Video-Capture Reviews

this thing has more bugs than functions. i got a great deal on it, but after two weeks' worth of downloading new drivers, troubleshooting, searching for answers, and a whole lot of cursing, i returned it for a radeon 9800 pro 256mb. i'm fine without the TV functions, but i need a card that won't crash five minutes into anything.

on a side note, the card runs extra hot, and modding it won't make it go away. so unless your pc is well ventilated, you just might fry something expensive.

Wanna be a gamer? Wanna make home movies? Wanna be a couch potato? Go no further. This card packs everything you need. OK, if you want serious gaming, check out the GeForce cards. But if you want great gaming WITH tv, video, and capture capability, this is your card. The 9000 series cards alone are the best capture enabled cards out there, but this one is updated. Check out ati.com for a full spec list. First of all, it's AGP, which means its fast. It has an onbaord processor, and lots of ram (more ram than half the computers in use today have). It has great and useful inputs and features. from S-Video to DVI output for the most advanced monitors, projectors or TVs. The cards feature full support for extended desktops and dual monitors, a feature that will be useful for any pc user, guaranteed. The capture capabilities are awesome, with DVD qualitity capturing, making your home movies superior. Sure, the GeForce have the upper hand in graphics rendering (because they have fast onboard cpu's), but they don't have those features mentioned above. Gaming is great with this card, you won't miss a frame with this card rendering your graphics. The card is easy to install, and the software is as well. Don't wait, PC Video Editing is really here! (You'll definately be able to compete with your Mac friends!)

Paying more than $200 is ridiculous of course. I'm not sure why they don't get their video card prices more inline with what's available elsewhere online (at NewEgg for instance).

If you're going to fork over $364 than get ATI's newest card the Radeon X800 for $445. Actually Amazon's price is better at $429 currently.

I saw that some were having problems with drivers in reviews but I hadn't had trouble with HP products before so I thought I would give the product a try, it was a big mistake! After many hours of work I managed to get my computer back online. I though for a time this product had made my hard drive inaccesable. I make my living off my computer and can't afford to destroy it with a faulty product.

I bought this recently and I am not too happy with this product. It is easy to setup and works most of the time (with XP). However, it may decide to stop working by giving this error - No video signal detected. Powering it off/on and restarting the Arcsoft software (which is pathetic) makes it work again. I called HP tech support (somewhere in India), they asked me to re-install the driver. I re-installed the Arcsoft software since the USB 2.0 driver is already part of XP. No luck.

Also, using the S-Video cable makes the device or the arcsoft software not too friendly (video signal not detected problems)

I also upgraded to a USB 2.0 PC card but burning a DVD takes the same time as using USB 1.1. Not sure what else needs to be done.

In short, buy it if you just want to capture video from your old camcorder and burn straight to DVD. Forget editing the captured video.

I bought this unit to transfer video from old VHS tapes and burn data/video DVD's. My first unit could do the transfers fine, but would invariably fail during a DVD burn. Then it would go "offline" by complaining about having it's USB cable pulled out, or the driver needing to be re-installed. The longer this unit was powered on the worse the problem became.

I called their tech support who are responsive and friendly (in India, but thats ok). It took a couple of calls to go over all the problems and what I had done - I had already tried everything including trying 2 different laptops (Sony and Toshiba), different USB cables, different OS's (WinXP and Win2K). So they decided it was a hardware problem and replaced it.

To my dismay, the 2nd unit exhibited the same problems, only worse. Until that is I noticed it feeling hot. So I placed both the original and replacement on a air conditioning duct and burned without problems. I called support again and they got me a third unit.

Finally I can burn ok without resorting to the air conditioner, although I still have an occassional "no video signal" when transferring which never happened with the first unit.

The software works great, and I like the form factor of the dc4000. But they really do have some quality and product design issues. I'm not convinced that I have a 100% ok unit, but it may be good enough for now.

I really like the support and their responsiveness, and willing to get things working - not so impressed with the product itself.

