Pinnacle Systems 8230-10023-51 PCTV HD Card - PCI

• Box Contents - PCTV HD PCI Card, Remote Control, FM radio antenna, A/V adapter cable, Pinnacle Software
• 3-in-1 TV Tuner card for digital TV (ATSC), analog TV (NTSC) and FM radio
• Watch SD and free HD TV on your PC - no service fees
• Hardware ready for ClearQAM (unencrypted digital cable) reception
• Automatically record shows to your hard drive in the destination file format of choice (i.e. MPEG-2, DivX, etc), or even direct-to-DVD

Notes from OldTechnohobbiest:
Yep, I just got one of these after three years of no tv. Off the top of my head, it (in combination with that terk antenna)is worth every cent. It does what they say it will do. So, why the four stars instead of the 'wishedfor 5 stars'? Simple--a 13 hour to 24 hour down load to get their update with a 5.6k dialup. They should have included an extra disk. Anyway, oldtechno didn't get this to record or any of those type things--just to watch tv. My entire review is based on just watching. 1. It does everything they said (as far as I know) 2. The price is right for the quality of tv-ing I received. (Please take into account I got that card plus the 'terk' antenna combination). 3. Even though my system is too slow for most of the digital channels, it does display them. Some of them run fine--nice and clear (the antenna?) 4. If you decide to buy one, you might check with Microsoft's home page and make sure you've got all the downloads. I had to download four hours worth...two of them. One of them had to be done twice--that's irritating. 5. For those of you who purchase that 'terk' antenna, I want you to remember--it doesn't look exactly like the picture. You see the stand that holds it up...you see that 'rod' sticking out--and the swirls going around it?.....well, those aren't swirls. I thought (from the picture) one of the ham radio people had designed it and put in three 'halfwave' antennas together (don't ask me how) and this would have fit the description I saw in the photo. NOT SO. Take a pencil and a piece of paper. Draw a line straight up. Near the bottom of the line, draw a bow shaped line (one that looks like the bottom of the letter U). Draw several more, each one smaller than the other. Think of it as a Christmas tree draw by a five year old. Now take that picture and turn it one its side.......that's what the antenna looks like. Plus it has dipoles--that's a techno's word for rabbit ears. But I will tell you now--IT DOES WORK. What's the bad side to this...?...for my part (just watching tv) there isn't one--other than the down loads. Oh yes, before I go, I don't remember which it was, the card or the antenna instructions--it sends you to a 'antenna' site. DO THIS, it tripled the channels I could receive. BYE!

64-bit Vista Media Center w/ 360 Extender - works great!:
This is now a great product. When I first purchased it, I used it on 32-bit Windows XP, and had to use the Pinnacle software it came with for watching TV. The software sometimes crashed, I would have to uninstall and reinstall, and it wasn't very usable software either. But it mostly worked. The software and the drivers have since become much better, so a lot of the reviews from several months ago are really outdated. I've since switched to 64-bit Vista Ultimate, and use Media Center to watch television. I only watch over the air TV, not ClearQAM, but for ota it works perfectly. Even though the drivers are technically in beta, it hasn't had any problems whatsoever. I also use it with an Xbox 360 Media Center. It handles minor static during bad weather a heck of a lot better than the Pinnacle software did, too. If you're going to get this card, which is a pretty good card, I'd highly recommend getting Media Center as well.

So so product:
Alright product, most of the reviews that I read about this product and the problems that it has are correct. I would by a different brand card next time.

Small and relatiely inexpensive but, it works.:
The Pinnacle Systems 8230-10023-51 PCI format PCTV HD tuner card is not a large device. As such cards go, it is one of the lowest cost models I've run across. But, when I was looking for a replacement tuner card for my HP Desktop Computer that was equipped with Windows Vista Media Center software, to make it HD compatable, this one seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. The small physical size (much smaller than the Hauppage unit it was to replace in my late 2005 vintage HP desktop computer. But, the approximate $75 price tage and the specs on the plastic package intrigued me and I decided to give it a chance. I removed the existing Hauppage card and easily replaced it with the tiny Pinnacle card. I reconnected the cable to the (temporary) rabbit ears antenna (I'm replacing my Dish Network hardware with the New ATT & T Uverse fibre optic HD TV/high speed internet service this coming Wednesday)and powered up the HP Computer (it has an Intel Centrino Duo 1.8 processor, two-gigs of ram and a 512meg Nvidia video card of decent quality) and watched the Microsoft Vista Premium package to its thing. It immediately found the card and said it would look for software drivers. As instructed in the manual, I put the Driver DVD in the reader and it soon found the disk and a list of choice came up. Following the directions, I selected the Windows Vista Media Center Drivers from the list and everything loaded in as it said it should. My computer came with a large remote, totally different looking, with twice as many buttons as the one supplied with the car and, once the drivers were installed, I followed the instructions for finding stations (it found lots of them, far more than the Hauppage card did, even with the rabbit ears) and giving me a choice to make them part of my pre-selects or not. When finished, it asked me to reboot the computer, which I did. Everything works great. The Microsoft Media Center remote works just like before. The FM radio (which I didn't have with the Hauppage card) works too, even with the Microsoft Remote. The picture quality of the HD stations is excellent. The analog stations work about the same as the Hauppage card but, the time to tune, when going from an analog station to a digital one is quite long, perhaps five seconds or so. Overall, this card is exactly what I was looking for. It works great, it loaded easily and without any problems. I think maybe there are now good drivers available right out of the box. Either that, or the Vista System just makes it easier to bring it all together. I can only give this hardware a five out of five. I just haven't found anything about to complain about.

Comcast Customers - BEWARE:
The product itself works quite well, as designed and stated by the manufacturer. The setup process is a little bit time consuming, however. The real problem here is for Comcast users. The problem is not with this product, it's with Comcast's ClearQAM support. It's nearly non-existent! You can currently get all of the basic channels in analog (which obviously precludes HDTV), however only your local channels will show up in HDTV using the digital service. Almost all other Comcast channels use encryption and are completely unviewable using this product. So - comcast users, do NOT buy this product. You will not achieve the result you're looking for.