Best video capture device and software out there
Written: Oct 29 '03 (Updated Nov 24 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to use, Excellent quality video and audio capture
Cons: Need to download patches to get software to work well.
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend it. It is the one product that I have found for video capture and editing that works.
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| philtrout's Full Review: A D S Instant DVD 2.0 (USBAV702) Video Capture |
The ADS Instant DVD USB 2.0 is a great improvement over prior attempts to capture and record analog video recordings and transfer them to DVD. I have looked for the past year and tried a number of devices and software programs with limited or no success. This device works and works well. Already, within a few days, I have easily transferred 5 old 8mm analog video tapes to DVD using Ulead Movie Factory 2.0 without a glitch, without a crash and with perfect results.
The capture device works perfectly. Capturing is very processor intensive. I have a 2.2 gig Pentium 4 with 528 RAM and 120 gig Hard Drive and I had no problems. Having looked at the ADS web site first, I downloaded the latest version of capwiz before starting the project. The preview mode is not perfect quality video but the captured result is perfect. No dropped frames, no lines, perfect quality (to me, indistinguishable from the original medium quality video tape). Although the video and audio quality were, to me, indistinguishable from the original, I have not tried copying high quality DVD video or my other VHS tapes yet, but I am sure the quality will be, at least, very good.
One strong exception to the above comments (written/revised after having now used this for about a month), is that I have been unsuccessful in capturing and transferring VHS cassettes from my VCR to DVD. It consistently freezes and stops the capture midway through the capture phase... I need to stop and reboot to clear it. I have only been able to capture one VHS cassetted from my VCR using this device. I have tried two VCRs and have had the same result with both.
They provide three software titles. Ulead Movie Factory 2.0, Video Studio 7 and Muvee maker. I haven’t tried the Video Studio although, from reviews of it, I expect it to work fine. I am mainly archiving my old video tapes and transferring to DVD. The Movie Factory 2.0 didn't burn to DVD on first attempts. A visit to their web site to download the patch/upgrade fixed that. Since then, it has worked fine every time. Rendering and burning time is reasonable, not excessive. I have also converted to SVCD and this worked perfectly. Rendering for SVCD takes a long time, though. Movie Factory allows you to add index points automatically at specified intervals. It is a fantastic feature and works on SVCD'sand DVD's. The Muvee maker is a lot of fun to use and allows you to make music videos easily. The video studio 7 is great for amateur video productions and has a lot of flexiblity and possibilities for special effects, overlays, audio synchronization, titles, etc.
Audio and Video synchronization is perfect with this product whe captured in Capwiz. (I have had some synchronization problems capturing in Movie Factory). My prior experiences with other products had been terrible with audio and video being very noticeably out of synch by the end of the tape. With this, there was perfect synchronization for the two hour duration of the video tape (again, when used with my 8 mm analog camcorder).
In summary, having been disappointed by so many video editing and video capture products in the past year, I am thrilled to find one that works so well for transferring 8mm tapes to DVD. I recommend it! (Please note the one exception above).
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
philtrout
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Reviews written: 2
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