Pinnacle PCTV DVB-T Flash Stick review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 19 Sep 2007

Price when reviewed: £50

Supplier: http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk

Reviewed By: Seth Barton

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Pinnacle's PCTV Flash Stick combines 1GB of flash memory with a DVB-T tuner. The flash memory is partitioned; part of it carries the tuner's device driver and software, while the remaining 776MB can store recorded programmes or any other files.

To get it working, you need to install the software; simply plug in the stick and launch the installer. It scans for channels and divides them into radio and TV. It doesn't provide channels in the traditional order of BBC1, BBC2, ITV1 and so on, but you can easily reorganise them.

Picture quality is good. The compression artefacts look less prominent than usual, resulting in a smoother-looking image. The interface is clean and simple, making it easy to use. The remote is compact but better than the other mini-remotes as it has proper buttons.

The EPG provides only a pop-up box showing a text list of programmes for one channel at a time. You can capture video directly to DVD or DivX, the latter being useful for squeezing programmes on to the small amount of flash memory. Recording MPEG2 directly on to the stick will fill it up in less than an hour.

A tuner with its own storage is an interesting idea, but who needs one? You still have to install software, so you can't use it on a PC for which you don't have administrator rights. There isn't enough space to be useful, either. This is a rather expensive oddity.

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