DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

Pinnacle PCTV pro

20 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/pinnacle-pctv-pro.18128/

P
pranavrahul Original post #1
Nov 5, 2005 at 12:06 AM
Hi guys,
I have a Pinnacle PCTV pro card.
It can't display the same clear picture quality as my television.
The picture quality is not so clear.
What is the problem. Is there a problem in my card or the cable with which i join my card.
M
medigit #2
Nov 5, 2005 at 12:22 AM
same here .My PCTV vision quality comes nowhere close to TC.
dIgItaL_BrAt
Nov 5, 2005 at 1:18 AM
the tv tuner quality can never match the quality of a standalone TV.what u can do is use DScaler and fiddle around a bit with the filters to get the best quality.Believe me,it makes a huge difference!
I
ishaan #4
Nov 5, 2005 at 6:01 PM
yea i got one too and its pretty bad quality compared to a tv
Z
Zaysen #5
Nov 7, 2005 at 1:06 AM
Members,
First See if You all are using the TV Tuner with Onboard Graphics!If yes Then this is the main culprit.I am using Pixel View Play Tv Pro TV Tuner on an Vintage D845WN Intel Motherboard With a Pentium-4 1.70 Ghz Williamette Core Processor With 768mb PC-133 Mhz SD Ram With Geforce 4 MX 4000 AGP 8x Card and My TV Quality is Superb much better than a conventional Tv,Like Playing 3d Games.

Hence upgrade to AGP Card and See the Difference of the TV Tuner Quality.
dIgItaL_BrAt
Nov 7, 2005 at 11:14 PM
it does'nt make a difference whether u use onboard graphics or an AGP card.My Pinnacle card runs on the intel 845 onboard graphics and the tv reception is absolutely clear.My config is win xp mce,P4 1.7 ghz & 512 MB DDR333 RAM,120 GB HDD on a Intel D845GLAD board and it even manages to capture perfectly in WinDVR's 'DVD quality' mode with no frame drops.
M
medigit #7
Nov 7, 2005 at 11:40 PM
can u people with good reception quality post some screenshots of the Pics of the pCTV .
techno_funky
Nov 8, 2005 at 12:43 AM
allrite here are few screenies from my side
my tuner card is a Pctv stereo
1st of all iam not using Pctv vision its not at all great
i use christv lite a fantastic alternative
to vision and have a gpu card i.e geforce FX 5200

*img268.imageshack.us/img268/2263/capture0024328935hn.th.jpg*img268.imageshack.us/img268/2509/capture0024393324wz.th.jpg*img268.imageshack.us/img268/4337/capture0030316899un.th.jpg*img307.imageshack.us/img307/4672/capture0030334911pr.th.jpg*img307.imageshack.us/img307/9308/capture0032065759bh.th.jpg*img307.imageshack.us/img307/5798/capture0032082588uu.th.jpg*img307.imageshack.us/img307/9950/capture0033172871tc.th.jpg
I
ishaan #9
Nov 8, 2005 at 4:50 PM
hey

it turned out the cabling in that room was faulty or something

i jus put my pc in another room AND i got another tv tuner (an external one for my laptop) and both of them work extremely fine in that other room

when i put the laptop in the old room, the quality was again bad

so check ur cabling
jay4u
jay4u #10
Nov 8, 2005 at 7:16 PM
ya cabling and line interference are the major culprit.. dont just go on blaming the tv tuner and onboard graphics... By reducing the inteference you can get decent picture quality... Go for graphics cards only u need on the fly encoding else onboard graphics is just fine...

By the way which PVR software u use... i tried chris tv lite on my Pinnacle pctv stereo and it was good... also i tried windows movier maker - VERY GOOD FOR recording movies from tv channels...
I
ishaan #11
Nov 10, 2005 at 11:35 AM
i use the bundled software - PCTV Vision.

i tried a few others but i dint like any of em that much.

in windows movie maker...how do you set the channel ??
C
cvvikram #12
Nov 10, 2005 at 1:33 PM
I think i depends on the strength of the cable signal or channel frequency. In my pc some channels are extreamly clear and some are not.
Sourabh
Sourabh #13
Nov 10, 2005 at 6:43 PM
ishaan said:
in windows movie maker...how do you set the channel ??

Well its not meant for viewing TV. As the name suggests ' Movie Maker', you can record a live show running on TV. Comes in handy a lot of times, coz when you havent restarted your PC for couple of days and the PCTV vision blacks out on start, only option you have to record your favorite show is Movie Maker.
I
ishaan #14
Nov 10, 2005 at 6:47 PM
yes thats wat im saying...wen u wanna record something on it how dya set the channel on it?

wat if i wanna record star world but its only showing hbo ?
Sourabh
Sourabh #15
Nov 10, 2005 at 7:31 PM
Lol! change the channel to Star on PCTV vision and open WMM. You can get it done via WMM inbuilt channel searcher, but its very buggy and you would have to identify the channel from the vocals :p
varunbhide
Nov 10, 2005 at 7:33 PM
yup, am facing the same problem of channel setting in movie maker. it asks for channel frequency while tuning. so how do you know which channel comes on what frequency?
I
ishaan #17
Nov 11, 2005 at 4:16 PM
it worked !

thanks sourabh
D
deejam007 #18
Nov 28, 2005 at 1:08 PM
Hey im usin..PCTV Since 4 Yearz It Wokz Fine....

1st i was facin..The same problem...channels r not comin..clear....

thn my frnd told buy a Channel booster...it cost around 1K

Thn the channels r Excellen gr8 qualiy..it workz fine... Recordin..Quality Was Rockin.. After connectin..Channel Booster

All Channels r comin..i recorded..Sum videoz in DVD fomat...

Buy Channel Booster it will solve ur problem...

For More Info.. message me...im frm hyd...
hackers2005.3721@yahoo.com
:lol:
Sourabh
Sourabh #19
Nov 28, 2005 at 5:50 PM
how come a ' . ' in a yahoo mail id?
I
ishaan #20
Nov 28, 2005 at 5:53 PM
if u pay yahoo i think u can get a dot