This is a boon for people with HTPCs all over; all they need for HD reception is a spare USB port? It sounds almost too good to be true. And for $129.99, it's just as reasonable as a tuner card, wouldn't you think?

Cool. That off-hand remark needs justification, "... The reception isn't perfect, as you would expect, but heck, what did you expect with on-air broadcasting." I don't expect off-air signals to be imperfect. Off-air signals have provided [free] crystal clear reception for millions of people for years. HD, if it's not pixilating, should be even more crystal. So what's the author's complaint? Is (s)he simply unable to believe that off-air for free can be a good thing? -Neil-

That over the air signals result in inferior image quality than hard-wired signals. By transmitting over the air, you're more likely to lose signal and increase noise in your signal, as opposed to wire, which suffers far less signal loss and reduces your chances of interference. I don't think it's fair to say that "Off-air signals have provided [free] crystal clear reception for millions of people for years." That's not at all accurate; if it were, people would never have had to stand on the roof adjusting the antenna until they got a clearer signal, and cable would just never have caught on as a method to get superior image quality.

While it is true that cable signals have the potential of being cleaner, better and superior to over the air signals, this is not always true. By the time they compress, multiplex, encode, decode and otherwise manipulate the signal for feeds and transmission, it does not resemble the original. An over air signal that is relatively unprocessed can be better if received with a high quality receiver. I get great reception of HD signals through my system consisting of a roof-top antenna, coupled with a high quality HD receiver and plasma display.

Wouldn't you say that by and large cable or hard-wired signals do produce better quality than over-the-air? I don't doubt that over-the-air signal can be amazing, but by and large, if you had the option, wouldn't you choose wired? That's the point I'm contending-I think you're right though, perhaps it's not really "common knowledge," and I shouldn't have used that term. :)

is the sort of thing you come across quite often when dealing with over-the-air broadcasting. I agree that off-air signals have provided clear programming for standrd def signals over the years, but getting a clear HD signal usually requires a pristine setup, similar to what George did. With cable feeds, you rarely see that stuttering affect or image jump during the middle of a program. You are correct in that some of the stuff is compressed, but at least you can count on a smooth and reliable signal.

Actually, Free Over the Air (OTA) digital and HD signals are usually much better than those provided by cable or satellite as those are rather heavily compressed. As long as you have sufficient signal to maintain the picture, over the air digital is as perfect as is broadcast.

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Speaking purely theoretically but not a priori: To maximize signal coverage for a given transmit power, an over the air broadcaster of a digital signal may still choose to compress or otherwise process the raw signal before or during encoding for transmission. A point-to-point broadcaster (e.g., "cable"), may also choose to preprocess in order, say, to exploit available bandwidth more efficiently or to meet the demands of his economic/marketing model. Generally, sparing resources or maximizing their efficiency will often involve some "lossy" processing. That said, even lossy processing need not result in PERCEPTIBLE signal degradation. Furthermore, preprocessing, compression, what-have-you, can be done so as to minimize the occurrence of dropouts or other perceptible objectionable elements that might otherwise be introduced by random (noise) processes occurring further along the transmission channel. In other words, it can be better to pick your compromises beforehand than to have random ones thrust upon you, later. The bottom line is that digital signals - whatever their tranmission medium - offer great opportunities for engineering tradeoffs such that the resultant received/perceived signal can almost always be made superior to analog counterparts. The quality of the digital audience's experience is thus likely to be far more conditioned by the broadcaster's economic model/needs than by the medium (e.g., over the air vs. "wire") of transmission employed by the broadcaster: An off-the-air digital signal can be the quality equal of the wired one. It's all in the trade-offs. Nothing a priori.

The Pinnacle USB Tuner is really a Digital TV (DTV) Tuner. HDTV is just one of the digital standards for DTV. Per Pinnacle's web site "Watch live high quality digital HD and SD TV without service fees from anywhere on your laptop." If the reviewer was watching a SD (Standard Definition) digital broadcast, then it is not surprising that the image was not "perfect". See http://www.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm for more about HDTV and digital TV.