I've owned a Hollywood DV Bridge for more than a year, and also a Canopus ADVC100. The DV Bridge is adequate for importing analog video into Adobe Premiere. Just adequate. But having the benefit of owning both products, I have no hesitation about recommending the ADVC100 over the DV Bridge. The ADVC100 allows you to lock audio to video during capture, the image quality is superior to that captured with the DV Bridge, and I have yet to drop a frame during capture with the ADVC (even with older vhs tapes). The DV Bridge might look cool to some (I thought so when I bought mine), but it's simply not as functional as the ADVC100 because it tends to fall over when it has cables plugged into the front and back of the unit, whereas the ADVC100 is a nice looking box that sits flat and cables fit snugly. Snug cable fit is an issue with my DV Bridge because my S-Video cable fits somewhat loosely and works best if I wrap scotch tape around the unit and plug to improve the integrity of the S-video input connection. Finally, the ADVC100 has a built-in on-off switch while the DV Bridge does not. It's a small thing I suppose, but I'd rather not have to plug and unplug the DV Bridge's power supply from my power bar after each use. It can get dusty down under my desk sometimes. Since getting the ADVC100, my DV Bridge is officially retired. In my opinion, the Canopus product is superior to the DV Bridge in every way, and is the way to go for those interested in purchasing a product for capturing analog video.

After reading the extremely positive and extremely negative reviews, I wasn't sure that I'd be happy with my purchase. I can't say that I am or that I'm not. However, I can say that it did what I expected -- the majority of the negative reviews are from people whose computers just don't make the cut regardless of what type of video device they're using.

I thought this would be a cheap solution ($200 compared to $3000 for a new digital camera), but as it turns out, a decent MiniDV camcorder from Sony costs in the range of $400-$900. If I hadn't purchased this product, I would only have $200 to go... but if I hadn't purchased it, I wouldn't know how much fun video editing can be.

This device gives you the potential to edit analog movies and make them look PROFESSIONAL (I really prefer Windows Movie Maker over the software that comes with the package), but the video and audio quality is obviously still amateur-looking (and sounding). If you want to create the next Titanic, you're going to need a higher image quality, so go with a new digital camera (this device is only for analog cameras), but if you just want to play around and get a cheap taste before making a more expensive dive, this is the way to go. It all boils down to how important video quality is to you.

Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge does exactly what it's supposed to do. It allows you to transfer analog video (ie VHS tapes) to digital format. I had attempted to do this using the TV card that came with my computer, but the quality was at best mediocre. Using the Hollywood DV Bridge the quality is just as good as the video tape.

I have made VCDs with quality as good as video tape. I have recorded 2 hour videos with no problems and no system crashes. I can't comment on Dazzle customer support since with everything working perfectly I haven't had to call them.

I do not use the Dazzle software that came with the product. I am using Pinnacle Studio 8 which works great. I had the Pinnacle software before and had spent the time to learn how to use it so I never used the Dazzle software.

I bought the NextVision 6 primarily so that I could watch TV on my brand new 22" IBM C220p monitor (which is way OUTSTANDING, lemme tell ya!). I toyed with the idea of getting a video card, but balked at dealing with potential software and picture quality issues. The NextVision 6 is a stand-alone unit, so it looked like a great alternative to simply buying a small TV (it is right about in the same price range as a 13" Sony).

The setup is relatively simple, however, the end result is very unpleasant. There is a special cable provided, which is designed to interface with your graphics card output and feed into the unit's RGB input. You then connect your normal VGA cable out of the unit's RGB output and into your monitor, thus establishing a pass-through. However, the resulting output signal is highly degraded and of such poor quality by virtue of this cable/pass-through combination that your computer graphics suddenly look like doo-doo. Forget the TV part, because you've just hosed your computer graphics!

Now, in my case, my IBM C220p monitor has dual inputs. So, I said, "Forget it!" to this whole pass-through business and I simply connected the unit's output to my IBM C220p monitor's second input. Unfortunately, the aforementioned special cable provided is not useable for this purpose. Just as well, since it's a piece of junk. So, I had to drop another $30 on a decent VGA cable to make this connection. The resulting TV signal was very acceptable (with the TV signal source being standard cable via coax), however I dunno if I would call it 'high definition'. You cannot sit too close to the screen without seeing some sort of 'digital smear'. Since my monitor is a 22", I can kick back on the bed and watch TV but this may be more of a problem with a smaller monitor or if you had plans on watching the TV from directly in front of your computer.

Anyway, I run my monitor at 1600x1200 resolution. The NextVision 6 touts 1280x1024 resolution. I tried different combinations of monitor/ NextVision 6 resolutions and found that if I kept my monitor at 1600x1200 and ran the NextVision 6 at 1024x768 I got the best picture. Why? Who knows. But you do have to play around with both the monitor/ NextVision 6 resolutions and the NextVision 6 brightness/contrast settings to really find the optimal settings. Patience is required!

