures), Assus Geforce 4/64 mb and SB live 5.1. I sugest the last update 5.5 for better performance. I also sugest to watch the temperature on the capture board during long captures. After some crash problems on high resolutions I mounted an extra fan and now is ok. Comments posted by JB from Other, January 07, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I bought the PCTV Pro card mainly for transferring my collection of VHS tapes to DVD and of course capture TV programs now and then, and for the price it seemed like a bargain. I finally gave up using the Pinnacle software (more below), so now I use the card only as a front end for Ulead DVD MovieFactory. Using this setup I easily capture 2hr movies from VHS or TV. Audio synch steady as a rock, and the sound quality is surprisingly good. Then it's only to burn the resulting MPEG2 file onto a DVD. The best I can say about the Pinnacle software is that is has a nice user interface for selecting TV channels. Picture is noisy and the TV sound is usually bad with a lot of hum and noise. I've tried capturing from VHS and TV using the recommended Pinnacle software on Win98, Win2K and WinXP, but gave up capturing to anything better than VCD due to audio synch problems. And VCD is no longer an option for me,I left that behind a year ago. Testing was done on my 2GHz PC, 512 Mb RAM, 200 Gb hdd, fresh and clean OS installations. I have now moved the setup over to my wife's PC, which is a 1 Ghz 256 Mb RAM 40 Gb hdd, working just beautiful there also. It seems like most people commenting the PCTV card have audio synch problems. Well, try this setup instead. Of course I'm sure there are other software packs with DVD quality capture also, I did't bother trying anything else since the Ulead pack works so brilliantly for me. Comments posted by Finn Amundsen from Other, December 31, 2003: Compatibility: |
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I use the PCTV card for video capture from Video8. The software works well as long as you upgrade with the 5.5 patch mentioned elsewhere. The capture software supplied with the card is the best S/W to use with the card (thankyou Lordsmurf), especially as you can customise the MPEG format and the bit rate to suit your tape length and quality required - unlike frustration-ware like Sonic MYDVD. Coupling this to TMPGenc is all that I need to produce great DVDs in just over 2 hours for a 90 minute video tape. A/V sync problems seemed to disappear after the patch and it also produced a 10% smaller MPEG-2 file. I use W2KPro, 2.2 Celeron, 256MB and 2 x 40GB disks. For best results I closed ALL apps down and wrote the PCTV and TMPGenq output to a separate drive. Hope this helps. Comments posted by jrugg from Other, December 28, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Works perfect with IUVCR only the sound has a hisss in it ( I don't know what frequenty yet). I can capture 7xx x 5xx with no frame drop I have P4 2.53Mhz with 120G 7200 133 8mb harddisk Comments posted by Arno from Other, October 21, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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With a Celeron 733 machine I've only been able to capture (SAT) in mpeg1 and find it's a good card for the money ($50 at CompUSA with a $20 rebate). Picture quality is VHS and I'm using it only for time-shifting. I'm no expert on capture cards but I really like this one. Comments posted by Soulman1 from Other, October 10, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 |
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Worked alright on win98, no resolutiong surpassing 240x320 I have been trying to get it right on winxp, yet to no avail... The best i got was to have it show a black-and-white picture as in Pal mode. It should be alright on Pal-N but somehow the image freezes. Directx 8.1 at the time. The driver is recognized by winxp, but the PCTV Vision is working as described before, if anyone could throw me a link or somewhere i could get the proper drivers (the CD is the PCTV 4.02 version of the proper PCTV version, no Raver nor Pro) Comments posted by ezequiel from Other, September 22, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I bought the "PCTV Stereo", which seems to be quite new. It's not the "Rave" which is mono and it's not the "Pro", which is Stereo plus FM radio. The price is about half the "Pro", but still a bit higher than the "Rave". It is not listed on Pinnacles website so far... The software looks promising. Channel names are detected automatically during the channel scan. There is no extra software beside the Pinnacle software, but that's not a big issue. But... The tuner is very bad! I've had several TV cards, an old Hauppauge WinTV (mono) and a newer Terratec Cinergy (SAA7134 chip, caused sync problems when capturing). No problem with their tuners... The picture that comes from the Pinnacle tuner is very noisy on every channel. I should not have been surprised: The Pinnacle cards don't have a "real" tuner (manufactured by Philipy, Temic and so on) as other TV cards have. There is only a tiny metal case that can't hold much of electronics. So I brought it back to the dealer and got my money back. My rating for this product is very low, because of the very bad picture quality. Comments posted by Michael from Other, August 15, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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I have the UK PCTV Rave card. Excellent value for money capture card. Never bothered using the OE software when there are so many good proven free alternatives. Captures at full PAL DVD resolution with Huffyuv codec from satellite TV. Yet to drop a single frame. Captures from VHS does drop a few frames, but this is due to the bad source. System: AMD Athlon XP 2200+, 512Mb, 60GB capture drive on seperate IDE channel, VirutalDubMod/TMPGenc for capturing and encoding. Source connected via composite. Only nag is having to route the sound through the soundcard, which may lead to sync issues on some systems. No idea about the TV tuner side as I have a direct feed from my AV amp so don't use it. Comments posted by diesel from Other, July 17, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Pinnacle PCTV Rave card System: Athlon 2000 XP, 256mb SDRAM, capture drive Western Digital 120GB 7200rpm, Ati 9000 pro dual head AGP card, Sound blaster live 5.1 Platinum. Software: OS: Windows XP Pro, Driver - SourceForge, Capture: Power VCR II 3.0. As with the majority of other users that have left comments here, this card is superb but not with the supplied Pinnacle software/drivers. With the Pinnacle s'ware, there are video/audio sync problems with any captures over a couple of minutes in length, which renders the card totally useless for its intended purpose. Forget the pinnacle software - get yourself the sourceforge drivers and any 3rd party capure software (I get really nice results with Power VCRII 3.0, but virtual dub works fine as a free alternative). I get fantastic results capturing at DVD PAL quality (4000Kbps) at 720 x 576 resolution and I then use Canopus Procoder to convert to VCD format with minimal quality loss. I mainly capture from digital satellite using the composite input, but capturing from VHS tapes (SP or LP) also produces nice results. PowerVCRII 3.0 also splits long capture durations into managable 650mb chunks to save working with huge files afterwards. I was initially unimpressed with this card, but since using the 3rd party drivers/software, the card is performing as I'd dreamed it would. 8/10 rating Comments posted by marlo from Other, June 02, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I have no experience with other cards so far, but the software definitely sucks. The driver/PC VIsion bundle that is distributed free in Pinnacle's web site (version 4.0) and supposedly compatible with windows XP crashes at every tuner setup (IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or something like that - PCI steering off has not helped, as well as the PCI enhancer utility) EXCEPT on autoscan. Decent TV capture ONLY with the built-in TV program but the composite signal grabs only @ NTSC (my video is a PAL model). I use FERRO for video capture as other programs (vdub, etc) usually miss A/V sync. BTW, ferro is the only capture program that allowed me to use the MS-MPEG4 codec for capture without any frame dropping on a PII-Celeron 433 MHz with 160 MB RAM/WINXP Pro (but I leave sound as PCM and afterwards use vdub for reprocessing with the DIVX codec). I do NOT reccomend this card, I'm waiting for the leadtek 2000 that seems to have a more coherent software policy/download strategy than pinnacle's. Comments posted by Miki Ben-Kikja from Other, May 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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Hi. I tested my new PCTV in my computer: P41700 756mbramECC HDSCSI36GB + 80GBIDE Win2000Pro, Version Driver 5.10 PCTV. It is running great. Sincronism perfect in full widescreen DVD NTSC. Im running PowerVCR II Version 3 for to record and that worked perfect, all ok no problems. Comments posted by spwoof from Other, May 19, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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I picked this card up on the advice of a friend who stated this was a good, cheap card that did what it says. But before I read thru countless reviews praising this card and other that destroyed this card. But, I picked it up despite all the bad hype about it. I went to the pinnacle site, downloaded the new drivers, popped open my case, installed the card and loaded the new drivers upon boot up. Now...never really having any experience with capture cards, I think this one is a excellent deal for the money. I was truly impressed with all functions of this card. I have already tested capturing - camcorder, vhs, dvd and tv and all have tested fine and the picture looks excellent. I have captured in mpeg1, mpeg2, divx and avi with no problems at all and no frame rate loss or a/v problems. I have had no a/v sync prolems whatsoever, but then again...I am running a P4 2.0. So I assume this helps with the capture function. Oh, by the way...I have been using the original pinnacle software to capture and burn media and have had no problems. I plan to try out other capture programs. Not sure what all the bad hype is about, I am guessing that people who are picky about the quality of the capture should be looking at the more expensive Pinnacle capture cards and not one that is at the bottom of the chain. But this card is worth the money! Comments posted by Bankz from Other, May 08, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I tried the software that came with the PCTV-card to capture my old VHS-tapes and burn them to SVCD on CD-r. Tried a lot of other software too and nothing worked really good.(A/V sync. problems!) Finally installed WINPRODUCER3 and real-time capturing in SVCD/Mpeg2 format works OK. Burning with Nero 5.5 to SVCD and i have a 3 hour VHS-tape on 4 or 5 CD-r 's. Comments posted by JH from Other, May 08, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I bought two cards after getting a good capture out of this in the first one. It had no problems at all. The picture SVCD looks great. My experience capturing analog video is very smooth, the only problem is that the audio is poor. I upgraded to have a great sound card, yet the result is not that good. I noted that the Pinnacle PCTV is MONO(audio) capture card and this could be the reason. Reently I installed Creative Digital VCR, this is very bad compared to Pinnacle, the only exception is that the sound quality is Stereo and is good. Overall I would say Pinnacle is the best for the money you pay. It creates direct DVD, VCD and SVCD files. Comments posted by Ganesan from Other, May 06, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I can't see anything bad about this card. The thing is I only wanted a basic card that could capture AVI in full resolution (PAL), with composite and S-video connectors. I just plugged the card in, but I didn't install the original drivers, I just used a generic driver and I've never used the software that was bundled. So I don't know if this card is great if you do it their way, but if you're a little experienced you can get extremely good picture with this card, very cheap. I recommend it warmly. Comments posted by Johan Eriksson from Other, May 03, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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FOR harky, you can find some sample screen captures, tv tuner captures and line-in dvd capture samples from my PCTV card at: http://www.aussievideosearch.com/cards.htm (all system and software specifications listed on that page) Overall this card functions very well for it's price. The only complaint I have is that 768 x 576 captures are interlaced. Infact any capture where the frame height goes over 288 yields interlaced output. (I don't capture to mpeg formats, only AVI) The good thing with this card is it will accept *ANY* frame size you like (for example 512 x 288) (upto 768 x 576). Which is great if you wish to capture Widescreen 16:9 DVD's. I prefer to use the version 4.00 VFW drivers from Pinnacle, but use AVI_IO and Virtual Dub for all capturing/editing. Capture using HUFFyuv codec. The default software is only good for TV Viewing. (TV channel Surf function is a little buggy though and locks up now and then). I have a pc setup and dedicated to capturing, and it can be on constantly for weeks, 24/7 and the card captures all the scheduled programs flawlessly. Zero frame drops and never any A/V sync issues. Comparing capture output to Leadtek Winfast 2000XP and hauppauge WinTV models of similar price, the Pinnacle is infront. Cya Narler Comments posted by Narler from Other, April 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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PC TV plus(Indian edition),Fordlian mATX MB(Aladdin5),4MB SiS6326 AGP,20G HD(7200),160 MB PC100,W98se,K62 450,Zoltrix CMI8738,win98se,sourceforge driver,DX8.1.Driver installed (hard reboot).After restart(next day),driver dissappeared.Problem-200w PS.230w-no go.300w P4 PS.Captured vcr tape using virtualdub,Picvideo(Q19)-352x576,44100 mono(3 dropped frames/1000 );cpu-85%.Amplified volume,removed hiss and made it stereo-cooledit2000.Drops lots of frames for 480x576 capture(with huffy also).Encoded cvd using TmpgEnc(CQ),toolame and VDframeserver.PowervcrII 3.0 demo doesnt work fully(error while changing default country).Pro demo works,but captures(mpeg1) only 2 min(help?).Cant make profile for pal 352x576 or 480x576in pvcr.Ulead VS 7trial(recomended by driver author) doesnt start due to load IPLib error.Dscaler doesnt start-overlay problem.Same with Windvr.Winvcr 2.0 capture(mpeg1) gives jerkiness.Joining Mpeg2 files(install plugin correctly?) with TMPGEnc-WMP7.1 hangs while playing resulting file,windvd plays with no problem.Mainconcept encoder demo(has no filters) is faster(almost double) than Tmpegenc.Vegas video4.0 demo does not open mpeg2 files.Will try to increase contrast,hue,saturation(to make video more vibrant) in Vdub capture(instead of increasing contrast in TMPGEnc) and use Mainconcept batch mode for automatic joining.CCE 2.5 gives error while opening AVI file.No resolution of 352/480x576 to capture in AVI_io demo.Use Ranish Partition Manager(thanx Ranish) to hide/copy tweaked partition. Ed Comments posted by ed from Other, April 08, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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The pinnacle software & drivers are the cause of so many bad reviews about this product. I use the Sourceforge Drivers & Ulead Movie Factory and have to say that this works excelent.I was able to capture old vhs tapes and burn them to dvd at high quality. O.S.: Win 2K Software Used: Sourceforge Drivers (5.3.5), Ulead Movie Factory 2 Machine: Athlon @ 1Ghz, 640MB SDRam, MSI K7Pro2a Mobo,SBLive, GF3 Ti200,20GB Fijutsu 7200RPM HD, PCTV Rave. Comments posted by Mr Wigan from Other, March 30, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Do not buy this product. It is a nightmare to install - I gave up after two days of trying. I sent a message to Pinnacle Customer Service and they responded 23 days later with no help: -My original message- I demand a refund! Your PCTV product is useless. I refuse to waste any more of my time trying to install this pci card. I plan to communicate my dissatisfaction as much as humanly possible unless you refund my money. -Their response- This is an automated response, do not respond to it. We cannot answer your support questions via this Answer Feedback submission. You will need to submit your question via the ´Ask a question´ section of http://Pinnacle.custhelp.com. Log on and go to ‘MY STUFF’, if you had a previous entry, and your question concerns the same problem, add your reply to that or click on ‘ASK A QUESTION’. Please do not send your query to the “Feedback” entry. Yours faithfully, Pinnacle Technical Support Date Created: 03/02/2003 11:43 PM Last Updated: 03/25/2003 04:19 PM Status: Solved Comments posted by Dennis from Other, March 26, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? |
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| Pinnacle PCTV 310E | Tv Tuner Digital TV DVB-T Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $100 | 1.0/10 2 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle PCTV 310e transforms your laptop or desktop PC into an all-in-one entertainment centre, complete with TV and advanced personal video recorder (PVR). Watch, Timeshift or record analogue and digital terrestrial TV channels. Choose from the full choice of FM radio, digital radio and Internet radio. Use Pinnacle MediaCenter software to manage and enjoy all your photo, video and music files via a single, remote-controlled interface.
* DVB-T and Analogue combo Pinnacle PCTV 310e supports both analogue and DVB-T TV reception. Use this USB 2.0 TV tuner box now for analogue stereo TV. By the time DVB-T is available in your region, you just switch to digital in Pinnacle MediaCenter. You will enjoy numerous free Digital TV programs in perfect picture. * Watch and record television Pinnacle PCTV 310e combines a high quality TV viewing experience with advanced personal video recording features including: Timeshifting, remote controlled EPG, one-touch or programmable TV and radio recording. You can burn recorded programmes to CD or DVD, or record directly to DVD. * Multiple radio options Listen to the radio with PCTV 310e. There are three possibilities to choose from: Enjoy local FM radio stations in stereo, receive high-quality digital radio via DVB-T (if available in your region) and benefit from the broad choice of internet radio stations from around the world. You can also record and Timeshift FM and digital radio and then burn it to disc. * Turn your PC into a media centre PCTV 310e turns an ordinary PC into a digital entertainment system – which means that you can access all your music, photos, and movies using a remote control. It’s like having a music jukebox, DVD player, PVR, and photo slideshow projector all built into your PC. * Easy-to-use, all-around media management solution Pinnacle PCTV 310e also includes Pinnacle MediaManager to help you find, view, and organise the potentially thousands of music files, digital photos and movies collected on your hard drive. With this software, you can create photo slide shows and unlimited music playlists or import playlists you’ve already created. * Everything you need PCTV 310i comes with software, an external TV tuner and a remote control. The components were designed and tested to offer a well-tuned, compatible product combination – for an enjoyable experience. |
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card sux because it is not supported in Vista (any edition). and pinnacle does not plan to correct this. dont buy this card (or any other pinnacle product-they are the worst in support) if you have, or intend to install Vista Comments posted by TB from Greece, August 15, 2007: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? |
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The software that comes with the card is really crap. Furthermore the card lack for support in the open community. Don't buy it Comments posted by FDPM from Italy, December 29, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV 310I | Tv Tuner Digital TV DVB-T Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $100 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Internal Analogue/Digital Terrestrial TV Tuner with MediaCenter Software
* Future ready! Offers reception of analogue TV via antenna, analogue cable TV or digital TV (DVB-T) all in one product. * Use Timeshifting to control the TV viewing experience: pause, start late, skip commercials. * Listen to, record and Timeshift FM or digital radio. Also includes Internet radio support. (Digital radio via DVB-T not available in all regions) * Unique! Burn live programmes directly to disc with Direct-to-DVD. * Schedule recordings with your remote easily within the Electronic Programme Guide. * Unique! Teletext is database driven providing faster access to pages/subpages of all channels from easy TOP Text index. * Unique! Includes Pinnacle MediaManager - ideal for organising your media files. * Complete remote-controlled Pinnacle MediaCenter application. * CD and DVD playback. * Integrated CD and DVD burning. * Studio QuickStart for video editing and removing commercials. * 3-in-1 high-quality video capture: Record DVB-T or Analogue TV or digitize your video tapes via the analogue inputs of PCTV 310i. |
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No comments Comments posted by spinyol from Spain, January 31, 2008: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV 320E | Tv Tuner Digital TV DVB-T Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $100 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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0 comments (4338 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick Overview
Plugging directly into the USB 2.0 port of your PC, Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick is the ideal solution for watching and recording analogue and digital terrestrial TV on your laptop. # Watch digital terrestrial and analogue TV (cable or antenna) on your laptop or desktop PC. # Use TimeShifting to pause live television and start again without missing a second. # Record to your hard drive in MPEG-1/-2 formats. # Direct-to-DVD recording. # Record directly in DivX format compatible with most portable media players to take your favourite TV shows with you. # Easily schedule recordings, or immediately start capturing at the touch of a button. # Stay informed with ultra-fast Teletext and integrated free EPG. # Listen to, record and TimeShift digital radio.1 # Remote control access to all your media files. # Access thousands of Internet radio stations with customisable channel lists.2 # Plus: Edit out commercials and create your own DVDs with menus using Pinnacle Studio QuickStart. # Mini remote control and rod antenna included. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn MPEG1 hardware MPEG2 hardware |
Win95? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $200 | 5.5/10 29 votes |
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34 comments (43778 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Watch TV on your PC
Simply hook up your cable or antenna to Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe, grab the remote and you’re ready to go. Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe contains a state of the art television tuner, and will allow you to watch any program you like on your PC monitor, in a resizable window. Now you can keep an eye on the game while you’re working by reducing the window size, or go full screen for an incredible TV experience. High-Quality MPEG Recorder For DVD quality results, Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe supports MPEG2 and MPEG1 recording in real-time from practically any source. Record TV shows from cable, antenna or your Digital TV set top box. Connect your Camcorder, VCR, DVD-player or other video source, and store the video in MPEG format on hard disk or other digital media. Turn your PC into a Personal Video Recorder Take control of your TV. Watch what you want, when you want, and how you want! With Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe, you can pause live TV shows, skip commercials, instantly zoom in on any part of the screen or create your own instant replays. Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe will also let you record your favorite shows directly to your PCs hard drive at full DVD quality – no more fuzzy old videotapes to worry about! Build you own library of video on CD or DVD Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe allows you to use your CD or DVD recorder to burn Video CDs (VCD), Super Video CDs (SVCD) or DVDs, so you never have to worry about the quality of your old videotapes. Imagine: your entire video collection can sit on a single shelf ready to enjoy on your PC or in your set top DVD player. |
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My copy of PCTV Vision Delux has stopped working, program freezes PC to the point of needing to reboot, CPU goes to 100%, got an update driver from tech support but that did not work, think it may be an SP-2 issue or some other conflict. After a day of emails and reinstalls got this reply from vendor: "Support for this product was discontinued in 2005, Pinnacle cannot guarantee that it will work on current operational systems. Please feel free to contact us again in the future if you have further questions. You may submit questions to our support team by going to the following link: http://pinnaclesys.custhelp.com" I would not recommend this product, although when it worked it was pretty nice way to convert 8mm to DVD. Comments posted by Robert Higgins from United States, January 15, 2007: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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The Pinnacle Systems PCTV Deluxe USB is a repackaged Emuzed product if you use Pinnacle Systems drivers and software you'll have lots of problems if you use Emuzed drivers and software the product works like it should. Emuzed software: MovieMillApplication.zip Pinnacle_PCTV_Deluxe_USB_(NTSC)1_0_3_105.zip Comments posted by robert from United States, August 05, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Card is okay,but there is no solution for XP SP2,Pinnacle offers two updates but they don't work at all,Sync problems and 100 % use of the processor then freezes of the whole computer.I installed Windvr3 and all problems are solved.So i think the software pinnacle delivers is bad stuff (but don't we know that already?) Comments posted by Tv watcher from Netherlands, May 20, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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The PCTV Deluxe is junk, please don't buy this box you will be sorry. It's to late for me to take it back so it just sits there with three lights on one blinking at me reminding me how bad it really is. I bought the box to capture VHS and Video 8 movies from a vcr. I have never been able to get away from the out of sync problems this box has. Also there is a delay of a few seconds between input and output. I purchased Studio 8 even though I knew I should have not, somehow Pinnacle has a way with it's products that lure you in. I believe it's because the have nice looking stuff be it hardware or software but it works like crap! Both PCTV Deluxe and Studio 8 are junk, PLEASE DONT BUY!! Comments posted by Ray from United States, January 18, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Run PVAStrumento--it should correct the sync problem. See my comments re Dvico Fusion Mpeg2. LRD Comments posted by LRD from United States, October 22, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Problematic device. The biggest problem I cann!t solve is the loss (during recording) of synchronisation between sound and video when TV has stereo sound (practically always). TV can be viewed without problems, but recording has some delay which grews with the length of recording. Don"t recomend this device. Same problem appears when recording from composite input video with stereo sound. Comments posted by podrasky from Czech Republic, October 22, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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I bought the product a couple of months ago. I don't know where to start the description of how bad it is: Hardware (introducing disturbing noise and other additional signals to the cable signal, visible on all connected TV's) Installation (overlay problems) Stability (crashes "all" the time; some recordings not readable anymore; sometimes no timed recordings when it should; crashing the application sometimes makes the OS crash) Usage (12 seconds delay between hitting record and the actual start of the recording, *IF* it didn't crash; switching channels takes a long time) Functionality (cannot change the quality or subdirectory for individual timed recordings; no timerec edit or play mode if capturing hardware is not connected (!) (or detected at startup) ) The list is much longer. I bought it to replace my old VCR, but at least with the VCR I'm sure it wil record when I tell it to. To put it very nicely: I would NOT recommend this product. Comments posted by jnd from Belgium, February 27, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? |
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Would you like to share experience on how to setup this unit or what is it compatible with ? http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=200644 Comments posted by donpedro from United States, January 19, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I started using this card on my previous PC, AMD XP1800, 1024 RAM, 400 mhz FSB made by Compaq (pre-HP days) and recently upgraded to a new box, Intel P4 3.02 ghz, 1024 Corsair RAM, P4C800 Deluxe MB w/800 mhz FSB and on both machines, the card worked pretty well. I must admit though, I have experienced an occaisional crash for no apparent reason. Scheduler works well and fiddling with the encoding can deliver a good picture. Sound quality is good. I am a newbie to this area of computing and am self taught in all aspects but overall, this cap card was pretty easy to use. Previous posters have mentioned Pinnacle's lack of customer service. Fortunately for me, I have had no need to contact them and I hope not to. Installation was simple and went off without a hitch. I purchased this card online, as I do with most purchases these days from NewEgg.com and would recommend this device. Comments posted by Rich from United States, January 19, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Bought this on ebay a month ago for £55.00. I have had no problems with software installation, TV capture or time shift. I've recorded 2x 2 hour programmes from the aeriel without any issues. I've still to use the S-Video or composite inputs, but will update once done. I've found no need to stop any background tasks or programmes. System; P4 2.8Ghz 512MB DDR 266. Comments posted by TonyB from Other, January 14, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Conversion box seems to be fine when the software is working. Software version 1.6 is a real problem. If the install does not go smoothly on XP Pro you can't uninstall it. If have spent money and several days time just trying to get the software off my machine including deleting gobs of registry entries and my machine is still not clean enough for the application to reinstall. There tech support says they may have a problem and says they will authorize a refund which I am going to get from Comp USA. On Win 2k Pro it worked just fine on the first try, but XP Pro is a joke. Comments posted by Richard from Other, January 06, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K |
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Greetings from Italy! Just purchased the box (249.99 Euro), hooked up to an under-spec laptop (Vaio Sub-notebook with PIII/600, 256MB and USB1.1 on a USB Hub shared with a Bluetooth dongle and a WiFi USB box (Bandwidth is greatly affected with all this on a single USB port!). Well... installation flawless (just the warning of having plugged a hi speed unit on a lo speed port), test performed by Pinnacle SW went smooth and... I've been able to timeshift in no time on a 20GB FireWire external HD!!! Moreover, I recorded a FULL feature Film (1h30min) without a glitch and in perfect sync (already burned onto a DVD) using the DVD profile (6Mbit/s bitrate) against all recommendations to use SVCD profile instead, when unit was hooked to USB1.1. Great stuff!!! I recommend it Comments posted by Andrea from Other, October 19, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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This card is fantastic. Ive had a few cards over the years mpg2 capture at full res is good no blockiness just downloaded the new beta drivers so dont know if it will still randomly crash, would recomend this card to anyone. Comments posted by john from Other, October 06, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Works very well. I was told by Pinnacle staff in customer service that it captures CBR mpeg-2 video but it actually captures VBR mpeg-2 video. Confirmed this by using ulead dvd workshop 1.2 to verify. I like that since I do so much vhs to dvd conversion and VBR is a more stable environment for that type of capture although I do tape live and timeshifted shows with no problems too. Two complaints that don't stop me from using the device. One is that it's so proprietary in that no 3rd party apps except Movie Mill will work with it. The second is that the manual does not state on when to install the drivers. For USB, some devices need the drivers and/or software installed before plugging in the device to the USB port, some can have the installer ask for the device to be plugged in during install and some let you plug in the device and then install the software. This device installs the drivers during the install of the software for it,FYI. Comments posted by Jason from Other, September 10, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Let me just say up front that I’m not as savvy as a lot of the post that I have read here! With that being said. I should have paid heed to some of the post before I continued to buy pinnacle products, so far I got(instant cd/dvd /instant copy/studio deluxe)and felt surly that pctv deluxe would complete my needs for capturing/edit /recording and the whole nine...NOT!! I specifically wanted this product to be able to watch/record from my digital cable service. according to their support (yes! I did reach them after holding for a good 1hr & 48min. timed) that this was possible I should have no problems. yeah right !! In order to do this you have to have an additional cable box,with out this you will have no joy. A mere point that is over look in the installation instruction as well, as the web site and all the companies that sell this product.I agree the product does work, but I could have got a Hauppauge card $79 & cable box to do the same thing for less cost. my rating for this box is base solely on the fact that it works. again as I said "i'm not that savvy". but I will keep reading the post here.. Comments posted by blaque from Other, July 14, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I've written a message on this card before (see below) but now I've been using it for 4 months and so feel I can give a definitive comment on this card. Its unstable with a capital S. It crashes at least 60% of the time, especially when capping for more than 30 minutes. Pinnacle Technical Support does not seem to exist. I have emailed them FIVE times via their web page system, each time being automatically told the email was received and would be responded to. Four months later ... nothing! Its too late to take this back to whence it came. You live and learn! Do not buy a product from this firm ... you will regret it. I do! Shakespeare. Comments posted by Shakespeare. from Other, June 07, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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Great hardware, but only in theory. Drivers are buggy and it crashes randomly, sometimes needing a system reboot to fix it. Scheduler seems to mostly work, but the random crashes mean it's not reliable. I'm returning it to the store. Also, Pinnacle systems makes nice products, but poor driver support and after-sales fixes make them a bad company to buy from. Comments posted by mkrigsman from Other, May 26, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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TV viewing functions work ok. Tuner and composite inputs for viewing on screen are ok. Capture from TV is ok. Crashes with error when program is exited. Capture of video from VHS home movie tapes sucks - every time the camera started and stopped on the VHS tape, pinnacle audio gets out of sync with the video. Not a good digitizer for VHS tapes. Comments posted by Picky from Other, May 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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Had nothing but problems from the start with this unit. it's not just the vision software that causes freezing, it does the same with Movie Mill. I got better results in the past with Miropctv and the Asus 7700 deluxe. returned it to pcworld today and swapped it for the new Pinnacle movieboxUSB (same price) and things are looking good. installed without problems and i've already captured a couple of movies with good results. regards IddyB Comments posted by ian bell from Other, May 24, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Everything is working fine. Installation was very easy and there was no driver-update necessary. There's no 10 because i am missing EPG and VPS. Support told me, that there will be an upgrade on this issue. Comments posted by RON2 from Other, May 22, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I have put together an in depth look at this device at the following address: http://www.digtv.ws/html/review/pctv-deluxe.html Comments posted by Shaun from Other, May 14, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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This product works great for me. I also have an ATI all in wonder 8500. The pinnacle works almost as good as the ATI. The software bundled with it is respectable. I wouldn't directly compare the two becuase you must realize that USB2 compared to AGP is going to have drawbacks. It captures perfectly in 740X480 MPEG2. It does great in VCD also. I haven't tried SVCD. But the cost of this performance. Is that there is about a 3 sec delay between "real Time". also switching channels is SLOW. So this is great to record with, time shift with, capture with, BUT TO SURF WITH? NO. Its a pretty big delay switching channels. This is my only gripe. WHich really isn't a gripe. Also, every now and again you may get a dump screen and have to restart. This only happens when the computer gets over loaded (not often) and you try to fix things by disconnecting the usb or power. Its looking for the hardware that all the sudden isn't there. To fix it, all you have to do it unplug the usb and restart. There are plenty of helpful LEDs and blinking sequences that help identify any errors. Its as reliable as your USB chipset allows. Comments posted by Dan from Other, April 29, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I installed PCTV Deluxe last week... mine is a p4 2ghz ASUS P4t533c mobo and 512mb rdram running w2000 (both hdd are maxtor ata100 7200)...anyway, I had the freezing problems other experienced right after autoscan. I did multiple re-installations. When I deinstalled, I used Pinnacle's regdelete program to insure the drivers were deleted for a clean install. I finally switched USB 2.0 ports and it began to work perfectly. Pinnacle's tech support was helpful if slow. Expect to spend 25 minutes on hold. Anyway, they freely took the first box back and fedexed me another very quickly...although I suspect that if I had triend another USB 2.0 port initially that would have solved things. It is somewhat of a system hog and you might want to disable background programs for better response. But the programmed recording and timeshift functions work as advertised. I have not yet tried analog capture. Comments posted by jimf from Other, April 22, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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When this unit is working it's very good. I am particularly pleased with MPEG 1 capture to burn VCD's. However, like other people who have commented, I experience freeze-up when recording from VCR. The situation gets progressively worse until I reach the point where system restore is necessary, or even taking the computer back to 'as from factory'. This has been the only way to get my computer working again. I use a Compaq 6540UK with 7500rpm hard drive & Athlon 2600+ CPU. My older machine,Packard Bell with 1200 Celeron fairs slighty better, but is still prone to these problems. Hopefully, Pinnacle will take note & provide downloads to improve reliablilty! Comments posted by Les Brown from Other, April 21, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe USB installed without problems on my Win XP Pro, P4 2.53 GHz, 256 MB, ATI Radeon system. I was hesitant to buy this, but I went ahead and bought it about 2 weeks ago after seeing it on sale at CompUSA for about $100 (thanks to several rebates). Overall, I am content about this TV Tuner/Capture device, but it does have its flaws like many have already mentioned. I have tested all the features. TV tuner autoscan went well and reception was equal to that of my TV and vcr. Capturing from TV and satellite receiver in terms of quality is very good to great. I have also captured DVD movies with excellent quality video and sound. Note, however, that the quality of capture depends on your source, so don't expect miracles if your source is horrible. I always capture at DVD resolution and then convert with the accompanying TRex to VCD, SVCD, etc. as I wish. But I have also tested capturing in other formats and it works fine. Burned DVDs & VCDs have been very good to excellent in quality thus far. Hardware is also very sturdy. Problems: -Capturing continuously for more than 1 hr (depending on your format) will create out-of-sync A/V (so plan to cut your recordings accordingly to avoid this if the program is more than 1 hr long). This has happened to me with other TV tuners/capture devices, so I was not surprised when this happened. Perhaps one day I'll buy the more expensive Canopus boxes, but the PCTV Deluxe works OK for my purposes at the moment. -Massive out-of-sync probs occur if capturing from old/poor video quality VHS tapes. If that is your primary goal in getting a capture device, then you will be disappointed and should not get this Pinnacle box. -The software that I got was the updated v1.5. From what I read, it seems to be a big improvement from the previous version--not as buggy as I'd thought. Automatic scheduling works fine but I do not use that feature often. Also, the Vision program does crash. For me, it sometimes crashes after recording something, but the crash does not affect what I just recorded, so I am not too peeved about it. I do suggest, however, that Pinnacle continually update this software. Overall, this device is good (for what I paid for it), especially for those wanting to record from TV, DVD, and cable/satellite. For those wanting to convert old VHS collections, I'd be hesitant. Final rating 3.5/5. Comments posted by CelestialMagik from Other, April 21, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV HD Card | Tv Tuner Digital TV ATSC QAM tuner |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $100 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Turn your PC into a fully functional HDTV with a built-in personal video recorder. Just plug in the PCI card and sit back to enjoy your favorite TV shows, movies and more.
