A Rare Gift from Pinnacle Systems: The PCTV HD Card

High-definition represents the video standard of the future, and this is the reason why most manufacturers of video-related devices (whether we're talking about consumer electronics or various hardware components and accessories) rush to implement HD in their latest products. And that's exactly the case with Pinnacle Systems, which, after announcing their PCTV HD Ultimate Stick a while back, has come up with a new and enticing offering, this time targeting desktop PC users: the PCTV HD Card.

According to the company's statement, the Pinnacle PCTV HD Card is designed for desktop PC users who want to add SD and HD TV to their PC using an internal PCI card. However, it will probably also appeal to Windows Media Center users who want to add TV viewing and recording to their desktop PC. And this is because, in addition to a full personal video recorder (PVR) and stereo FM radio, the included Pinnacle TVCenter Pro software also allows TV recording in MPEG-2 or space-saving DivX formats, or direct-to-DVD. Furthermore, the Pinnacle PCTV HD Card includes a remote control for easy navigation and an FM radio antenna as well as Pinnacle Studio QuickStart for trimming captured videos.

Additionally, the card supports analog (NTSC) TV signals and is hardware-ready for ClearQAM (unencrypted digital cable) reception. With the TV timeshifting capabilities that are included, consumers can pause, rewind and fast forward live TV, as well as record TV shows to their hard drive or direct to DVD for playback on a DVD player. Moreover, TV programs and videos can even be captured from a cable/satellite set-top box or camcorder with the A/V adapter cable that comes with the tuners.

As the company informs us, the Pinnacle PCTV HD Card should hit the retailers' shelves in mid-October (which means NOW!) for around $79.99, which is actually a pretty fair price to pay for this hardware component that will allow users to enjoy HD programs directly on their computer monitors.

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