The Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick was one of the first, if not the first, USB "stick" DTV tuner to show up in retail stores such as Best Buy. If you read the review of the HD Pro Stick in an earlier RF Report, you may be interested in USA Today's opinion of the device.

Unfortunately, the article "Doesn't portable HDTV for your computer sound good? Not so fast ..." isn't likely to encourage sales. While Edward Baig puts part of the blame on his "cranky computer", an HP laptop, he has complaints about software, as I did.

I didn't try Pinnacle's subscription based (first year free) program guide. Baig did and found that even though he could pick up NYC stations, there was no data for his area. Entering his ZIP code, he noticed that the software dropped the first digit. At the end of the article, he said Pinnacle had to address the bugs before he could recommend the PCTV HD Pro Stick.

Considering how well the HD Pro Stick worked for me when using the TSReader software and the VLC media player, it seems Pinnacle needs to come up with simpler software for users with anything less than the most powerful laptops.