Pinnacle Systems has partnered with Monsoon Multimedia to present an OEM’d version of the HAVA Wireless called Pinnacle PCTV To Go. Pinnacle’s PCTV To Go allows customers to enjoy their entertainment systems wirelessly around their house or anywhere across the world. Pinnacle is the latest to invade the Placeshifting market where Sling Media and Sony LFX currently rein supreme.

The PCTV To Go boasts east wireless setup, integrated Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) support and, what’s important to people on DVR Playground, extensive digital video recorder (DVR) support.

The PCTV TO Go provides full resolution television viewing in MPEG-2 around the house for DVD-like quality as well as MPEG-4 quality over the Internet.

One major plus for Pinnacle PCTV To Go is that anyone can easily setup the box as it wirelessly connects to a PC or home network eliminating the need to somehow get the network to your entertainment center. While Sling Media provides a solution for extending your network to your TV, you need to purchase a SlingLink for $99.99 which is the “least expensive way to connect your Slingbox to your router without wires.” Another major plus for the PCTV To Go product is the ability to multicast your entertainment to multiple devices in your house (not available outside your network). I plan on using this feature at an upcoming party to wirelessly multicasting a console football game around my house to several laptops located in multiple rooms increasing the number of spectators. The PCTV To Go device also becomes a virtual tuner for a Windows MCE PC allowing you to use all the functionality of the MCE without having to open the computer and install a tuner. Finally, PCTV To Go allows you to bring the DVR functionality to the PC you use to watch the video (this functionality is not available away from the home due to possible copyright infringements).

So, how do you setup the Pinnacle PCTV To Go?

Starting with the installation, I opted to download the 46MB version 1.1 to make sure I had the latest software to work with from Pinnacle System’s support site. The latest software enabled support for HDTV content (1080i, 720p, 480p/576p are supported, added an automated firmware update, additional devices supported by IR Blaster, fixed various wireless configuration problems and more.

Once fully downloaded you simply double click the EXE file, extract files to a directory and go. Once the process starts you will see the typical Windows wizard which helps you run through the installation and registration process. Currently, only Windows XP is listed in the Download area (which includes XP Home, XP Professional and XP MCE).

Once the wizard finishes, you will be asked to run the Setup Wizard. The software version is checked as the first step (thank goodness I opted to download the latest version off the site!). Next you need to detect the PCTV To Go which disconnects you from your current wireless network (if already connected) to create the initial connection with the PCTV To Go. Next, firmware versions are compared and if your PCTV To Go does not have the latest firmware, the Setup Wizard will ask you to update. Since the PCTV To Go software and firmware are still being developed, you’ll want to upgrade whenever asked. After the firmware is updated (it needed to be in my case), your video settings are tested as you can see in the picture. Once you’ve established video you are then asked to configure the TV Tuner Input. You can choose either “analog cable or antenna” or “an external device such as Cable Box or Satellite Receiver” and the channel number if you choose the latter. Since I have DirecTV I chose the latter and channel 3.

The next step in the Setup Wizard is configuring the IR Blaster. This is where a weakness of the product presents itself as my very standard device was not listed. I am testing with a Hughes HDVR2 and needed to select the HR10250 model to use my DVR functions on the box. Every release includes support for additional devices that you control through the IR Blaster, but currently there is limited support for devices. More than likely you will need to test a few models to see which IR Blaster command set works for you. The next screen in the wizard allows you to test.

After you have found a command set that works you need to additionally fine tune the IR Blaster settings to match the behavior of your remote. You need to choose how you enter in single digit channels (4, 04 or 004) and check a box if you need to press Enter after the channel number. I chose 4 and checked the box. You also can modify a slider bar depending on how slow you have to press buttons on your remote. I’ve included a screenshot to show my setting and to show an issue with the UI (notice that above the slider there are missing parts to the sentence).

Next you can configure PCTV To Go to be used with Microsoft’s XP MCE by choosing if you want to switch to Coaxial/RF input when used by Media Center. Again there is another issue with words running over other words on this screen. Adjusting sliders for various A/V settings including Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Contrast and Volume is next. I kept the defaults. Next you choose you Admin password which requires you to enter your password twice (typical).

Finally we get to the interesting part of the setup, Remote Viewing. First you must select a unique ID that is automatically assigned to you or type in your own unique ID. I typed in “testbox” as my unique ID. After typing that in, I’m done.

The setup is relatively easy, but since I like to play with things I decided to go into Advanced Mode to change my IP address to something other than the assigned DHCP address. After assigning a new IP address I had to login to my router and setup port forwarding for port 56123. Unfortunately different routers have different ways to setup port forwarding so check the documentation for your router.

Ok, so setup is fairly simple… how well does the product work?

To properly test PCTV To Go, I connected to the device both via the local network and remotely.

First I connected wirelessly at home and was able to attain a streaming bitrate that ranged between 6 mbps and 7.5 mbps. What does that mean? It means I was able to watch streaming video in full screen on my laptop with no pauses in sound or frozen video. Overall, the viewing experience on the local network is simply excellent.

Next I tested the PCTV To Go connection from a remote network. The results were roughly equivalent to other placeshifting solutions I've seen over remote networks with a couple of video freezes, but overall the PCTV To Go remote video was very good.

There are three rather large areas of opportunity for improvement on the PCTV To Go. First, support for more devices using the IR Blaster is needed. Second, the remote control interface needs to desperately be reworked. The remote control interface currently makes the product seem unfinished even though the technology behind the device works great. Finally, currently the product only works with PC running Windows XP (no Mac, no PSP, etc...).

The issues with the device are overlooked thanks to the ability to record directly on the laptop and I look forward to testing the multicasting feature a later this week. Also, the audio and video quality is outstanding especially on the local network.

Pinnacle's PCTV To Go Wireless TV Tuner can be purchased from Amazon.com.

Click the image above to see a full size screen capture.