Product Features * ATSC/NTSC tuner is capable of receiving over-the-air, full-quality high-definition, enhanced-definition and standard-definition signals * Built-in FM tuner lets you enjoy FM radio right on your PC * TimeShifting and automated digital recording of TV shows in SD and HD with Pinnacle TVCenter Pro * Trim your videos with Pinnacle Studio QuickStart * MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and DivX support * Capture video from your cable/satellite set-top box or camcorder with the included A/V adapter cable * Hardware-ready for ClearQAM reception * PCI connectivity * Windows Vista compatible * Includes mini remote with batteries and an FM antenna |
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| Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick | Tv Tuner Digital TV ATSC HDTV Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $100 | 7.0/10 1 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Bring digital HDTV with full DVR functionality to your laptop with Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick. Enjoy all of your favorite shows in high quality HD anytime and anywhere.
* Watch live high quality digital HD and SD TV without service fees from anywhere on your laptop * Break free and PlaceShift with the sleek USB 2.0 powered portable PCTV device * Sit back and relax from afar with full remote control access * The options are unlimited with full support for both analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC) reception* * Instantly transform your PC into a personal digital video recorder (DVR) * Never miss a critical part of your favorite show again with pause, rewind and replay * TimeShifting and automated digital recording of TV shows in SD and HD with Pinnacle MediaCenter and integrated Electronic Program Guide** * Full support for Microsoft Media Center Edition environment (MCE upgrade kit including a Microsoft compatible MCE remote, IR receiver and IR blaster is available separately) * Eliminate the guess work by automatically recording shows direct-to-DVD and/or in the destination file format of choice (i.e. iPod, PSP, DivX, etc.) * Capture from most consumer devices with analog outputs (e.g. VCRs, camcorders, DVD players, etc.) and then edit and enhance with the included Pinnacle Studio QuickStart software * ATSC, the new digital broadcast standard, is now available in many areas of the United States. ATSC reception is dependent on many factors. The provided antenna will allow reception in areas where there is a good ATSC signal. In regions or rooms where the signal is not strong, an amplified rooftop antenna will be required. It is generally not possible to receive an ATSC signal while en route (e.g. in a car or train). Please consult with your local reseller or go to www.antennaweb.org for more information on areas covered and optimizing your reception. ** Internet connection required; not available for all countries. One year of EPG support provided at no charge. Additional years may require a subscription fee. |
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July 17, 2007 Tue 6:55pm I'm first to review this product, here on vcdhelp. I gave a good rating score of 7, as I thought it was fair. I purchased this product over the weekend, Saturday, July 14, 2007 at Best Buy (regular price $129.99) on sale, instant rebate for $79 dollars. When I first came to knowledge about this product, (several months ago) and over the months that I brushed by it in the stores, I looked at it as a piece of junk. The remote looked to cheezy, among other things. However, I was quite wrong. Actually, it is performing surprisingly better than I thought. (It is *NOT* a piece of junk) There seems to be two product packing, detailing this new toy. ** One is with an A/V Adaptor Cable (or, dongle) and the other.. ** One is without the cable. Both seem to be for the same basic selling price of $129.99 at most stores. Shop around, and you might find one having a *sale* and selling it with the instant rebate, while others will offer the rebate and you have to mail it in for the $$ pay back. For those who want to know, real quickly.. Support is only for: Windows XP Home / Pro / Vista systems. So far, in my current reviewing of this product, it looks to perform slightely better than my prev Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 hd tuner card. I am still debating the truth to that (a statement I made that the picture quality seems to look a bit better) and I will get back to that topic (see link, below) and update it with my final thoughts on this. The PCTV HD pro stick performs very well. And, it does not exhibit any picture/audio Jitter or Studder, like Hauppauge HVR-1600 does. The PCTV HD pro stick is clean, stable and smooth during Viewing and Recording (aka, capturing) modes. And, to my knowlwedge, currently, there is no QAM support. But just as in recent events with the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600, which now has support for QAM, using BETA drivers, as of today, July 17, 2007, though the driver has been out for a few weeks now, you never know if and/or when, the PCTV HD pro stick will follow same, with such a driver update. But, rather than spend any more time on this product, here, I would rather direct you over to the forums where I opened up a Topic and described some of my experiences with this latest product. Latest Driver Downloads: ** PCTV Pro v4.9.1 Patch (BETA) 136 MB size, Win XP, Date: 6/12/2007 --> http://apps.pinnaclesys.com/cdb/register/enter.as ... uctid=2834 Article/Topic Review on above product: FROM: http://forum.videohelp.com/topic333289.html#1728818 -- Digital TV SUBJ: Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick, my experience -- by vhelp;(4348 ) DATE: July 14, 2007 Sat 10:10pm From the Video Workstation of, -vhelp Comments posted by vhelp from United States, July 17, 2007: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Pro 310C | Tv Tuner Digital TV DVB-T Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCMCIA | $? | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick 320E | Tv Tuner Digital TV DVB-T Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $100 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Ultra-portable digital and analogue TV
Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick is an ultra-compact USB 2.0 Tuner for digital terrestrial and analogue TV that comes with a mini remote control and rod antenna. Thanks to the included Pinnacle MediaCenter software, PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick turns your laptop into a portable remotecontrolled multimedia jukebox with PVR. New: Analogue A/V inputs allow capturing from camcorders, VCRs etc. * Portable USB 2.0 device with mini remote control and rod antenna included * Watch and TimeShift digital terrestrial and analogue TV (cable or antenna) * Direct-to-DVD or hard drive recording * Teletext and Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) * AutoPowerOFF™ after finished recordings * Remote control access to all your media files * Digital* and Internet** radio * Record video files compatible with Sony® PSP™ or Apple® iPod® * Record directly in DivX format * NEW: Capture video footage via the analogue A/V inputs * Trim your videos and create DVDs with Pinnacle Studio™ QuickStart |
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| Pinnacle PCTV MediaCenter 100e | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $200 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Connect the USB 2.0 Pinnacle MediaCenter 100e to your current PC to start enjoying all your media files and live analogue TV using a convenient remote control. It turns your PC into an all-in-one entertainment centre that lets you enjoy all kinds of digital media: analogue TV, Personal Video Recording (PVR), movies, picture, music and video.
TV/PVR/TimeShift * Watch and record analogue cable and antenna TV * Advanced TV features including Electronic Programme Guide (EPG*), optimised channel scan, channel name recognition and Teletext * Pause live TV using TimeShift * Replay highlights and skip past commercials in TimeShift mode * One-button and programmable TV recording Media Files: Photos, Music, Video * Quickly and instantly enjoy PC-based media files using the remote control * Play DVD movies and audio CDs * Watch home movies * Create and view photo slideshows * Rip audio CDs * Burn recorded TV shows, music and video to CD or DVD Media Management * Single-window view of all your files with preview player * Organise files using playlists and meta tags * Build your music library by importing audio CD tracks * Quickly select and burn media files to CD or DVD |
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| Pinnacle PCTV MediaCenter 100i | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $100 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle MediaCenter 100i turns your current PC into an all-in-one entertainment centre, thanks to its internal TV tuner card, easy-to-use software and remote control. Manage all your media files and enjoy remote control access to all kinds of digital entertainment: analogue TV, Personal Video Recording (PVR), movies, picture, music and video.
TV/PVR/TimeShift * Watch and record analogue TV * Advanced TV features including Electronic Programme Guide (EPG*), optimised channel scan, channel name recognition and Teletext * Pause live TV using TimeShift * Replay highlights and skip past commercials in TimeShift mode * One-button and programmable TV recording Media Files: Photos, Music, Video * Quickly and instantly enjoy PC-based media files using the remote control * Play DVD movies and audio CDs * Watch home movies * Create and view photo slideshows * Rip audio CDs * Burn recorded TV shows, music and video to CD or DVD Media Management * Single-window view of all your files with preview player * Organise files using playlists and meta tags * Build your music library by importing audio CD tracks * Quickly select and burn media files to CD or DVD |
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| Pinnacle PCTV MediaCenter 300i | Tv Tuner Digital TV DVB-T Analog VideoIn |
Vista? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $200 | 3.1/10 9 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle MediaCenter 300i turns any PC into a DVB-T-ready, all-in-one entertainment centre, thanks to its analogue/digital internal TV tuner card, easy-to-use software and remote control. Manage all your media files and enjoy remote control access all kinds of digital entertainment: analogue and digital TV, Personal Video Recording (PVR), movies, picture, music and video.
TV/PVR/TimeShift * Watch and record analogue or digital terrestrial TV * Advanced TV features including Electronic Programme Guide (EPG*), optimised channel scan, channel name recognition and Teletext * Pause live TV using TimeShift * Replay highlights and skip past commercials in TimeShift mode * One-button and programmable TV recording Media Files: Photos, Music, Video * Quickly and instantly enjoy PC-based media files using the remote control * Play DVD movies and audio CDs * Watch home movies * Create and view photo slideshows * Rip audio CDs * Burn recorded TV shows, music and video to CD or DVD Media Management * Single-window view of all your files with preview player * Organise files using playlists and meta tags * Build your music library by importing audio CD tracks * Quickly select and burn media files to CD or DVD |
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i've tried to use this card for 2 weeks now with only limited success. the software won't save the digital channels which was the main reason i bought the card. also i can't connect my analogue camcorder, the second reason for buying this card. i'm returning it to the supplier in the morning and i'd urge anyone else with this card to do the same as the indifference of the manufacturer leads me to believe they have no intentions of solving the software issues. as we say ooooop north, i like to get kissed before i get f**ked. Comments posted by Dave from United Kingdom, August 19, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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1 Problem solved :) What is causing the DVB-T channels to not save are the encripted DVB-T "Top up TV" ones. this is causing corruption. So after you have finished a DVB-T channel scan just remove the encripted channels from the list while you are ordering the other channels and all will be fine :) Comments posted by Giles from United Kingdom, July 08, 2005: Compatibility: |
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Just freeze up and any update software doesnt work Comments posted by Rolando from Netherlands, July 03, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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This card works well when connected to a household arial, But the MediaCenter software does have an issue from version 2.10a and above, (currently 2.11 latest release) It Will scan and detect DVB-t channels but it refuses to save them. meaning you are unable to watch Freeview(uk digital service) The Analog channels work fine when detected and save fine. To solve this problem of DVB-t channels not saving get a copy mediacenter version 2.02. This was the last version of the software where this worked. Comments posted by Giles from United Kingdom, June 21, 2005: Compatibility: |
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A nice concept poorly implemented. The MediaCenter software seems nice and integrates all media into a single interface, but there are so many problems that it's unable to perform the tasks it was designed for. 1. TV: For most users the very first step of tunning TV channels (DVB-T or DVB-C) does not work. The channel list does not get saved so you can't watch TV. For analog broadcasts there is no problem. 2. Music player: It can play your audio files just fine. But the MediaCenter interface has no feature to add files to your play list. You have to create the playlists before from another program (MediaManager) and save them to be able to play several tracks! Not very clever. 3. Scheduled recordings: MediaCenter uses it's own scheduler for recordings. The problem with it is that if you have several users created in your XP, the user who created the schedule must be logged in at the time of the schedule. Now problems that I had and maybe are particular for my set up (a nForce2 board): very bad artifacts on screen when timeshifting and progressively audio out of sync when timeshifting (analog broadcasts). So I can't recommend MediaCenter 300i or 100 (USB). Comments posted by igalan from Spain, May 23, 2005: Compatibility: |
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The card provided seems fine. More than youcan say fot the media centre software which has so many glitches I forgot to count. Some issues which I have overcome (no thanks to Pinnacle whos help line is run by chimpanzees pushing random answer buttons!) 1. Error "Can't initiate database" on recording. Answer: Probably my fault. Pinnacle unable to help but eventually found that I had installed with McAffee firewall running which somehow stopped the database part of the software opening the right ports. Only one day on this one. 2. Problem with sound input on the analogue aerial. My sound appears to the media center to come from the CD player. The input settings HAVE to be set to this to get any recorded sound at all. This produces severe distortion on the output sound and for some strange reason it is necessary to mute "wave". OK so far, but to playback you have to unmute "wave" and mute CD player. Very user friendly! Not resolved Pinnacle support give supid answers. Any help here? 3. DVB-T antenna. Tunes perfectly finds most sations but doesn't cope with ahy info or text etc. Records fine, plays back fine. Files written have to be of DVD quality - I presume MPEG2. No other player I have will look at them. I have tried Roxio, Real, Media Player, Quick time. All either fail to recognise the files or freeze after about 1 sec. Is this a strange Pinnacle format or do I have to have something else (new Codec or something). Not resolved. Pinnacle sending even more stupid answers from their random message generators! I think the card is OK but why can' Pinnacle sort out their software??! Rodney Comments posted by Rodney Bryant from United States, March 16, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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I am using this card in the UK, and intended using it as a standalone PVR device ( without a keyboard and mouse ) The MediaCenter software is very bad!, hangs and crashes computer frequently. There is a major conflict with TimeShifting, and Recording. If you set to record, but have TimeShiting option enabled, your recording will fail, even thought it does go through the motion of recording, and even thought you have turned Timeshifting off, by pressing STOP, this doesn't actually turn it off properly, only via TV setting menu, and then you have to restart the application, which you can't do via Remote control, so you have to do a manual reset on the machine case, then reboot. When setting up a sheduled recording, when asked to select the channel you would like to record from , you can't actually read the list presented becuase it is only a few characters wide, even thought there is plenty of space on the screen ( Why right justify the channel listings ? ) so you have listings like BBC 1 Channel... Channel B... So settting a recording is quite difficult. If you schedule a recording, with TimeShifting switched off, the audio will start up, when recording starts, which is annoying since you have to turn the audio off. ( again I am using a dedicated PVR, so this just freaks you out ) After you have made a recording it is necessary to reset the machine before you can watch it via MediaCenter for some reason play back is very jerky, or not even possible. Play back is usually perfect if the machine has been restarted. Using MediaCenter you cannot access Digital Teletext,analogue text works fine. after a week long issue with Pinnacle support their response was "At this time there is no fix, keep a check on the website for patches for Media Center." Not helpful, there support is quite bad, in that they don't really answer your query. Tried changing the software tried many different ones, only one that would install was ShowShitfter. I havn't tried recording with this card fully with Showshifter, but what I did notice is that when watching TV, if signal drops their is terrible audio corruption ( pop's and whistles ), it then restores again OK, on my set-top box and MediaCenter if the signal drops the audio continues without any problems, and you may have a slight picture freeze, but you can live with that. This is MediaCenter's only plus point! Showshifter is able to pickup the television listings from this card ( even thought MediaCenter can't!!!) , which are broadcast on DVD-T, and this is a most brilliant feature as you can set up recordings based on this. Unfortnately I havn't got the remote control supplied with the card to work with Showshifter, and since I am using this Card in a dedicated PVR it makes the software useless. Combined with this if I could and the signal /audio problem was fixed, this could quite possible be an awesome hardware and software combination, But as it stands, I am returning this card, becuase it just doesn't work as a PVR. Comments posted by Dom from United Kingdom, February 25, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I have this device. The card does support s-video but the media centre software does not. You can connect by s-video and use other software such as showshifter to watch it. However I could not get showshifter to record, which makes it all a bit pointless. I took the matter up with pinnicle and their respose was that media centre may support it in future but they could not guarentee it. Not impressed. Comments posted by Dave Mack from United Kingdom, January 07, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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Sounds greate this card, now I read about Composite and S-video are not currently supported. I found in Features & Specifications http://www.pinnaclesys.com/docloader_n.asp?templ= ... vision_id= Hardware Inputs: • Stereo TV sound with NICAM and dual FM carrier support • Video inputs: S-video (Hosiden connector) Composite video (RCA connector) • Audio output: Internal 4 pin header 2.8mm (to sound board; only required for analog TV) • Infra red remote input: 2.5mm phone plug for remote receiver cable Is it right “readme” file you looking in. Comments posted by Beast from Sweden, December 01, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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i have just got this tv card cost me $175. install the software and look in the readme file it says Known limitations Composite and S-video are not currently supported this why i bought the stupid thing in the first place!! How can pinnacle systems release its product that has NO Support for its Analog composite or/and SVHS video input. Comments posted by spider2182 from Russian Federation, November 24, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV Pro | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 6.6/10 54 votes |
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59 comments (120839 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle PCTV is a fully featured TV Tuner PCI card to watch TV on your PC with ultimate quality Powerful features include recording audio/video streams in MPEG-1/2 formats, allowing you to burn direct to disc, and timeshifting to pause or replay even while recording a live show. Includes Infrared Remote Control. |
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I have been using this card for over a year now. Its definitely not good for capture but TV viewing is good. But since the last 6 months i have been facing audio problems. There is a constant disturbance in all channels. I have been using PCTV Vision 5.90 and i downloaded the winxp sp2 patch and the audio level patch as well. But this problem still exists. It keeps coming and going i still cant figure out what is the problem. My audio card is Creative Sb live value. Can anyone please help me with this??? Comments posted by vasu84 from India, April 01, 2010: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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I used this card several months ago, and I remember that it took my forever to get WinDVD Creator 2 to recognize it. Do not remember what finally made it work. Tried to use it again recently and no matter what I did I could not get it to be recognized in ANY software. Finally downloaded and tried the genereic drivers posted here on this forum and it works. Good card, crappy drivers and software. Comments posted by pam signa from United States, December 04, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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Pinnacle PCTV Pro Stereo It's been a couple of months working with this capture card first on a PIII with 768MBs of RAM and now finally built a system for it P4 Prescott 2.4GHz, 1GB DDR, 300GB Maxtor HD, SB Live! 5.1 Sound. The problem with this card isn't the hardware is the software and drivers that come with it from Pinnacle. 1. So what I did was to remove the Pinnacle WDM Audio and Video Capture drivers for the free open source once on sourceforge.net for Wincap (BtPCI WDM audio and video capture drivers.) 2. After trying so many TVR, PVR and DVR tuner capture TV to hard drive recording software I've settled on Intervideo WINDVD RECORDER PLATINUM 5. This software uses the CPU extended features, the sound quality is better for recording. So the Pinnacle PCTV Pro Stereo has come to life and working the way it was made to work. Now I just record to the HD and send the recorded media down on my network using Media MVP. I can watch and record at the same time without hiccups. Best card to get for recording and viewing TV off CATV on your PC just have to use the BtPCI WDM drivers and WinDVD Recorder Platinum 5 to get the best results out of it! Comments posted by tipstir from United States, December 02, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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There have been a lot of negative posts regarding this card. For those of you interested in basic capture to VCD, SVCD, or DVD, this capture card cannot be beat! I can't tell you how many cards I have tried before I tried and settled on this one. The best combonation is to use this capture card and Pinnacle Studio 9 (I also use only the S-Video input). Maybe all the people that have had bad luck with this card are capturing PAL format. I'm not sure. I'm capturing NTSC and it looks great! All of the capture formats (VCD, SVCD, DVD) come out awesome, no dropped frames, and perfect A/V sync. What more could anyone ask?! I'm running Windows XP Home Service Pack 2 on a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 with 512MB RAM, 80 GB Western Digital Hard Drive, Intel Motherboard 865PERL with onboard sound. My system is not hard core by any means, but you cannot tell that by the quality of my video projects. I highly recommend this card with Pinnacle Studio 9. This combonation has been flawless for me. Comments posted by Brian from United States, November 29, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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The hardware is probably fine, but the software/support is ghastly. The software that came with the card didn't work on W98, but was OK on W2K. It did successfully display TV on my screen and record, but the playback was horrible - lack of sync between video and audio and unexplainable several minute pauses when I tried to fast forward. I then tried Beyond TV. Again, it kind of worked, but the A/V lack of sync got to be several minutes long. SageTV didn't recognize the card. I called Pinnacle and they gave me some "advice" that my graphics card was almost a year old (its an ATI 9200) and should be replaced, and that I had too many icons in my system tray (none were taking any significant resources according to the task manager). Well, this card is now in my junk box and a new Hauppauge is on its way. (system: ASUS motherboard, Athlon 2600+ processor SATA hard drive - all recent vintage) Comments posted by Ron from United States, August 25, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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I've been using the studio Pro card for 6 months now. It works fine for watching TV, though you do need to have a decent signal strength. The TV recording quality is excellent. It works well in DVD-lp (352x756).The interface is a little clunky, but if this is all you want to do then this card should be fine. There does seem to be a problem with the software "update" on the Pinnacle website - It only lets you capture in Mpeg1 or Miro formats - needed to reinstall from my original disk. My problems with the card began when I wanted to capturefrom VHS tapes. The Audio was out of Synch by as much as 1min/hr. I tried a variety of capture programs Vdub, VVcr PowerDVD & Windvd All with the same problem. I spent weeks trying to sort this out with diferent combinations of drivers software & soundcards. I Eventually found the work around: Install BTwincap driver & use WinDVD. This produces almost perfect quality captures in MPEG2 for easy DVD authoring with zero synch problems. Unfortunatly I haven't been able to get the TV tuner working so this is only a temporary solution & I'll have to Reinstall the pinnacle drivers shortly(if any on knows the correct tuner setting please let me know!) Because of this problem I have only been using the 15 day trial version of WINDVD. I have also tried Power VCR, it works but much poorer quality. At least I have been able to digitise all my backlog of tapes. From reading these pages it appears that this is typical problem with this and many other cards. The solution I've found demonstrates that a decent capture is posible so why are the cards released with such buggy drivers? do these companies want to piss off their customers? This card is released with composite capture advertised as a feature, they must have known it doesnt work. Hopefully the era of windows MM will bring this technology more into the mainstream arena & pinnacle, & others, will sort thir act out. Windows XP Pro AMD Athlon 2400 256MB Hope this helps somebody. Comments posted by JFS from United Kingdom, March 20, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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This card has given me more troubles than joy. Under WindowsXP it just won't work with the latest drivers/software. I've tried it on three different machines and at none of them the card worked. Happily there are some nice people out there that develop good software. Now I'm running it with DScaler. It's still not perfect: the sound is pretty bad and no capturing possible but at least I can watch TV and the image is perfect (DScaler gives you lotsa options to get the image you like best). My recommendations: if you want a good TVcard: don't go for this one (or any other one starting with Pinnacle)! Comments posted by Michel from Netherlands, March 17, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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I recently posted my experiences here two posts below this one and have received a few emails of people about it and i feel i should add my experiences in the time following my post. I talked about those great alternate btwincap drivers, which did indeed work well when recording from my vcr, but since my cable was out at that time, i didn't realize i would never get the tv-tuner to work with btwincap. This would mean installing one set of drivers for tv-viewing, and switching over to the btwincap during capturing of vcr material, or, alternatively, simply using my vcr to change the channels with the btwincap driver. Very inpractical workarounds. anywayz i used this solution for a week with no problem, after which i upgraded my computer to be a helluva lot faster. suddenly i would get annoying black horizontal stripes on the left of my screen on captured material. No matter what i tried they wouldn't go away anymore... by this time i was completely fed up with the stupid thing, sold it to a buddy for half the price and got me a hauppauge wintv-pvr 350. Also not without flaws (i.e. no raw capture), but such an enormous relief after using the pinnacle crap. believe me people i have owned the pinnacle pctv rave, pctv pro and moviebox dv. ALL ARE CRAP. the tv-cards perform under their specs with lotsa problems to boost, and my moviebox unit just gave me lots of green-red-purple static instead of video so to put an end to this babbling in short: the pctv rave and pro cards perform fine when watching tv (at least if you use a decent tv software), but anyone seriously interested in capturing hi-quality video shouldn't burn their hands on it Comments posted by koelie from Belgium, March 16, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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I have a solution for the hiss in recorded audio with the C-media 8738 onboard audio chipset. It can be found at http://janvlug.tripod.com/ Comments posted by Jan Vlug from Netherlands, February 17, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I installed this card and started out with the crappy software on the cd. lots of problems (loss of audio/video sync and crashing upon pressing the record button etc) however after doing a little tweaking and installing different software, it works fine. I am now using the general tv-card driver http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/ , and now i suddenly AM able to capture fullscreen using virtualdub with no frame drops whatsoever. furthermore I am using Girder for the remote (with the pctv pro plugin) and am now able to use that remote for just about anything. last but not least make sure not to use pinnacle tv software but better use something like showshifter/atv2000/descaler. changing channels is lots faster and no annoying sync losses. last but not least, overlay capabilities :) so the hardware on this card (PAL version) is fine, it's just the crappy drivers and other software which will drive you NUTS greets from a happy customer Comments posted by koelie from Other, January 11, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I bought this card almost a month ago, and now i'm the happy owner of a non-Pinnacle card. With this card, i had TV on my computer...but a very bad one. On my Athlon XP-1800, the noise on the image was unbelievable. I read a lot on the web, tried every software i could, and it is just...bad ! Then i started using an Stereo Nicam video to 'feed' the PCTV board via composite cable, which turned out to be a LOT better (still a few vertical noise, but a lot less). The problem is that i wanted to capture TV to my Hardrive, and that means to problems: 1. The sofware provided with the card gives us very poor results, plus DVD 'quality' encoding was just a joke from Pinnacle. 2. Even with the use of some great software like iuVCR or freeware like VirtualVCR, you can get good-looking pictures (capturing at 720x568 straight to AVI using Huffyuf codec), but you can't get A/V Sync. Don't waste your time trying it, as it will get you nowhere. This seems to be an old issue regarding Pinnacle cards, even on the most expensive ones, so forget about it. One word about Pinnacle support - It's a joke, and i'm feel sorry for the Pinnacle Foruns Teams guys, because there's nothing you can do when you have a bad product, except for making up excuses. I'm using a (lot) more expensive capture card from another brand, but guess what - It always works fine and 'IN SYNC' ! I wouldn't recommend this card to anyone that was planning go serious about anything, but if you have plenty of time and don't know what to do with it... Comments posted by Roger from Other, December 02, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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This was the most difficult card that I've ever installed. Pinnacle's website is of little use, but finally, I found the problem. Configuration: MSI KT4VL mobo, AMD 2200+, 256MB RAM, 20Gb Boot drive, 80 Gb data (ie video capture drive). Fresh install of Windows 2000 with SP4. The above will NOT work if you blindly do what the Pinnacle install CD says. You MUST install Windows DirectX 8.1 first. You can NOT go from Windows 2000 to DirectX 9.0 (which is on Pinnacle disk). I discovered this by fluke on the Pinnacle web forum. Next, you MUST not allow any software to run which may access the PCI bus in a low-level manner - I can't think of a better way to describe this. In my case there was some PC health monitoring sw running (CPU temp, Fan speed and the like.) If you try to capture or sometimes even just watch TV with this extra stuff running, your machine will crash. Not even a BSOD - it will just lock up. Getting rid of the PC health SW fixed everything. Finally I was able to run a test - captured several hours of SVCD quality video without a single frame drop. Do not buy this card unless you know what you're doing. If it works out of the box, then you were luckier than I was. Comments posted by ShM from Other, September 14, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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Installed the first time, all went well, but I had serious problems with the software (crashed all the time before I could even finish scanning all the channels) I decided to uninstall the drivers & replace them with some tweaked ones so I could use third party software (default drivers aren't compatible), but it didn't work out. Tried reinstalling the original drivers, but it wouldn't detect them (I followed all steps given by the Pinnacle staff to try and fix the problem, no go.) I installed some other tweaked drivers, and they worked well. I recommend IuVCR for recording, and DScaler for viewing (DScaler requires no drivers, but it has EXCELLENT quality, even in fullscreen, highly recommended, but it takes a little tweaking to get it to work right). The card can work great, but only if you're ready to do some tweaking. Comments posted by CheeToS from Other, August 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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PAL + Linux warning: Mid-2002, Pinnacle massively changed the hardware, most notably the tuner, on the PAL version of this card. The new tuner was (back then) not supported at all under Linux, contrary to what the Linux kernel's CARDLIST says (which refers to the old version). This was confirmed by technical staff of Pinnacle. Current status (July 2003) unknown. JubNub reported August 26 2002 that: "This card is just BAD, I mean awful bad, the image looks like one of the black and white films recolorized and I swear they must ad a special 'lousy sound' chip in this thing it sounds like you're listening through a tin can. It's so bad its halarious (as long as you bought it with a good return policy)" This is most likely nonsense. These are typical symptoms, if you use the wrong frequency list (channum -> Hz mapping). Set it up properly. Comments posted by Ben Bucksch from Other, July 07, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? |
