After a full week of testing just about anything there is to find
in terms of software to view and record video of my pinnacle TV card,
I can only come to the conclusion that

1) If a program is working, the quality is, compared to the pinnacle windows application,
poor.
2) Recording seems to be out of the question.

Currently I'm using Ubuntu.

I gave up and accepted that I will have to keep a windows next to my linux
in order to be able to watch tv and record.

If somebody has better experience with the combination ubuntu - pinnacle pci card
and video recording, please respond and tell me your experience.

I havent got Ubuntu but i do have a Pinnacle PCTV pci tv tuner and ive found that i can get the same picture quality in mandriva 2006 as i can i windows. what tv program where you using in ubuntu

http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Multimedia/TV/

Watch this list.
I really tried all of them that have recording capabilities ...

For now I use a tvtime, a small tv player that is preconfigured in the package manager of ubuntu.

Can you give me a download link to the program you're using now ?
I can give it also I try ...

This guy seems to have got his pinnacle TV card to work http://www.puuhis.net/htpc/

I got these programs to work with my pci tv card
these are just my experiences you may find them different

Kdetv - Does not support recording, but is still fairly good
Tvtime - Does not support recording, gives good quality
Zapping - Supports recording aand has good quality, but am not 100% sure if it supports recording with my pinnacle pctv card, havent looked into the recording much anyway

Zapping is probably the one with the most promise, apart from going for a full on pvr like myth tv or freevo