Which Software To Use For Pinnacle PCTV With Vista ?
January 23rd, 2020
You Can Use This Software
ProgDVB v6.03.01 For Windows XP/Vista
Download:
http://files.update-progdvb.com/ProgDVB6.03.01Std.exe
This Site Can Help You : www.ProgDVB.com
Why not use the Pinnacle software?
I use it for my TV card even though it is big and slow. But it does do what is necessary and record in TS files which is important. I don’t use the recommended software as it does not allow recording TS files so I use another version which is meant for other cards which works fine on my TV card.
Other software which MIGHT work:
DVBDream
DVBViewer
GBPVR
MyTheatre
BeyondTV
Why not use the Pinnacle software?
I use it for my TV card even though it is big and slow. But it does do what is necessary and record in TS files which is important. I don't use the recommended software as it does not allow recording TS files so I use another version which is meant for other cards which works fine on my TV card.
Other software which MIGHT work:
DVBDream
DVBViewer
GBPVR
MyTheatre
BeyondTV
Thanks, But which is the Pinnacle software to use
Check their download section and look for compatible software for your hardware. Then get ones with close version numbers and give them a try I use this one – Pinnacle TVCenter Pro 4.94a – which is meant for different hardware but one version does have a dual tuner like my PCI card. This version adds transport stream recording which is important so that is why I use it>
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Analog+PVR+%28cable_antenna%29/Pinnacle+MediaCenter+Support/Download+Area/MediaCenter+_+TVCenter+v+4_x/Pinnacle+TVCenter+Pro+4_94a.htm?mode=documents&Display=1
but the recommended compatible version is Pinnacle TVCenter Pro 4.9.2 BETA
Here is the Download page showing all the different hardware and supposed compatible software. You might find other software might work with your receiver. Navigating the Pinnacle site to find this download page is always a challenge
http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/PCTV%20Drivers/UpdatePCTV.htm
Check their download section and look for compatible software for your hardware. Then get ones with close version numbers and give them a try I use this one - Pinnacle TVCenter Pro 4.94a - which is meant for different hardware but one version does have a dual tuner like my PCI card. This version adds transport stream recording which is important so that is why I use it>
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Analog+PVR+%28cable_antenna%29/Pinnacle+MediaCenter+Support/Download+Area/MediaCenter+_+TVCenter+v+4_x/Pinnacle+TVCenter+Pro+4_94a.htm?mode=documents&Display=1
but the recommended compatible version is Pinnacle TVCenter Pro 4.9.2 BETA
Here is the Download page showing all the different hardware and supposed compatible software. You might find other software might work with your receiver. Navigating the Pinnacle site to find this download page is always a challenge
http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/PCTV%20Drivers/UpdatePCTV.htm
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Analog+PVR+%28cable_antenna%29/Pinnacle+MediaCenter+Support/Download+Area/MediaCenter+_+TVCenter+v+4_x/Pinnacle+TVCenter+Pro+4_94a.htm?mode=documents&Display=1
I downloaded but its asking me for serial or cd keys Thanks for the link tho What to do… ???
i recommend christv pro
Did you not get a CD with the card? The serial is usually on that. If not then try on a serial site.
Did you not get a CD with the card? The serial is usually on that. If not then try on a serial site.
I have the cd & serial on it but the software isn’t accepting it rather mine is only 10 digit serial whereas I need a FULL CD KEY to enter into the software I downloaded just now…
Any links where I can find the serial easily coz I’m unable to find Thanks
I found the serial from some site & installed it. It worked fine but after installation when I open the application, nothing happens..
Did you reboot? It has been a long time ago that I installed it but it might of required a reboot. I don’t know whether it requires dotNet. Do you have that installed?
Occasionally I have had problems with mine and it not running properly. Try killing it in task manager and re-try. Did it accept the serial? The serials are 25 digits long in 5 groups of 5 and printed on a label on the CD’s. I did get two CD’s with mine, one was PCTV Media Center and the other was Pinnacle Studio and both had 25 digit serials on them. With a tiny xxxx-xxxxx-xx digit number that sounds a bit like what you tried using.