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This card has been flawless from the get go. Took it out of the box, put itin my XP machine. Installed the drivers. (new WDM versions) I avoided Pinnacle software which is quite poor. I used the tools from here. Used IuVCR for capturing. I have yet to see a dropped frame. Great captures, great performance. Lannie PIII900Mhz, then switched to XP 1700+@2012Mhz Comments posted by Schafroth from Other, June 24, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Incompatible with windows XP. Do not buy! Comments posted by Eric Opiela from Other, June 24, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? |
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Very nice captures, without dropped frames / other problems, but ONLY after switching to XP Pro and using freeware drivers for it. Under win98 i had severe driver problems - the card not working properly with virtualdub. For the price it's unbeatable, but forget about decent software (the conversion soft for example is a joke. If you're a tweaker your gonna enjoy this card. Comments posted by AsianWildAss from Other, May 07, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Hello from Belgium, I’ve a Compaq Deskpro (model 6243EA), PIV 2.4 Ghz. In one pci slot I pushed my PCTV pro (the one with remote control), the infra red eyes in my com. I port. Installed the software, did surge on question from the software my channels (don’t forget to put your VCR on, for also having this channel) and 5 minutes later I had my TV set on my flat panel. I must say, I’m an amateur and so it was not hard. Pinnacle has a new driver update and so I even have deleted the old driver and installed the new. Two times lucky, no problem. Capturing the cable is no problem, svideo I didn’t try until now. Only 256 MB ram memory PC2100 is even enough, I suggest using 512 MB. I have been plugging my audio out from the PCTV card, into audio in from the computer external. This cable is delivered with the card. No synchronisation problems, no dropt frames at all. I had only one problem when I used the tool software to change the pci drivers. Easy, did remove it again and problem was gone. The remote control only isn’t working like I thought it has to. The channel nr’s 1,2,3 etc. are not functioning ? I guess I have to look at the manual again. I do my capturing with Win VCR2 or the software from pinnacle with it. Oh, almost forgot! The webtext is also working like it should. Quick correct and with the remote control. I must say, after reading half year this site I was afraid with having more problems than I could manage. No I must say, no. Try to have the I big hard disk, quick Pentium ore AMD. Don’t overload your computer with freeware and others. Put your virus scanner of wile capturing. I don’t say It’s your fault when you have problems but don’t tease your computer with crap. Comments posted by Bart from Other, May 05, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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In the past, I've owned an ATI All-In-Wonder Pro; got sick of the fact that I was forced to use the ATI Multimedia Center for everything (no WDM driver supported). Also, the card has onboard 16MB not very good for some newer 3D games. I upgraded to an ATI Radeon 9000 (128DDR) video. I was thinking of purchasing the ATI TV Wonder VE (mono TV) or Avermedia's AverTV. A friend told me to stay away from Hauppage like the plague. Unfortunately I discovered from the Avermedia web faq: AverTV doesn't work with Radeon. Was about to spend $80 on ATI-TV Wonder Pro (stereo TV support) but my local CompUSA had sold out. Decided to drive to Fry's, then I discovered they did not sell the separate TV-Wonder Pro, just All-In-Wonder Radeon for $150. Why buy another ATI? Picked up Pinnacle PCTV Pro off shelf and liked the features on box. The website claims the PCTV-Pro has a radio capability but apparently they discontinued it because the box (& card) had no mention of a radio feature. It also comes with a useless remote control (works but serves no purpose). Currently, I am using the lastest WDM drivers, this PCTV Pro works good as a PVR and supports DiVX (I had to downloaded codec 5 Pro). I don't know what all the people are complaining about. I use the PCTV Vision supplied PVR to record from my VCR (RCA out)& my Sony DVP-S300 (S-Video Out). I have discovered that the card has an internal TV audio out; I connected it using a CD-Rom audio cable to my SB-Live (Aux port) for watching TV. I use an audio switch for DVD/VCR line outs then a RCA to 1/8" cable connected to the line in of my SB Live. The Pinnacle Studio 8 software is a trial and does not support any MPEG. Real bummer since the software looks like it could be good. Been using tools like DVD2AVI, Clad-DVD, TMPGEnc, VCDEasy, Nero for years. With these tools I am capable of creating nice personal home DVD's. This card was definately a good purchase in my opinion. It was well worth the price. I have spend a lot of money upgrading my system througout the years as you can see in my specs below. System: P4 1.6Ghz, 512MB Ram, 80Gig Maxtor 7200RPM, ATI Radeon 9000 (128DDR), SB Live!, Liteon 16x DVD, Liteon 52x24x52 CD-RW, Richo 5125A DVD+R/+RW (external drive connected using FireWire on SB Live). Comments posted by Ubiquitous from Other, March 20, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Even though I have an outdated spec machine (AMD 600Mhz, 500Mb RAM and a 20Gb 5400rpm disk) I still manage to capture my home 8mm video in MPEG1 with no problems at all. I can just squeeze enough out of my machine to capture at SVCD. Just bought a SCSI card and hard drive which allows me to capture MPEG2 at the lower end of capture rate. Works fine with Studio 8 aslong as you capture using the PC TV PRO software and load into Studio 8 afterwards. For some reason the quality is worse and the file sizes are larger if you capture using Studio8. Some problems with Leadtek Studio software (You need to reset the video contrast, Brightness controls etc!!) TV picture Very Good. Very disappointed that they only supply Studio 7 as a trial version. If you just want to capture and need Studio 8 software go and buy a DC10+ instead. Comments posted by Andy Howells from Other, February 18, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I tried this card for about a month, and was overall dissatisfied. The TV viewing was only average, with a lot of snow. I also used the card for video capture, converting VCR tapes to MPEG. It worked OK using the VCD format, but all other higher formats were very choppy. You also had to switch the audio cable on the sound card from the TV tuner to the VCR every time you changed what you were capturing. I just switched to the Ulead WinTV2000 XP Deluxe, and so far I am very happy with it. The TV was much clearer, and I was able to capture at true SVCD settings with no dropped frames, and no out-of-sync problems. Comments posted by Steve Brawn from Other, February 18, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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Well, I have this thing, and it was a pain to get working. I also got the Pinnacle Studio v8 software. You would think things from the same company would work well together. They do NOT. After owning this thing for a month or two, and trying to use DVD (SONY DRU500) recorder. Well, it is obvious to me that video on the PC is not anywhere near audio in useability or just readiness. My recommendation? Pass on PC video for a few more months, or years. Comments posted by Fred from Other, January 24, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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I puchased a PCTV pro two years ago and despite some minor software related bugs, this card has worked well. I recently purchased the newest Pinnacle PCTV pro and was shocked to discover the diminished features compared to the older card! The newer card doesn't have the onboard radio tuner or the fully "working" Studio PCTV video capture software. The chipset is also in the same family as the older one! Here's my current pc: Asus A7V333 mobo w/ AMD Athlon xp +2000 cpu 512mb DDR(333)ram 80gb 7200 hdd (40mb win98se partition and 40mb Linux partition) Geforce4 4200 128mb agp Soundblaster live value soundcard network card for DSL connection I had problems with the newer PCTV card from the beginning. I was unable to properly install the card when I used either the internal OR external audio in/out connectors. I constantly received an error message stating that another device was currently using the card and I would need to close that application before running the PCTV software. After closing all my applications except explorer and systray, I still received the same message. As an experienced PC user,I also checked Pinnacle's website to ensure I wasn't doing something wrong on my end. Big mistake. Pinnacle's support section was the same as the troubleshooting steps included on the cd itself and told me nothing. Since I'm employed in the PC hardware support field, Pinnacle's lack of support and willingness to send me to their forums DOES make a lasting impressiona on my attitude toward their products. There's NO excuse for poor customer support! After removeing the audio in/out sound connectors, I was able to properly install the card and the software worked, eh, almost... I didn't have any problems getting the remote to work, even though I don't use it. In fact, I never used it on the older card either since most of my capturing is done via the VCR. I wasn't thrilled by the fact that Pinnacle is still using the outdated serial port to connect the remote sensor instead of a usb port. But what got me "madder than a wet hen during a Noreaster" was running the Studio 8 trial software for the first time and discovering (gasp) the video capture function was disabled, thereby making the software useless. Pinnacle should've added to the system requirements section printed on the box that the customer would also need to smoke some crack in order to be dumb enough to purchase the full studio 8 software. Well, I don't smoke crack and instead installed the older studio 4.02 PCTV software that came with the older card as my only option. Truthfully, I'm happy with the older version of Studio PCTV software and saw no major differences between the two. For what it's worth to first time buyers, there's a free capturing utility listed on the divx.com website that some users might want to try. I haven't tried it on my newer card yet but it worked well on the older one. Overall, I feel that Pinnacle is focused more on profits than customer service, and I will certainly do my part to prevent Pinnacle from being rewarded with that type of behavior. Comments posted by Mikie P from Other, December 31, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Green lines in hi res capture using the built in SW. Would not connect to virtualdub. I spent the extra $50 for showshifter and that cleared up the artifact issues. I could have spent hours futzing to find what/if the hardware (dma?) conflict was, but the $50 for SS was easier for me at the time. I do NOT reccomend this, especially for XP. Comments posted by ab from Other, December 08, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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Very good results using this card to capture TV/DVD & VCR (NTSC) signals with Pinnacle Studio8 software, on a Windows XP Home system. Capturing a 20 minute VHS video took about 4.5Gig of disk space. Rendering that video into Multimedia MPEG1 (230Meg) took about 35 minutes, using my 1.7GHz P4 CPU and GForce4 Ti 4400 video card. I still have not figured out how to capture/burn directly to DVD+R or CDR, using the supplied PVR software. But I have successfully captured to disk and then created DVD's, VCD's and SVCD's. I highly recommend purchasing Studio8 and Hollywood FX software along with this capture card, if you plan on burning your own content. The supplied PVR software is OK for watching video sources on the PC screen but lacks features needed to create great digital movies. Comments posted by BillF from Other, December 05, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV Rave | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 6.9/10 12 votes |
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17 comments (23981 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle PCTV Rave is a fully featured TV Tuner card to watch TV on your PC with ultimate image quality for an incredible price. It also allows you to record video clips and capture high-quality single screens from your TV, camcorder or VCR onto your hard disk, and to access Teletext pages from Internet.
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i can now record in sync whith pinnacle pctv rave and its own application vision 5.5. my solution is: a) insert your card in pci slot nr 1. b) deactivate all special features in windowsxp kontrollpanel-->system-->advanced-->performance--> best performance. c)deactivate screensaver d) try to deactivate all programs near the clock(viruskillers, skype, cam, quicktime...) e)lower your resolution it may help in some cases. f) deactivate clone screen in nvidia configuration(use only singel display) you can change de version dll to capture in mpeg2 if you want. i can capture from tv in perfect sync but i can not capture my own videos from my vcr and i have no exponeition to it, its very strange ( meaby tv signal and vcr signal are not the same) i what help whit it if somebody can help me. Comments posted by luis from Sweden, May 21, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I've written a previous report where I was very positive about this product. I've since discovered that there are serious audio sync (lip sync) problems when capturing and rendering full length captured movies. i deacivated the clone of my graphic card and my screensaver. positive its that i can now look tv whit no sync problem. negative i can not capture in sync. i sitll have problem with sync. i will try hardware encoding an will buy a card whit it an se if i can find a solution to it. Comments posted by luis from Sweden, April 30, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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i have pinnacle pctv rave. i had problem whith out of sync audio an video. but i found at last the solution for me. i hope it can help you. i did not activate clone display in mi graphic card. so i recomend that you deactivate clone display in settings for your graphic card if you have problem whith sync. i only have single display. i closed the screen saver. i use virtualvcr to capture in divx5 and mp3 and it works fine for me. i use virtualdub an deinterlace with a filter an everything looks nice. it took me 5 days to found the solution. my system is windowsxp home 256 mb ram 2000+ mhz amd athlon gforce 2 mx i hope it will help others Comments posted by luis from Sweden, April 29, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I agree with the other comments about the pinnacle drivers, however I still have a problem with the BTWDM drivers in that I don't seem to be able to access the composite or s-video ports. All I can see id the analogue TV input. Is there something I'm doing wrong???? Comments posted by John Hetherington from United Kingdom, March 25, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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This card is plain and simply great. I've tried a few not so great cards and had many long sagas with getting them to work, but not this card. Install the pinnacle drivers (not the software), then immediately install the drivers at http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/ over the top. If you don't, you get horrendous captures and post crap reviews of this card to this site. I'm capturing trouble-free 704x576 25fps PAL with perfect sound sync. I'm using iuVCR, with huffyuv to an EIDE disk (clean partition), on an XP2400+, Abit AN7, 512mb PC3200. I then recompress to xvid using 2-pass. Comments posted by FokeyJoe from United Kingdom, October 23, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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I buy a PCTV Rave PCI card but not work. My configuration system is MSI Motherboard MS-6712 KT400 video 3D GEFORCE 4 256MB RAM PC-2700 over windows 2000 and XP pro. I install the target in the PCI slot 2. When run the aplication, this work for a seconds them the system reboot!! (how if I press reset botton). I not migth do this target Work :(. Comments posted by Carlos from Panama, June 20, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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I'm a total newbie at this stuff who wanted to try the VHS tape to DVD thing. I went to the store and got the cheapest card on their shelf (i.e this one) to try it out. Not always the cleverest thing to do but I'm pleased this time. However, if I had not been reading things on this site first I might not have felt the same way as the software that comes with it produced result that were "not great". Choppy video and audio out of sync etc. To be fair, my box is old and slow (800mhz Athlon, 128meg memory) and on a decent machine the results might be usable, but using some of the tools I read about here (iuVCR to capture, TMPGEnc to encode/author) I get DVDs through this card that are good enough that I don't feel I need to keep the tapes even on this ancient computer. Comments posted by mittbajskonto from Finland, March 04, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I've had no problems with this card under Win2K, I only think that the included software is not very proffesional. Also, the card does not register itself as a DirectShow input device, so forget about writing custom software - the device is simply not enumerated as a video source. Comments posted by Gradius from South Africa, February 05, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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The card is excelent value for money. The only problems are the crap software supplied with it and there even worse tech support. For capturing VCR to Hard drive use Sonic Mydvd version 4.5 works a treat. Mydvd is also first class for editing created VCD's. Comments posted by Phil Walters from United Kingdom, January 31, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Having purchased this card I immidiately installed non-standard drivers (BT8xx WDM) and it now works a treat. The original drivers and software suck. I am using VirtualDub to capture, then frameserve this to TMPGEnc and the results are very good. For the price I would highly recomend it. Comments posted by Chris MacIntosh-Dixon from Other, January 03, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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The card is ok but the "pineapple" software sux bad if you're into capturing something beyond the VCD format. Always ended up with a captured file where the audio was out of synch and the video jerky towards the end. Like many others, I own a vast many VHS tapes that I'd like to transfer to DVD. To make it short, I spent days and nights with all versions and upgrades and patches for PCTV Pro. Tried on Win98SE, NT, Win2000 an Win XP. The problem lies with the software and the quality of the codecs Pinnacle is using. I finally saw the light when capturing from within Ulead DVD MovieFactory, using only PCTV as a capture device. Perfect full length movies, no audio synch problems or jerky playback. Just select MPEG output format and set up the parameters according to DVD specs. Reduce the quality setting from 15 to 10, no visible degradation but it reduces file size. My setup: Fresh Win XP on a Pentium III 1 Ghz, 384 Mb RAM, 40 Gb disk. Less than ordinary PC specs these days. Captured to a separate partition, newly formatted, no fragmentation. My 86 min movie became a 3,3 Gb MPEG2 file. Ready to go to DVD. Voila. Try it. Was it good for you too?? Comments posted by Finn Amundsen from Other, December 28, 2003: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Actually this is a TV pci card which has a Capture capability, it's not a capture device! it's verry cheap and for the same money u can use this card 4 capturing in dvd (mpeg2) quality. But only when using the right equipment and the right "file" If u have the right equipment (at least pentium3) Change the VisionID.dll; this changes everything. Now you can capture in DVD-quality---> choose vcd, svcd or DVD. i think you can't get better for rhis money. and all the guys who say it's a bad card; try other hardware; use better PC (equipment) i have a p4 2.56Gh, and the capturequality is superb,..amazing what a cheap card can do ;) greetings, Al Loch-Toon Comments posted by Ali from Other, December 08, 2003: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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You need the CD-version of VisionID.dll to record VCD, SVCD, DVD (2.5 - 9.5 Mbit/s). NOT the web version!! With an AMD 2100XP and W2k it runs like a dream. Value for money!! I use it for digitalizing my Videotape collection. The CD-version can be found here: http://members.home.nl/arnaud/VisionID.dll Comments posted by My Minds Mine from Other, November 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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This card gets bad reviews from people who simply don't know how to use it. If you're looking for a 'all-in-one' card and software package to capture home videos or make VHS-backups straight of the box, you're not going to do it. But the card is of no fault, its simply the software. I've had this card for almost 5 months and have received truly excellent results using VirtualDub to capture to both PicVideo MJPEG and HUFFY, and then using either TMPGEnc (VCD) and Cinema Craft Encoder (SVCD/DVD) to encode/compress. The software bulked with the card is limited and requires an additional codec download to convert any video captured with its default codec, but if you're looking for high-quality captures, who really uses the software bulked with the hardware nowdays? I've even tested the card with straight-to-MPG capturing software like DVD Workdshop and NeroVision, and the results are good. If you know what you're doing when it comes to capturing and encoding, this is a great cheap card, but if not, then maybe do stay away from it and buy something you don't have to put so much effort into. Comments posted by Adam from Other, October 07, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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This card works fine with Win98.... However, a word of warning!!! If Win2k is your main OS, dont bother even trying to install this card. The drivers supplied by pinnacle just dont work. Ever the so-called patched they bring out are a complete waste of time. Trust me i've been trying for the last 6 months to get the card working under win2k. Even the generic drivers found on sites like sorceforge fail to correct the blue screens, lock-outs, stop errors and plain boot-up refusals. At one stage i even had to use the Win2k cd to restore my bl00dy operating system. Again, dont believe when Pinnacle say, just look at the forums on their website to read the numerous customer complaints about this card and XP / 2K compatibility. you have been warned. Im going to give the Haupagge WinTV-Go card a go... Comments posted by domz76 from Other, September 16, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 |
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Opnemen op VCD en DVD kan alleen met de CD-versie niet met de webversie. De CD versie bevat VisionID.dll en als je die in de VIsion map van de webversie pleurt werkt het ook. Als je zoekt op VisionID.dll, kan je de juiste dll wel vinden, vervang met deze de oude mijn ervaring is, bij het opnemen van meer dan een uur loopt vaak de computer vast, kwa beeldkwaliteit is het een goede tvcard voor weinig geld Comments posted by M.francke from Other, September 10, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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don't waste your money it only capture in mpeg 1 quality info from pinnacle is not true Comments posted by ger from Other, September 10, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV SAT | Digital TV DVB-S |
Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 7.8/10 4 votes |
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4 comments (23942 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle PCTV is a fully featured TV Tuner PCI card to watch TV on your PC with ultimate quality Powerful features include recording audio/video streams in MPEG-1/2 formats, allowing you to burn direct to disc, and timeshifting to pause or replay even while recording a live show. Includes Infrared Remote Control.
The sky's the limit with PCTV Sat. Tune in to hundreds of TV and radio stations around the world, and bring sound and vision to your PC in ultra sharp digital quality. Then record your favourite shows in digital format onto your PC for archiving and copying without quality loss. Keep it all digital for the ultimate TV and radio reception. High-quality digital tuner for ultimate TV and Radio quality Timeshifting in full quality to pause or replay a sequence even while recording a live show Digital MPEG VCR for TV - and video recording from Camcorder, VCR or DVD-Player NDIS network driver - required f or High-Speed Internet Downloads via special Internet Service Providers Multi-channel matrix and automatic channel name recognition Easy-to-use timer for scheduled recording WebText: Combines Teletext with the Internet and gives you instant access to all Teletext pages with convenient search engine and TOP-Text support Highest quality single screen capture (TWAIN) Pinnacle T-Rex multimedia file converter full version Infrared Remote control to access TV, radio, Teletext & video recorder functions (batteries included) Includes Pinnacle Studio video editing software as a free trial version PCTV Installation Assistant allows an easy set-up in just a few minutes Convenient Sat-Finder tool with voice modem support - informs you about the sat signal strength over your mobile or cordless phone LNB output let ' s you connect your existing satellite receiver - you only need one cable to the LNB/dish |
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Zeer goede kaart, nooit geen problemen. Video Decoder Conexant Fusion 878,Diverse hacks beschikbaar op diverse sites. Video decoder = 768 X 576 MPEG 1 = 352 X 288 Comments posted by PUKJE from Netherlands, September 29, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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I was originally going to buy a WinTV Go card, but opted for this card instead because it was £10 cheaper (and hey, if I wasn't happy with it, I could have just taken it back). The card itself offers great image quality on all resolutions and great sound quality to match. The applications bundled with the card are a little iffy. The playing/recording program only allows capturing in two (weird) formats, which can't be read by many video editing applications, but can be read by Windows Media Player. A search of the Pinnacle.de public FTP allowed me to find the codec for one of the formats, but not the other. So, I opted for capturing through VirtualDub using the PicVideo MJPEG codec and am very satisfied. The reason why I bought the card was to convert VHS to DVD, and when converted, burnt and played, the video looks great, even for low-resolution DVDs (352x240, 352x288). Yes, its not the best capture card in the world, but if you want a cheap card that can capture in good quality then get this, but stay away from their software. VirtualDub and TMPGEnc are far better than the capturing and converting tools they provide. Comments posted by Adam from Other, June 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Excellent Picture, even on Full Screen (1280x1024) Ratio with a TFT. But the VCR-function in PCTV SAT Vision V 2.50 seems to be critical. The files I've record (Mpeg) failed after 10-15 seconds if played on a prog like WinDVD, PowerDVD or Media player. Only the Pinnacle Prog itself works fine. The conversion with TREX (bundled with the card) doesn't work correct with MPEG2 output (both MPEG2 PS & SVCD) (Aspect-ratio failed and sound is faster than original). MPEG4 Codec wouldn't recognized on my system. The VCD conversion has to much quality limitations. Comments posted by Peter Lapczynski from Other, April 22, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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I bought the card in order to receive digital satellite feeds from Germany. It does both analogue and digital. As an added bonus the SVHS input is very good. My card before was a Hauppauge and a TNT2-based Cugour (can do only W98). But with both cards I could not do a resolution higher than VCD without having frames being dropped. But with this card I get max.(DVD) resolution and no frames being dropped. I can capture uncompressed frames and than convert these with Ulued into any format I wish - superb. At for the price I bet its the best value you can buy in Europe. I capture the Audio via my soundcard (Hoontech XG-754 Yamaha) and it works. Comments posted by Bodo Metscher from Other, September 28, 2001: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV SAT CI | Digital TV DVB-S |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $100 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Tune into hundreds of free and subscriber digital satellite TV channels and radio stations on your PC. Thanks to its integrated Common Interface, PCTV SAT CI can accept the Conditional Access Modules (CAMs) used by most subscriber digital satellite broadcasters. This allows you to enjoy and record your favourite programmes in super-sharp digital quality on your PC.
