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EXTERNAL VIDEO CAPTURE DEVICE MAKES HOME VIDEOS ON DVD/CD |  |
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| Product Reviews from Amazon.com (Rating System 1 to 5) |
| Review | Rating | Last Updated | Excellent product!
This is the best video capture device in its price range. I've tried others like the dazzle 90 video capture which does not even work, and the plextor AX-100 which freezes on me each time I try to capture old VHS tapes. The Avermedia DVD EZMaker works seamlessly! Just install the accompanying drivers and software on your Windows XP system, and you're ready to go! This has never caused any system hang-ups. This is the first video capture device I've tried that has not had any glitches thus far. Software interface is very user friendly. Don't waste your time on trying other video capture devices in its price range -- this is probably all you will need. | 5 | Today | Does the job well -- fancy software needs work
There are two separate components you get when you buy this package: Hardware and Software.
First the hardware -- it's a straightforward little widget (which is good as the documentation is pretty much non-existent). On one end is a USB connector and a jack plug audio connector -- you must use both of these - the USB for the video goes to the USB port on your computer and the jack plug for the audio goes to the line-in on your computer (warning: I tried to plug this into the microphone jack on my computer, as this was conveniently located on the front, but this did not work in my case). On the other end is a component video (yellow RCA), S-video, and Left/Right sound (White and Red RCA) connectors. You will use one of the video connectors (composite or S-video), and one (mono) or both (stereo) of the sound connectors to connect to the audio/video source, such as a VCR. With all your drivers installed, the software (more on that later) is pretty easy to use. You play the VCR, the software shows you a preview window - you select the file format and destination, and then hit capture - your audio/video is captured to the file. You can then use the software to convert the file to a DVD or VCD.
Now this package comes with several different makes of software (Broderbund, Mediostream, and Movie Maker). For simply capturing video/audio to a file it works fine and is fairly straightforward. However I found several problems with the software. On my Win XP sp2 system the Broderbund and Movie Maker would crash quite frequently. Even when not crashing, I found trying to use the software for editing, or otherwise modifying what I had captured, to be mind boggling. I am a computer professional, but what is needed here is an editing professional. The software is NOT intuitive, and makes use of the jargon of the film editing industry. I initially tried to use the software to trim some footage off of the front and back of a video I had captured, but eventually gave up and just re-captured the shorter segment I was interested in. Finally, I had a driver conflict with the audio driver. After installing it, I bought and installed a webcam only to be frustrated by the inability to install the webcam microphone driver. Turns out all I needed to do was to remove the Avermedia driver and the webcam driver installed fine. All in all I am glad I bought this as it did what I wanted -- converted some old VHS footage to digital format. But I do wish more care went into the user interface and documentation of the software. | 3 | Today | First Try At Video Capturing
I got my Avermedia DVD EZMaker USB 2.0 and installed it and it worked like a charm. VERY easy to use. The software that came with it, however, is not that easy and I'll need some practice before I can use it. It has some features I would like to utilize, but that will come later. In the meantime, I'm using the device to capture my analog video to Windows Movie Maker and it's the easiest new hardware I've ever had. All I have to do is plug it in and it works!! No problems. I like the idea of not having to open my pc case. | 5 | Today | works but some bugs
UPDATE-- 12/18/05- Unit quit working already, cheaply made, wish I wouldn't have ordered this, can't get my money back now. But tech support is good, I am sending it back, just wish I could get my money instead of a replacement.
I had trouble getting it to work. Hubby plugged and unplugged it fromthe back of the computer, then it finally worked and the computer recognized it. I had email customer support and they did reply each time in a timely manner. (I did downlod the newer driver from their site before installing the dvd EZmaker system.)
It is so slow though- real time downloading the movie from vcr, so 2 hour movie takes 2 hours. Then the software doesn't edit very well (not enough options and hard to understand) so I used windows movie maker to edit but used the software that came with this to burn it to dvd. And this is a slow process also. All together it takes me about 4-5 hours for a 2 hour movie from vhs to dvd. | 4 | Today | Good little gadget but sound suffers
If you want a cheap option for preserving all your old VHS tapes onto DVD's this is it. It has taken me some trial and error to get a good copy (I suggest you read the help book first). It WILL tie up your computer - figure at least 2x the movie length to play/capture the video, set chapter points, and encode/write the DVD. Direct record to DVD only if you don't want chapter breaks at logical points (be sure to set chapters in order - if you skip around in the movie, they will be "dislodged"). Don't expect to clip out commercials/unwanted scenes. The Broderbund MovieShop editor stinks and the Neo software will only capture, set one start point and one end point, and create up to 6 chapters and a menu.