Did you reboot? It has been a long time ago that I installed it but it might of required a reboot. I don't know whether it requires dotNet. Do you have that installed?
Occasionally I have had problems with mine and it not running properly. Try killing it in task manager and re-try. Did it accept the serial? The serials are 25 digits long in 5 groups of 5 and printed on a label on the CD's. I did get two CD's with mine, one was PCTV Media Center and the other was Pinnacle Studio and both had 25 digit serials on them. With a tiny xxxx-xxxxx-xx digit number that sounds a bit like what you tried using.
I rebooted. Serial was accepted & worked FINE. A message appeared while installing software :hardware not connected… tho my tv tuner card is very well connected. I have again re-checked.
Are your drivers installed? They would help.
Otherwise you might have an incompatible Application.
Device Manger doesn’t show any errors.
Btw which else pinnacle application I can try… I use Pinnacle PCTV Pro purchased in year 2001 or 2002… Earlier I had used PCTV Rave software that worked fine with XP.
I noticed WINDOWS VISTA isn’t even recognizing the newly added hardware..
how to sort this out first..???
You need Vista compatible drivers, have you looked on the Pinnacle site for any?
Without drivers, the card is going to be unusable on Vista.
http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/PCTV%20Drivers/ReadmePCTV.htm
Is your card PCTV Pro PCI with model number 110i? If so then there are Vista 32 and beta x64 drivers available. But why isn’t Vista prompting for drivers? Did it already attempt to install drivers and fail? Are there no entries at all for the card? Such as>
Vista found the drivers & installed it. Here’s the screenshot :
I purchased this tv tuner card in year 2001… The CD which came with the device has written : StudioPCTV/PCTV Pro.The card has PCTV Pro written on it. Dunno the model number but I used PCTV RAVE software with my XP & all worked fine. Now when I open Pinnacle TVCenter Pro, nothing happens. It says no tv card installed..while installing software….
I tried Windows Media Center in Vista & it didn’t played either..
By the look of those drivers they are only for video/audio capture such as a composite/s-video in and not for receiving TV. There is no Tuner device!
Does the card have a Tuner on it? Or does it connect to other tuners via an Analogue connector like some people do to record video from cable/satellite? What form of TV does it receive? Do you have a link to the card on a site somewhere?
If it has a Tuner, you need to get the device installed using the drivers from the Pinnacle site. It’s strange that Vista is not showing an unknown device or does it in another area of device manager?
Everything worked GREAT in XP. Only problem is after installing Vista I’m unable to even detect it..
Dunno what’s wrong… ??? May be its a very old model so may be not having Vista support…
Anyways, which is better among two :
a. TECHCOM Internal TV Tuner – SSD-TV-670
b. PixelView PlayTV Pro2
…just in case I plan to buy a new one….
Pinnacle provides Vista drivers for most of their cards, including their legacy cards so there should be a driver for it.
Did you check for any unknown devices in device manager?
Did you force a re-check for new hardware?
Check who makes the driver for those exisiting 2 pinnacle devices and then remove those existing 2 Pinnacle devices.
Force a re-check for new hardware and see what it comes up with.
There should be a tuner if it is a TV card. The video capture part seems to of been detected so it just needs the Tuner part.
Does Vista have chipset drivers installed? Did you install those or did you just leave what Vista found itself?
Pinnacle provides Vista drivers for most of their cards, including their legacy cards so there should be a driver for it.
Did you check for any unknown devices in device manager?
Did you force a re-check for new hardware?
Check who makes the driver for those exisiting 2 pinnacle devices and then remove those existing 2 Pinnacle devices.
Force a re-check for new hardware and see what it comes up with.
There should be a tuner if it is a TV card. The video capture part seems to of been detected so it just needs the Tuner part.
Does Vista have chipset drivers installed? Did you install those or did you just leave what Vista found itself?
Thanks for all info
Device Manager shows only this part of which I posted screenshot related to Tv tuner I many times tried to scan for any hardware change but it doesn’t show up anything else The 2 device whose drivers were installed by vista automatically…
Dunno why tv tuner part isn’t detected.. ?? Any other reasons related not finding hardware … : After installing vista, i installed the motherboard drivers where rest of things must have installed… Much thanks for your time
Are you sure you looked through every section of device manager for unknown or none functioning devices?