PCTV Sat CI also includes Pinnacle Expression for easy editing of commercials and burning of your programs to disc. Easy setup PCTV Installation Assistant guides you step by step Sat-Finder tool informs you about signal strength via a cordless or mobile phone Automatic channel name recognition for rapid configuration Superior reception DVB-S standard for digital-quality audio and video reception Receive free and subscriber digital satellite TV and radio Multi-channel preview matrix Full-screen or scaleable window viewing Digital radio in near audio CD quality (MPEG1 Layer 2) Infra-red remote control included Digital recording technology Time Shift technology: Pause and resume viewing without missing a second of the programme Use the Time-Slider to jump forward and backwards in Time Shift mode Record TV programmes on the PC's hard drive in original MPEG-2 format Automatically select channels and recording times Capture still screenshots Convert recordings into other multimedia file formats Burn recordings to CD and DVD Also, included in the box: Hardware: PCTV Sat CI PCI-Board with digital satellite tuner and on-board Common Interface IR remote control transmitter 2 AA batteries for transmitter IR remote control receiver (for PC serial port) incl. stick pad Software: Pinnacle Expression CD/DVD authoring software PCTV Vision: Digital-TV, -Radio and -VCR application for Windows Millennium Edition (Me) and Windows 2000/XP Documents: Printed quick installation guide CD-ROM with drivers and applications PDF user manual (multi-language1) Support, service, warranty and registration documents (on CD) |
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| Pinnacle PCTV Sat Pro | Digital TV DVB-S |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $100 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| PCTV Sat Pro PCI Overview
PCTV Sat Pro PCI turns your PC into a high-end TV/PVR with digital satellite tuner. Watch, record and TimeShift free-to-air DVB-S programmes in perfect quality. PCTV SAT PRO PCI Watch and TimeShift TV Electronic Programme Guide Create and watch slide shows PCTV SAT PRO PCI click here to enlarge Watch and TimeShift TV click here to enlarge Electronic Programme Guide click here to enlarge Create and watch slide shows click here to enlarge PCTV Sat Pro PCI is a high-quality, affordable digital satellite receiver for Windows PCs. Used in combination with the included, all-new Pinnacle MediaCenter 4.0 software, it delivers the ultimate Digital TV and PVR experience on your PC for watching, recording and TimeShifting satellite TV and radio. * Enjoy satellite TV and radio (DVB-S) on your PC * Watch TV in full screen mode or in a moveable, scaleable window on your PC * Control live TV programmes with TimeShifting * Record TV programmes directly to hard disk in the original MPEG-2 format or in the space-saving DivX™ format. * Record directly to DVD discs * Record directly in PlayStation™ Portable (PSP) or iPod™ Video compatible MPEG-4 format to take your favourite TV shows with you. * AutoPowerON™ before scheduled recordings * AutoPowerOFF™ after finished recordings * Use the integrated Electronic Program Guide (EPG) to schedule one-time or recurring recordings * Enjoy TV with Dolby® Digital sound* on your PC * Get ultra-fast Teletext with unlimited page caching * Use IP data services such as Internet via Sat or Video On Demand * Remove commercials and create your own DVDs with the included Pinnacle Studio QuickStart video editing application * Access thousands of Internet radio stations with customisable channel lists**. |
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| Pinnacle PCTV USB2 | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $100 | 6.5/10 4 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle PCTV USB2 lets you watch, control and record live TV (cable or antenna) on your PC. You can also use it to import video footage from other sources like a VCR, camcorder or DVD-player. Video can be recorded using MPEG or DV real-time compression. An interactive set-up assistant makes the installation fast and easy.
Viewing External Hi-Speed USB TV tuner, compatible with both analogue cable and antenna TV Play, pause and rewind TV (Time-shifting technology) Watch TV in a resizable window or full-screen mode Real-time de-interlacing and noise-filter for best-in-class video quality View programs broadcast in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios Easy-to-use features including multi-channel preview grid Easy set-up with automatic channel scan Recording Record in MPEG1 and DV format with no file size restrictions Time-Shifting (delayed viewing) in MPEG1 formats Use your PC like a digital VCR to schedule recordings of your favorite programs Capture high-quality still images from live video Copy video footage from a VCR, camcorder or DVD player to your hard drive Burn recordings to VCD, SVCD* and DVD* * MPEG2 capture and Time Shift with presets for Super VCD and DVD can be activated online at the Pinnacle Shop at an additional cost. Activation of PCTV USB2’s MPEG2 functionality enhances the product feature set as follows: Hard-disk recording in MPEG2 format of live TV or from external video sources that are connected to your PCTV (e.g. VCR, DVD player, Cable TV set-top box). Given presets are “DVD”, “DVD Longplay” and “SuperVCD”. Additionally, the settings can be defined by the user according to his preferences. Time-Shifting (delayed viewing) in MPEG2 formats SuperVCD and DVD burning with your PC’s CD- or DVD-writer. Playback of MPEG2 files by drag-and-drop into the PCTV Vision video window. Technical Specifications: Hardware: PCTV USB2 external TV tuner with hyperband cable TV support Hi-Speed USB compliant cable, length ca. 1.8m/6ft Infra-red remote control transmitter 2 AA batteries for transmitter |
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Hi , I boughte my Pinnacle PCTV ( version 4.23) last year in france. Now I live in canada and I tried several time to install it , but unfortunatly it doesn't work and it is not capture any channel :( is it because I boughte it in Europe and it is not suppose to work here in north america or maybe I should do some modification . I would be so grateful if you could help me . thanks B. Comments posted by bahareh from Canada, April 03, 2010: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I bought this external USB capture device for analog video capture purposes only. The goal is to convert old VHS cassettes to DVD. The card is working - I downloaded another SW version - the last one available from Pinnacle. The problem is: the card is limited to 2 presets regarding the compresion rate to MPEG2. The first one 6300 is to large and gives only 100 minutes of MPEG2 with 4.7 GB file size. In this case the DVD media will vasted for add. 20 minutes.The second one is to small - less than 3700 and the quality of the video is poor. Their support answered me they are sorry but this is the situation and the compr. rate not under user's custom setup. Comments posted by HUPIKEK from Austria, May 14, 2008: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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Card is good for capture however it cannot capture PAL60. Contacted Pinnacle and got this reply Dear Mr. ?????????, It is not possible to record the PAL 60 signal video using the Pinnacle PCTV USB2 hardware. Please feel free to contact us again in the future if you have further questions. You may submit questions to our support team by going to the following link: http:pinnaclesys.custhelp.com Regards, Nelson Newman Comments posted by Shaun Logue from United Kingdom, February 06, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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Isn't there any software which will allow me to see channels which are woozy(you can see what's going on but not hear or see it clearly) for this program. I have this Pinnacle PCTV 50e and TVCenter 3.4 software. Comments posted by Gosi from Iceland, January 06, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I bought my version in the UK, altho I live in Canada. Nowhere on the box or accompanying instructions booklet did it advise me that I could also use it on an NTSC system. I was surprised and pleased to discover it decoded several different PAL systems and SECAM, along with my bonus NTSC. So simple to setup, I couldn't ask for more. Well, I would have appreciated radio also. The UK version cost me less than £50. Comments posted by Gerry from United Kingdom, June 17, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I have this device for about 1 week and so far working great. Very easy and quick install, very easy to use, the software that comes is very good to see TV or other video signal, althoug for capture is not the best option,very processor intensive. I have an AMD 2200+;1GB RAM DDR 333;40GB 7200rpm HD 133MB/s and 80GB HD 7200rpm HD100MB/s.Using Ulead Video Studio or Ulead DVD Workshop to capture the video signal from TV or from other analog source works much, much beter than the Pinnacle software. So far the only bad situation that I´ve found is that watching TV and using other aps, the audio and video sometimes gets out of sync.(Maybe my PC is weak) Comments posted by ZecabraPT from Portugal, July 21, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Pro-One | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $600 | 7.1/10 8 votes |
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8 comments (6089 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
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Hardware Specifications Hardware · 32 bit PCI bus mastering expansion card Data Rate · Two streams of DV data (25 Mbits per second, per stream) and one graphic layer Frame Rate · 30/25 frames, 60/50 fields per second (NTSC/PAL, US version NTSC only) Digitization and Playback · In Real Time. 720 X 480 (NTSC) or 720X576 (PPAL/SECAM) in 4:1:1 YUV (NTSC) or 4:2:0 YUV (PAL), true color Video Inputs · 1X composite video (CVBS), RCA (cinch) jack · 1X S-Video (Y/C) mini DIN · 2X IEEE 1394 (Firewire/ilink) six pin connector Video Standard · NTSC, PAL (US version NTSC only), Widescreen 16:9 Video Systems · DV, DV Cam DVCPro, Digital 8, S-VHS, Hi-8, VHS, Video8 Video Overlay · Video overlay chip for real time monitoring on computer screen Audio Inputs/Outputs · Input: Stereo, 2X RCA (cinch) jack · Output: Stereo, 2X RCA (cinch) jack Audio Input Level · OdB, adjustable, selectable Audio Recording and Playback · In real time directly to/from hard disk in full CD/DAT stereo audio quality |
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The Pro One is a good card for the price. Compatability problems generally result from a buggy ACPI implementation on part of the motherboard. VIA chipsets (found commonly on AMD systems) are notorious for having bad ACPI implementations. Research, research and research if you are custom building a video editing station. A mobo manufacturer isn't going to tell you their ACPI implementation isn't going to handle the four onboard devices of a pinnacle card.... or at least handle it smoothly. Anything above the Intel 810 chipset series is generally going to be complient. This isn't a voodoo secret, it is clearly in their documentation, and if you get stuck with a buggy bios you can complain to your motherboard vendor. Video overlay problems can also crop up with a video card that doesn't support overlay controls correctly. This can result in dropped frames and general bugginess. In any event, a good card for the price, I'm sticking to my guns on that one. Deal with a matrox card and you'll find your appreciation for the pinnacle a great deal higher. Comments posted by Eric from Other, November 22, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Stay away from this product. I have installed on 2 computers and had numerous problems getting it to work. After many headaches I do get a good quality capture but the flaw described below in #1 makes all video with any bright red blocks of color look horrible. 1.)There is a documented bug which causes hard edged red colors to shift and "bleed" into other contiguous areas on images. This bug is confirmed by tech support. When asked, they have no time frame for a fix. Another tech support person said that since this is a legacy product no further development was being done to fix the product. I have posted a short video clip of this problem. It’s a 9.2 mb WMV file (high quality) View at 200% and look at the edges of the pink snorkel and the bathing suit. Besides the normal pixelization at 200% you can easily see this bug. See it here: http://www.loweprofile.com/video/PinnacleSysRedbug.wmv 2.) This product will not work with the new release of Adobe "Premiere Pro". It ships with Premiere 6.5, so if you upgrade to Premiere Pro it's integration with Adobe Premiere will not work. No development is being done to make this card work with Premiere Pro. 3.)If you upgrade the MPEG encoder shipped with Premiere (you will want the upgrade), the card will crash Premiere until a very lengthy and convoluted work around is completed. 4.) With a fast computer (>2.4 ghz) the software MPEG encoder in Premiere is faster than the hardware encoder on the Pinnacle card, almost twice as fast. So why pay the extra money for the hardware MPEG encoder on the Pinnacle Pro-One card? 5.) Support will get very testy when pressed on these issues. They will not replace the product with a comparable product free of bugs. My advice, STAY AWAY from PINNACLE. Stay away from their Studio 8 products also. The user forums for these 2 products are filled with horror stories: http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_threads.asp? ... ctionID=61 http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_threads.asp? ... &lng=1 My suggestion go to Canopus and get the ADVC100 or ADVC1394. I ordered one today, and my Pinnacle Pro-One card will become a Christmas Ornament, a total waste of my money. http://www.canopus.us/US/Products/index/products_advc.asp Check out top rated cards here: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureC ... User+Rated Comments posted by Thomas Lowe from Other, October 02, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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This card is fast at rendering. BUT, Pinnacle STILL hasn't fixed major bugs (vertical lines on edges when rendered). Pinnacle is VERY BAD on releasing a product, then not perfecting it before releasing something else the next year. Then they stop supporting it. DON'T BUY ANYTHING PINNACLE UNLESS YOU HAVE MONEY TO THROW AWAY. Comments posted by The Truth from Other, June 19, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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bought the pro one RTDV card with Premiere 6.5.Easy setup,works grerat and very good software.Needs seperate 7200 rpm hard drive for video storage.The real time effects mean no rendering. The real time effects include 288 Hollywood fx 4.6 transitions,300 alpha magic gradiant wipes,and Pinnacles own filters and effects.All Premiere filters, transitions, titles, need to be rendered, but there are so many spectacular real time effects I use instead. Good mpeg-2 support with Pinnacle Impressions pro upgrade that was part of the package when I ordered in December. A little hard making my first dvd+r disk with chapter points.I get 55 min dvd with highest quality setting, looks fantastic. Comments posted by peter kavanah from Other, April 04, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Fairly excellent card, Premeir has high learning curve but produces almost professional results. Requires lots of hard drive space for files Comments posted by Chuck B from Other, February 26, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Early drivers were troublesome on some of our VIA mainboards, but the latest 2.0 drivers have had no issues. A very good realtime editing card, the built in pinnacle effects along with the hollywood fx in premiere are enough to keep the originality up. Our only gripe with it anymore is the lack of analogue capture (preserve old videotapes) to mpeg 1/2, only to DV AVI. Comments posted by mutey from Other, January 02, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Pro One's realtime system is great. Pro One's MPEG support is 8 out of 10 The quality is realy good, but your controll is lilmited. It's not like Tempeg Comments posted by Toby from Other, October 29, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Great capture card, captures in AVI so you need a large HD. But the results are superb. A little expensive but you do get some good software to work with. Cost was a little under 600GB pounds. Comments posted by jon from Other, September 28, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio 500 PCI | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 5.4/10 5 votes |
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5 comments (33578 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle Studio 500-PCI version 10 provides the ease and power to quickly combine and enhance your precious memories from digital and analog camcorders and effortlessly preserve and share them on DVD and beyond.
Hardware Specifications Inputs: * Composite video input (RCA connector) PAL, SECAM, NTSC * S-Video input (mini-DIN connector) PAL, SECAM, NTSC * IEEE 1394 I/O connector (6-pin type) Outputs: * Composite video output (RCA connector) PAL, NTSC * S-Video output (mini-DIN connector) PAL, NTSC * IEEE 1394 I/O connector (6-pin type) Analogue Video Capture and Output * Video format: PAL/SECAM (SECAM input only) * Frame rate PAL: 25 frames per second/50 fields per second * Frame rate NTSC: 30 frames per second/60 fields per second * Frame size PAL: 720 x 576 * Frame size NTSC: 768 x 480 * Compression: MPEG-2, MPEG-1, DV, MJPEG (User-selectable. Available real-time capture formats depend on CPU speed.) Export Formats * Video CD (VCD) or S-VCD* with optional CD burner (CD-R or CD-RW) * DVD* with optional DVD burner (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R or DVD+RW) * DV, AVI, DivX® **, RealVideo® 8, Windows Media® 9, MPEG-1, MPEG-2*, MPEG-4** files * Dolby® Digital Audio 2 channel* & 5.1 channel** audio Import Formats * Video: DV, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2*, DivX®**, MPEG-4 (AVI)**, Windows Media Format, Non-encrypted DVD Titles** * Audio: WAV, MP3 * Graphic: BMP, JPG, PCT, TGA, TIF, WMF |
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I have much experience with working with many Pinnacle Studio programs & capture cards. Firstly I must say Pinnacle Studio have some of the worst out of sync audio problems I have seen. During the past 10 years I have owned Pinnacle Studio 9,11,12,14 & 15. I own a Pinnacle PCI 500 & PCI 700 capture cards will only now work with Pinnacle Studio 11 & 12 on Windows 7 64bit. If you use Pinnacle Studio PCI – 500 or PCI -700 capture cards with studio 14 or Pinnacle latest Studio 15 the capture cards on windows 7 64 bit will cause your computer to crash dump every time you try to capture any analogue video signal even when using the latest Widows 7 64 bit capture card updated drivers from Pinnacle. Forget buying any video capture device via usb 2 or you may also suffer out of sync audio problems regardless of the brand. My advice to any person wanting to capture any analogue video signal in mpeg 2 you must purchase a capture card with built in audio in & mpeg 2 hardware processing within the PCI capture card this will avoid any out of sync audio problems when recording video in mpeg2. There are some capture cards with inbuilt hardware mpeg 2 processing available from around $199 to $399 AU dollars. When using Pinnacle Studio Programs with Pinnacle hardware capture cards you must continually defrag your hard drive & constantly reboot your computer & it is pot luck when you start to capture if you get out of sync or in sync audio capture when capturing in mpeg 2. If you want to capture the best possible picture quality you must only capture in AVI uncompressed video format this will use much hard drive space depending NTSC or PAL 1 hour = 80 to 100 gigabytes of hard drive space but you get the best possible picture quality for editing and you not get the out of sync audio problems when you edit your video from AVI compressed or uncompressed formats. Unfortunately all Pinnacle Studio programs will only capture analogue video in mpeg 2 or AVI, DVD compressed formats. Pinnacle capture AVI compressed format reduces the picture quality so severely it is better to record in mpeg 2 then you have out of sync audio problems with Pinnacle Studio software 9,11,12,14, & 15 & Pinnacle Studio capture cards. Pinnacle Viewcast OSPREY sell other video capture cards however in my opinion their video capture cards are ridiculously over priced. The Pinnacle Viewcast OSPREY 100 is selling for $200 this capture card looks identical to the Hauppauge capture card that sells for $49.00 Both capture cards have identical printed board layout and P.C. semiconductors are identical too. It is a shame Pinnacle do not offer within all their studio programs to capture AVI uncompressed format & with 2tb hard drives at affordable prices Pinnacle need to update their next Pinnacle Studio software programs to enable full AVI uncompressed capture but I guess Pinnacle products are mainly made for beginners not high quality video capture or they would have allowed to capture full AVI uncompressed video format/codec within their previous studio software programs & capture cards. Pinnacle do supply via a little program called AM capture AVI uncompressed. This program is so buggy it will not work correctly on Vista or Windows 7 32 bit or 64 bit. This little program is a piece of crap. Pinnacle needs to produce more up to date PCI capture cards suitable to work correctly for Windows 7 32bit & 64it instead of selling in early 2012 their PCI hardware capture cards are more than 12 years old now & Pinnacle need to allow full AVI uncompressed format while capturing video from composite, Super VHS & Wire fire via their capture cards and Studio software programs. It is my personal opinion I believe Pinnacle is a company that design software to purely generate huge amounts of profit but offer sub standard video capture cards & sub standard Pinnacle Studio software programs. I would rate Pinnacle products 3 out of 10. In my opinion if you buy Pinnacle your just wasting your money if you want high quality video capture & not have out of sync audio problems while capturing in mpeg 2. I am now looking at buying a H264 & HDMI capture card. I have been told Blackmagic's Intensity Pro is popular however I have read on the internet they drop the retail price down to $199 because of many issues concerning this card I cannot verify if this is true or false perhaps readers might like to comment concerning Black magic Intensity pro? I am also looking at the Hauppauge Colossus will capture in component giving superior video quality capture compared to Super VHS video capture might be worth looking at too. Comments posted by lamon77 from Australia, December 30, 2011: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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I bought the studio 500 pci and I have used two or three times, and for me it´s ok, because I caught my 8mm to dvd, and I can edit each shot, I like the transitions that come in the package, I´m sad becuse more or less the 60 or 70% of the effects and transitions are locked and you know it´s necesary pay for them, but in general it´s ok, I had a bad experience with the pinnacle on-line store, because i din´t realize that I bought only the software in the time that I want the hardware, so i cancelled the puerchase within the time that the terms of purchase said, but I couldn´t cancel the purchase, that was a bad experience, because i spent $100 in software that I didn´t want to. (I´m sorry for my english, I hope you understand what I´m want to tell you) Comments posted by joe from Mexico, August 15, 2007: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Well to the person above who posted that the card doesnt work was obviously just having problems at his end. I bought the card, installed the drivers and software FIRST, installed the card and that was that. Connected it up via Composite video in and was able to capture straight away. At first the quality wasn't that great, and didn't look as good as the video on the TV. However once i invested in some high quality gold plated RCA leads the quality was much better. Audio capture is done through your soundcard, so make sure you have a good one. Overall for the price this is a very good bit of kit, great for transferring old VHS,and also MINI-DV digitally through the handy IEEE Firewire port. Comments posted by Simon from United Kingdom, March 08, 2007: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I've had no problems installing and using this capture card (4 years old, P4; 1,7GHz; 768Mb internal mem.; 120Gb HD, nVidia G-force 2mx200, on board sound card) but you have to use Pinnacle software (Studio 10 came with my card). Adobe doesn't recognize the card. Studio 10 runs very slow on my PC, but I only use it to capture. My new S-video cable didn't work, but a composite cable did, so I stopped trying and returned the S-video cable to the shop. When capturing the picture in the picture in the smal monitor window doesn't run smoothly and the sound level indicators are a bit too slow, but the capture itself is fine. Sound is in sync with picture. Even after 2 hours capturing. Capturing in Mpeg is not possible on my (old) PC. but AVI is possible, even in highest quality. To test the card I captured a movie from a "perfect" master, a commercial DVD (funny, you can't copy the DVD on VHS, but there is no protection against this capture card). When looking at the copy DVD you can see that the colours are less bright. Parts of the picture (master DVD) that are very light and show little contrast (sky, desert)show even less contrast at the copy DVD. But the copy DVD was of acceptable quality. I use this card mainly to digitize old VHS tapes. This low-budged solution is perfect for me. Comments posted by Steven from Netherlands, December 28, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I have been trying to install this hopeless product for 2 weeks, now. I am no longer able to return it to the shop, because it has been installed. So far I have done a total install / re-install five times. Be warned that it also trashes any drivers from other packages, too. I am now uninstalling it completely, and giving up, in order to re-install all my video editing software. Shame on Pinnacle for releasing this to the mass market when it just DOES NOT WORK. Surprising also that Pinnacle is a known industry manufacturer, but my experience of this product now means I cannot recommend them in my job as a broadcasting technician in a large broadcasting corporation. (Ridiculously over-specc'ed computer, Pentium 4, 1024Mb RAM, 256Mb on video card (NVidia), 1 TB of disk space!) Comments posted by DalstonPaul from United Kingdom, May 16, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio 500 USB | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $80 | 4.0/10 2 votes |
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2 comments (11103 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle Studio 500-USB version 10 provides the ease and power to quickly combine and enhance your precious memories from digital and analog camcorders and VCR’s on your PC or laptop and effortlessly preserve and share them on DVD and beyond.
