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Pinnacle Bungee Review
Posted by: Philipp Esselbach on: 11/30/1999 12:00 AM [ Print | 0 comment(s) ]
Installation
The installation of the Bungee on my system was easily. After I plugged the cable into the USB port, Windows XP popped up the found new hardware window and asks for the driver CD. After the software installation was finished, the PCTV Assistant started automatically to complete the installation. The Bungee was now ready to use.
The software
After the first run of the PCTV Vision application, the software scans the TV antenna input for available channels. This takes around 15 minutes depends on the number of channels.
Now I was able to start watching TV, switch channels or record a show in MPEG2. PCTV Vision has no functions to edit the MPEG2 file after recording, you can only record, stop, and play a file which is a little disappointing. The software is quite unstable and crashed a few times during recording. PCTV Vision offers also a TiVo like time shifting feature and scheduled recording of TV shows.
The recording resolution can be changed under settings. The Pinnacle Bungee (PAL) supports resolutions from 352x576, 480x576 (SVCD) up to 720x576 (DVD) with up to 6MBit/sec constant bit rate. Unfortunately, the bungee supports neither variable bit rates nor MPEG1. Also the European version of the Bungee works only with input from a PAL source, NTSC input is not supported.
Another program on the CD is T-Rex. T-Rex is a converting utility to convert the MPEG2 files to MPEG1 or MPEG4 (AVI). It was impossible to create a single MPEG1 file with this utility because it crashed during the convert. Instead I used TmgGenc, an easy to use MPEG encoder which can easily convert MPEG2 files to MPEG1.
Image quality
The capture quality in 480*576 and 720*576 is overall pretty good. However, I suggest to using for the best image quality an external tuner instead the build-in TV tuner.
Conclusion
Pro:
- Easy to install
- Good capture quality
Con:
- Software has stability problems and crash from time to time
- Constant Bit Rate only
- European version support PAL input only
Test system 1
Operating system:
Windows XP Professional
Hardware:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP PR1500+
Mobo: MSI KT7266 Pro2
RAM: 768MB Infinion PC266 DDR RAM
Video Card: MSI GeForce 2Ti 64MB
HDD: 60Gb Maxtor 7200rpm
Test system 2
Operating system:
Windows 2000 Professional
Hardware:
Acer TravelMate 210TEV Notebook
The installation of the Bungee on my system was easily. After I plugged the cable into the USB port, Windows XP popped up the found new hardware window and asks for the driver CD. After the software installation was finished, the PCTV Assistant started automatically to complete the installation. The Bungee was now ready to use.
The software
After the first run of the PCTV Vision application, the software scans the TV antenna input for available channels. This takes around 15 minutes depends on the number of channels.
Now I was able to start watching TV, switch channels or record a show in MPEG2. PCTV Vision has no functions to edit the MPEG2 file after recording, you can only record, stop, and play a file which is a little disappointing. The software is quite unstable and crashed a few times during recording. PCTV Vision offers also a TiVo like time shifting feature and scheduled recording of TV shows.
The recording resolution can be changed under settings. The Pinnacle Bungee (PAL) supports resolutions from 352x576, 480x576 (SVCD) up to 720x576 (DVD) with up to 6MBit/sec constant bit rate. Unfortunately, the bungee supports neither variable bit rates nor MPEG1. Also the European version of the Bungee works only with input from a PAL source, NTSC input is not supported.
Another program on the CD is T-Rex. T-Rex is a converting utility to convert the MPEG2 files to MPEG1 or MPEG4 (AVI). It was impossible to create a single MPEG1 file with this utility because it crashed during the convert. Instead I used TmgGenc, an easy to use MPEG encoder which can easily convert MPEG2 files to MPEG1.
Image quality
The capture quality in 480*576 and 720*576 is overall pretty good. However, I suggest to using for the best image quality an external tuner instead the build-in TV tuner.
Conclusion
Pro:
- Easy to install
- Good capture quality
Con:
- Software has stability problems and crash from time to time
- Constant Bit Rate only
- European version support PAL input only
Test system 1
Operating system:
Windows XP Professional
Hardware:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP PR1500+
Mobo: MSI KT7266 Pro2
RAM: 768MB Infinion PC266 DDR RAM
Video Card: MSI GeForce 2Ti 64MB
HDD: 60Gb Maxtor 7200rpm
Test system 2
Operating system:
Windows 2000 Professional
Hardware:
Acer TravelMate 210TEV Notebook
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