TV ON A STICK MAKES A GREAT HOLIDAY TREAT

Our computers have literally become the digital hub for most all of our electronic medial products. We use our computers to manage the photos from our digital cameras, the music for our mp3 players and the videos from our camcorders and DVDs. And there's no end in sight. I've recently added my cell phone to that list since my iPhone uses a copy of iTunes to manage my calling contacts in addition to most everything else I just mentioned. But the TV still seems to elude so many of us who are really into using the PC to manage our multimedia.

The Apple TV has certainly helped to bring our TVs into the mix by letting us use the TV to view what's normally being displayed on the computer's screen. But what I'm talking about here is actually watching TV programming on your computer's screen. Displaying TV programming on your computer requires you to purchase and install a TV tuner card and the included software. And while that seems like a simple thing to do, still many of us don't actually do it. I believe that's because many don't feel comfortable opening up their computers and installing necessary hardware. And the required video drivers and other software that comes on the CD that needs to be installed to make it all work can sometimes interfere with the computer's video display hardware. Plus running the TV application can be somewhat daunting trying to set things up, even accessing the TV programming guides trying to find what's on the different stations can be a real turn off. But there's something new that eliminates all of these objections and makes watching TV on your computer a breeze.

Pinnacle's PCTV HD Ultimate Stick does everything for you because all you have to do is plug the ultra-portable device into any USB port. There's no software to install because everything you need is already built into the Stick. That's right. There's no software installation required. The only other thing you have to plug in is the video source. If the TV signal is coming from the air, just attach the included little telescopic antenna that will pick up the signal. If the source is from a cable TV or satellite box, just connect the appropriate A/V cable into the Stick's included connectors.
Once you get it going, it gets better.

The PCTV HD Ultimate Stick is capable of receiving and displaying both standard definition and high definition TV on your computer's screen. It will also use your computer's connection to the Internet to automatically download the television programming schedule so you will know what's playing for up to a week in advance. And if that weren't enough, the PCTV HD Ultimate Stick has a complete personal video recorder (PVR) built into it as well. The PVR will let you record or time shift up to two hours of video directly into the stick. The destination file formats support other video consumer electronic products such as the iPod and PSP as well as a variety of video standards like DivX. You can even burn the video directly to a DVD. And since it's all in the stick itself and not the computer, you can easily unplug the PCTV HD Ultimate Stick and insert it into another computer if you want to watch things at another location. Remember that everything is on the stick itself so you can watch TV or what you recorded on another PC at any time. When you unplug it, it's like it was never there so you don't have to worry about uninstalling anything.

The PCTV HD Ultimate Stick also includes a little remote control so you can sit back and control all that you see and hear without having to get up from the couch. The PCTV HD Ultimate Stick supports both analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC) TV signals and is hardware ready for ClearQAM which is unencrypted digital cable reception.

The PCTV HD Ultimate Stick works with Windows PCs only and sells for $129.99. And it's small size makes it a perfect stocking stuffer.

www.pinnaclesys.com

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