The remote control, from which most of the functions are accessed, is, as others have noted, a pain in the rear. Some of the buttons respond to a lighter touch than others. To scan up/down through the channels you had better be able to squeeze this punk with all your might to get it to actuate! I have to hold it between my thumb on the bottom and middle finger on the top/button to apply sufficient pressure. I may opt to get a digital cable box in order to use it as the tuner/remote, which will leave the NextVision 6 to function simply as the means to convert the cable signal to a computer-compatible signal. Another expense - ugh.

A lot of caveats here, folks. Certainly, if I did not have a dual-input monitor, the NextVision 6 would have been returned as totally unacceptable. However, since I was able to get it up and running to a truly acceptable level via the procedure outlined above, I am well-pleased with the TV signal. Of course, I cannot watch TV while working on my computer since I have the unit's input on a completely separate monitor input from my computer, but no biggie. I just A/B between them with the monitor selector switch on my IBM. In the final analysis, I was able to accomplish what I started out to achieve, which was to watch TV on my IBM C220p monitor. Yeah!

Oh, one more problem: When I am not using the unit I have to unplug the audio cable (which runs from my sound card's audio-out to the unit's audio-in) because it generates a hum in my speakers. No doubt the shielding on this cable is poor - I may replace it with a higher-quality cable. More $!

As far as hooking up an external DVD player, I haven't tried it. I use Power DVD 5 on my computer, which is outstanding, so no need to use the NextVision 6 for that. If I want to play console games (X-Box, Game Cube), I'll stick with my 35" Sony TV. Maybe I'll hook up a VCR, which should work fine.

All in all, unless you have a dual-input monitor, plenty of patience and want to spring for a second decent VGA cable, forget this unit. Otherwise, as I said, I have achieved a very decent TV viewing experience on my monitor.

I have a very small office and I wanted to make some space by getting rid of my 21" CRT monitor and 24" CRT television and getting a 19" LCD monitor which would perform double duty as a TV and PC monitor. Well at 19" and larger, the fastest response time I could find was 25 ms (2003). Faster response times can be found on 15" and 17" LCD's (note that longer response time means you'll see "ghosting" with action scenes). I checked the 19" LCD reviews on CNET.com and decided on the Planar. So I hooked it up to the Nextvision which was connected to my Direct TV box and surprise - what a horrible picture! I made adjustments to the sharpness etc. on the Nextvision and the Planar monitor and the picture was still too pixelated. As a comparison, I tried the Nextvision with my 21" Sony CRT monitor and the picture wasn't too bad. It wasn't as good as even the cheapest 20" TV but it was viewable. So I ended up using the CRT monitor as a TV for a while until I picked up a small Sharp LCD TV. There's no comparison between the dedicated LCD TV and either type of computer monitor for TV viewing. If you want to use an LCD monitor as a TV, I would suggest a TV tuner PCI card or USB device. I've tried a TV tuner card on a 15" LCD and the picture isn't bad. The advantage of a card is that you can resize the picture so that it doesn't use the whole screen like with the Nextvision. The smaller the picture, the sharper and less pixelated it becomes.

I bought this, hooked it up to my 19" LCD monitor, and immediately pushed the old 27" TV tube out of the room (Bigger is not always better). Side by side, the color on the monitor was much better by default than any amount of adjustment on the TV could achieve. I cranked the resolution up, and text on the screen looks like it's actually in a font, readable and all! (TiVo output is amazing, but even all the text in commercials and credits and such are so much better.) DVD looks even better. I can't compare this with HDTV because, well, if I could afford that, I wouldn't have bought this.

Minor annoyances: It remembers most settings but not my closed captions on (and the CC is placed horribly and too small). You won't find Viewsonic on any universal remote codes; I wrote to the company and they advised me that I must buy a learning remote. Too bad my TiVo remote can't learn... gonna to be hard to find something workable enough to replace my TiVo remote. Can't afford the Pronto right now so I'm just dealing with multiple remotes.

This box does what it promises, but the quality is very poor.
Video quality lacks, even when setting the rate to more than 4 megabits; the box itself, too, has a very cheap feeling and assembly. To top this off, the right- and left- audio jacks are mislabeled... Not reccomended.