Hardware Specifications Inputs: * Composite video input (RCA connector) PAL, SECAM, NTSC * S-Video input (mini-DIN connector) PAL, SECAM, NTSC * Stereo audio input (2 x RCA connectors) * IEEE 1394 I/O connector (6-pin type) Outputs: * IEEE 1394 I/O connector (6-pin type) Analogue Video Capture to Computer * Analogue PAL & SECAM/NTSC input * DV (IEEE 1394) camcorder capture 25 Mbit/s. Full camera control support * Compression: MPEG-2, MPEG-1, DV, MJPEG (User-selectable. Available real-time capture formats depend on CPU speed.) Video Playback from Computer * DV (IEEE 1394) output to camcorder 25 Mbit/s. Full camera/device control support Export Formats * Video CD (VCD) or S-VCD* with optional CD burner (CD-R or CD-RW) * DVD* with optional DVD burner (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R or DVD+RW) * DV, AVI, DivX® **, RealVideo® 8, Windows Media® 9, MPEG-1, MPEG-2*, MPEG-4** files * Dolby® Digital Audio 2 channel* & 5.1 channel** audio Import Formats * Video: DV, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2*, DivX®**, MPEG-4 (AVI)**, Windows Media Format, Non-encrypted DVD Titles** * Audio: WAV, MP3 * Graphic: BMP, JPG, PCT, TGA, TIF, WMF |
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The capture card is ok, but the software I bought is defective. I can capture video but not audio. I've used Pinnacle's live help to get some assistance from about seven techs no one has been able to give me a solution to the issue I'm having with the audio. I cannot return the software and so am stuck with a product that doesn't work, and I'm out of pocket. Comments posted by Lyons from Canada, November 23, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Pretty much using this box with 3rd Party Software to encode to DIVX on-the-fly etc. I thought it may provide a video out on the firewire/DV connector to input to my MAC but it does not. It seems it only outputs to a camcorder to enable auto recording etc from the supplied software. Overall its OK but try to get it cheaper without the software unless you really are doing the import from your camcorder to do the fancy movie creation thing. Comments posted by Ryan Hovey from Canada, April 14, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio AV/DV | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn |
Vista? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $200 | 6.0/10 17 votes |
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18 comments (42440 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Capture video from analog or digital camcorders, edit your project, add striking visual effects and export your final project to videotape, DVD, or the Internet with Studio AV/DV. Studio AV/DV is a complete, internal video editing solution that includes Pinnacle’s award-winning Studio version 8 editing software. |
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This capture card seems to work fine for me when I capture analog video. System Sony Corporation System Model: VGC-RB30 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack: 2.0 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz Feature Analog VideoIn = Analog composite and SVHS video input DV/Firewire = Firewire input It also has composite and SVHS video output Came with Pinnacle Studio 9 software I use the s-video inputs. I used a S-Video booster and High Quality CAT5 (or 6) cable from my VCR 80 feet to my pc I use the capture card with MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 10 Using this card for video output – How? What I do not understand is if and how I can use this card for video output for my monitor or other software other than Pinnacle. It does work using the “Make Video” --> “Tape” option in Pinnacle Studio 9 Comments posted by csbk from United States, December 30, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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The software is version 9 and it's very good. However the capture capability has not worked since the day I bought it. Audio loses sync all over the tapes...any tapes. The support group is hopeless. Spent countless hours trying things. Have HP P4/512MB/seperate 120GB disk for capture. Asked for money back. Give it a 5 for software. Comments posted by RPCS from Canada, January 07, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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I capture with mainconcept and not frop frame , audio ok , over 2 hours in 720 x480 mpg2 variable bibrate (4500) Comments posted by zatanax from Chile, December 23, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Installation is easy But the studio 9.x is not working so good. I have purchase version 9.0 with my card When start the studio 9/10 times the program hung I make reinstall to WinXp to Pinnacle and the problem is stay I make upgrade to version 9.4 and now the things is little better The program start normal but if i want to procces big files also hung. I have good synthesis in my computer P4 2.4 512 MbRAM 256 GbHDD SATA DVD LG TV TUNER HAUPACHE Video Card FX5200 128Mb Memory I try another one time to reinstall all (OS & Programs) and after that if i have not good result i abandon this card and i search for something better Comments posted by bob from Greece, June 03, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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I've been using this system for about a year now and havn't had any problems converting my VHS, HI8 and TV broadcast analog videos to first VCD's and later to DVD's. I found that it is important to install the S/W patches for Studio from Pinnicle. Quality has been as good as the original source, no sound sync problems, and very much like to flexibility and ease of using Studio 8. My only complaint is the long rendering time since the PCI card doesn't have H/W rendering. The only burning problems were related to using low cost-no name DVD disks. ABIT NS7 MB AMD 2800+ 1GB 2700 Ram 80GB NTFS HD dedicated to video On Board sound 5200 video Comments posted by roylz from United States, October 28, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I vould like to say that I had no problem with capturing sound or video with this card.(pinacle studio deluxe) took just one hour and a half to a VHS tape (PAL) and tranfer it to DVD without problem! everything went smooth as, the other users must be doing something wrong,use a quality video player and tapes im sure this has something to do with the problems they have, adjusting settings for cpu in bios has increased performance overall. in short using quality parts ensures quality also use low loss cables they are expensive but help improve tranfers synchron 100% hasnt missed abeat on several burns Hardware is: twin intel 1.2 celeron overclocked 1.6 plus big heat sinks (lol) sound blaster pro audigy 5.1 monitor sony trin 21in 1.24 gig ram sd 600 GB of HDDrives sata raid arrays graphics card geoforce 128m ddr DVD writer toshiba twins under win XP pro Studio version 8.5 VHS player sony on composite I'm happy with this card and enjoy it works well best regards Rob P Comments posted by rob from Australia, August 26, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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The information below is strictly for Serious people who focus on Capture Quality More and less on Features. First of all make sure you have a AMD Athlon 1.5GHz or better. Pentium 4 1.5GHZ or better. Don't boughter Intel Celeron. Pentium 4 is way faster than Intel Celeron. The Card captures OK quality. If you are serious about Quality don't waste your time on this card or Dazzle DVD USB. The are both about same quality. I card does captures with hardware. But it does have frame drop problem sometimes if you record 3 hour long video. You wont have any lipsync problems. I highly recommend that you go buy the LiteOn DVD LVW-5005. That DVD recorder or and other DVD recorder. These DVD recorders have far more better capture quality. I mean this Pinnacle card is not even close. I have compared the output of this Pinnacle card with philips DVDR985 DVD recorder. Let me tell you even an LP speed recorded DVD on Philips had better Video quality than this Pinnacle card at 720x480 resolution which they claim is DVD quality, which in my opinion is not DVD quality. DVD recorders are only couple bucks more. You can easily find GoVideo DVD recorder for $150 on eBay. An advice for those you like to backup DVDs. Don't capture them with capture card. Either use DVD recorder or USE DVD Shrink. DVD shrink will keep all menu intact as it is in original DVD with AC3 5.1 sound and Subtitles. Try it and you will believe me. But if you want to convert your old VHS buy a DVD recorder, it will even enhance the video quality after capturing. Comments posted by spec1sef from United States, July 17, 2004: Compatibility: |
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use less card. it doesn't have hardware capture and rendering is very slow. All the money you pay is for studio 8 software, which again doesn't provide VBR. Pinnacle should have included hardware capture and encoding for all the money they charge for this card. Comments posted by S.K.Katiyar from India, June 05, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Iv'e had mine fro about a year and it works great with Scenalyzer Live to capture. I use Vegas4 for editing and rendering. DVD Workshop for DVD creation. Studio 8 would sometimes not see the card after a first capture. Studio 8 was the wasted purchase. Comments posted by UncleBud from United States, February 29, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Yes the card does have some audio synch problems, but I found it is mostly with older video tapes, ones that cause frame loss. Also check the video heads on your vcr or camcorder. When I use better quality tapes I don't have this problem.. Studio 8 software is Awesome, love being able to output to tape... Comments posted by mark from Other, October 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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ohh by the way. Relevant to my post below, the capture looked like crap on my computer and the AVI playback looked like crap...even the DVD's burned looked like crap...On my computer. Don't get discouraged because computer playback doesn't look great, that has to do with some interlacing issue that is different from TVs to computers. When played through my DVD player-to-TV set up, it looked as good as the tapes. Which is all that really matters anyway. Comments posted by Randy from Other, August 31, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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I know most here said they have trouble with audio sync...I'm wondering if that was for analog capture or DV capture...and if those having problems have lamo systems. I just purchased this unit 2 days ago and it installed with no problems. I hadn't even tried it out when I was ready to take it back after I found this site while looking for tips. I figured I would give it the benefit of the doubt and at least try it. To be frankly honest: It worked perfect for my analog capture. I just completed burning two 1 hour recordings onto DVD that play perfect in my Panasonic DVD player. Perfect video copy of the Hi8 tape. NO sound sync problems at all. Takes awhile but thats to be expected. Took 5 hours to capture, encode, and burn direct to DVD. I also notice that many people in here need to use 3 different pieces of software to complete a DVD...one ot capture, one to encode, and one to burn... That's nuts. The Pinnacle studio 8 bundled with this pci capture card performed all three of those functons flawlessly. I don't discount that some might have problems...you see them posting on every card available. But, I seriously wonder how much of that is human error considering how easy this was. System: athlon 2100xp geforce4 4200 ti graphics 512 megs pc2700 ram onboard MB sound Panasonic DVD burner Comments posted by Randy from Other, August 31, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Sorry about my english. I vould like to say that I had no problem with capturing sound with this card.(pinacle studio deluxe) I've just take a one hour and a half film from a VHS tape (PAL) and tranfer it to DVD without problem! synchron 100%!!! Hardware is: AMD athlon 1600+ K7S5A with sound on board 512 MB ram DDR 60 GB HDD 7200 rpm DVD writer NEC under win XP Studio version 8.5 VHS player Panasonic on composite No less of quality I'm happy with this card and enjoy it best regards dr.soran Comments posted by dr.soran from Other, July 26, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I too purchased the AVDV with hopes of copying my aging VHS collection over to VCD or DVD, and found the same problem ---- it would not maintain audio/video synch on any capture. I alo downloaded the latest software version and hardware drivers - same problem. Their support group avoids addressing the problem. What really burns me is that Office Depot in Mexico was selling it for $3699 pesos (about $350 USD), and now I can't get my $$$ back because it's been too long since the purchase date, from all the experimenting trying to make it work. Comments posted by Hancock from Other, July 23, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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Purchased this with high hopes - have lots of VHS tapes that I wanted to convert to DVD. Unfortunately it would not maintain audio/video synch on any capture to the point that audio was almost 10 seconds off by the end of a 1.5 hour capture. Downloaded latest software version and hardware drivers - same problem. Even downloaded the beta versions and the problem still existed. A check on their website forums indicated that many users have the same problem and there doesn't seem to be a fix for it. Returned it and bought a Canopus ADVC-50. Now I get perfect audio/video synch. Do not buy this Pinnacle product until they work out the bugs. The reason why I gave it a 5 rating is because the actual Pinnacle editing software - Studio 8 - is very good. Easy to use and loaded with features including titles and menus. So, if you need a capture/converter card, get a Canopus ADVC-50 (or ADVC-100 standalone). If you need editing software, look into Pinnacle Studio 8. Comments posted by Manny from Other, July 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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Card seems to work well in capturing from VCR using their version 8 Studio Software -- XP overcomes the 4GB limit on file sizes making full capture possible. However, to date I haven't found a way to get the software to write the DVD files (.bup, vbo, etc) when they take up more than 4.7GB. Not even when writing to the 200 GB HD instead of directly to DVD. I contacted Pinnacle via email a week ago asking about this and no reply to date. I am now using uLead's Movie Studio 2 to create the DVD files and then reprocess them with DVD2One to get good quality DVD out of my VCR library. Additionally, I've had the software lock up and refuse to complete a rendering on at least 3 occassions. The system didn't lock up - just the software made no progress in the rendering even after 2 or 3 hours on an AMD 2000+ system with 256MB RAM and 200GB HD to write to. Would be great if this card was supported directly by uLead's software, but doesn't seem to be the case. Hardware seems good, I dropped the score because of the poor support from Pinnacle and the overly protective and sometimes cranky software. 2kmaro of www.broadbandreports.com Comments posted by 2kmaro from Other, July 05, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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can only capture in DV format from analog source. This is fine if you are using Windows XP. Windows ME has a 4gig max file size issue and DV caps are very large. I can only capture 17 minutes at a time. This is not a good way to go when capturing old VHS tapes and such. Would only recommend this card for users with Windows XP and a large secondary hard drive. Comments posted by aaron from Other, June 18, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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This card came along with the Studio 7 Deluxe. Very difficult card to install. Only trick that will work is to remove all existing PCI cards and cross fingers. This experience made on an Intel VC820 motherboard Win98. Lost many hours with this installation, would not recommend. To prove my findings, please visit Pinnacle's forum ( USA and Germany) on this product. Comments posted by Miguel Princz from Other, June 17, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio Deluxe | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn |
Vista? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $200 | 6.4/10 49 votes |
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54 comments (50186 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle Studio Deluxe delivers everything you need to make fantastic Digital movies on your PC, all in one easy to use package. From Analog or Digital video capture and editing all the way through to burning a disc to play on your set top DVD player, Pinnacle Studio Deluxe makes it easy to make great movies at home.
Hardware Specifications Hardware Type: Internal 1394/FireWire & Analog capture board Connection to PC: PCI Slot DV/FireWire Inputs/Outputs: 3 Analog Video Inputs: S-Video & Composite Video (RCA) Audio Inputs: Right & Left RCA Analog Video Outputs: S-Video & Composite Video (RCA) Audio Outputs: Right & Left RCA Capture Specifications: Format: NTSC Only Compression: DV Maximum resolution: 720 x 480 Maximum frame rate: 30 frames/60 fields per second |
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Have this programm for over a year now. Intall no problem, but capture Hi8 analog gives a green vertical band at the right side of the screen. No way to remove it, only with Premiere 6.5 (3% cropping) After creating DVD's, they only works at WIN DVD on the computer, very poor pictures on Win Media Player and very poor pictures also at a seperate DVD player/TV. No differnce by burning a DVD bij Studio 8 of Nero. Have 'a hot E-mail line' with Pinnacle for over a year now, my PC has been checked bij the manifacturer, no solution. Send a DVD to Pinnacle Customs (on request), did not arrive (??) Send another DVD. Waiting and waiting for an answer now. Bad product ! Comments posted by videoot from Netherlands, September 23, 2004: Compatibility: |
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I am using the capture board in a home built PC with a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP mobo, a P4 3.0 gig HT processor, 1 gb of RAM, and a 150 gig SATA drive (two striped Seagate 80 gig drives - FAST!). I had previously tried using it in a dual 1 ghz P3 machine, but it was WAY too slow. The new box is finally fast enough to be tolerable. I orignally got the capture board with Pinnacle Studio V8, but upgraded to V9 and now V9.1. V9.1 is finally usable. I can now capture full movies off of my TIVO and then burn them onto a DVD with no problems at all. The program is reasonably stable, except for the menu editing routine, so save your work before you edit menus. One big limitation is that you can only go up to the max of a DVD-5, so you are limited to 132 minutes for movies and no more. Make sure you have plenty of scratch disk space. I am using 60 gb, which is adequate. Comments posted by JD from United States, August 11, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I bought Studio Deluxe for the analog capture/print to tape ability more than anything else. So I'll concentrate on the performance of the hardware first. My experience with video (not at home!) DVCPro, miniDV etc., with a full-blown (but softwarely creaky) pro system with Premiere 5.1 and TitleDeko, hardware up to it with all the relevant gadgets (switcher, vectorscope, etc...). My home system's different - less budget - but similarly antique: Compaq 5452 (466mHz Celeron), maxed to 256mb RAM, with a total of 128gb U-ATA hard disks. With the AV/DV, analog and firewire both, I have had no problems whatsoever with capture from and print to mini-DV, using both analog and "pro-sumer" and low end miniDV cams. , and it does the basic job. If I wanted more, I'd have to spend more...but I'm on a budget that doesn't allow at present. That's it for the hardware (strictly speaking - see below re audio capture). Now for the software: Studio sucks, big time, compared with other more expensive software, of course. It's basic, OK for putting together straight cuts, and maybe even adding stills and digital audio already on the computer or via CD/DVD. Video: The timeline is extremely restrictive, but I could use it for TV news/ENG editing with no problems. Quick (ish) provided that any transitions are going to be rudimentary (either crossfades or similar) and you aren't going to overlay multiple transitions. Audio: Limited again, on the timeline - but this is low-end. I like the music option, automatically the right length, BUT it's more cheesy than Cheddar. If I was bothered, I'm sure I could figure out how to make my own source files. Those supplied are in truth wave audio which have separate areas to cue from. Try renaming (after copying) one of them to have the suffix ".wav" and you'll see (or hear) what I mean. Audio capture: The problem, here. The software (and hardware? ...) will not allow me to capture audio through my Delta-44 breakout box. That, for me, is a big problem. I'm forced to capture through an PCI soundcard. That inevitably adds noise, and makes for restrictions on audio source. So, I asked Pinnacle for help. After several emails from me describing my audio setup, they didn't have a clue. I already had Vegas Video 2. It's a truly great piece of software for the cheap price I paid. Multiple timelines, fx, the rest ... but the capture utility crashes. So I'm happy with the AV/DV hardware, I capture in Studio, save the files, edit video in Vegas, and capture any other sounds directly to Vegas. Messy, but until I can afford a Mac with Final Cut and the rest, that's what I have to do. Oh, and by the way ... Linux drivers? Don't ask Pinnacle. Comments posted by Jim from United States, May 25, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Beforeyoubuy pinnacle studio deluxe  Advantages Easy edit and burn. most of operation done automatically. Automatic scene detection. Wide set of cut effects and menus. Precise control of capture (resolutin of coding, framesize, audio and speed). Wide range of output "device" on avdv2 (discs, mpeg, avi, broadcast, vhs). You have digital, s-video, composit-video input and output on external "noiseless" blackbox. High category video dac in the hardware. If you have enogh time you can make high quality dvd on a 500MHz (slow) hardware trough some tricky way. You can control the burning speed (1x, 2x, 4x).  Disadvantages You cannot create 352x576 framesize dvd (important to archive make lp medium quality discs like 180m old vhs). Do not have hardware mpeg coder. So you need fast pc >2GHz. You have no controll of mpeg encodin during edit and burn disc, all it is done automatically. Ordinary quality audio dac/adc in the hardware. You cannot replace audio capture device if no other than avdv2 video input device installed. you cannot set the pal/secam/ntsc bandwidth (Eg. Pal.G ol pal.b). I hope pinnacle use the widest for hardwired setup! Middle category video input processor in the hardware. Hardware lost in some cases the color signal. In that case additional signal regenartor reqired. You cannot use video output as windows desktop. You cannot mix differently coded track. You have no clip frame posibilities (masking of noisy frame of picture). Does not handle mpeg4 or dwix compression. The support does not know anythink about analoge video signals and sometimes boes not speek english.  Conclusion Designed for making home videos from camcorder or high quality analoge sources trough easy way. Not reccommanded for users who will to use advanced capabilities of digital encoding.  Today I use Pinnacle studio 8/ studio deluxe avdv2 as capture device. Tmpegenc plus as mpeg remastering tool. Pinnacle studio 8 as dvd author for basic tasks. Tmpegenc dvd author as dvd authoring tool for enhanced tasks. Pinnacle studio 8 as dvd burning tool for basic tasks. B's recorder gold basic as burning tool for enhanced tasks. Comments posted by Zsolt Kendi from Hungary, March 24, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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May designed to average users. They have minimal optons, all working automatically. From other side you do not have possibilities to costumize enough. Because the pci card have no hardware mpeg encoding support you need fast CPU (more than 2GHz). The card build with philips SAA7113H video processor. I personally have color problem in case of more VHS tape. Where SAA lost their color (Svideo input) there micronas VPC3215 not. I expect more professionality from "deluxe" porduct especially in hardware design. Comments posted by Zsolt Kendi from Hungary, March 01, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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I have been using Pinnacle Studio Deluxe 7 for some time now. No problems with the installation and no audio/video sync trouble. It's a great editor for making slide shows combining still pictures with video clips. Also, converting VHS tape to DVD works great to. I use this program to create an AVI file ONLY. Then use MAINCONCEPT 1.4 MPEG ENCODER or CINEMA CRAFT ENCODER to create a MPEG2 file. You will and up with a whole lot better finished video using one of these then using Pinnacle to do the whole job. Comments posted by harris49 from Other, December 13, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Pinnacle Studio Deluxe seem's to be really easy program to use, but my capture card died after only one use. I faxed Pinnacle directly and in a matter of only hours, I had an RMA. They must have known about the problematic cards. The new card has all new bugs built in. Now I have and audio/video sycn problem. I tried upgrading the program to version 8.8 and all new drivers for their website. Still no luck with the audio/video sycn problem. I didn't have that problem with the original card. The replacement card also now drops frames, which did not occur with the first one. I found a program that fixed both problems. I now capture the video from my VCR on composite inputs using Scenalyzer. Works just bitchin. I still use Studio Deluxe for editing and converting to DVD. Comments posted by John Mildfelt from Other, September 30, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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Installed without any problem, had problems with moviboxDV, chattering etc. Had same problems, as others had mentioned with a/v sync on analog captue but, purchased ScenalyzerLive which took care of the a/v sync problem. Yes, Pinnacle should take note. Have had DVD burning issues with Studio8, so now use Ulead Video7 for editing and the new DVD XMaker from 321 Studios to author the DVD as it allows much more options with chapters, etc. and produces pro looking labels, etc. Also highly reccomend DVD XShow for slide shows, check it out. In short, takes tweeking, be patient and make sure ALL drivers are updated! ------------------------------------------------------ Dell Computer Corporation Dimension 4550 Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600) Bus Clock: 533 megahertz BIOS: Dell Computer Corporation A06 04/22/2003 2.4 Gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 8 kilobyte primary memory cache 512 kilobyte secondary memory cache 1.024 Gigabytes Installed Memory 280.00 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity 185.10 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space _NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A [DVD+RW/CDR+RW Burner] SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616T [DVD-ROM drive] Intel(R) 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CB (Ultra ATA 100) IC35L120AVV207-0 [Hard drive] (120.00 GB) -- drive 0 (primary/8Meg cache) WDC WD1600JB-00DUA3 [Hard drive] (160.00 GB) -- drive 1 (WD Caviar 8Meg Cache) c: (on drive 0) 119.96 GB 81.71 GB free (Primary Drive) f: (on drive 1) 160.04 GB 103.40 GB free (Dedicated Video Capture) NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 [Video Card] Creative SB Live! Series (WDM) (Sound Card) Pinnacle Systems Studio AV/DV E4 (Analog/Digital Capture Card) Pinnacle Systems Studio AV/DV Overlay Cisco Systems 350 Series PCI Wireless LAN Adapter (Wireless Internet) Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection (Network Card) Comments posted by jwhit from Other, September 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I had the same audio sync issues as some of the other users. I purchased a copy of Scenalyzer and it's now working perfectly. I have captured numerous 2 hour movies with perfect picture quality and no audio sync issues or dropped frames what so ever. Comments posted by jon from Other, August 17, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I was having the same problems as some of the others. Setup was a breeze, but when starting to capture, audio would be out of synce. So I tried Scenalyzer Live and it work's like a charm! I'm running it on a P4, NTFS 120GB drive, 384DDR on XP. I give it a 9 because the Pinnacle software blows but Scenalyzer Live makes up for it. Comments posted by Anthony from Other, June 10, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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PERFECT ive testing everything on this card and i have encountered 0 problems, im using Xp professional p4 2ghz o/c to 2.2ghz 768 mb ddr ram 266mhz. People who have problems with this card either have a defective card or a severe mental problem :P Comments posted by G. S from Other, June 08, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Erratic and unstable behaviour, hassle, incompetent service, no fun. I recommend to shop around for something worth the quid and.... to avoid Pinnacle products. Comments posted by solaar from Other, May 28, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I used to have ATI All-In-Wonder 128 and a comparison below, scale 1 through 10: Function ATI AIW PCTV Deluxe --------------------------------------------- VCD Quality 5 5 SVCD Quality 5 8 TV feature 8 6 Channel switching is an issue on the PCTV Deluxe it really switches slow whereas ATI AIW has quite swift switching. Until now I've only tried through my IBM T23 laptop with USB1 and it installed without problems. Channel auto-scan was no problem and picture quality is satisfying. I haven't experienced driver problems as described in earlier comments. Software included is quite similar to ATI AIW in function, mostly cosmetical differences. I'll return in a couple of months for another indepth review... Comments posted by Henry Greijer from Other, May 22, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Great capture card,good quality of captured files,no instalation problem.No audio/video sync problems. Intel PIII(800 MHz),512RAM,80Gb IBM IDE Hard disk,win 2000 Profesional OS,Pinnacle deluxe,Studio 8. Comments posted by ANDREI from Other, May 12, 2003: Compatibility: |
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Installed on an ASUS P3V4X Intel 733MHz 1 GB Ram WD200 GB HDD with XP Pro, no problems. Reinstalled on New Dell 2.53MHz machine with 640 MB Ram, Had serial number error, downloaded patch and all works well. Capture card is excellent, Studio 8 is very intuitive. Only problem so far is with title software. It realigns from original layout when brought into timeline. Pinnacle said to reinstall software...did not help. Had to use PhotoShop workaround. Overall, an excellent value for the money. I have created DVD and VCD projects without any problems. Captured analog from Camcorder and VCR without a hitch. Imported digital still images and created a slide show without a problem. All within first 10 days. I would highly recommend this package. Comments posted by Mike from Other, May 01, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Bought this card because it was the best capture card at Best Buy. Perhaps that's not the place to buy capture devices. It worked ok, and in fact the captured avi video was superb. However, out of 5 tries, 4 captures were out of sync (including after a clean boot). And the software sucks!! I have a pretty good system (IMO)with 256 mb RDRAM and a 2.4 gh P4. Anytime I run Studio 8 my available memory drops to zero and the whole system grinds to a halt. I'm talking simple menu creation, not capturing or encoding. By comparison, using Scenealyzer, during capture I had 75mb available. Studio's mpeg conversion isn't on par with TMPGEnc either. But that's no secret to those who frequent this site. Took this card back and ordered Canopus ADVC 100. Hope to post a happier review there next week. Comments posted by worldofaaron from Other, April 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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Preface: Pentium 4 2.4B 533MHz FSB ABIT BE7 Motherboard (no RAID) 512MB 333HHz DDR Memory ATI Radeon 64SDR Video Card Seagate 80Gb 7200 RPM primary drive IBM Deskstar 120 GXP 60Gb 7200 RPM capture drive TDK INDI DVD 420N DVD+RW Writer I have the Pinnacle package about a month now and have mixed feelings. Installation went perfect; no problems and the AV/DV card with breakout box is a nice concept. The software, on the other hand, has one serious problem: it cannot capture with the audio/video in sync. I checked the Pinnacle message boards and learned about a little shareware app called Scenalyzer. It works wonderfully for capture with everything in perfect sync. So, perhaps Pinnacle should take some notes... The Disc authoring portion of the software seems to work well, and creates DVD+R's that play on my Pioneer DV-525 Player. All in all, not too bad for the money, but Pinnacle really needs to work on their programming skills. Comments posted by Bob from Other, March 13, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Preface: Motherboard - Asus A7V266-E (VIA KT266A chipset, Promise IDE Controller. Bought the Pinnacle Studio Deluxe, tried for over a week to get it to work properly (almost had it going) and now I am taking it back. It screws up your drive. Pinnacle support tech lied without hesitation. "They are not aware about any problems this card has with this motherboard, chipset or controller." Their forums have some info about this problem, and they don't seem to last too long on their forums. They appear to be deleting the ones they can't resolve or give bad press! Stay away from this COMPANY. I will NEVER buy another thing from Pinnacle and advise others to stay away from them also. It is totally improper for a company to lie about a problem and to cover it up. I'm kicking myself for not paying closer attention to the comments made here by others. Based on what I've read here about the Canopus ADVC-100, I'll be ordering it this afternoon. It is very fortunate for all of us that WWW.DVDRHELP.COM exists. THANKS! to all the folks that make this place possible! Comments posted by BlueMax from Other, March 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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2 sections: a Summary section and a Further Details section. Summary: This is a beautiful package when it works, and it's an infuiating package when it doesn't work. Many people have encountered tremendous difficulty with this product, while many others have enountered little difficulty. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss $200-$300 goodbye. Those who have stuck with the software and gotten it to work have not regretted their purchase--the tricky part, for some, is getting it to work. Avoid this product if you have an ASUS motherboard, as there's a known compatibility problem between the two products. You'll find more information at the following site: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/support/products/info/ ... angue_ID=7 More information in the discussion forums and in the Q&A section (I think). After reading many reviews of video editing software, I tried out Studio 8 and Ulead Video Studio 6. In almost all categories, Studio 8 was superior to Ulead's product. Despite the frustrations, I'm very happy with this product. A few details: I purchased S8 Deluxe. I had no problems with installation of the PCI card or software. I immediately attempted to download some analog video from my camcorder--no problems. When I initally installed the product, I had a Dell Dimension 4100 with the following specs: Win ME, PIII 1Ghz, 128 RAM, 20 Gig hard drive, and CD-R/W drive. S8 did occaisionally crash--sometimes giving me an error message, and it sometimes crashed for seemingly no reason at all (I was just looking at some of the HFX). The only major problem I encountered was capture failure after installing a 2nd hard drive. The problem cleared up when I used EndItAll. I'll undoubtedly encounter more problems (as well as more fun) in the future. I must admit that I bought this product with great trepidation--I had read so many horror stories as well as so many glowing reviews about this product. You'll find many stories at the S8 discussion forums. My experience tends towards the glowing review side. I've been very fortunate. There are a number of quirks to the software that will boggle your mind unless you spend some time looking in the manual and/or reading some posts on the webboard (for instance, you should turn off hardware acceleration when editing video). If you have an emergency project, then DON'T buy this software. The GUI is great and very intuitive. It certainly beats the Ulead interface I used. From my reading and research, it looks like many of the consumer end ( < $100) video editing products have their problems: buggy, terrible GUI, very limited options, little flexibility. I thought S8 had the most to offer for the money, and I haven't been disappointed. Comments posted by Greg Erkens from Other, February 27, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Asus A7V Mother Board with Promise ATA controller combination will not work with this card. Both of my hard drives were crashed after the installation of this card. Other people on the Pinnacle Board were having the same problem however many of the posts were removed after several of us started a thread about the incompatibility. Pinnacle support would not answer my inquiries about the problem. I bought the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge and so far it seems to work ok. Comments posted by Haney from Other, February 23, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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The AV/DV card and software package seemed like a great deal, however the card crashed both of my HD's. I an not using a raid config either. To make a long story short. Asus mother boards with the onboard Promise ATA controller is often incompatible with the Pinnacle card. Also some Dells and HPs are having the same problem. We started trying to narrow it down on the Pinnacle Consumer Board, but they started removing our posts from the link; infact I can't even log on now. Comments posted by Phil Haney from Other, February 05, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Total piece of shit - I tried for 5 days straight to get this thing installed under WinXP w/ Service Pack 1, only to be given the runaround by Pinnacle support for an apparently widespread problem with this OS and certain motherboard manufacturers. Here's a clue, guys - I have an Intel Blue Mountain 2 board, there is no excuse for the huge problems I experienced installing this thing. What a waste. I bought the ATI All in Wonder Radeon 9700 and am satisfied. Comments posted by Sean from Other, January 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Set it up on Win98 no problems, but under FAT 32 you can only capture 17 mins of analog video at a time. Switched to Win XP. Installation was a nightmare, but after I finally got it all sorted out with alot of help from the Pinnacle message Forum, I started capturing. Digital capture works great, analog capture often leaves a blurred bar at the bottom of the picture. I still have not sorted this out. The actual editing process is very easy and straightforward. I stopped using this software to actually write to DVD because it was too flaky. I now use Nero for the actual write process. So to sum it all up, this thing is a buggy train-wreck. Software is unstable and flaky, hardware is ok for Digital, but sucks for Analog capture. Won't reliably burn to DVD. Check out the Canopus cards, they seem to get better ratings. If you need more proof, go check out the Pinnacle message boards. Comments posted by Moe from Other, January 20, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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easy to use, easy to install Comments posted by Rob vd Poll from Other, January 20, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Installed the hardware and software without any problems. The only bad thing about the product is that the analog drivers are only recgonize by studio software. So the software that came with my A-Open DVD burner (Ulead Video 6, NeoDVD and Powerirector 2.1) can not be used to capture analog signals. Pinnacle should make a driver the is supported bij other software. Then this pinnacle studio deluxe would be one of the best for every beginner and those who have some experience with video editing. The software studio 8 is only for those people not demanding to much and only use this software because it's easy to use. Comments posted by PaulP from Other, January 17, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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| Pinnacle Studio DV Clip | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 6.7/10 6 votes |
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6 comments (9189 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| An easy, affordable way to make top quality DV movies. Choose your best shots, add transitions, titles, effects and background music to suit the length and mood of your movie with the special version of Studio software. Save onto any digital format, DV tape, VideoCD or files for the web.
