Pinnacle nanostick

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Macropiper

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#192999 30-Jan-2009 21:01

I have one of these, the Pinnacle nano 73e.

I have almost got it working in Linux, I had to download the firmware, but the driver specified what firmware I needed in the results of "dmesg" and finding it on google was no problem.

The only problems I have on Windows and Linux are software ones, on linux they mainly relate to odd settings being used for the encoding in NZ, anything based on xine (like Kaffeine) gets video, but the sound dies out after a few seconds due to being unable to decode the audio properly.

~~On Windows, the software that came with the tuner will not pick up any channels, so I am trying MediaPortal next, hopefully that does something.~~

I am also about to try to manually enter the channel information for the Pinnacle software using a channel list that I generated on linux using w_scan. Maybe one of these two approaches will get me somewhere. Argh, no cheese, this software is hopeless. And must they use their own widget set for the buttons for it? Wastes CPU power that could be doing something useful, like decoding video, or finding me some channels. The theme doesn't add anything useful and doesnt look any better than the default theme in Windows.

The hardware is nice, seems that the problem is that the software that comes with it sucks, and weird settings are used in New Zealand that some software cannot cope with, yet.

Edit: No luck, MediaPortal won't pick up any channels.

pstar008

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#193063 31-Jan-2009 11:32

Macropiper: I have one of these, the Pinnacle nano 73e.

The hardware is nice, seems that the problem is that the software that comes with it sucks, and weird settings are used in New Zealand that some software cannot cope with, yet.

Edit: No luck, MediaPortal won't pick up any channels.

Totally agree, that is actually the point I am going to make yesterday, but
very strangly, I lost two posts(don't know why, just post is and it just
dispeared) for that same TV tuner. That accident really put me off to post
it again.

Anyway, I am buying this to replacing my Hauppauge WintTV-HVR900H as they
promising Linux driver and saying it is comeing soon and nothing come out
for quite a while. So I did some research on Google, and find nanostick have
support in both Linux and Mac while my HVR900H don't have both. The
price is reasonable as well. So I went to PB last weekend and the salesman
actually discouraged me buying that nanostick. He said his working mate
didn't recommend this product, but didn't tell him why. As I am not aware
of any bad review/feedback for nanostick at that moment, and seems I don't
have much choice, if I want a USB tuner with Linux and probably Mac support,
I bought it anyway.

From my experience, I think it is not too bad at all. I'm kind of like the
Pinnacle TVCenter pro 4.99 comes with it in terms of user interface and
functionality. And I found install it is actually easier than install my WinTV 900H,
as I only need install one package and it will install driver, menual, and
software onece, and here you go. But it only pick up two channels the
first time I installed, and I found it's the same every time if I tried to scan
for channel straight away after installation without enable divx and aac
codec. But after enable both of them(purchase for free) and scan again,
every channel will come up. But talking about performances, it did really bad on
my PM 2.0 laptop, most channel are unwatchable with full signal quality, and if
I'm using PowerCinema 5.0 come with my other tuner, it is as good as Hauppauge
one. I think the reason is simple: the free codec come from Pinnacle is no good,
and as everyone knows already, the Cyberlink one are much better for NZ freeview
but are expensive. Instead buy one from others which will eventually add
cost, Pinnacle decided to build a in house one or buy a cheaper 3rd party
one. But using Pinnacle TVCenter Pro in my Desktop, which has a much better
hardware spec, the quality is quite good in my viewing experience for a few
minutes.

Bottom line, I think the hardware of nanostick is fine, I suppose the sofware
will working nicelly in other counties beside NZ freeview, but no good here.
If you don't have Cyberlink codec, I guess no much luck here, maybe THB?