This product works well to transfer VHS to DVD. The set-up itself was easy and it comes with editing software. The editing software instructions were not very clear especially if you're a novice or working with editing software for the first time. I figured it out through trial and error and then it became fairly simple. WARNING- Older VHS tapes can cause the ADS software to freeze. Forget calling the tech support just unplug the little ADS box and plug it back. It starts working again and you don't have to reboot your pc or do anything else. You can then continue capturing your video and merge it together using the editing software. Make sure to also turn off everything else on your pc. I'm using a 1 yr old Dell 5100 laptop with 2.4GHZ, 512MB and still had to turn all other operations off. TECH SUPPORT- If you MUST call tech support then I hope you have better luck than I did. The guy I got- tech # 5- was extremely condescending and impatient. I basically answered only with yes and no to get through the call. In the end the product got the job done.

I have forever tangled with different video capture cards Voodoo 3 3500 all in wonder xtacy everything personal cinema etc... This is by far the best and greatest video capture device I have EVER used. I captured the video and burnt it strait to a SVCD in Nero no problem what so ever! The vidual studio software that comes with the device is excellent. DOn't think twice about getting this Box!

I tried to install this on my old computer running Win98 and it said that my graphics card was incompatible. When I got my new machine, running win2000, I tried again.

The first problem was that I had to uninstall the multimedia drivers that were already installed for my ATI video card. There was no error message telling me this, the install just bombed and I had to take a guess.

I finally got it to work with video but there is no sound. I wish I had researched this before I bought the card, because now I'm finding out that many others have had the same problem.

To summarize, the card is garbage.

I bought this USB version because I liked the ALL-IN-RADEON card, but I'm disappointed that the software out of the box doesn't have an 'on-demand' feature that my Radeon does (pausing live tv), and no video compression available for tv recording (no mpeg or mpeg2). This makes recording on a laptop inflexible (HUGE files).

PROS: It's pretty cool to have tv on a laptop! Basic tv functionality is good. Guide+ works well just as on my Radeon.

Curiously, on my Radeon, it shows "ATI TV v.7.1" on my Radeon, and "ATI TV v.7.3" on my TV Wonder USB. I hope there's a previous version with the features I'm looking for (or a downloadable update).

I've had my TV Wonder for a couple of months now. FIrst I used it with a celeron 400MHZ laptop suing Windows 2000, and now I'm using it with my new Athlon 1.4Ghz desktop using Windows Me.

Even on the laptop, it was great for TV watching (but no so great for video capturing). When I installed it in my desktop at first I had problems when I tried to capture video, but all that changed with a few configuration changes.

The included ATI software is excellent for TV watching, but for video capturing I recommend getting Virtualdub, it's free and so far I'm only dropping about 7% of all the frames, which is pretty good for a USB device. ATI's software drops more frames and works better saving in uncompressed AVI (which only lets me capture a little more than 81 minutes in my 20GB second hard drive).

If you can't afford a hardware encoder, buy this gadget, it'll let watch TV too. Just remember to use better software and try to capture to a separate hard drive.

I have had other D-link products and have dealt with the same issue. They are not very supportive of XP. Can it really be THAT hard to massage their drivers to work with XP? I think if you want to sell tech products such as these, you should be supporting the latest Operating systems because we all are going to have XP eventually. This just burns me! This is the second D-link product that loses support soon after it is sold.

Needless to say, I wont be buying from D-link anymore. This thing is useless to me with no XP drivers.

I'm a student filmmaker and received the D-Link capture device as a gift. I'm running the the device on Windows 2000 Professional and have had no problems with it. It works great with both RCA plugs and S-Video. My biggest problem has been with my computer equipment -- if your PC cannot keep up with the video transfer, you will lose a number of frames during the transfer. However, with a Pentium II 366MHz and 128MB RAM I haven't noticed any major degradation in the video quality.

My biggest frustration with the device is that it only captures up to a maximum size of 352x288 -- a limitation that you will not learn until after you've opened the box (I gave it 3 stars for not making that fact more clear). This limitation probably won't be a problem for most, but it's definitely something to keep in mind if you plan to transfer captured video to CD or DVD.

It's probably obvious, but worth mentioning just in case: this is only a capture device. If you plan to export movies back to a camcorder or VCR you'll need higher end equipment that supports this. Also, unlike some of the Dazzle products, the D-Link capture device does not capture audio. You'll need to run audio directly from your camera into your PC's line-in jack.

