Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro USB Stick a good choice?

Hi, I am currently a college student who hates lugging and storing his heavy 13" Panasonic TV. I'm thinking about getting a USB TV tuner to save all the weight and hassle but enjoy cable TV at the same time.

I've been looking at a few from Happauge and Pinnacle but www.woot.com is currently offering the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick for seems to be a good price at $40, refurbished. I've read the comments and reviews from various websites and the conclusion I am getting is that it's a good TV tuner with good hardware (when it works correctly) but with horrible included software. It averages I guess 3 out of 5 on all the websites I've seen so far.

I'm just looking for something that works and plays cable smoothly and correctly. Is this the USB TV tuner for me or are others suggested?

TIA!

 

Pinnacle TV devices are garbage.

 

Be careful as up until just recently none supported digital cable including Pinnacle. And Greg could you elaborate as Pinnacle has caught my eye. What is so bad about them and who is a better choice?

 

external usb tuners are not good.
Does your laptop have a vacant mini pcie port on the inside?
If so, than you can get a much better internal tv tuner. It may cost more, but the mini pcie interface is much faster than USB.
You also may want to look at pcmcia or expressport tv tuners, as those will be much better than usb ones.

K-TRON

 

I hear both good and bad things about Pinnacle as well as USB TV tuners.

My friend uses a Hauppauge USB TV tuner for his Macbook and it seems to work fine. Picture quality is decent, probably because of the cable service we have at school, but it's not bad at all IMO.

I believe I do have a internal PCI-E mini slot since the Sager NP2090 is capable of installing an internal TV tuner. Actually, a fellow NBR user in the B/S/T forum is selling TV tuner for $65 shipped. I might get that if it's really the best choice. Just wished it was cheaper. Maybe I can bargain...

 

stay away from the pinnacle pro usb . crap software , no adjustable screen size , no pic in pic , just not very good . get avermedia or haugppauge .

 

alright, i didnt buy the Pinnacle USB TV tuner. I might go for the internal PCI-E mini TV tuner seeing as how I have room for it anyways. Thanks for the help everyone!