Yes, I do expect really good signals for NY stations in Manhattan; signals all over are really freaking good despite the weirded-out (hello FTC!) US competitive market, and you would have to have a ratholed install (not a 'sub-pristine' one) for things to go wrong. Do people in Brooklyn mostly keep their antennas in the basement or something? Crime on the hoof's not so large anymore.... Say it with me Cis: Digital Mother-Toasting Error correction; but not on a plane. Now, I like this; USB suggests that it's going to take less power than the one used to make HD PVRs for Linux fans and broadcasters: http://www.pchdtv.com/ but I don't hear anything about the drivers or CPU load, or whether your NYC 1080p signals come in over that USB2.0 pipe just fine, or whether I get PiP so I don't have to put up with much lag in changing channels. Also, rabbitears (not fricking pristine, but I'll make do if I can have the digs above 20th) are a bit of a heartwarmer when Japan's travails with super-directional HDTV antennas are well known and I had in fact expected to do some work on the roof and attic to prepare for a decent home-game of OTA-T television. Come on and dish for your HD locals, you slacker Manhattanite self-fiber-dealing dork!

Guys I think you are all mostly missing the boat. HDTV is a DIGITAL signal and NOT subject to broadcast interference as is analog. (This is why the music/movie industry is so upset with internet broadcasting and "illegal" copying.) If you copy a cassette or LP the quality of the copy degrades (actually every time you play it it degrades, the media is physically damaged. So after two or three iterations the quality is horrendous. Where as with 'digital' media the hundredth (or billionth) copy is IDENTICAL to the original. So If your rabbit-ear antenna gets s signal it will be as good as one from a highly directional yaggi antenna. the only difference between the two will be the signal strength of the signal, which for a digital signal is of NO consquuence whatsoever, all that matters is that all the bits are present. The most probable cause of image quality loss is the information transfer across the USB bus. After that comes the video sub-system,the processor, processor speed, internal bus speed, all things EXTERNAL to this adapter. For a given system there should be virtually no difference, once the data from the adapter gets to the PC, between this adapter and a PCI baased one (with the same antenna)

John's right- which is why 'high priced, 'ultra high quality' cables' crack me up! You either get the signal- or you don't! Yes, weak signals can cause a break up in the image but generally speaking- it's there or not. Rabbit ears or any other antenna is not the issue- it's can you get a signal or not. I used to live in Spring Valley, NY. We could see the Empire State Building (pre- twin towers) 30 miles away. I plugged in the old analog TV and got reasonable signal without even connecting the antenna. What you can receive and where you can receive is an issue of where you live. Go to http://antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx for information on what will work for you- and a list of the channels you can expect to receive. I've been doing the 'over-the air' thing for years with a Samsung SIR-T165 HDTV Terrestrial Receiver connected to a JVC D-VHS to record HD. This was about the only way (I think JVC now builds an HD tuner into a new JVC D-VHS unit for OTA recording) that you could record HD in a format that you can share with others (who would also have to have a D-VHS unit.) Even with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray don't expect to record anything other than OTA signals. This is a real pain compared to our analog days. Of course we forget that the VCR almost didn't happen as content providers were sure we'd record the stuff at home and never go to the movies or buy movies. We did. But digital does present a new set of problems. As John stated- with digital it's either great or not there (as long as you're not messing with compression- just recording the original 0s and 1s). Next- is the idea to watch HD on my 20" or under computer monitor? Not for me! I want to watch using my NEC DLP 240 projector on a 120" screen! Can I feed the HD signal (and can I record an HD signal) and play it out from the computer? What kind of 'horse power' is required to prevent 'freeze ups'? Otherwise buy an HD OTA receiver off eBay at this price and also get a reasonable projector, go to antennaweb.org for the right antenna and enjoy 'poor man's' super home theater! (You already have a 5.1 Dolby receiver, right?) You guys that have been really doing this stuff need to share your info- and thoughts on 'computerized OTA HD receiving and recording'.

Man, this seems like the perfect device for TV on the go. And with a widescreen laptop and vehicle rabbit ears, in the right area, HDTV for $129, and no need for a tuner card. Also when finished with mobile use just pop in to home widescreen computer plug in antenna and HDTV again. Wow. It should look great on a high resolution widescreen laptop or desktop. Been looking for a small HDTV portable to use in vechicle (12V), w/ backup use in home in case of power outages. HDTV tuner modules for vehicles require expensive dash-head unit's w/small screen that aren't transferable or portable. OTA HDTV is the best way to see HDTV. On my "60 Sony SXRD-XRB1 1080P HighDef TV, local OTA High Def programs look stunning compared to SD and analog satellite signals. Satellite(Direct TV, Dish Network) and cable HDTV dosen't come close(signal compression), only C-band HDTV(BigUglyDish) has a better picture and it require's a Motorola 4DTV-922 IRD and a Motorola HDD-200 High Def decoder.