If you want a simple capture device for things like using your camcorder as a webcam (assuming it doesn't have an auto shut-off) or capturing video to edit and send to family and friends, then this should be sufficient for you.

If you are an independent filmmaker, professional videographer or plan to export your videos for viewing on a television then fork out the extra cash and get something that won't limit you. If you want to go all out, and your camera supports it, I would recommend following the route I'm taking and pay the extra money to get a DV (digital video) bridge to upload and download video.

Be advised that this will not work on Windows XP and the D-Link website is less than helpfull for support on this. Although, I was able to make this work on my other PC which is a Windows(ME) machine, without any problems. If you are looking for a cheap and easy way to capture video this is it.

I called VEO before ordering this product. I was told that if I receive the Pocket Traveler for Pocket PC and the last three digits of the serial number end in a number lower than 960, it would be too short for the Dell Axim by 2mm. I was instructed to RMA the product I receive and they will ship out the newer model that works.

I just got the Veo yesterday! The set up was simple and fast, it worked immediately and the user's guide is actually useful! Can't wait to record video footage! Pictures are crisp. I am looking forward to spending time learning all the extras! Great price for the products received

I bought this camera for my new Dell Axim. I notcied that Dell was promoting it, so I figure I trust Dell. It came in the mail the other day. It is soo cool. It comes with this cool case, it was really easy to install, as well as use. No wonder Dell recomended it-- and now so will I!

This was my first vid cam so I didn't have anything to compare it with. The only person whom I talked with previously on vid conference had an old vid cam so I didn't see a big difference. Then a family member called and said he just bought a new vid cam (a Logitech Quickcam 4000) and I couldn't believe the difference. I can see now why the Veo Velocity is getting such a bad rap. It's well deserved. It's very grainy and jittery, and doesn't work consistent in any light, not to mention very poor in low light, even with the 2.0 USB card. I'm not much into the vid conference thing, but since it looks like I'm going to be in touch with my family member now on a steady basis, I went out and snagged a Logitech 4000 and am very pleased with it.

Don't settle for the Veo Velocity cam. If you are communicating with someone who is using a Logitech, it will only remind you what poor quality your Veo is.

Just got the camera and read the fine print found only on the bottom of the box. It says, "Resolutions supported by hardware for third party software compatibility. Not supported by Creative Studio." The software it comes with only supports the usual 640x480 resolution. I didn't see any advantage from the optics or the USB 2.0 functionality, but then mine came with a busted focusing lens. I'm sure Amazon will take the return no problem, and the free shipping that was supposed to take 5-7 days miraculously brought me the camera in a single day, but I won't be ordering another one all the same.

The previous reviews for this product are right on the money... This cam looks great in the daytime with the shades open, but once night falls, in order to use it , my computer desk has to look like a photographers studio.. I have several lights blinding me just to get a decent picture.. also I find I am constantly having to adjust light to make my image viewable. When I bought this cam, I also fell for the impressive stats, but they all go out the window at dusk..

Once again 3Com has demonstrated they are more concerned with wrestling your money away from you than they are with your satisfaction with their product support. I bought 2 of these cameras in 1999 and have been using them to video conference with my kids while I'm away at my remote work location. They work great and the capture cards and software provided allow you to easily capture and edit video from a VCR. But I recently purchased new replacement PC's that run Windows XP and none of the application software or installation drivers will work. Nor is there any assistance for this product available at the 3Com product support web site. I applaud the high quality and service life of the 3com product, but really, what good is it if the drivers and applications aren't going to maintain compatibility with Operating System revisions? For product durability, ease of use, and application software I would rate this product 5 stars, but for customer support, or the total lack of, which has ultimately rendered my purchase unusable, 3com earns a big "Zero."

I purchased this cam several years ago and worked wonderfully in Windows 95 and 98. However, Windows 2000 will not recognize the driver. I contacted 3Com and was told that this product has reached the end of its life and they do not support it. If your OS is Windows 2000 (and probably XP too), do not buy this product. It will not work!

I'am sorry to said that 3 com drop the ball with a good product.If the company had any brains they would pick up this product and run with it.This camera has the highest quality and frame rate out of all cams out there.The problem is that 3 Com wont support the drivers for XP.So all I can say is that for a big company like 3Com wakeup and smell the coffee or in time you'll be out of business to.