There has to be an entry for it. The chipset drivers you installed are the correct ones for your motherboard chipset and Vista?
Your Card has a TV Tuner and a video input doesn’t it? Mine only has a dual TV Tuner and no video input which is why no video input is shown in my device manager.
Try everest and see what that shows.
Anyone else with any ideas are welcome to contribute.
Are you sure you looked through every section of device manager for unknown or none functioning devices?
There has to be an entry for it. The chipset drivers you installed are the correct ones for your motherboard chipset and Vista?
Your Card has a TV Tuner and a video input doesn't it? Mine only has a dual TV Tuner and no video input which is why no video input is shown in my device manager.
Try everest and see what that shows.
Anyone else with any ideas are welcome to contribute.
I looked everywhere & couldn’t find Pinnacle tv tuner card hardware anywhere.Rather Vista didn’t detected the tv tuner hardware. Now I formatted & installed XP_SP3. Installed PCTV rave software & TV works really fine now I believe Vista is a CRAP that Microsoft has come out with Full of flaws A complete RESOURCE HOG! I guess I’ll stick with XP_SP3 untill I have surety that my PCTV card will work with Vista.
Thank you very much for your time & replies
Are you sure you looked through every section of device manager for unknown or none functioning devices?
There has to be an entry for it. The chipset drivers you installed are the correct ones for your motherboard chipset and Vista?
Your Card has a TV Tuner and a video input doesn't it? Mine only has a dual TV Tuner and no video input which is why no video input is shown in my device manager.
Try everest and see what that shows.
Anyone else with any ideas are welcome to contribute.
I looked everywhere & couldn't find Pinnacle tv tuner card hardware anywhere.Rather Vista didn't detected the tv tuner hardware. Now I formatted & installed XP_SP3. Installed PCTV rave software & TV works really fine now I believe Vista is a CRAP that Microsoft has come out with Full of flaws A complete RESOURCE HOG! I guess I'll stick with XP_SP3 untill I have surety that my PCTV card will work with Vista.
Thank you very much for your time & replies
Now your back with XP, check what the devices are in device manager and then try and find out what card model you have. That should help get it working with Vista. I might be worth setting up a dual boot with XP/Vista so you can refer to XP for information on devices etc.
I booted Vista x64 ultimate SP1 last night for the first time in a long time as I had a power usage monitor plugged in between my PC and socket to check the power usage. In x86 XP Pro Corp SP2 the power usage was 110 to 113 watts while idling. In x64 Vista Sp1 ultimate the power usage was 98 watts So an interesting result. I think people just don’t setup the power options as it does effect the running of the PC far more than XP does. There are a lot of options for the CPU usage which look like they may improve performance, although I have not tested to verify that.
There are a few extra items in the system tray/background than Vista but the CPU usage when idling is pretty much identical.
this is xp ss :
So what it suggests ????
There is nothing that looks like a TV Tuner there, just the one extra device that Vista did not have.
Can you post the link to the TV Tuner Card webpage so I can see what I am dealing with?
It might of been worth selecting show hidden devices when in Vista to see if that revealed anything. That is if Vista has that option as I have not looked for it and rarely use Vista.
Is there any chance of you setting up a dual boot of XP and Vista? Do you have room for that? Pinnacle have Vista drivers for most of their cards so unless your card is extremely old and no longer supported then it should be possible to get it working. But without knowing what card you have, it’s all guesswork.
There is nothing that looks like a TV Tuner there, just the one extra device that Vista did not have.
Can you post the link to the TV Tuner Card webpage so I can see what I am dealing with?
It might of been worth selecting show hidden devices when in Vista to see if that revealed anything. That is if Vista has that option as I have not looked for it and rarely use Vista.
Is there any chance of you setting up a dual boot of XP and Vista? Do you have room for that? Pinnacle have Vista drivers for most of their cards so unless your card is extremely old and no longer supported then it should be possible to get it working. But without knowing what card you have, it's all guesswork.