Superior Capture Features : Capture from any DV/Digital8 camcorder or VCR Save hard disk space with Smart Capture - an entire 1-hour DV tape takes only 360MB Import AVI, WAV, MP3, BMP, JPG, PCT, TGA, TIF, WMF files Automatic scene detection |
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This card seems to be fine, but the software is a wreck. I've done everything I can to get this software to burn any thing, much less a DVD. I'm trying a few "trial" versions of video editing software to see if the card and cable are worth keeping. Aside from that i'm returning it and taking the restocking fee for a lost. Go to pinnacles user forums and you will see nothing but complaints regarding this product and system compatability. From what I gather, you load id and it runs seemlessly, or you spend hours/days trying to get it to work, and then give up. Comments posted by mw from Other, October 31, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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The 1394 card is small with 2 external ports and one internal port. The card was recognised by win2k / XP with no problems and there was no need to install any drivers (win already has the OHCP drivers necessary it seems) The Studio 7 LE software seems a bit ropey but to be honest I only really wanted the capture card (I have Adobe Premiere) Capture is fine but beware that studio 7 LE does not seems to be able to capture video with a non-square pixel ratio i.e. the DV widescreen mode on Sony DCR-110E (Premiere handles this with no issues) Comments posted by James Fry from Other, March 05, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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XP Loved the card. The Included DV cable saves like $40. The Studio 7 SE software works great. I've made several SVCD and VCD movies on my Intel Rambus 800mhz 128mb ram 80gig PC. Make sure you have a 7200 RPM drive to capture to. The Studio 7 software gets alot of flack about being unstable. I find it to work flawlessly. I use VCDEasy to burn my SVCD mpegs created in Studio 7. I use a Cannon ZR50mc camera for my source and it works like a charm. Only complaint, but it's not the card or anything, is the time it takes to render the videos as SVCD. Some have taken 5-7 hours depending on transistion, effects and music. Pinnacle keeps thier software updateable from the web with no hassle upgrades. Comments posted by Steve from Other, February 15, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Easy to use, but the software does not produce very good quanlity output, i suggest TMPGenc instead.In general, it's good. Comments posted by Harry Guevara from Other, February 11, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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This is the same as pinnacle studio DV Its software upgradeable to Studio 7 Full or Studio 8 I use it whit sony handycam Whit software you will create VCD VHS SVCD DVD media types also edit your movies Its enogh for home uses Comments posted by WebSiter from Other, December 03, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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This card is physicly the same as the "regular" Studio DV. Some authoring functions are disabled. You can always upgrade. Digital Capture quality (I use a handycam Sony Digital 8) is good. Comments posted by hanssen from Other, July 20, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio MovieBox DV | DV/Firewire DV Converter Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC Linux *based on user reports. |
FireWire | $200 | 4.6/10 28 votes |
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32 comments (67084 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Pinnacle Studio MovieBox DV connects to your PC's 1394 port and includes Pinnacle Studio 8 to deliver everything you need to make great home movies with your camcorder and your PC. S-video and composite video inputs and outputs, stereo audio support, and completely transparent DV pass-through over 1394 allow for quick and easy connection of any camcorder to your PC.
Includes full version of award-winning Studio 8 video editing software F.A. Porsche design, both sleek and rugged Captures video in DV quality Connects to your computer's FireWire/IEEE 1394 port S-Video/composite/FireWire input and output RCA audio input and output Studio 8 save movies as AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, RealVideo, or Windows Media Format Studio 8 has built-in authoring for DVD, VCD or S-VCD MovieBox can be used with the included stand or laying flat on your desk |
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Pinnacle MovieBox DV: I've noticed that when I have the MBDV connected to the Mac Mini via Firewire (as it's designed to do), but then also have a Firewire drive hooked up as well... trying to record, I get the aforementioned "audio but no video" problem. I think, somehow, the MBDV is aware of the reduced bandwidth on the Firewire buss (because of the hard drive) and changes it's "function" to only include the audio so as to not overload the Firewire Buss. I've moved the MBDV to another computer that is saving it's files/data to SCSI (G4 1.25 GHz), and the MBDV is working admirably. Thought there was a problem with the box, but it turns out (as usual) to be "user error". Comments posted by DJTempo from United States, January 04, 2011: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Hello! I'm working with this hardware for quite some time now and I must say that I never had those kind of problems. I do video editing and moviebox really works fine. i capture 90 minutes at a time and never had a problem, not even frame drops. Please people, use better editing software. I've worked with Avid (professional software) and he warns the user when the computer's Power Scheme is set for Home/Office, that means that after 20 minutes it turns off the monitor and hard drives wich compromises the capturing. Basic capturing programs don't check this. Maybe you have PROBLEMS BECAUSE OF THIS. Make sure, and if you have Home/Office Power Scheme set up change it to "Allways On" Comments posted by Tiago from Portugal, July 29, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I tried the MovieBox USB with Studio 9. It would connect with my 8mm camcorder and transfer the image to my PC, but whenever I clicked on the "capture" button, the picture would go black. I could hear the audio but I got no video image at all. The tech support reps had no clue as to why it would not capture anything. I finally took it back to BestBuy and got my money back. Comments posted by marion wingfield from United States, July 23, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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I am busy for days now, but I have not captured anything at all yet. Just like Bob I am looking constantly to the hourglass. The only thing you can do is to disconnect the Firewire cable. After that you are at least able to deactivate Studio 9. According the Pinnacle Helpdesk I should remove and reinstall the “USB device driver”, but this product works with a Firewire connection, at least is should. I will probably throw this “junk device” out of the window one off these days. Comments posted by Philip from Netherlands, June 24, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I've had no problems with video capture so far. Tried several different programs finding that the Studio8 / Studio9 really isn't the best choise for capturing quality video. All problems relating to the input source switching: I've never had anything like that. Same goes with the problems about the capture stopping if the signal was bad. It lowers the quality for some weird reason, though, if errors occur on the signal. Luckily, there's a reset switch. Not perfect, but better than most in my opinion. Comments posted by Tuomas Larjama from Finland, May 12, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I run this with XP Pro, and have tried XP Home, pre and post SP2. I am an expert video technician and do professional video work. This piece has serious problems. It does indeed hang some times after 20 minutes of capture. Sometimes Studio 8 cannot see it. The picture is OK. people complaining about picture quality do not know what they are talking about. If the tape is stretched, any card including a $1,200 Matrox card will have issues. You need a TIME BASED CORRECTION unit, it inserts a corrected frame if the analogue signal is gone - bad frame of VHS or there is not one there, inbetween frames. But the picture even if sending a DVD player into it is only So so after MPEG compression, that is compressing on Ulead Media Studio Pro using a Dolby Digital AC3 codec for sound. The REAL PROBLEM I have is that whe you start a capture, it will stop on its own after a few minutes. Pinnacle is not supporting it with updates, because there is nothing to fix. It is bad hardware AND poorly written software in Strudio 8. Move up to the $500 class of video capture to actually capture good or bad quality video well. Comments posted by Ted from United States, January 25, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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TERRIBLE.... DO NOT BUY THIS... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED... Like many people, I bought this to convert old VHS tapes to DVD, but, as mentioned by so many, moviebox does not like poor input video quality (which is normal for older VHS tapes) Captures ok for a minute or so (if you're lucky) but then it goes "putt putt putt" as if stuck on a frame, so if you've walked away you come back to find an hour of "putt putt" video captured... Don't believe anything else, it's nothing to do with PC setup, it's a design flaw within the box itself.. In standalone mode (not hooked up to a PC) it behaves just the same..... Moviebox is probably excellent in every other way, but for capturing from VHS tapes it just aint no good, and should not be sold as capable of doing so.... CANOPUS or MIGLIA are the devices you should choose... Pinnacle should never have sold Moviebox as a device for capturing from VHS... Comments posted by Darren from United Kingdom, July 09, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I bought MovieboxDV last June. It works with PAL. The problem is the software, Stadio8, does not work with PAL. I can use either WinDV (a free software) or Stadio7 (with a register key hack) to capture PAL signal. I think the hardware itself still works with PAL. Your problem probably is in software. By the way, I final bought another capture device, ACDV-100. The problem for moviebox is that it can not handle poor quality signals. If your TV signal quality is good, like strong TV station, DVD, sat.TV, cable TV, and etc, moviebox is fine. If your TV signal is not good, like old vedio tapes, moviebox will have some difficulty. If you do not believe this, just try follows. Push FF on your VCR while capture. Check what your moviebox captured during FF. It probably will just capture some garbage. But ACDV-100 will capture just like what you see on TV when the VCR doing FF. Although moviebox is doing fine for good video signals. I no longer need it because it cannot handle poor signal well. And I know there is a better one. I can only give it a score of 2. Comments posted by xxiangg from United States, March 25, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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Works like a clock! I suspect that former posters have more problems in having a decent computer-configuration. Don't forget: this device is merely an excellent gateway between your VHS/Camcorder and computer ! Computer freezing, hang-ups, having to restart .. has NOTHING to do with the Moviebox. I'm very satisfied with the functionalities and never bothered about the 'Porsche'-look. One minus-point: Pinnacle Studio is giving me a headache. Never will use it again. Comments posted by Dirk Plessers from Belgium, March 16, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Good apparatus for capturing VHS video, a little disappointing when capturing analogue TV. Video quality is not optimal. I very often notice red stripes (moire effect) around black lines of letters in subtitling or around drawn figures in a cartoon. Comments posted by Hans C. Tieben from Netherlands, March 02, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I've been using this capture device with Linux without any problems so far. It does a pretty good job at capturing video from my old VHS tapes. No hangups. The longest video I have captured is around 1 hour 43 mins. Linux recognizes the Moviebox as a DV camcorder. Use Kino and it's required utilities to grab video from it. Comments posted by William S. from United States, February 24, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Just how bad can the Pinnacle Moviebox DV be? Plus points... *It looks nice (as a door stop or paper weight). Minus points... *It doesn't capture for long periods of time, not more than 30 mins without hanging. *It switches between analogue and DV without being asked, like when you are in the middle of an analogue capture. *The visual capture quality is indistinct when it does work. Detail is removed giving the impression that the video has been through several softening and blurring filters. *Colour reproduction is bland, being incapable of capturing the livelyness or subtlety of the source. *Audio reproduction can best be described as wooly. *The bundled software is as reliable as a British Government report on WMD in a rogue middle east state. Not even using a trustworthy program like Premiere Pro instead makes any difference to the Moviebox's poor performance. The Pinnacle MovieBox DV is very very very very very very very very bad. It case you hadn't guessed; AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS. After borrowing it to try it out I was glad to give it back, otherwise I would have had to taken it out to the yard to shoot it. To sum up, Pinnacle Moviebox DV is a rancid pile of bull manure in wolves' clothing. A thoroughly disappointing effort from Pinnacle, who should hang their heads in shame. Comments posted by chuffster from United Kingdom, February 17, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Avoid at all costs, unless you are feeding it with perfect video. If you are thinking about adding all those old VHS tapes to DVD then be very careful, the slightest glitch will cause it to freeze up. I got caught by this product. I wish I had found this web site before buying one of these. I now own a Canopus ADVC-100, which will deal with any old VHS video fed into it. Comments posted by Anthony Challis from United Kingdom, February 16, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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The concept is excellent but apparently the engineering is so very poor. Yes...yes...the Movie Box USB was designed by F A Porsche... Blah...blah...blah. I'd rather it work properly and be stuffed in a pink cardboard box. The capture of analogue video is OK but, the converted digital video is jerky and the sound does not sync....and yes, I have all the minimum hardware requirements and run no background programs during capture, edit, or movie making. I have a Dell Inspiron 8000. I even invested in a new external 80 meg HD with firewire. I bought the Pinnacle system at Best Buy so a return is no problem..... I have given this product one full month of my time....it gets no more. Take a pass on it folks! Comments posted by cbkaty from Other, January 12, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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Unlike most here, I've had no trouble with the box hanging on captures. I've done a number of captures from VHS up to 23 minutes long. However, every DVD I've burned (6 so far) will only play the first 8-9 seconds before it comes to a dead stop on any DVD player I use. Waiting on word from Pinnacle Tech Support (if it happens) I reckon it's time to hit the forum. Comments posted by mrnaturl from Other, January 04, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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Allright, another update for the MovieBox DV from me. As is mentioned earlier, my MB gave me problems capturing old VHS tapes, my analogue camera gives no problems at all. The problem is that the box hangs when capturing only from VHS. At first this only hapenned every 10 minutes or so, but after capturing the first VHS tape , i switched to another tape, and there's where the trouble started to get fenomenal, every 5 seconds a hangup, and MovieBox reset necessary. I contacted the Pinnacle Helpdesk here in Holland, at local telephone costs, and they stated that there are 3 MovieBox series that are having troubles.(GOOD supportline, no worries there) When your number starts with : 203 560 644 203 560 685 or 203 560 666 Your box is in for a firmware update, according to Pinnacle My box's serialnumber is one of them, so i'm advised by Pinnacle to return the Box to my dealer, and they'll ship it back to Pinnacle where they will do the firmware update, that hopefully solves the problem. I'll start a thread on the forum to let u all know if this helped, cuzz i don't think this is the place to be for this. I'll be back......Scar Comments posted by Scar from Other, December 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Umm...this was absolutely terrible...We actually bought it for a business and little did we know that this was junk. We tried converting old VHS and SVHS tapes and after about 10 minutes into it, it got hung up and we had to keep reseting. Unless your willing to sit right next to the computer when capturing, don't bother. And also, rendering the video takes SOOO LONNG!!! Just forget about this product and go with the Canopus. Comments posted by Andy from Other, December 07, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Had problems with 'hanging' converter during scene changes when capturing old video tape. This was because of video sync disturbances. Returned the MB.DV and received a new one with upgraded firmware. Now everything is working perfect. Only studio 8 is behaving not as expected. Very slow, hangs and blue screens are rather common. But the captured video looks good. p.s. I prefer windv for capturing. Very stable! Comments posted by deursen from Other, October 27, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I bought this box because I'd upgraded from Studio to Edition, only to find out that I couldn't use Edition with my Movie Box USB (which works without a hitch). However, this box is a piece of junk! I manage about 55 seconds before the capture jitters and freezes. Tech support give me the stock answers about using EndItAll and uninstalling and re-installing etc. It doesn't work! Useless item and now having trouble getting my money back. DO NOT BUY! Comments posted by Reece Coleman from Other, September 24, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Downrated from 9 to 8, cuzz if your source isn't 100% glitch free, the box hangs, i believe someone stated here that that happens with capturing from a camera but in my case it's a 10 year old VHS tape that was copied from camera,that causes hang up's.( well what do we expect !! i can live with it) I don't need to reset the box, but i do need to stop capturing and stop the tape, and restart capturing. But as i stated before, the capture quality remains very good, imo it's 1 on 1 compared to the source. But these hang ups cause much time when editing the video. By the way : i managed to get Studio 8 to run 100%, no crashes, or hang up's in WinXP pro, well that's something new, now ain't it !!....:-) Scar Comments posted by Scar from Other, September 21, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I have a good card from Pinacler, ( PCTV pro ) since four yars ago, it works great, and force my option for Pinacle. I brougt the Pinacle Movie Box Dv, and a`m very disapointed. It freezes everytime a scene changes when capturing from a VCR. Alo Pinacle Suport! As I see to many people seems to be the same problem.Cold a new driver resolve that problem? I paid 400 € for a peace of junk. Adérito Martins Comments posted by Adérito Martins from Other, September 16, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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Hi I've bin capturing analogue video for two years now, i tested the Pinnacle DC10, a FlyVideo TV card, and my GeForce2 GTS with ViVo, and burning the vid's to VCD SVCD and DVD All cards didn't perform to my wishes. Mostly because the video's where looking "grainy" and the colours aren't near the original VHS or Camcorder source tape I recently bought the Pinnacle Moviebox DV for € 279, and i must say that this finally meets my expectations. I had no installation problems whatsoever, and the box was recognized instantly. Capturing gives zero frameloss at full DVD resolution,and no audio sync problems. I need to adjust colours a bit in studio 8 when capturing (in DV) but after editing, i burn my vids to DVD all is looking good, IMO there is no visual quality loss compared to the source. System specs : Athlon 1200 HDD 1 Maxtor 20 Gig, HDD 2 Maxtor 40 Gig. MoBo ; MSI K7T Turbo 384 Mb RAM Sitecom 3 ports Firewire Asus V7700 GeForce2 GTS Win XP The reason i give it a 9 is that i compare it with the above named capture devices, and the MovieBox is far superiour to them. However a ten would be overkill, because of the known Studio 8 issues with stability ! Regards.....Scar Comments posted by Scar from Other, September 13, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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If you have a perfect analogue source it works fine. But a single glitch will hang the box and you need to reset it. If you want a box to capture old video tapes to digital video, avoid this product. I tried over 50 tapes. Movies on VHS, for example, were captured without problems (the box doesn't care about Macrovision), but recordings from analogue cameras were impossible to capture. On some it hanged once or twice, which is something I could live with (though it was annoying to have to reset it in the middle and then edit the video to take out the glitches), but on others it was hanging every minute or so. I read on the web that most people are having the same problems. In terms of features it's fairly good. You have both composite and S-video plus digital inputs and outputs so you can stick into it and output to anything you want. It can even work as standalone box, without the need to connect to your PC. But none of it matters when it can't do the job right. Comments posted by proba from Other, September 10, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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the packaging and pinnacle's website don't mention Mac compatibility, but it works on my G4/1250. True plug and play. Comments posted by chris from Other, September 03, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Make sure you have nothing running in the background. With the program speedfan I've got 'frozen' video. I suspect more programs to be sensitive for freezing up the moviebox. Best to close as many as possible apps. like anti-virus and InCD etc. Comments posted by Ton from Other, September 01, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio MovieBox HD | DV/Firewire DV Converter Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $100 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Input Options
Capture from DV, HDV and Digital8 camcorders or VCRs Capture from analog camcorders, 8mm, HI8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C, SVHS-C, or VCRs (NTSC/PAL/SECAM). Import from AVCHD* and other file based Camcorders, Digital Still Cameras, Mobile Devices and Webcams via USB Output Options Output to DV, HDV or Digital8 tape (requires camcorder with FireWire® Input port) Output to analog videotape (requires DirectShow compatible device with video output) |
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| Pinnacle Studio MovieBox USB | Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $200 | 5.3/10 24 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Easy and Fast to Setup and Use
No PC to open, no complicated installation ! Just plug your camcorder or video recorder into MovieBox. Then, connect MovieBox USB to a standard USB port on your PC. With its elegant design and easy-access ports, MovieBox looks great on your desk, which means it's always ready to be used! MovieBox USB delivers high quality on a standard USB port, and even higher quality video capture on the latest Hi-Speed USB2 port. Copy Analogue Tapes onto Your PC MovieBox USB is a capture device that will copy the content of any videotapes (Hi8, VHS, SVHS, DV, etc) onto your PC. With one click, your complete tape-or just your favourite scenes-is directly copied in a DVD quality format. During this capture process, MovieBox USB automatically compresses your video, which saves tremendous space on your hard disk without compromising quality. If you have several PCs at home, MovieBox can be easily moved from PC to PC, including laptops or desktop PCs. Archive On Any Format: VHS tapes, CD and DVDs Once your home movie has been edited with Pinnacle Studio 8, you have multiple choices for storing and archiving your movies: copy them back to your camcorder tapes or onto VHS tapes that you can send to your relatives; burn them on unalterable CDs that you can watch on most recent DVD players*. If you plan to acquire a DVD burner in the future, Studio 8 lets you also burn movies on professional quality DVDs. * Check if your Home DVD player can read VCDs & SVCDs formats |
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Bad sync problems Comments posted by jay from United States, January 13, 2007: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Studio 9 plus with moviebox usb has caused trouble from day one. Running on Pentium IV 3,4Mhz, 1GB RAM 1 doesn't work with external HD 2 quits working when files become too large (app.20 min) 3 freezes for minutes if you work too fast!! 4 upgrade to studio 10 caused system to freeze after first successful(!) use 5 had to reinstall XP twice, losing lots of drivers, which had to be reinstalled 6 messes up drivers of CD/DVD drives 7 instant DVD out of sync by app. 2 seconds 8 support by pinnacle practically non-existent 9 USB drivers on support page older than the one installed by original application! 10 stupidly bought Pinnacle Instant Video Album because ads said easy transfer from VCR cassettes > no such transfer possible, only input from digital camera possible Summary: NEVER AGAIN BUY PINNACLE CRAP, STUPID!!! P.S. I am IT expert/instructor, no novice Comments posted by erich vogt from Austria, January 18, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I hate this thing. The software is garbage and the support on their site is nonexistant. If your looking for an uncomplicated way of capturing video of the slightest quality this IS NOT what you want. Comments posted by Dan from Canada, November 21, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Large pile of steaming garbage. I bought this box discounted to $70 CDN on line from Tigerdirect.ca as a refurbished model. Got Studio 9 Plus with it. Installed box to USB 2 port as directed. Downloaded updated driver and software. Rebooted. System recognised the box but I got repeated capture errors when I attached my Sony HI8 camera to record MPEG to the HD. My system is only 3 months old (AMD 64 3400 Mz 512 MB RAM SATA 80 HD and IDE 80 HD with ATI 9200 Series Radeon card). When I rebooted for the 14th time after reading all the install and uninstall crap on Pinnacle's "Support" site, I lost my CD Drives. The software had corrupted the drivers. I had to repair Windows XP Pro which took all day as I had to reload some of my other drivers and software. Very disappointed in this pile of dung. Comments posted by Keith from Canada, August 19, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I actually purchased this product over a year ago and never did a review because I wasn't familiar with this site then. With that being said, I have vowed to never buy another Pinnacle product after my experience with their software, customer service, and the actual unit. I used all of the Studio 8 software updates at the time and IF the software worked, it would have been great. Evey update would halfway fix one problem and cause another. It was so bugy and Pinnacle wouldn't admit that it was their software (which was the only software that could be used to capture video), they would suggest that the problems (such as rendering errors and crashing) stemed from the DVD burner's firmware and everything else on. Also they suggested upgrading to some of their more expensive software packages as a resolution, but I feel that it's not fair to the end user to buy software that claims to work but doesn't. The unit at first wasn't bad. Even though it was noisy and could become very warm during capture, it had pretty good video capture quality, decent sound, and wasn't too bad with dropping frames. I do remember seeing green and pink pixalation on some captured video, but not all the time. Audio capture was okay but loss a lot of fidelity. Lastly, after 4 months, the unit stopped working (I noticed the decline with more and more frames being dropped and hearing less of the fan). Pinnacle wouldn't respond to my emails to replace the unit and the wait times on the phone were horrible at best. I ended up throwing it away and chalking it off as experience. Comments posted by kedavis from United States, February 18, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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I bought the Pinnacle MovieBox USB which includes Studio 9.0. I also downloaded and installed the latest software and driver updates from Pinnacle's website. It works well. Plug in the usb cable and it installs the drivers from the CD. Start up Studio and click on the capture tab to capture video. I have captured more than a dozen VHS tapes so far and it works very well. I am using Ulead DVD WS II to author. Athlon XP 2700+ Soyo KT600 Dragon Lite, win XP. Comments posted by shiv from United States, August 20, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I got my dad to buy this thinking it would be a great way to record cable TV with my laptop, instead of having to bring the settop box up into my room with a long cable trailing down the stairs. When it arrived, i installed all the software and soon had it working, great. Ok this is the part where i find out i cant capture in avi (ok maybe i should have fully read the specs) so then i bring it downstairs into the TV room, plug the settop box into it, and i dont know if this is an issue with all external cards, but theres around a 3 second delay from what the settop box is producing to what the preview screen on the laptop shows. Oh and the preview screen is small, VERY small. ok well i go ahead with capture, and when the programme finished, i have to say at 12mb a second with some 720x560 resolution (cant exactly remember) the video was still slightly pixilated. i would have rather recorded to slightly compressed avi. Now i transfer the file via a wireless connection to my pc, now here comes the weird part. i have two versions of tmpgenc, none of which will convert these mpegs. One comes up with error, the other crashes. I already wanted to return this, so my dad emailed the online shop (cant remember the name) a return form, but they never replied. Infact he emailed them like 3 times but they never said anything. im now stuck with this piece of crap, wishing i'd gone for the canopus. around the 3rd capture, the audio started going funny, the audio of the produced mpegs sounded like they were captured with the audio at 32kbps 44khz. its weird because the pinncale software is so crap, they dont give you the option of compressing the audio in the first place! I tried reinstalling it but of course, that didnt work. I can no longer use this and i hope to sell it to some sucker on ebay (just kidding :P ) Comments posted by Will from United Kingdom, July 11, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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Getting good results on VHS to DVD conversion so far. Audio sync is pretty near perfect and video quality is good. Having pooled some views from myself and a few other friends with same kit the advice seems to be: only get this kit if you have a powerful PC. My XP2700+ system carries this OK but a buddy with a P4 2.0gig is having problems, responses way to sluggish and multiple application-freezes. Without these processor drain problems would get a 9 or 10. Comments posted by AdamT from United States, February 02, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Easy to install and use. Pinnacle Studio 8.8 suffers from occasional hangs and crashes, but is WAY more stable than the early 8.x versions. Capturing 2hrs 15min at DVD quality resulted in out-of-sync audio. (At around 2 hours, the audio was about 2 words off.) If it wasn't for this problem, I would have been happy with the device. Luckily, BestBuy has a generous return policy. Comments posted by prestochango from Other, December 12, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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Have tried the Pinnacle Studio MovieBox USB and would not work with my system. It began to work and than after the file size increaded, it would freezes my computer system. To much tweaking in order to work with the computer. Have not had any luck with support or their web for help. I think for the money, it should not be such a pain to install and keep it running. Comments posted by Tim Byrne from Other, December 10, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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Bought this with my Dell. As I was trying it out, it seemed fine when I was doing just a few minutes of capture and editing. Started to have problems once I started doing larger files. The capture generally seemed to work fine. I did have a lot of problems with the software. Many hangs, some abrupt terminations of the Studio 8 software, and issues with the menus they provide. What really freaked me out was when I went to their web site for support and found 20+ new problems added daily. Hardware seemed good, software not-so-good. Comments posted by Steve Jurkovic from Other, December 06, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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My moviebox is working with a Medion laptop and an external harddisk. It has worked perfect from day 1. Both hard- and software are easy to use if you follow Pinnacle´s recommen- dations. Comments posted by carl frederiksen from Other, December 04, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Knocked down from 9 to 8. Does not capture on peripherial drives. Only captures only internal hard drives. For me this limits the amount of captures you can do and store until later for editing, etc. More updates to follow. Comments posted by dvwannab from Other, September 17, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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This review is only a quick initial overview of what I have found after a few caps and tweaks in 2 days. I will update with more findings at a later date. I had some fears about this device, as I have heard many things about Pinnacle drivers screwing up entire systems. But I said what the heck, as I must test and report to my brothers and sisters at DVD-R Help :-) I was pleasantly surprised that installation was smoother than a babies bottom. Documentation was step for step with how the installation occured (what a novel idea). System Specs: Win2K Pro 2 Gig Rig 512 MB RAM Intel Pro Chip Set 40 GB HD 120 GB Firewire HD for capturing Comes with Pinnacle Studio 8 as your capture/edit/author device. No other software will sync and capture from the included USB 2.0 breakout box. Read many negative posts on this site about Pinnacle Studio 8, so I expected the worse. After installing PS 8, I opened and was immediately notified by a pop-up that there was a newer version of PS 8, which I downloaded and loaded. PS 8 has a simple user interface. A tab for capture, edit and one other that I just drawing a total blank on (hate when that happens). In any case, you can capture MPEG 1 & 2 in 352x240, 352x480, 480x480 and 720x480. Video bitrate up to 12Mpbs. The capture configuration is straigt forward and simple. You can select audio volume level, video bitrate, color, etc. I concentrated my caps on DVD resolution MPEG2 for my tests. I varied small cap tests from 5 to 9 Mbps on football and soccer games this weekend. My tests focused on getting the best quality picture on a 4.7 GB DVD-R type disk. The card does a VBR capture, so this is what I found: To get a whole soccer game (90 minutes + extra time + pregame + hilites = 100 minutes), the best video bitrate was 7000 Mbps and 384/48000 KHz audio. Quality is very nice and every bit as good as the original broadcast. Video bitrate ranged from 4800-7500 and averaged about 5900 (or something close). For football, my idea was to get a game on 2 DVD-R disk. To squease 2.5 hours of high action onto 1 DVD-R would not produce the quality that would satisfy me. Again a setting of 7000 for video, 384/48000 for audio produced KILLER RESULTS. This device does a much better job on football than it does on soccer. My guess is because soccer recording is done at a greater distance, which gives the video encoder more wider open spaces to interpret. It makes it too hard to focus on the primary subject. The encoder tries to capture everything on the same level and leaves a slight blurred/smoothing appearance. Not a bad blur/smoothing, but one my old eyes did notice. Again, like anything else, be aware of what your needs are and clearly define them. Same is true with video capture/edit, etc. If you want to cap original TV broadcasts, back-up DVD and store bought VHS tapes, this may be what you are looking for. Old VHS tapes from your camcorder, whis may not be the thing for you, but maybe worth a look-see. A nice product overall. Although I did not test VCD, SVCD or CVD, my gut feeling is that is would do an good to below average on those formats (again if best possible quality is what you are looking for). High bitrate DVD is very very good, with audio in sync too!!! :-) Will report more later. Also, for future refernce, I may or may not test the edit feature of PS 8. I do have much more advanced tools for this, so I will think about it. More later, good so far. Comments posted by dvwannab from Other, September 15, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Bought it Sept 9th around 6PM ... and I will return it tonight 24 hours later. Preview and captured video was black and white with squiggly lines across the captured video. I switched source to ATI AIW 7500 by swapping the analog cables from the USB box to the ATI AIW doo-hikkie and the image was in color. I made sure when I got it at Best Buy in Fresno CA last night that I can return it without any hassles. 30 day return policy ... they told me. OH yeah ... it is going back Audio was in sync with their mouths. Video was StarTrek Voyager "Endgame" Episode. Comments posted by Lacywest from Other, September 10, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10. |