I bought the nanostick for watching TV in Linux, and finally got it
working. The step is quite simple if nothing goes wrong :) I found that one
is quite useful for install driver, and VLC(0.9.8.a) and SMplayer(Mplayer 1.0_rc2_p28288)
is good for me to watch freeview once you got the driver installed and
channel list sort out. Kaffeine in my case only able to view TV3 and the
quality is really good, but I can never got any other channels scanned in
Kaffeine and it wouldn't accept any channels I added into its channel
list. For codec, I think you need ffmpeg 0.4.9_p20090121 or better. But so
far, I still got signal problems in Linux. I am using a 4M long coax TV
extension cable plus two usb extension cables to reach my PC form roof
antenna outlet, which seems working ok in Windows, but Linux driver pickup a
weaker signal and will drop all the channels except C4 and TV3, if I
manage to pull out the 4M TV lead extension cable from DSE and connected to
my PC, I can actually watch all the channels. I not sure what is that TV Coax cable
http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4983761901d8875a2741c0a87f3b06e6/Product/View/C1401
made of from DSE, but from my experience, RG6 is much better than that in term of
signal attenuation.

PS: I am trying to sell Hauppauge WinTV_HVR 900H now, which been working really good for me.
It's a hybrid tuner for analog and digital TV and has nicer feature and remote. Selling it only
as it don't has driver for Linux now thus couldn't work with my Linux desktop and I don't want wait
any more, so I can sell it to fund my purchase of the nano stick. Anyone interested, please PM me.

pstar008

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#193064 31-Jan-2009 11:34

Macropiper, if you couldn't get channels in both software, it could be a signal issue. Did you got
channels in Linux but not Windows?

PS: Third, the third time I posed and nothing appear, and luckly I got it saved!

Macropiper

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#193094 31-Jan-2009 15:47

Mythtv also seems to be fairly useless in NZ, finds channels, does not play sound or display video.

I just had some luck, found a guide on how to correct my channels.conf file for mplayer, and now I can get C4 and TV3.

Unfortunately, my computer seems to cope poorly with the video, and I can see lots of ugliness due to the interlacing the SVN version of mplayer has a tendency to crash also, which is not really all that surprising.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#193096 31-Jan-2009 15:53

There is currently no way of accessing H.264 acceleration under Linux (but it should hopefully be available soon). Myth does work with Freeview|HD and Steven (openmedia) has spent a lot of time working on this but it's certainly not a stable solution yet suitable for everyday use.

pstar008

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#193107 31-Jan-2009 17:46

Macropiper: Mythtv also seems to be fairly useless in NZ, finds channels, does not play sound or display video.

I just had some luck, found a guide on how to correct my channels.conf file for mplayer, and now I can get C4 and TV3.

Unfortunately, my computer seems to cope poorly with the video, and I can see lots of ugliness due to the interlacing the SVN version of mplayer has a tendency to crash also, which is not really all that surprising.

Denpending on your hardware, I got a modest E7200 and 8500GT and TV3 is in good quality in Kaffeine, but I do have a receptiong problem I think due to hardware driver level but I think codec shoudn't be a problems any more for a modern PC.

goethe

21 posts

Geek

#193732 3-Feb-2009 16:31

Just been looking back at the PC World review.

Pinnacle PCTV nanoStick

TV tuners are turning up in every size, shape and configuration these days, and a lot of them are relatively cheap. Pinnacle’s version belongs in the low cost group, but sets itself apart from the competition with some good features and easy installation.
By Jan Birkeland / Tuesday, October 28 2008

HOW CAN THEY WRITE SUCH GARBAGE?? I don't think anyone on this forum has got the product to work. Looks like the review was written by cutting and pasting from a press release!

"EASY INSTALLATION" - what a load of crap! This reviewer has zero credibility.

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

pstar008

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#193760 3-Feb-2009 18:45

Have nothing to say about the review, but to be fair, I got it working in both of my computers under Windows.
From my experice the only issues I had is a software one as its TVCenter are not the best for freeview, but I
like it more than PowerCinema, and I think it's suck because of its codec.

PowerCinema have free trial to download on their website, and it works better than TVCenter Pro on one of my PCs,
you could give it a try, or if it is indeed a hardware issue, why not just change it?

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