
Pinnacle PCTV nanoStick T2 290e review
Last reviewed
The nanoStick is the first PC tuner to support DVB-T2 – and thus Freeview HD. Was it worth waiting for?
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The nanoStick is the first PC tuner to support DVB-T2 – and thus Freeview HD. Was it worth waiting for?

Pinnacle has released quite a number of TV tuners aimed at the laptop user in recent months, but this Flash stick is the first version to actually offer something a little different from just TV on the go

We're strong advocates of PC-based satellite reception. First, there's the obvious advantage of being able to experience your favourite TV and radio programmes with digital clarity

Pinnacle's sturdy little stick is a good, solid performer at a good, solid price. Coming in at under the price of the (entireley reasonable) Avermedia, but lacking the FM radio capability, there's little to choose between them.

This Freeview PC adapter from Pinnacle comes with two portable antennas, and there's a UHF input, but Pinnacle has fallen short of including video inputs for capturing purposes. A shame, as the device comes with Pinnacle Studio Quickstart
In a market where set-up procedures are usually less than straightforward and software usually disappoints, it's good to see that Pinnacle understand what users expect.

Unlike most of the competition, the latest offering from Pinnacle is really two cards in one. It has a single coaxial connection for your aerial and a tiny socket for the bundled remote control receiver.

Pinnacle supplied the simplest and most basic TV tuner for this group,as it only contains a digital tuner with no analogue facility. This is offset by the fact that it is also the cheapest tuner in this group.
Media centres (or Centers in this case) are sprouting up everywhere. It's all starting to get a little crowded in this space mainly due to the fact that Microsoft didn't license the name 'Media Center' when it launched its Media Center software