Studio PCTV Pro $30 and Norton SystemWorks/Firewall bundle $20 (MIRs)

[PitViper]

CompUSA has a lot of good deals this week… but these two are outstanding.

I’ve been running the non-pro version of Studio PCTV for several years now and it works flawlessly. This version even has an FM radio tuner. Plus video capture and movie creation. For those of you with a cable modem, desktop cable TV is just a splice away. Regularly, $69.99. This week $49.99 up front - $20 MIR = $29.99. With the newer movie creation software and FM tuner, I may even upgrade for this price.

Norton SystemWorks/Personal Firewall 2002 bundle (works with Windows XP). Regularly, $89.99. This week $69.99 up front - $20 MIR - $30 Upgrade MIR = $19.99. Upgrade rebate is “For previous owners of retail (boxed or downloaded), standalone versions of any Norton, Symantec, McAfee, or Network ICE software product.” For those of you running McAfee, maybe it’s time to take a step up (McAfee trashed one of my systems).

Added note. Since this is a full retail version of Norton, you'll probably be qualified for the NEXT upgrade rebate on the 2003 version. Symantec seems to repeat this upgrade offer whenever they release a new product. I've done this with Version 6.0, Version 2000, Version 2001 and now Version 2002. Hmmm, I wonder what happened to Versions 7.0 through 1999 ?!?!

;)

[grandmasterk]

the pro version TV and Radio program work fine under W2k...however, the record from input function doesn't work under w2K....
I heard that with new version of the vcr program, it would work fine, but of course I don't feel like buying the new program

[Memo]

If you have Win XP , forget about the PC TV Pro, Pinnaccle hasn't released new drivers in 2 years and doesn't plan on releasing anymore. They absolutely have the worst customer service of any company I have ever experienced. However, if you have 98 or 2k then you'll love it.

[paulc]

Not really. The pinnacle download site has 2 newer drivers: a WDM beta driver dated 8/21/2001 for 3rd part apps: http://www.pinnaclesys.de/support/drivers_results.asp?driver=yes&lang=2&product_id=618&os=6&type_id=4

and a WinXP driver dated 11/28/2001 that supports TV viewing and capturing: http://www.pinnaclesys.de/support/drivers_results.asp?driver=yes&lang=2&product_id=618&os=16&type_id=4

I picked up that card from CompUSA on Sunday and installed the updated 4.02 driver for WinME. I haven't re-installed WinXP yet, but I'll say if it's a success or not.

Also, don't forget to download the PPE - PCI Performance Enhancer: ftp://ftp.pinnaclesys.de/driver/pc/extras/PPE107.exe (dated 1/16/2002). It makes video capture smoother if you're having problems. It works with Win9X/NT4/2K/XP.

Edit:
The full features of the Studio 4.0x software do not work under WinXP. I think it's cheap that Pinnacle doesn't give a free upgrade to a limited version (at least) of Studio 7. They just want people to buy the software.