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I have had this now for about 2 months. I reserved comment until I had a chance to use it. It would be alright if the software were not sooo buggy. Studio 8 hangs, it stops capturing (for no apparent reason), the box shows black and white until reset. Will not capture in win2000 etc etc etc. I have wasted a lot of time on this junk. Comments posted by Joe from Other, August 25, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? |
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Great capture utility. Very reliable on my XP machine. Will recommend to anyone who wishes to put Hi-8, 8mm, or other analog video onto DVD, VCD, or SVCD. Comments posted by Eric G. from Other, August 01, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Yesterday, I bought the PINNACLE MOVIEBOX, and I have to say that I´m very happy with this purchance. I have got to burn my first DVD obtained from a HI8mm and the results have been better than I had thought.There is a little diference between master and the copy. Only in "complicated imagens like smoke, rain,grass" you can apreciate a little pixelation .I have been capturating in DVD mode, with a 720 x576 resolution and a 8000 bitrate.The computer I have been using is a ACER 1310 with 20 g Hd, 1800xp atlon and 2.0 USB conection.The price 200 euros. Sorry,but I know that my English is very poor.I´m spanish.Bye Comments posted by fernando from Other, July 31, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I've tested it on 3 different PC: 2 desktop, 1 laptop. Every Disk is splitted in 2 partition. About 9-10Gb for windows and the rest is free for video capture. 1st desktop: Duron 1Ghz 768Mb 1.2 Gb HD Usb 1.1 MoBo Ecs K7s5a-Pro Socket A Nvidia Gf2 video card windows XP Professional No Problem. Immediate installation. Perfect MPEG2 capture (b/r limited to 6Kbps due to usb 1.1, I tried 3Kbps), no dropped frames, 720x576(SVCD standard). Files captured are compatible with TMPG encoder(I use it to cut spots and so on). Quality of audio is poor. It sounds like the Borg Collective speaking. Very metallic. I have to try to filter the sound through my Hi-Fi equalizer. 2nd desktop: Athlon XP 2000+ 256Mb 40 Gb HD (very slow, under 4Kbps) Usb 1.1 old video card MoBo QDI KD7E/333?-6A windows XP Professional Immediate installation. But there's no way to capture anything. Studio 8 lists 1 Moviebox DV (there is neither an IEEE 1394 port nor anything else similar) and, tring to capture, of course, I obtained an "error on capture" popup. After uninstall and reinstall drivers, S8 lists 1 MovieBox DV (again!!!) and 1 MovieBox USB, but no capture is possible (again "capture error"). I think it could be the slow HD (S8 test return about 3,8Kbps) or some other usb drivers... maybe GeneLink USB connection driver or Ericcson ADSL modem driver. I don't know. laptop: Acer alfa-550 PIII 1Ghz 384Mb 20Gb HD (S8 test return about 10Kbps) Usb 1.1 S3 + Twister video card windows XP Professional Immediate installation. Some problem during capture. Preview is instable. Audio and video seems to have the hiccups but no frame dropped found by S8.The captured file, in the first minute, is unstable too (like preview). After that audio loose sync to video, but video and audio are captured correctly until the end of acquiring and the quality of video is good(!?!?!). Quality of audio is poor. It sounds like the Borg Collective speaking. Very metallic. I have to try to filter the sound through my Hi-Fi equalizer. Conclusion I think MovieBox Usb is a good product, but it soffers some issues which could be resolved improving drivers. I suppose that fast HD is the most important requirement. Usb 2.0 is required to capture in DVD quality. Usb 1.1 is sufficient to capture in SVCD and VCD quality. Audio quality is not very good, but I tried only 3kbps capture. Maybe using DVD quality, the results are better. NOTE: audio quality settings in S8 are locked. It would be better if it was possible to change audio and video quality setting separately. Comments posted by SuperEgo from Other, July 22, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Pinnacle Studio-8 won't recognise the MovieBox USB at all!! It looks like a good device, but after upgrading all drivers and so-on, it still only comes up with a "Capture Error" and no explanation as to what that error might be...!!! No other capture program seems to work with it either! The USB connection is listed as functioning properly. Comments posted by Knutsen from Other, July 21, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I just bought the Pinnacle Movie Box USB yesterday. It took me 5 minutes to install on a Windows 2000 machine. I'm not very thrilled with their software for editing, but it sure converts my analog video to great digital quality. I can now finally work on my home dvd's. I did not have any dropped frames during the 30 minutes of capture. The captured video had a great quality. After editing the mpeg-2 video on a 3rd party software (Video Explosion Deluxe) the output for dvd was great. I found it to be the cheapest solution for my video capturing issues. Windows 2000 AMD XP 2200 768MB DDR 2100 USB 1.0 nVidia G-Force 2 video card. Comments posted by Juan from Other, July 16, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Great capture card. Easy installation, good picture quality, no sync-problems. It works without freezing and dropping frames (tried up to 12000kb/s). Capturing from HI8-Cam, VHS-VCR, Sat-receiver. I've tried a few other cards (Miro DC30, Pinnacle Bungee, Vidac Vmagic TV, Pinnacle PCTV), it's the best I ever had. My Hardware : MSI KT400, AMD XP-2200, 512 MB RAM, USB2, 60GB HDD, Gforce2-32MB, Win98SE Comments posted by benbun from Other, June 24, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Great Capture unit using the Pinnacle Studio 8 software. However, it WILL NOT work with any other authoring programs, due to the proprietary Pinnacle USB driver. System hangs using the boxed software, update available fixes XP issues. Nice Manual included, output video is alright (due to vhs source) preview video is pixelated on capture startup then levels out requiring a longer pre-roll. Given the both the good and bad, Studio 8 still beats Premiere and it's XP issues by light years! You don't even have to re-encode either. Comments posted by Say What? from Other, June 19, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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I previously used the Dazzle Digital Creator 11 for video capture and editing. Dazzle died so I tried Dazzle 150 and Pinnacle Studio DV for $299.99. I was not sastisfied. I now use Pinnacle Studio Moviebox firewire and it works excellently for $199.99 at Circuit City. Captures are beautiful. I capture with Pinnacle Studio 8.5 and burn DVDs with Sonic My DVD 3.51. Pinnacle Studio 8.5 is too slow to burn a DVD so I use Sonic. My homemade system is an Intel 3.06 ghz. Gigabyte 81hxp motherboard--1 gigabyte of pc1066--Radeon 9700 pro--HP200i DVD burner--60 gig internal HD and 120 gig external HD. Comments posted by Brainy Jim from Other, June 05, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I picked this one rather than the $40 dollars cheaper Dazzle DVC 150 beacuse I think Pinnacle is a bigger brand than Dazzle. After I read a lot of bad reviews about Dazzle I think I made the right decision. Here is my system, Compaq Presario Laptop 256 RAM, 20G HD, USB2 PC card. CPU:AMD Athlon 1.0G Video Card: S3 Savage 16M AGP Windows XP Home Edition. Installation of the software(Studio 8) and the hardware is very easy and it worked right away. I didn't even need to read the user manual at all. Although Pinnacle recommends to use a seperate HD for capturing, the 20G HD on my laptop works great without dropping any frame. I tested VCD, SVCD, DVD quality capturing and everything is smooth, no frame dropping at all. My previoud capturing device was an ATI All In WOnder Radeon on a P3-866 machine and it was dropping frames badly even on VCD quality capturing. USB interface is truely a big plus, no longer open case hassle and IRQ/DMA problems. The appearance of this device is just beautiful. Matches my silver laptop perfectly. The movie editing program, Studio 8 can do a lot more than I need. It even can locate the scene changed in the mpg file and generate scene marks for you. The only problem I can see is the video display on the capture screen is lagging badly. Although it doesn't affect capture quality but looks very bad. Comments posted by Steve Chang from Other, May 30, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio MP10 | Analog VideoIn MPEG1 hardware |
Win95 Win98 Vista? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $200 | 5.8/10 16 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
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Since this card was discontinued years ago, why am I writing about it? It remains my only method of digital video (VCD's at present), and I've used this for over two years, but with much trouble. I paid about $120 for it then, and thought it was pretty cheap at the time. I watched a review on the old "tech TV" show, which was fairly positive. First, I had bought a "Dazzle Digital VCD Creater" which was a piece of junkware. The Studio MP-10 was a Rolls-Royce by comparrison. The integrated Studio software, which is easy to learn and use, was the reason. Maybe somebody can get one on ebay if the price is right. Compatable only with windows 98 if you use the latest patch, which is needed to burn VCD format. The original version had a bug that made mpeg1 files that were NOT VCD compatanble, and had to be converted, which is very time consuming. However, the MPEG files play well on many DVD players anyway, but without the neat controls. I've burned hundreds of VCD's now that were created with this gadget. If there is a bad synch in the original video, such as if you begin to capture at the beginning of the video tape before the tracking is properly adjusted, you will have the audio synch problems reported by many for this box. Often this happens when I back up old videos that were recorded in the SLP mode, but never with raw video, or with SP mode VHS provided capture is begun AFTER the "tracking" indicator on the VCR goes away. I give it a fairly high rating because it's fairly dear to me, not because it works all that well. I will get a DVD based system after I'm working again, and can afford the upgrade. Just a month ago, I had to uninstall and reinstall it twice to get it to work again. Not much fun, but almost expectable with video capture devices. It remains useable. Comments posted by Gene A. Townsend from United States, January 26, 2004: Compatibility: |
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Well, in my opinion , there did go something WRONG in the Production Line of Studio MP10. The Studio MP10 was being delivered with a surprising Hardware ( 2 RISC BlackBox ) and a nice Software, the "Studio" from Pinnacle Systems. The Hardware is nice, because at the times, the Box was produced, it was absolutely state of the art, I think it was also used on some Macintosh Systems for Video-Editing ?!? Fact is, that the developers of MP10 did not know exactly how to properly connect the badly designed Hardware to a even worse Pentium or AMD System , especially running on a (worst) Low-Cost-EndUser Windows System. The people working on the drivers FOR SURE were no experts. Pinnacle had engaged the wrong people , had invested lots of Dollars for nothing, and in the end, they tried to minimize the Damage, with marketing the M10 at <font color=#ee0000>unbelievable expensive prices</font>, and with prosecuting everyone on the net, providing information about errors and criticism about the card. So People kept buying this little piece of Crap. I myself did so as well, and I spent about 400 Dollars for the Studio-bundled Version. Two months later, the MP10 was discontinued, and every message to the support ended with "Dear customer, the MP10 is a discontinued product, no longer supported or sold by Pinnacle Systems." Ok so far? Well , just look again: Paying 400 Dollars for a product that did and still does never work properly, (a so called <font color=#ee0000>VIDEO-EDITING-SOLUTION</font>) where do you all know that from? In my opinion there are great similarities with Microsoft or VIATech. Well what was even worse, there was no way to return the product. In my eyes nearly a criminal tactics (at least for Germany <- where I live). In Germany, the product has -by law- to fulfill the proposed Features - and the MP10 surely did NOT. Well as I said, I were NOT able EITHER to return the product, to get my money back, or to exchange the product against something else, fo example the Studio DC10 Plus , which seemed to work properly. In the meantime, I use my GeForce2MX to digitize my analog Video-Material to AVI and then the MP10 Converter to convert the material to Video-CD. Well my XP1600 needs only 3 times as long, as Studio MP10 does, a nice feature of the MP10 box would have been to transcode even to MPEG 2. The MP10 - a Discontinued Product which was discontinued within the production and sold as a Beta-Test-Tool for Beta Testers. What Pinnacle did to me and many others, keeps me from buying any Pinnacle-Product again. I am warned for future - you too? Comments posted by M Horn from Other, September 20, 2002: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 |
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Hi everyone! After reading all the stuff in here I couldn't resist to write my own comments, even if this may get lengthy. First of all: I own the MP10 over two years now and use it to transfer my old VHS-tapes to VCD. In the past 18 months I made almost 1000 VCDs with this box and after some initial troubles I am absolutely satisfied with the results. The box is perfect(!!) for making VCDs. It is MPEG1, right from the start. There is no need to complain about quality! If you whine about this, go and get a different card! After producing 1000 VCDs it gives me headaches when I read about converting AVIs to MPEG1 at a rate of 10 hours for 1 hour video! Crap! Poor guys. If you want to transfer your videos, forget about this shit! Nice fiddling around when doing a try or two... Also after doing 1000 VCDs you don't care about 100% perfect stuff. There are some non-perfect discs, but who cares? Compared to the trashed tapes its nothing! The next is: The system is discontinued! No need to complain about Pinnacle, they won't write any drivers for Me, XP, Linux or whatsoever anymore! Also they won't correct anything anymore. Stick with it! I use Win98 for this reason and I am satisfied (never change a running system! ;-)) I have no idea about the Pinnacle support, I never used it! So I am not saying that it is okay ;-) At the moment I have no clue about my system ;-) Built it two years ago, is a Pentium II / 400 or 500 MHz with 128MB and some HDs. Around 120 GB or so. It is none of those all-in-one motherboards where you have no control over all the stuff. First of all I downloaded the latest stuff from Pinnacle. Forget about previous SW, it has some really annoying bugs. But the latest available stuff is quite ok. I must admit, I also had troubles in bringing the system to work. Always complained about EPP-problems, although everything was set up correctly. Reading the troubleshooting pages at Pinnacle (don't know whether they still exist) I found, that you have to disable DOS-support for your soundcard! ;-)))) (Nice error message for this problem, anyway! ;-) After doing so - surprise, surprise - it worked! (And anyway: who needs DOS support for sound anymore? ;-) Of course you have to run the assistent first! It checks your system, writes a config-file which the main SW is using afterwards (yes, you find the hints to this behaviour! ;-) Soon after doing my first tries, I bought a separate parallel-port card, because hooking up the box, my scanner and my printer to the same port gave me headaches and never worked perfectly. Now everything has its own port and everything works absolutely charming! Why does nobody use the audio-inputs of the box itself? I never tried using the soundcard. I also practically have no audio-sync-problems. Occasionally I had shifts of 1 or 2 frames in the beginning - which was quite funny when watching a music video and the drummer was out-of-sync ;-)))) Ok, anyway, was quite annoying, but after these initial problems I didn't notice sync-problems anymore. I have the feeling, that this most often is the case with old video-material, but when capturing directly from a tuner, I am very satisfied with the results. Only drawback is, that the SW has quite some trouble in calculating correct times! Given the space on the HD it is unable to determine the total free space in hours:minutes. Given the length of the recording it is unable to calculate the time in hours:minutes! The SW always sets the maximum recording time to 1 hour 48 minutes, complaining about some 4GB-limit - which is never reached anyway! Don't know where this shit is coming from, I am now used to it... However, the post-processing features of the SW are wonderful. Cutting out Ads, doing nice fade-in, fade-outs, giving decent titles for the VCD-change works absolutely wonderful. (Have some crashes now and then, especially when working on large, very fragmented projects - so I save often ;-) Thanks for reading this. If you want to flame me - go ahead. I am used to ignore these. I was just trying to give some hints where some of your problems might be - even if this post turned out to be quite long. Have a nice day, tashimo. Comments posted by Tashimo from Other, July 16, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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No comments Comments posted by Max from Other, March 18, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I have had the MP10 just over a year now and can’t wait to get rid of it. I have never managed to get the video or audio in sync. I have tried the MP10 on four different systems AMD 400, 550, 950 and 1400Mhz all with different soundcards tried the different settings etc.. sick of testing. I did ask for Tech help which did not work and on my in following attempts to get help all my emails have all been ignored. Comments posted by Mr Cheung from Other, March 18, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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I have tried many captures in the past one year I have had this card and I have never managed to get the sound and video in sync despite having tried it with different sound cards. Tech Support, specifically Long Brennen would conveniently ignore your emails when they didn't know what was wrong. Never get any of their shit products from them ever again. Comments posted by Chiang from Other, February 07, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Works like a charm under Win 98, I have converted most of my tapes to VCD I plan to try this under linux soon Comments posted by Jagannath Moorthy from Other, January 29, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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Good value for money, did lots of tape to vcd conversion without too many problems. Occasional audio out of sync has been encountered. Unfortunately since moving to Window XP I was forced to find an alternative to my analog capture ; the soon to be released Pinnacle Deluxe perhaps ? Comments posted by James Lim from Other, January 26, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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good card as per rate hanging proplem 2xcd have good quilty but vcd is not good Comments posted by ashwani goyal from Other, December 22, 2001: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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This product has been discontinued. Comments posted by litto from Other, December 01, 2001: Compatibility: |
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This capture card is good. But i didn't get any win2000 or win XP Driver. If anyone get this driver, please notics me. Thank You Comments posted by Rana from Other, October 14, 2001: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I have a number of problems with this card but was able to sort things out. Have burn a few VCD till now, everthing seems ok. Here goes my problem encountered: 1) The card have lots of problem on IRQ. It conflict with my network card (have to disable the network card or else the PC with hang), my sound card (forces my sound card to switch IRQ) and my printer IRQ (the sound card IRQ conflict with the printer EPP IRQ). End up I have to disable my network and printer EPP before the card works. 2) The card was reported to have problem with soundblaster AWE64 and Vibra 128. My sound card was AWE64 and is ISA type. I also experince sound out-of-syn. I later change to a SonicVibes sound card PCI type and it solved the problem. But later came back when I use my VCR instead of my viewcam as the source. I later updated my directx using the CD provided and the CinePlayer 2.0 to Version 2.5. The problem was solved. But the video format must use YUY2 and have to disable preview (maybe cause my system is slow, AMD K3 450MHz)I now intend to upgrade my sound card to Soundblaster Live! as the SonicVibes is not compactable with my system, causing lots of noise, but the recorded VCD sound was good, don't know why? 3) The image on the VCD will sometimes jump frame (about 1sec), maybe due to my slow system again. Thats all. Hope this can help. Pls post if there are any new findings. Thks! Comments posted by Brainstorm from Other, September 14, 2001: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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I bought this card at promotion time. It is acceptable while capturing NTSC programmes. I have problem while doing PAL sources. While recording the preview seems OK. However, when viewing the MPEG, sound is OK but the video is faster. They are out-of-sync. Could any one give me an easy way to solve this? (apart from using the de-???? & recompile) Thanks Comments posted by Paul from Other, September 02, 2001: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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Pretty Good Capture card for the Price AUD$200, The only problem i have is that i have a 8.5 second Audio Sync problem using the VCD card with a Soundblaster 16 card. OK the card is a bit old, and i assume the problem is that they are moving data over different BUS's on the motherboard and therefore at different BUS Speeds, ie PCI and ISA. The only remedy is to de-multiplex the MPG file and then move the audio and video into Premiere or other editor and slide the video up the time bar until they are in sync. DVMPEG seems to be pretty good at de-multiplexing the original file, fast too. I then recompile the movie to using the Panasonic MPEG Codec version 2.1 directly from Premiere. This seems to work pretty well. I also dont have to work with any AVI Files. It is time consuming though. An 70 Min file can take 3-4 hours to Multiplex back. This is on an Athlon 800. This is my first effort at editing videos on the PC,and for the moment the card is OK for my needs. Comments posted by Brett Marshall from Other, July 01, 2001: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 |
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Had this external unit for 2 years now and burnt plenty VCD. The key to making this thing work is the type of printer port you attach it to. Most motherboard on board printer ports cause problem, audio sync being the biggest. Find a good EPP ISA bus printer port card capable of at least 700kb transfer rate. I use this card to produce an Mpeg file then I create and burn the VCD using NTI CD Maker 2000 Pro. Comments posted by Stuart Crawshaw from Other, June 19, 2001: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I think, This is a very good capture card on accordance to the affordable price! The mpeg produced is trully dedicated for VCD only, so for those who is not satisfied about the quality! Don't bother your self, It's only VCD, (352x288 Pal) (352x240 NTSC)! What could you expect more from such resolution! I use it to convert my LD & DVD Movie collection as well as the Video Tapes, It works fine! The Only advantage I can say here that It produces MPEG directly, so we don't need to convert anything to make VCD, moreover it supports multisystem. So far I have tested that this Capture Card works in both Win98 and WinME but not in Win2K. Andrew. Comments posted by Andrew Yanuar from Other, June 13, 2001: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 |
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This is a good start for newbie on making vcd. I have tried on 2 computer and the faster one (433mhz) works better. audio is out of sync if make long mpeg file. the ideal way is making short mpeg files and burn on VCD by Adaptec easy CD creator. Comments posted by Quyen Le from Other, May 31, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio Online | Analog VideoIn |
Win95 Win98 Win2K Vista? *based on user reports. |
USB1 | $100 | 4.0/10 3 votes |
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Worked OK until i loaded Windows XP. Pinnacle don't have a software ungrade for free. Managed to copy several short movies etc... but needed a bigger hard drive for longer stuff. Mostly ok for home movie capturing from VHS etc.... Comments posted by davey from Other, March 18, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? |
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Is perfect for doing Windows Media or RealVideo files and also for MPEG1. Comments posted by Massimo Barozzi from Other, June 29, 2001: Compatibility: |
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when looking for another device, i got lied to by a sales dood desperately trying to sell me one of these. I was told it would capture well, i was dubious, but willing to give it a go. the software is very rough to say the least, even though its made for beginners, it has many things that it needs clearing up. Also, the device itself it a disgusting YELLOW! YES! YELLOW! its bloody vulgar! and if you`ve got it on for a coupla hours, it starts smelling funny as it gets warm. Definately something to worry about. On the actual capturing i never successfully recording anything - the software it came with was crap and gave me video files of pure black nothingness, and if i did it through V-dub or something else it would not be able to do audio... final comment - stear well clear of this if ya have half a brain cell. Comments posted by bap from Other, May 24, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Studio Plus 700 | DV/Firewire Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $125 | 4.0/10 1 votes |
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| Pinnacle Studio Plus 700-PCI version 10 provides the ease and power to quickly combine, enhance, and instantly preview on TV, your videos from digital and analog camcorders and effortlessly preserve and share them on DVD and beyond. |
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The sofware is 3gb fully installed. Have been unable to capture video correctly. Picture is trapazodial. Can use the pinnacle software to capture with a ati7200 just fine. Sofware is fairly easy to use, but has caused other bugs in my system since installation. Comments posted by gastafalo_bob@hotmail.com from United States, May 21, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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| Pinnacle Video Transfer | Analog VideoIn H264 hardware |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $200 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| Direct-to-device capture – no PC required
One-touch recording High-quality MPEG-4 encoding S-Video and Composite video inputs Technical Specifications System Requirements: Input connectors Composite Video: 1xRCA (PAL-SECAM-NTSC) S-Video: 1xY/C (PAL-SECAM-NTSC) Stereo Audio: 2xRCA Capture format: H.264 USB output (devices not included): Flash Memory Stick (USB 2.0) USB2.0 Hard Disk Drive (FAT32 only) Sony™ PSP® Apple® iPod® Video Capture quality: IPOD® : Good: 320x240 768kBit/s 64kBit/s audio Better: 320x240 1MBit/s 128kBit/s audio Best: 640x480 1.5Mbit/s 192kBit/s audio PSP® : Good: 320x240 512kBit/s 64kBit/s audio Better: 320x240 768kBit/s 96kBit/s audio Best: 320x240 1.5MBit/s 128kBit/s audio HDD/Flash memory: Good: 320x240 768kbit/s 64 kbit/s audio Better: 640x 480 1.5 Mbit/s 128 kbit/s audio Best: 720x576 PAL/Secam 720x480 NTSC 2,5 Mbit/s 192kbit/s audio Package content: Instant Video Recorder hardware Audio/Video cable 3 x RCA SCART adapter (EU-only) Power supply unit (110-230V) Quick Start Guide |
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| PixeLINK PL-A544 | DV/Firewire DV Converter Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
FireWire | $500 | 0.0/10 0 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| You provide the NTSC or PAL signal and PixeLINK will digitize and display it on a computer monitor. It’s that simple.
The PL-A544 uses FireWire (IEEE 1394) to capture and convert analog video signals from a variety of NTSC/PAL sources, including industrial video cameras, camcorders and medical video devices. With FireWire, you enjoy the following benefits: True plug and play One FireWire cable does it all (power, data, camera control) Daisy-chainable Operates at 400 Mbps |
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| Pixelview PlayTV HD | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 7.4/10 9 votes |
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12 comments (14316 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| First invented desktop capture Card, which is based on Conexant CX23881 chipset with high quality 10 bits A/D resolution technology. Perfect user-friendly MPEG II software integrated. Gives you the best vision and sound enjoyment.