Ya! This one device is tv tuner card which vista didn’t find.. This is Pinnacle PCTV Pro tv tuner card, year of purchase was 2001. I couldn’t find hardware profile as its a very old card or may be searching Pinnacle is the most difficult thing. I also do not have the box of hardware to provide you complete details.
I have never tried dual boot.. ??? How to do this, plz explain.. Will tv tuner card work with Vista if I use XP as well.. Or I can ask what is Virtual PC ? Will installing virtual PC in Vista help me run tv tuner as well :
Any other good software for dual booting.. ???
Dual Boot would only be so that you could run both Vista and XP so you could boot into Vista to check and try new things to get the Card working. While also booting XP to check any details of the detected card.
It will not make the card work just by having the dual boot.
I doubt whether a Virtual PC will get it working as devices are not working in VirtualPC’s and are required to make the TV card work.
Dual Booting is an option if you have the drive space available to do it.
The fact that Vista does not detect all the necessary devices is the problem, it is a similar thing to what I had with XP when I attempted to integrate device drivers which did not work. The device would not work correctly afterwards and could not be installed. It might be worth trying Unknown device Identifier to see if that detects anything. But you would need Vista installed (as a Dual Boot) to try it.
http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html
I did check the following site but it was not very helpful as it was missing far too much.
http://www.pcidatabase.com/
Dual Boot would only be so that you could run both Vista and XP so you could boot into Vista to check and try new things to get the Card working. While also booting XP to check any details of the detected card.
It will not make the card work just by having the dual boot.
I doubt whether a Virtual PC will get it working as devices are not working in VirtualPC's and are required to make the TV card work.
Dual Booting is an option if you have the drive space available to do it.
The fact that Vista does not detect all the necessary devices is the problem, it is a similar thing to what I had with XP when I attempted to integrate device drivers which did not work. The device would not work correctly afterwards and could not be installed. It might be worth trying Unknown device Identifier to see if that detects anything. But you would need Vista installed (as a Dual Boot) to try it.
http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html
I did check the following site but it was not very helpful as it was missing far too much.
http://www.pcidatabase.com/
Yes! that’s the prob. vista isn’t detecting the hardware will installing this Unknown device Identifier in vista help me run my pctv : should i give a try ???
Setup a Dual Boot of XP and Vista, that way you can switch between them to find out any information which might help. It will be wasting your time keeping installing XP and then Vista and repeating just to try something with no guarantees. If you have both installed you can simply boot into Vista to test something to see if it helps. At the moment you cannot do that.
I really don’t know whether Unknown device identifier will help, it might but I cannot guarantee it.
Make another Primary partition and install Vista on to it.
Where did you get your copy of Vista from? Was it a downloaded customized version?
If so it might be worth getting a different version of Vista, the one you have might of been altered by someone which could be causing the problems. It’s hard to believe that Vista would be having so many problems with this card when it works fine on XP. Just get a Full copy off a Torrent or somewhere like that. I might have a link to the one I downloaded somewhere.
Setup a Dual Boot of XP and Vista, that way you can switch between them to find out any information which might help. It will be wasting your time keeping installing XP and then Vista and repeating just to try something with no guarantees. If you have both installed you can simply boot into Vista to test something to see if it helps. At the moment you cannot do that.
I really don't know whether Unknown device identifier will help, it might but I cannot guarantee it.
Make another Primary partition and install Vista on to it.
Where did you get your copy of Vista from? Was it a downloaded customized version?
If so it might be worth getting a different version of Vista, the one you have might of been altered by someone which could be causing the problems. It's hard to believe that Vista would be having so many problems with this card when it works fine on XP. Just get a Full copy off a Torrent or somewhere like that. I might have a link to the one I downloaded somewhere.
http://www.google.com?t=1163377&highlight=
I downloaded this Vista & installed. Ok. I’ll give another try Thanks
Is that one different to the one you originally tried?
