Pinnacle HD Stick USB 2.0 Vista Guide

Ξ March 9th, 2007 | → | ∇ Hardware, Tweaks |

Pinnacle HD Stick USB 2.0 Vista Guide

Sticking it to the man, one device driver at a time.

Introduction

This is for all of you who, like me are absolutely and completely fed up with Pinnacle Systems for their horrible customer support and rude employees. If you found this page, you’re tired of waiting for the so-called beta drivers for vista, let alone, ANYTHING 64 bit.

This guide is a simple implementation of generic drivers created solely around the chipset contained within the Pinnacle HD Stick. It will work on the following operating systems:

Windows 2000

Windows XP 32 bit

Windows XP x64 Edition

Windows Vista 32bit

Windows Vista 64bit

Functional in both Windows Media Center 2005 and Vista Media Center.

Oh yeah, they’re WHQL certified and signed.

Does it get any better? Sure, let’s get some TV on your Vista box!

Legal Crap

Dev-Toast.Com, Dev-Hack.Com or their respective administrators take no responsibility for any damage that may occur to hardware or software while you follow this guide. We cannot be held responsible if you do not/cannot follow instructions. You do this at your own risk and benefit.

Pre-requisites

We must first assume the following about your computer.

• You have a decent video card installed
• You have a properly functioning audio driver(XP x64 AC97 hack is ok! J)
• You have a free USB port(duh!)
• You have a machine capable of playing back/recording HDTV content

We also have to consider that the driver package you downloaded from Dev-Hack.Com doesn’t include any software to watch your TV on. You really can use almost anything. WinTV2000 from Hauppage, Pinnacle Media Center, Beyond TV 4 and of course Windows Media Center 2005 or Vista Media Center are among some of the viewers to choose from.

Let’s Begin

1. Download the driver package from Dev-Hack.Com’s Downloads page
   1. Don’t forget to download a copy of this guide as well
2. Unzip the package in a nice neat place.
3. Go ahead and plug in your Pinnacle HD Stick in a free USB port
   1. Don’t worry about letting windows search for drivers let it install whatever it feels it wants. Windows update on vista ultimate will download a hybrid 64bit package of empia and Microsoft files but they do NOT work with this device.
4. Open Device Manager in windows.
   1. In XP, right click My Computer, select Properties. Click the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
   2. In Vista, right click My Computer, select Properties. Click the Device Manager link on the left side of the window.
5. Update Your Driver
   1. Right Click the “PCTV 800e” device or similar under Audio, Video devices
      1. This may vary from machine to machine and OS to OS so use some common sense when deciding which one to choose.
   2. Select “Update Driver Software”
   3. Click “Browse my computer for driver software”
   4. Then select “Let me pick from a list of drivers”
   5. Highlight, “Show all Devices” and click Next.
   6. Click “Have Disk”, then Browse
      1. Browse to where you unzipped the downloaded archive onto your computer.
         1. Be DAMN sure to navigate into your respective folder either 32bit or 64bit!!!
      2. If 64bit Windows select “EMBDA64.INF” and click ok.
      3. If 32bit Windows select “EMBDA.INF” and click ok.
   7. Click ok to load the INF file.
      1. Choose “USB ATSC Hybrid Device” from the list of devices. If you choose something else, you’ll probably bluescreen yourself into oblivion.
   8. Click ok and accept the warning you get saying that Windows can’t verify that ti’s for your hardware.
   9. Let the driver install.
6. Restart you computer with the USB tuner still attached.
7. Setup in your favorite viewer, grab a cold one, and enjoy some tele on your puter.

Dood!!

Yeah, I know, it’s pretty damn simple yet pretty damn complicated. I’m tired of these companies who shit on customers when the solution is really this simple. I’m just one guy.

Hey… if you feel like donating to my cause, shoot me some cash via PayPal: sgtjoeusmc79@yahoo.com. It’s much appreciated.

W3RD!1!1!

11 Responses to ' Pinnacle HD Stick USB 2.0 Vista Guide '

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1. Emil said,
   
   

   on April 23rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm

   I tried this and still get the “error” when scanning for Analog and Digital channels. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

   Thanks

2. Kerri said,
   
   

   on July 7th, 2007 at 9:36 pm

   When trying these instructions, all my system (winXP) tells me is this: “The specified location does not contain information about your hardware”. This occurs when clicking on EMBDA.INF in the 32-bit directory. Any thoughts, ideas?

3. Tzion said,
   
   

   on December 15th, 2007 at 4:54 am

   Do you think you could re-upload the driver pack, it seems to be missing from the server. I just bought this tuner and, having Vista x64, am SOL. Thanks for writing these.

4. vexamus said,
   
   

   on December 15th, 2007 at 7:39 pm

   Hey, I fixed the download. tks for bringing that to my attention. I recently moved servers and now the files are case sensitive.

   Peace.

5. Tzion said,
   
   

   on December 15th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

   Thanks!

6. mpretzel113 said,
   
   

   on December 19th, 2007 at 1:34 am

   Hey,
   I followed everything you said and I rechecked my device manager and it shows “USB ATSC Hybrid Device” as I believe it should, but I still cant get the software that came with the Pro Stick to work. I just keep getting the .Net framework error. Should I be using a different viewer? Thanks.

7. vexamus said,
   
   

   on December 19th, 2007 at 8:59 am

   if you were getting .net framework errors it’s more of a function of the viewer than my drivers.

   FYI, Pinnacle has beta x64 drivers now. Check them out, they’re bundled with the latest version of their viewer.

   Good luck!

8. mpretzel113 said,
   
   

   on December 19th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

   Ok, Thanks. Just so I know, what viewer are you/other users using? I have tried beyondTV and MediaPortal, I havent had any luck with either. Thanks again!

9. mpretzel113 said,
   
   

   on December 19th, 2007 at 3:55 pm

   Sorry to keep bugging you man. But I just got off of a live chat with pinnacle regarding the new BETA drivers. Basically, they said that the new drivers wont work with their own software and you’d have to use Media Center. Also, when you do this, you wont be able to get Analog channels through the air or through your cable line. I thought that was pretty funny, and Im really interested in getting your drivers working with everything in vista.

10. Adam said,
    
    

    on March 3rd, 2008 at 9:58 pm

    Hi~
    I tried the drivers, but all to no avail…Windows Media Center cannot find the tuner…
    I’m running Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1 with a AMD Turion64 x2 Mobile Technology processor along with 2 gbs of ram…
    Any help?
    Thanks!

11. ben said,
    
    

    on June 3rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    drivers NO LONGER required, just plug it in! using Vista 64 Ultimate.

    Cheers!

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