PlayTV HD hardware Specifications: Chipset: Conexant CX23881 TV standard :NTSC/PAL Video Input: S-Video, Composite Video Resolution: 720x480 Video Capture rate: 30 frames/second Video Foemat :AVI,JPG, BMP Audio Support Input and Output Hardware Interface :PCI bus Drivers support: Windows 98SE,ME, 2000 ,XP |
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Oh well, this card run sh**ty on Win2000 (cos 2000 can't figure out how to arrange IRQs). I am currently look for linux driver, Mandrake 10 have it but seems doesn't implemented well (aka it totally NOT run). Anyone can't tell me? please! in any form (source/tarball/rpm). whooa soory for for asking!! SitFitonShit Semarang, Indonesia Comments posted by Gonx LaTEX from Satellite Provider, March 03, 2005: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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for people using the software that comes with this player to capture video from TV, get FlyDS or WinDVD Recorder as it works far better and gives better quality, check http://www.tv-cards.com/ for a good site Comments posted by Cherzo from United Kingdom, February 14, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Hi, i'm having some troubles to make the audio work under windows XP. Video capture is working properly.i believe i have installed correctly the audio cable between the capture board audio out and the motherboard audio in. What else could be the problem ? Any help will be very welcome. Thanks for your attention, Rafael. Comments posted by Rafael from Brazil, January 29, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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This is my first capture card, therefore I cannot compare it to others. However, for my purposes (converting NTSC VHS tapes to VCD) this has worked well. The only problem I couldn´t solve up to now is the audio/video sync when I capture with PixelView software. Audio/video sync is fine when I capture with VirtualDub, but I can achieve 640x480 resolution (NTSC) only with PixelView software or directly with AMCAP. I receive an error message on VirtualDub when I try to set custom format 640x480. I have solved it delaying or advancing the audio stream when dubbing on VirtualDub. Audio is also out of sync when I capture audio via audio card´s line-in interface. If I could capture directly with VirtualDub at 640x480 (with audio/video sync), the card would be perfect for my applications. Comments posted by WJB from Other, January 09, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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Is this card (Pixelview PlayTV HD) stereo? Wonder what are the differences between PixelView PlayTV MPEG2 and this card, the PlayTV HD. Comments posted by perempe from Other, November 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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This card is very good, but software isn't so good. After experimenting with original software settings it works properly, but original software still needs a lot of work. I use it with Prolink drivers for PlayTV PVR v2.0 (much better than PlayTV HD 1.08) I installed Nimo Codec Pack 5.0, it provides directshow filters which activates when you use tuner or composite/s-video in and provide more options (especially deinterlace) and all standard options are available from your tray for capture i recomend ulead video studio 7, it's very good to capture to mpeg, but you need at least Athlon 1,4 Ghz (when capturing in 704-576) (highest resolution 720-576 didn't work well) I want to capture to dvix 5 ( becase of my Duron 850 Mhz ) but i did't find software which can handle this Comments posted by Boogie from Other, September 08, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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It is difficult to give any rating to this card because it doesnt start to work properly after installation. VirtualDub, VideoCapture (from UMSP 7.0), Power Director don't capture anything with this card. ATV2000 & VirtualVCR made finally avi's with excellent quality but also with a lot of crashes during setup and at the end of capturing process. This card (when works) has much better preview and final capture quality in comparison with ATI 9000 VIVO, MANLI SAA7130, Asus V7700 VIVO, Elsa Erazor III Pro VIVO, Pixelview Play TV Pro (Bt787). It has nice contrast, saturation and brigthness settings and picture looks more naturally than all above mentioned devices. From my point of view, the only problem is bad WDM driver (I didn't try tuner/TV options because my intention was SVHS capturing). Comments posted by Tihomir from Other, September 04, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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This card is crap, or at least the software is, the software on the CD that came with it doesn't work at all, what happens when you click on a button is completly random. The update from the website is a bit better, but the picture quality is still crap and it crashes just about constantly. Comments posted by Dodgy Guy from Other, December 27, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10. |
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Great card, captures in 768x576 (PAL) w/ no problems at all. The bundled software is, as usual, kind of crappy (although not *completely* useless) - but FlyDS works good for me. Capture quality is way better than any of the old 8-bit cards (I also have a Pinnacle PCTV for reference), especially in terms of contrast and noise. Color bleeding is almost non-existent as well. I highly recommend this card and I like the fact that Prolink keeps improving the driver and the bundled software quite regularly (so far). Note: I have not tested the TV tuner, only composite video input...and my rating is for the hardware only. Comments posted by John from Other, December 17, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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Pixelview now have new driver version 1.09 that makes the remote work and improves capture and quality Comments posted by David Morgan from Other, December 02, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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The new Conexant CX23881 chip is a wonder captures in stereo and 10 bit. The software that comes with the card from Pixelview is a bit basic and the remote does not work but they are working on it. This unit works with Windvr, PowerVCR II, PowerDirector, NanoDVR, Virtualdub, captures in AVI, MPEG1 & MPEG2 the highest capture I have done is 720 x 408 Pal MPEG2 highest settings using PowerDirector. Had a Hauppage wintv USB but this card is very much better. Good choice Comments posted by David Morgan from Other, October 08, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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THIS TVTUNER CARD IS GOOD & CAPTURE CARD I AM LIKE THIS BUT PLEASE DRIVER AT UPDATE IS OLD THANK YOU......IPUNK FROM INDONESIA ,JAKARTA BARAT EMAIL = IPUNK_LOVE@HOTMAIL.COM Comments posted by IPUNK from Other, August 23, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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| Pixelview PlayTV MPEG2 | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 6.7/10 3 votes |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| PixelView PlayTV MPEG2 turns your PC into a "full-functional Personal Video Recorder", which provides you the highest quality digital recording of broadcast TV and other video sources. It allows you to manage all your TV viewing easier. The best features in terms of standard record and playback; it provides you the advanced features such as Time-shifting, instant replay, pause, and fast-forward while you are watching live TV show. Selectable real-time MPEG2 compression ranges from DVD quality for the ultimate performance to VHS quality for marathon recording sessions. And with All-in-1 remote controller, just sit on your sofa, and enjoy your favorite shows!
Features Excellent TV/Capture PCI Tuner card TV/FM/Video/Audio Input FM Radio Time-Shifting (Pause TV) MPEG2/DVD recording Schedule Recording Video On Desktop Teletext Remote Control Certification in Windows XP / 2000 / ME / 98SE |
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I'm brazilian, but i'll try to write in english: After 2 years I discover how to do for record more than 600MB! Steps: Start; Run; write regedit and press OK. HKEY_CURRENT_USER; Software; CyberLink; PowerVCR II. Look for the "MaxRecSizeMB" key. Two clicks. Choose "Decimal", put 60000 and press OK. Now go on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE; SOFTWARE; CyberLink; PowerVCR II. Look for the "MaxRecSizeMB" key again. Two clicks. Choose "Decimal", put 60000 and press OK. Now your PowerVCR is ready for record up to 60GB! (In realy is 58,59GB) :D A (hard) work of Thiago. Discovered by Thiago Wilson Correa, 14 years, in 19/nov/2006. Brazil - SC. Comments posted by Thiago from Brazil, November 23, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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The captured video is good, but I don't know why the Pixelview software splits the captured video in 650MB files. I din't find a way to solve this. After merging the 650MB files in one big file the audio sync deteriorates. Comments posted by Artur from Brazil, May 30, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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The only problem I've had is a sync issue. Don't believe it has anything to do with the OS. Comments posted by Perry from United States, March 30, 2006: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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| Pixelview PlayTV Pro FM | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 7.7/10 20 votes |
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21 comments (39534 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| PixelView PlayTVpro turns your computer into a multimedia recreation! You will be surprised with its excellence functions such as:
Watching TV on your PC, listening to FM Radio music, capturing still and motion video images, editing personal greeting cards, sending video live mails by Internet, easy to connect with CCD camera/V8/VHS, video conferencing, supporting Teletext, closed caption, ... etc. This TV tuner with Capture card brings functions on your PC into full play. Conexant Bt878 chipset. Single-Chip video capture/TV tuner/FM radio multimedia adapter. Fully PCI Rev 2.1 compliant and zero wait state PCI burst write. PCI bus master interface. Supports NTSC/PAL/SECAM video input. Composite / S-Video input and audio input. Supports planner YUV data format. Sopports Windows 95/98. Multiple composite, S-Video and 8 pin mini-Din connector for Philip desktop video camera. Full TV frequency range for CATV/VHF/UHF. Multiple YCrCb and RGB pixel formats supported on output. Video capture rate maximum 30 frames/ second. VBI (Vertical Blanking Interval) data capture for closed caption, Teletext and intercast data decoding. Supports WST (World Standard Teletext) decoding. Video conferencing ready. |
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It works far from well. Every single program I use to watch TV hangs up and exits. I can´t make btwincap driver work properly with it. Best results with winampTV (takes longer to hang). WXP drivers are not tested and definitely not working. Comments posted by thanaytos from Spain, January 13, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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I am using this card [PV - BT878P+ (Rev.9F)] for last 6 months and tested it quite a bit. It works great with Win 98 SE with the only (bug?) issue I faced: When you are switching in between the channels in full screen mode, the system gets hunged up, and u r forced to press ctrl + alt + del. The resolution rendered in 98se is the BEST ! With Win2K and Xp the problem is the low quality resolution. Else its a best deal for converting u r pc to tv (with remote !) in just less than 50$ :) My pc configuration is as follows: 98se / win2k - dual 128 MB Ram, Intel i810 motherboard with PIII 550Mhz 40 GB HDD. I used software bundled with the card. Comments posted by Hrishi from India, December 05, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Under Linux (Fedora Core-3) this card works. I used program tvtime. (card=37, tuner=2 for bttv) Indeed under WinXP it works also. The TV-signals from cable were not very powerful. Comments posted by Serge from Russian Federation, November 24, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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I would have given this a much higher rating, but it took a LONG time to figure out how to get this to work right in all settings, and even then it took extra software (Ulead Videostudio 7). Here's what I had to do: -I used btwincap drivers -I ran the line in through my ON-BOARD (would not capture in sound card) MIC jack (would not work in line-in). -the preview screen DOES NOT WORK So, I cannot SEE nor HEAR while I am capturing. Fortunately, when I capture through my camcorder I can see and hear through that, and when I capture through the VCR I can always cut the video when transferring. To make a long story short, after I complete all of this I get GREAT captures. Audio and video are both EXCELLENT. So if you want to save a few bucks (you can get this for $34) this card will work well, but you will have to work for it! Comments posted by JCJanko from United States, April 21, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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The 9F card is a nice one. however, compared to a 3F (very old revision) card quality seems worse (???). I swapped cards on the same machine and the older one is definately w/ better quality. - Works with the btwincap drivers, just choose generatl 'prolink play-tv pro' card, and leave tuner to autodetect. Dscaler also works fine. - Overall, cheap card which works OK, and should NEVER, EVER be used with it's bundled (CRAP!) software & drivers. Comments posted by Tarambuka3500 from Bulgaria, February 25, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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It worked fine under win98, using the included drivers, but under WinXp never did, despite the updates from the vendor. winXP. PIII 800 256 RAM 20Gb Comments posted by Ernesto from Mexico, January 28, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? |
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Very cheap card that works great! I can capture with 720X480 with descaler, AVIIout with great sync and image. But dont use the drives that come with the card, they sucks! And use the audio input from your audio card not audio in from the Pixel card, so you can get a perfect sincro. Daluz Asus 950 - ATLHON 256 mem. 20GIGAS HD Sound Blaster 5.1 Comments posted by daluz from Other, December 08, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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This card works well for me in New Zealand. I am able to capture straight to DivX from an aerial connection with the drivers obtained from Prolink's website (http://www.prolink.com.tw/2003/english/download/protv_multimedia.htm). I am unable to get the card working with the BtWinCap drivers though (http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/installation.html). Whoever has this card installed [PV-BT878P+ (REV.9F)] and working with those drivers should post the settings they used during installation, as it does not autodetect on a number of machines here. Comments posted by Matt Barrett from Other, November 29, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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i'm using this card and i'm not happy with the video quality most of all the out of sync audio. i'm using only the drivers and softwares supplied with the card. maybe i should try using other drivers. Comments posted by Lito Garcia from Other, November 20, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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I can capture at 740x480 with MJPEG (pegasus) driver with 0 frames droped! With others codecs works too (like Divx 4.12 in realtime). I use: - btwincap drivers (sourceforge) - VirtualDub - TmpGenc (for VCD/SVCD/DVD quality) - PowerVCRII (to watch TV) Note: Win98 is better for capture. ... and many others... Everithing that works with WDM Driver work w/out problems. It´s a full stable board. --- A7V133 asus board with Athlon 1.2, 512 Mb, TNT2, 20Gb HB (5400 RPM but works fine !!!). Comments posted by Marcio Nestorenko from Other, July 18, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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The enclosed software package and drivers are terrible. But fortunatelly, this card support some excellent free software and drivers,and it´s hardware is excellent. I recommend the btwincap.sourceforge.net drivers, DScaler for watching TV, Radiator for radio Listening, VirtualDub for capture and Girder for Remote Control (You can use the card remote to control everything using this, like Winamp, Media Player, etc). This card also supports closed caption, but no SAP or Stereo support (aldo there´s a version that does). Good capture performance even at 640x480 29.97 fps, no frames lost with my 950 Mhz Duron and 40 Gb 500 RPM Maxtor HD, using PicVideo or Huffyuv codecs. Comments posted by vmesquita287 from Other, January 24, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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I have captured full screen movies (640x480 mjpeg codec) without problems. The sound quality is so so. celeron 800 / 96mb ram / 40gb / win98 Comments posted by Vinícius R. T. Ferraz from Other, October 20, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10. |
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FOR THAT PRICE ITS THE BEST YOU CAN BUY. EVERITHING FINE NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEM. P4-1600, 256, TNT2, 60GB. Comments posted by PEPE TUDELA from Other, September 05, 2002: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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use it on a win2k with 40GBHDD, 384MB RAM. Capture works well using RGB24 format but with anything else I've experienced audio sync using PCM 44khz 16bit stereo. I've tried this with Pinnacle and Premiere but it has sync problems with this card. Comments posted by wcvmorasa from Other, August 17, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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I was looking for TV on my PC. Now I do VHS/Hi8 - (S)VCD as a hobby in my spare time. It works superb. Very good quality with hufyuv. I have captured TV size (704 x 480), R.T. 0 dropped frames with picvideo mjpeg lossless codec, on a P4/1.6GHz with UltraATA HD. Didn´t like the enclosed software and drivers. I use DScaler to watch TV and the open source drivers+util to capture, VirtualDub is the best for video editing. It looses the DirecTV signal from time to time though. The best price/performance. Comments posted by TNG from Other, July 26, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Quite happy with it , captures raw 342*288 no frames dropped , I've got only one hard disk so it tops out at 17 mB/sec which is not enough but a raid setup would work fine , it captured in to memory with no dropped frames at 720*576 raw (RGB)so its my hardisk at fault ,the picture quality is very good ,the tuner software is so so , i am still looking for a working codec for realtime capture otherwise I certainly got what I paid for .I recommend trying some of the generic drivers they seem to work better. Comments posted by bobo from Other, February 08, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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No comments Comments posted by robert from Other, February 05, 2002: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Very useful card. Do the job! Comments posted by roberto devojno bruder from Other, January 22, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Very good an unexpensive card that may be used for good resolution and frame rates capture and to watch TV and listen FM. Uses the CPU very extensively in compression. Comments posted by Joao Canova from Other, January 12, 2002: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Good ,inexpensive card nearly 50$.Don't know maybe u can find something better for this price ;-) Comments posted by Christian from Other, June 05, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10. |
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No comments Comments posted by Roberto Devojno Bruder from Other, May 10, 2001: Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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| Pixelview PlayTV Pro Ultra | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 7.0/10 1 votes |
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1 comments (3851 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| PlayTV Pro Ultra allows you to watch high quality TV programs and display video on your PC. You will never miss any exciting sport games or live news. It gives you the ability to capture motion and still video as well as to get teletext data input video and play video on desktop. Let's watch TV shows on your PC now!
Excellent TV/Capture PCI Tuner card 10 bits video decode 720x576 high video resolution TV/FM/Video Input FM recording(FM model only) Autoscan and freescan support Video On Desktop Low power consumption VBI Teletext support Easy to search and set TV channels memorized Flick free technology with best components Certification in Windows XP/ME/2000 |
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I think relation price/performance/features is very good. I pay 55 € for the card (so don't expect ultra high-end hardware). Installing and Setup is a breeze. The bundled software have a poor and confuse interface. I switch to Dscaler (4.1.9) and Axife FM Lite (free). Remote control works but is slow and not especially ergonomic. For amateur multimedia this product is very honest. Athlon XP2000 / ATI Radeon 9200 / 512 MB RAM Comments posted by Artur Oliveira from Portugal, August 12, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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| Pixelview PlayTV PVR | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 5.0/10 2 votes |
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2 comments (3875 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| PixelView PlayTV PVR offers you the capability of watching TV on your PC, Video on Desktop, Listen to and record FM radio, 16 channels preview, and Low profile PCI. With powerful software- Power VCR, PixelView PlayTV PVR gives users more added-value function, such as MPEG I/II video/TV recording, it allows your PC to be a personal & professional video recorder.
Watch TV on your computer monitor VHF/UHF/CATV received Video On Desktop FM radio Listen/Record CONEXANT 10 bits Video decoder 30fps Capture Rate Full Channel Autoscan Closed Caption for NTSC Create your favorite channel group 16-Channel Preview BTSC/EIA-J/SAP for NTSC Snap Shot image to BMP/JPEG format Color and Picture adjustments support Remote controller Low profile PCI Digital VCR Time-Shifting (Instant Replay) Pause Live TV/Video program Record / Playback TV program and Video Record video in MPEG-1/2 as DVD/SVCD/VCD format Scheduled Recorder Video source selection Coax, Composite, S-Video Input Capture Screen size - up to 720x480 for NTSC |
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This card have some audio problems. There are audio interferences when the channels are changed. A new driver is available on http://www.prolink.com.tw/2003/english/download/protv_multimedia.htm#PVR, but I´ve not tried yet. If you bought this card too, GOODLUCK! PS.: I miss my older avermedia TV-Tuner... Comments posted by Luciano Cardoso from Brazil, July 18, 2004: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10. |
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New drivers for this much-maligned card (dated 9/1/03) are now available on PixelView's web site: http://www.prolink.com.tw/2003/english/download/protv_multimedia.htm New driver package includes Conexant capture and tuner drivers and an Avermedia (?) crossbar. It looks like this card is starting to live up to its potential. It works nicely using Showshifter with the new drivers, where it didn't before. Haven't had a chance to test it with other software yet but it seems that PixelView is finally on track in terms of support. It's great to have a low-profile tuner card option that works. Now all we need to know is how the remote and that IR dongle operate. Comments posted by BillQPublick from Other, September 09, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 6 of 10. |
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| Pixelview PlayTV USB 2.0 | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
USB2 | $150 | 7.0/10 1 votes |
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2 comments (6686 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| PixelView PlayTV USB 2.0 is a portable TV-Tuner box which enable your PC / Notebook to capture, record, edit TV programs or Video from devices, such as DVD, VCD, VCR, Video Camcorder, TV Game box and so on. It offers a cost effective solution to enhance the captured video quality via interface of High-Speed USB 2.0. It makes your PC/ Notebook become an advanced digital video recorder.
Features Full TV function CATV/VHF/UHF Full-channel Auto-Scan Function Support Composite video (RCA) and S-video Input connector. Audio Capture & A/V Sync. Function. High resolution: NTSC 704x480 or PAL 704x576 30 frames per second. Capture Bit Stream via USB 2.0/ USB1.1. Saturation/Contrast/Hue/Brightness Adjustment. Blue Screen Protection Function. (If no signal input) Bandwidth Adaptive Automatically Control. Capture and Record as Standard Format (ex: AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4). Time-shifting / Pause Professional Snap Shot Function Electric Program Guide (EPG). TV/Video Scheduled Recording Function. I/R remote control |
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Just in case anyone wants to know, it doesn't work on Windows Server 2003 (posted Jan 2004. The hardware is nice and simple - bus powered but the product is 6 months old and still not on their website yet, so no driver updates. It uses the DC1122 chipset and the reference drivers actually work. Comments posted by Iain from New Zealand, January 18, 2005: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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I looked at various other options, and this one seemed to be the one that I should get. I couldn't find any information other than what the vendor had on their site, and only one bad review from an end user (but that was the only review I spotted LOL). I had tried some of the smaller USB 1.1 devices, and I was not impressed. I only have one PCI slot, and the firewire devices seemd to be out of my price range. Out of the box, it just worked. I have been mainly experimenting with it, but second attempt to capture I started making SVCDs of TV shows off satellite (recorded on a PVR). I have had it lock up a few times, which would be bad if I couldn't rewind the satellite feed or record off a recording, so I need to look into that a little. Capturing raw is nice if you have multiple things you want to do, like save it for a DVD, make a SVCD, take a portion out and send via E-mail, but at 95+ megs a minute, don't forget to stop it when you are done! I created an 18 gig movie. I started experimenting with capturing as mpeg4 compressed, and that seems to be the best compromise. The tuner is okay, not as logical to use as a TV tuner, and a little slow and no feedback until you already have done more than you wanted, and slow on changing channels. The included software is minimal, but seems to work for basic capture and and basic cutting of beginning and ending, however getting to a part of the movie not the beginning or end is not for the faint at heart, no easy controls to do that. I will certainly be upgrading to better compression tools, editing tools, and I wish other VCR/PVR/TV tuner software worked, but PowerVCR doesn't seem to see it as a capture device. I have had some issues with audio sync, I was able to fix it with one movie, the other I had to capture and encode again. There is a pretty big delay from what is displayed on the computer real time as to what the source is actually doing (I have sat dish connected to TV in living room, 50 foot composite cable to computer room, that split between computer and lcd TV) even with it set to capture raw, there is almost a second difference. Doesn't seem to affect recording, just live view when I can hear other sources sounds not matching what I see on the computer. I haven't really started doing what I set out to do, capture and store home movies to hard drive, to make SVCDs, VCDs, and eventually DVDs. I am also trying to take small portions of videos to send as mail attachments. The device seems to lock up more from the Hi-8 camera than from other sources, like tuner or satellite. System specs: Shuttle XPC Flex ATX Athlon 2500+ barton 512 meg pc2700 RAM 120 gig drive 80 gig drive LG combo DVD-RAM/CD-RW drive Onboard G-Force4 mx400 video w/128 dedicated RAM Onboard nForce audio Prolink PixelView PlayTV 2.0 USB 2.0 Windows 2000 SP4 Pausing and recording and just playing live TV takes a lot of CPU time, pegging CPU at 100% and making navigating between other running programs problematic, which makes it tough to use as a means to watch TV, and makes it just a capture device. Comments posted by Tony from Other, September 23, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10. |
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| Pixelview Video Maker | Tv Tuner Analog VideoIn MPEG1 hardware MPEG2 hardware |
Vista? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $150 | 5.3/10 4 votes |
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4 comments (4130 views) Post comment |
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| Description (from the manufacturer site) | |||||||||
| More and more people enjoy making their personal home video by themselves.Also many people expert to record favorite TV programs or movies while watching it into high quality digital files. To satisfy the demand, Prolink has launched PixelView Video Maker which allows you to make MPEG-II high quality video easily.
Video Maker is not only a real-time MPEG-II encoding card but also built-in a TV-tuner which supports for the NTSC and PALTV system and gives excellent functions including TV-in-a-Window, always on top mode and OSD function. With the S-Video and composite video input, it gives you the ability to read, edit, record and save their special videos. While the video out function gives the ability to output your files into CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or any available device. Specifications : Hardware Interface : PCI TV standards : NTSC / PAL Video : Video Resolution : 704 x 480 /576, 352 x 240/288 Input / Output Format : NTSC/PAL Composite & S-Video Frame Rate : NTSC-30 fps, PAL-25 fps Compression Format : MPEG-II, MEG-I, SVCD & VCD Compression BitRate : MPEG-I : 1.15Mbits/sec, MPEG-II : 2-15 Mbits / sec SVCD : 2.4Mbps / sec Audio Capture Formats : Input & Output Format : Stereo Compression Format : MPEG I Sampling Rate : 44.1 KHz Data Rate : 224 Kbps Video Memory : 8MB SDRAM |
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Purchased one of these recently, the quality was abysmal, very poor sharpness normal size text became unreadable during normal play back, constant artifacts. Side note - do comments get deleted on this site?because I could have sworn I commented on this card before. Comments posted by JubNub from Other, November 06, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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Yeap! This problem occurs. But just go and download the MPEG Corrector tool here at this site and your Mpeg files will work ok (http://www.vcdhelp.com/download/MPEG-Corrector.zip). The files created seem to have problems in their headers. WMP always shows incorrect MPEG length before you fix them. Please note also that manual instructs you to adjust DMA settings for your DMA controller and harddisks. Also, be sure to verify these setting frequently, specially after hardware changes, cause Win98 may turn them off. Comments posted by Mathias from Other, August 20, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? |
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I tested it with 3 Mother boards ( Asus Tusl2-c , Giga 6OXT with pentium 3 1000 and Giga 7VRXP with Athlon XP 1600+ ) but all had problem with this card including audio/video sync and unstable mpeg files. Comments posted by Ali from Other, August 20, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10. |
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Pros: - Very good MPEG2 quality, up to 15 Mbits, supporting VCD, SVCD, CVD and DVD formats. - Bundled with a full set of cables and RC. - Almost the same hardware of PV256T and AVIOSYS 3020 - Comes with a "hidden" utility that allows you to configure every aspect of MPEG1/2 such as resolution, rate and video filtering. - Audio sync is very good, since it is done by a dedicated hardware, without the need of the soundcard Cons: - Very unstable with 3rd party software - Misses standard AVI support - Misses a AVI to MPG conversion utility - MPEG files aren't fully compatible and without a fix may produce audio and video sync problems with MP7. But are suitable for editing/authoring Comments posted by mgruber from Other, July 26, 2002: Compatibility: |
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| Pixelview XCapture | Analog VideoIn |
Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? *based on user reports. |
PCI | $50 | 8.3/10 3 votes |
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4 comments (7283 views) Post comment |
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| First invented desktop capture Card, which is based on Conexant CX23881 chipset with high quality 10 bits A/D resolution technology. Perfect user-friendly MPEG II software integrated. |
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Great capture card that uses the new 10bit 23881 chip from Conexant way better than the hauppauge wintv go works great with dscaler output to a 42" panny plasma. Comments posted by neonflx from Other, March 19, 2003: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Just a quick comment, I just received my card, did not have time to fully test yet. The captured picture is much better than with my older WinTV PVR. I can capture with virtualdub, although I have some problems in the image from time to time, which are hardly descriptible. Maybe I need to try with only this card in the PC as I currently have 3 or 4 PCI cards. Comments posted by Didier from Other, November 14, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating. |
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Best looking captures I've seen! Cons: Software does not include a program for multi-segment AVI captures. If you use NTFS where files can be of unlimited size, this may not be a problem. (How big can the new avi files be in WinXP?) It does do somewhat poor MPEG captures using the included PowerDirector 2.1 ME program. Most WDM-based capture programs should work. iuVCR works for me, but takes EIGHT MINUTES to fully initialize. I believe it's looking for a TV tuner on the card. VirtualVCR seemed to work. AVI_IO and VirtualDub won't capture (I haven't tried using the wrapper.) If iuVCR bugs get ironed out, I'd give this a 9. Comments posted by Roger from Other, November 12, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10. |
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Very good new capture card Use 10bit 23881 chip. The capture quality is much better then 8x8 chip card. before I capture TV only about 150M/h file size with 8x8 chip and divx5_q4+b setting,now file size going up to 250M with the same setting,what means it? the 23881 chip capture more info-----. The Xcapture card can capture most Res. by iuVCR and windvr,AVI and mpeg1/2,but only capture 240/288 Res and low bu Vdub. Comments posted by zhn from Other, October 23, 2002: Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10. |
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Column Explanation  Click on this for
more technical information.New comments= New comments since your last visit. New Card= New Capture Card since your last vist. Feature What kind of main capture features it supports Analog VideoIn = Analog composite or/and SVHS video input Video Card = If it is a Video Card/Graphic Card Tv Tuner = Built-In TV-Tuner Digital TV = Built-In Digital TV-Tuner DV/Firewire = DV/Firewire/i.Link input DV Converter = Analog composite or/and SVHS video input and converts to DV video MPEG1 hardware = Capture directly MPEG1(VCD) video using hardware* MPEG2 hardware = Capture directly MPEG2(SVCD and DVD) video using hardware* MJPEG hardware = Capture directly to MJPEG using hardware* MPEG4 hardware = Capture directly to MPEG4(DivX,Xvid) video using hardware* * = Most capture cards can capture to this format using software but it usually requires a very fast computer, if it supports realtime capturing it uses the capture cards hardware and it doesn't require a very fast computer and you may get better quality but less options/settings than software capturing. Compatibility What Operating System our users have reported that it works on, Win95=Works Cnx = Connection What type of connection the capture device has to the computer, PCI, AGP, USB1/1.1/2, DV or PCMCIA. Price The price in US dollar. Rating The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the true Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get a weighted rating. The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average rating. Comment User comments, click on view to view them or add to post a own comment. We can not gurantee that this list is 100% correct. Don't forget to read the User Comments for more Info about each Capture card. If you find any features that are not correct contact us instead of posting a comment about it. |
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