Do you not have space for another Partition so you can Dual Boot? That would be the better way of doing it as you can always refer to XP for information and still have your TV card working in XP while trying to get Vista working. <–[edited for correction]
There is a MSDN Vista Ultimate 32 & 64 bit which I downloaded which is unaltered. Those customized versions I don’t like as they cannot be checked what has been done to them. Who knows what someone has added to them, maybe a Trojan, Virus or Keylogger?
With MSDN versions there are hashes which can quickly check the image to make sure it is the same as released by M$.
The MSDN I have has all versions of Vista on it so it is over 6GB in size and requires a Dual Layer DVD. It can be downloaded from Demonoid or PirateBay. I will PM you the links to the Torrent and file hosts.
Is that one different to the one you originally tried?
Do you not have space for another Partition so you can Dual Boot? That would be the better way of doing it as you can always refer to XP for information and still have your TV card working in XP while trying to get XP working.
There is a MSDN Vista Ultimate 32 & 64 bit which I downloaded which is unaltered. Those customized versions I don't like as they cannot be checked what has been done to them. Who knows what someone has added to them, maybe a Trojan, Virus or Keylogger?
With MSDN versions there are hashes which can quickly check the image to make sure it is the same as released by M$.
The MSDN I have has all versions of Vista on it so it is over 6GB in size and requires a Dual Layer DVD. It can be downloaded from Demonoid or PirateBay. I will PM you the links to the Torrent and file hosts.
Thank you for the pm. I’ll give a try.
I do recommend that you make another Primary Partition on your hard drive so that you can add Vista along side XP. You must be getting fed up of installing Windows by now!
For Vista you could make a small Primary partition of around 20 to 25GB which should be enough for Vista 32 bit. Programs can always be installed to another partition if necessary.
When you install Vista, XP will not boot until you use a BootManager such as EasyBCD. That will allow you to select either Operating system. You can make either of them the default so it automatically boots it after a delay.
I installed Vista, the one I downloaded earlier again & after installation here’s what it has shown me in device manager :
Any advice ??
That is the same version of Windows that you tried last time? It’s strange how it has found the devices but did not install 2 of them this time. You must of done something different to what you did last time. Anyway, looking better.
Get Vista Drivers for the TV cards with the same name as yours and extract them to a folder (they are usually Zip files) and try updating the drivers using “Install from a list of specific location” or whatever it is in Vista and pointing it to the folder where the extracted drivers are. If they are compatible it will install, if they are not then it won’t. If not the get another set and try those until you find a set that will install. Repeat for the Unknown device as well.
That is the same version of Windows that you tried last time? It's strange how it has found the devices but did not install 2 of them this time. You must of done something different to what you did last time. Anyway, looking better.
Get Vista Drivers for the TV cards with the same name as yours and extract them to a folder (they are usually Zip files) and try updating the drivers using "Install from a list of specific location" or whatever it is in Vista and pointing it to the folder where the extracted drivers are. If they are compatible it will install, if they are not then it won't. If not the get another set and try those until you find a set that will install. Repeat for the Unknown device as well.
Ya! this is the same vista i installed earlier, this time it found the hardware strange Now where to find the vista drivers for tv cards ???
I posted the link earlier in the thread.
I posted the link earlier in the thread.
I allowed Vista to search for capable driver over the net. It did & installed eveything. Later I installed Pinnacle TV Center which said NO tv tuner installed. I tried the softwares/links you gave me but couldn’t do any good I have given up & won’t install Vista again untill I buy a tv tuner with Vista capability. Thank you for your time friend
Were the 3 devices with the same names as XP present and working like they were in Win XP?
If the drivers are installed, correctly, then it might be worth trying a different application such as DVBViewer or DVBDream, the later one being freeware.
Were the 3 devices with the same names as XP present and working like they were in Win XP?
If the drivers are installed, correctly, then it might be worth trying a different application such as DVBViewer or DVBDream, the later one being freeware.
No, they were found & installed with some diff. names in Vista You won’t believe, I tried all the softwares posted on pg1 of this thread None worked, i dunno why.. ?? Media Center said no tv tuner installed as well Now I’m runnig XP & Tv tuner is working GREAT I guess its hardware compatibility issue only
Were the 3 devices with the same names as XP present and working like they were in Win XP?