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Yes but Digital is either there perfectly or not there, there is not a picture that is not crystal clear. many cable comapnies take the ATSC 1080i and convert it to 16 QAM which give better compression. All digital signals OTA are compressed, if you can see OTA compare it with Digital... OTA IS better (granted that is subjective, I can't seeboth at the same time)

Cell phones are digital? Hwy aren't they perfect? Answer: The signal is never perfect. Even the best signals get burst noise that requires the receiver to guess what should be there until the signal is back. As the signal gets worse the quality of the output gets worse until the recevier fnially gives up and drops the connection. In NYC multipath signal errors are everywhere. Signals bounce off buildings, etc. Just because there is a lot of signal doesn't mean the signal is good. (read about the tech behind the 802.11n wirelss vs 802.11g to see why n does so much better with a bad signal at distance). Aside: DVDs are digital. $500 DVD players produce different video from the same DVD disk as $50 DVD players. Thats becuase creating a picture from the MPEG2 output is an art, not a cook book. For example a motion compensation chip earned an Emmey a few years ago for getting rid of jagged lines. Same for high end audio -- the production of the analog sound from teh digital is not the same even from teh same digial source.

Features:
• The most secretly guarded toy of the pre-holiday season is now available
• Three different tickle spots trigger rounds of infectious laughter and movement
• Elmo slaps his belly, falls forward with his butt sticking out, stands back up again, topples backwards, and kicks his legs over his belly
• Requires 6 AA batteries (included)

We just received a TMX Elmo which we paid over 100% of the retail value for to see what is up with the craze? Well he really IS A BLAST! First his box has a flap which when opened gives you Elmo giggling and telling you he is in the box. Then when you take him out the first thing you will notice is how SOFT he is! and may be surprized he is only about 15 inches tall, but once you press his foot and see him giggle, animate himself, roll over, roll to his side and then stand himself up all while giggling he WILL impress you AND you WILL not help but smile and laugh with him!
He is going with our ADULT toys collection and is a Super ITEM! we only wish they produced enough of him so that he would NOT be put at such a high price off of the retail market (he is only [...] if you are lucky enough to have gotten one)and as a licensed and bonded Toy dealer we will NOT join in on the overpricing of this little fellow. We hope the manufacturers can get more out for all to ENJOY!

Serious Buyers mail us at ibh2export@hotmail.com

Features:
• The most secretly guarded toy of the pre-holiday season is now available
• Three different tickle spots trigger rounds of infectious laughter and movement
• Elmo slaps his belly, falls forward with his butt sticking out, stands back up again, topples backwards, and kicks his legs over his belly
• Requires 6 AA batteries (included)

We just received a TMX Elmo which we paid over 100% of the retail value for to see what is up with the craze? Well he really IS A BLAST! First his box has a flap which when opened gives you Elmo giggling and telling you he is in the box. Then when you take him out the first thing you will notice is how SOFT he is! and may be surprized he is only about 15 inches tall, but once you press his foot and see him giggle, animate himself, roll over, roll to his side and then stand himself up all while giggling he WILL impress you AND you WILL not help but smile and laugh with him!
He is going with our ADULT toys collection and is a Super ITEM! we only wish they produced enough of him so that he would NOT be put at such a high price off of the retail market (he is only [...] if you are lucky enough to have gotten one)and as a licensed and bonded Toy dealer we will NOT join in on the overpricing of this little fellow. We hope the manufacturers can get more out for all to ENJOY!

Serious Buyers mail us at ibh2export@hotmail.com

Features:
• The most secretly guarded toy of the pre-holiday season is now available
• Three different tickle spots trigger rounds of infectious laughter and movement
• Elmo slaps his belly, falls forward with his butt sticking out, stands back up again, topples backwards, and kicks his legs over his belly
• Requires 6 AA batteries (included)