Other than settling for very basic software editing features, my only real disappointment is the sound quality. Be sure to turn the gain control way down (like 5) to avoid most of the tinny ringing behind certain pitches. If you are a home theater buff who cares about sound - save your $45 and buy pre-made DVD's. I also have had little success in saving Pixar movies - the beautiful colors wash out in translation and messing with the limited picture controls before capture doesn't help. All other movies picture is fine (for my 27" screen) even at "better" quality setting. 4.7 GB DVD+R's aren't big enough to record feature length movies at "best" setting; you need to buy the $45 software upgrade if you want to record at "best" setting on double layer DVDs.
Enough griping - my treasured collection of VHS movies will be saved from further deterioration (and VHS obsolescence)for a relatively small investment in this device. | 4 | Today | Good for Amatures
I was't realy looking for any thing professional as idont have enogh time to spend on doing DVD movies.
With the EZ maker i did great stuff and reccomend it to any business man who doesnt have enogh time to convirt DVD on a very professional level.
It is very easy to use and very friendly.
Regards,
Omar Sukhon | 4 | Today | It works fine, but be careful if trying to use a laptop
At the end, it worked fine. I tried to use it with my laptop, but just then I noticed that I needed a line input jack for audio (it doesn't work with the microphone jack) and my Toshiba Satellite A70-SP211 doesn't provide it.
So finally I used it with a PIV desktop and worked fine.
The quality is good, you can make nice DVDs. I only used the included software for capture video. For the editing and DVD conversion I used Nerovision Express. | 4 | Today | It Does a Good Job
I bought this hoping that I wouldn't be one of the unlucky people who's Avermedia DVD EZMaker USB 2.0 didn't work as expected or was simply plagued with odd problems that effected the output. Once hooked up, I had a synching problem, and the Software that came with it didn't pick up the sound. But after a bit of tinkering I found that only my InterVideo WinDVD Creator had the synching problems and the neoDVD that came with the unit would pick up sound after you check the appropriate sound input being used even if it's checked to start with, simple solution.
The video and audio quality really depend on the tape quality. A tape that was recorded in SLP will produce a grainy video with audio sounding as if it were recorded from within an aluminum garbage can. In SP the video is acceptable enough, and the audio is virtually unblemished. Obviously the recording quality chosen in neoDVD plays a role as well, "Better" is a good setting for most things, a 15 minute recording will be about 200-300 megs. In "Best" a 15 minute recording will be around 600-700 megs.
All in all, it works just the way I wanted it to. It's extremely easy to setup and the user only really needs the knowledge of running a VCR to work with this unit.
| 5 | Today | Good Value but Confusing
The hardware is great value, easy to install and has excellent capture quality. On the downside, the software has a rather complex user interface with little or no documentation. The Broderbund video editing software, as you might expect, is kid-level and clunky, but the neoDVD capture software is both powerful and solid, and there lies the problem if you are not already familiar with video terminology. It includes Help and an online Tutorial, but both are skimpy, and have huge gaps in explaining the video technology. However, if you are willing to make the effort to learn, and waste a few CD-Rs in trial-and-error experimentation, then this is definitely the best buy - it only loses a star for lack of good documentation. If you want an idiot-proof, out-of-the-box system then deduct another star and plan on the extra cost of buying better documented software. | 4 | Today | This USB Device is super
This USB device is value for money, it really works well. Soon after easy install the device was working great. I do not use the software which came with the device instead I use Inter Media Win DVD Creator 2.00 which came my Compaq AMD 3400+ (2.2gh) 512 memory 200 GB harddrive. The end result is very good indead. The Amazon,s service is super, I got it FEDEX ground (Free) (Ordered Friday recevived it on Monday). When you get the Amazon Credit Card ($30) off so it just coat me $11.00) can be bad at this price | 5 | Today |
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