If the drivers are installed, correctly, then it might be worth trying a different application such as DVBViewer or DVBDream, the later one being freeware.
No, they were found & installed with some diff. names in Vista You won't believe, I tried all the softwares posted on pg1 of this thread None worked, i dunno why.. ?? Media Center said no tv tuner installed as well Now I'm runnig XP & Tv tuner is working GREAT I guess its hardware compatibility issue only
I suspect that Vista you Downloaded. Most of the versions posted on sites such as this are not to be trusted after people have messed around with them IMO. The fact that the devices are different this time should not be the case as device names should always be the same.
The same Vista finding different devices on different installs is not a good sign of the state of the Vista you have. Why did you want Vista anyway? I use Windows XP Pro Corporate 32 bit and have been using the same one for years even after re-building my PC with 4GB of Ram and a 64 bit CPU, I still stick with XP Pro for my main usage and have recently installed Vista x64 on a partition for testing purposes but very rarely boot it.
But one advantage is power usage is lower in Vista due to better power handling and CPU wait states inserted to reduce power usage.
But it don’t make me leave my old XP 
Were the 3 devices with the same names as XP present and working like they were in Win XP?
If the drivers are installed, correctly, then it might be worth trying a different application such as DVBViewer or DVBDream, the later one being freeware.
No, they were found & installed with some diff. names in Vista You won't believe, I tried all the softwares posted on pg1 of this thread None worked, i dunno why.. ?? Media Center said no tv tuner installed as well Now I'm runnig XP & Tv tuner is working GREAT I guess its hardware compatibility issue only
I suspect that Vista you Downloaded. Most of the versions posted on sites such as this are not to be trusted after people have messed around with them IMO. The fact that the devices are different this time should not be the case as device names should always be the same.
The same Vista finding different devices on different installs is not a good sign of the state of the Vista you have. I use Windows XP Pro Corporate 32 bit and have been using the same one for years even after re-building my PC with 4GB of Ram and a 64 bit CPU, I still stick with XP Pro for my main usage and have recently installed Vista x64 on a partition for testing purposes but very rarely boot it.
But one advantage is power usage is lower in Vista due to better power handling and CPU wait states inserted to reduce power usage.
But it don't make me leave my old XP
A good question “Why did you want Vista anyway?” I just tried it on my new dual core cpu & liked the look of Vista, all was fine except that it didn’t noted the tv tuner card. I thought if there’s an easy solution to it but as you know Vista took a lot of space otherwise… Vista is a HUGE OS. Besides good UI, animations etc.. I guess its not really worth … Ya! you are right, XP is best OS. I use XP_Pro SP3. Its great OS from M$. I’ll stick to XP & tv tuner card & if I really want to keep Vista, I’ll buy a new tv tuner card. Tho I’m not gonna do this coz its really not necessary (keeping Vista).
Thx matey
Check their download section and look for compatible software for your hardware. Then get ones with close version numbers and give them a try I use this one - Pinnacle TVCenter Pro 4.94a - which is meant for different hardware but one version does have a dual tuner like my PCI card. This version adds transport stream recording which is important so that is why I use it>
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Analog+PVR+%28cable_antenna%29/Pinnacle+MediaCenter+Support/Download+Area/MediaCenter+_+TVCenter+v+4_x/Pinnacle+TVCenter+Pro+4_94a.htm?mode=documents&Display=1
but the recommended compatible version is Pinnacle TVCenter Pro 4.9.2 BETA
Here is the Download page showing all the different hardware and supposed compatible software. You might find other software might work with your receiver. Navigating the Pinnacle site to find this download page is always a challenge
http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/PCTV%20Drivers/UpdatePCTV.htm
The links lead to nowhere, the pages are removed
thanks anyway
That’s because Pinnacle have sold their TV card business to Hauppauge at the end of last year.
Here are the new links>
http://www.pctvsystems.com/Support/Downloads/Driver/tabid/123/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://www.pctvsystems.com/Support/Downloads/tabid/87/language/en-US/Default.aspx