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PCTV Deluxe
System: Windows
Company: Pinnacle Systems
Price: $199
If you want to add TV viewing and recording to your Windows PC setup, one of the easiest ways available to do so is with Pinnacle's PCTV Deluxe.
It's a hardware-software combination that allows users a simple way to watch and record television. PCTV Deluxe also lets you record from a camcorder or (shhhh, don't tell Hollywood) from your DVD player onto a computer hard drive.
Setup was a breeze, with a simple one-cord connection between the paperback book-size box and your computer via a USB cable (which handles either USB 1.1 or the faster USB 2). Plug in your cable television line, TV antenna or digital TV box, and you're ready to go. The picture quality on a high-end computer monitor was impressive - bright and sharp, albeit not quite as clear as a high-end television might provide.
It's a good thing the user interface is so intuitive, because the manual isn't as helpful as it could be. On balance, however, this is an inexpensive, easy-to-understand method of getting your TV (and videotapes and DVDs) into your computer.
Videoxb Expansion Bay
Systems: Windows, Macintosh
Company: Apricorn Inc.
Price: $800 and up (depending on hard drive size)
Want to get into digital video but don't have a huge hard drive, a DVD burner or video editing software?
Apricorn provides a ready answer with Videoxb, a combination removable hard drive bay and Pioneer DVD burner. It comes packaged with Pinnacle's excellent Studio Version 8 video edition software for Windows (see accompanying review) and a removable hard drive from 80 to 250 gigabytes.
As long as your computer is up to snuff (at least a Pentium III 1-gigahertz processor running under Windows 98 Second Edition or higher, with 256 megabytes of memory or more for PCs; Mac OS 9.2.2 or later for Macintosh computers), Videoxb is an excellent way to get into digital editing.
In a recent test, the shoebox-size device came to life flawlessly once it was powered up and connected to my test computer by a FireWire cable. Once installed, it appears on the computer as another hard drive, and saving projects to it was easy.
Only one caveat: Because the DVD writer is external, it can take a long time to burn a DVD. But if speed isn't absolutely necessary, then the Videoxb is a great video solution.