Video Reviews

This item is what it states. A no thrills speaker stand. Well actually it is just two poles. This item does not come with the attachment screws for your speakers. You would have to go to Radio Schack for that. So if I am there buying screws why not just buy the whole thing there....

My suggestion to you is do not buy this, spend a little more and get a good stand..

These speaker stands are well constructed and attractive (in a very industrial kind of way.) However, their height is not adjustable. This is ok for front speakers, but you want rear surround speakers to be a bit above you. So they really don't work. You would mount rear speakers above you on the wall, but don't buy these for rear speakers. Also, Wharfedale appears to have difficulties getting their screws set up appropriately since it was a serious pain to get on of the stands attached to the base.

This may make wonderful videos but the problem is getting it installed so that it acutally works! If you just install it like any other program, it freezes up your computer. Then you write to support and they make you jump through hoops-uninstalling/installing, taking out your sound card, reinstalling the drivers for both your sound and video cards even though they work just fine. I got a list of 10 things to do just to make this program work. If you don't respond within 48 hours, you have to start the entire help process all over again and it takes at least that long or longer to do all the things they suggest if you have a normal life with other things to do. I have still not been able to make mine work so I am now looking for a new program. Any suggestions?

squirleyan@comcast.net

I returned this program after countless hours trying to copy VHS tapes to DVD.

I burned 4 coasters with no audio, video was fine. I spent hours on the phone with tech support and was given a different fix each time to try. When I finally figured out that when bringing up the volume control menu and selecting Properties then "Recording" I was able to burn the DVD with sound however the sync with the lip movement was terrible. I again attempted to copy a musical I created, the lip sync was even worse.

After purchasing a book by Jan Ozer and trying to figure out how to correct the Audio Sync, I still lost the battle and returned the product to Best Buy for refund.

Anyone buying this program is asking for a lot of headaches.

I purchase the Pinnacle Studio Av/Dv Deluxe version 9 video editing software. The package States that it includes 288 unique 2d and 3d transitions. The web site says " The package includes a professional breakout box, hundreds of additional 2D and 3D transitions and the full version of Pinnacle Studio v.9, the most powerful software video editor in its class" and the owners manual says it comes with the transitions. But I found out you must pay as much as $500.00 extra to unlock them. I found on their web sites frequently asked questions that this had been brought to their attention months ago and they have made no effort to change the web site or packaging to clarify that it may come with the 288 transitions but you can't use them without paying more. Most companies would put an * next to the description and explain that they are not usable without paying a fee. This is the most blatant false advertising I have ever seen. The reason some people can't make it work is if you use one of the locked transitions without paying the fee it won't burn the DVD. I didn't see that you had to pay extra and it will let you put them in but wont burn. No warning comes up or anything to inform you it wont work without paying extra. I have had no problems other then the false advertising it works good and mine is very fast to render and burn.

This modulator is a waste of money and is junk. The loud, distracting hum is annoying and the picture quality is very poor. I tried it on two tv's (one quite new) and two dvd players and found the same results on both. Spend the money and get a good one.

I bought this modulator to use with the old TV in my bedroom and to use with the TV at work. The performance at work is awful, and the performance at home is somewhat better than awful.

At work, the static/buzzing drowns out the audio. At home, the static is intermittent, and therefore only hugely annoying. Pay the extra money for a good one.

I purchased this so i can connnect a dvd player to a tv/vcr combo without having to deal with the "light to dark" effect caused by the copy protection encoded on some dvd discs.

I have no intention of copying dvds to tapes. I just wanted to watch the movies without getting distracted/annoyed by the constant change in the brightness of the movie. Well, this product actually makes it worse. There's a buzzing sound and the picture has a greenish/purplish tint to it and lots of distortion.

The product has a nice design, compact, and has a low price, but that's all it has going for it. It just doesn't work as expected.

I'd suggest buying a higher priced RF modulator that works than trying to save some money on this piece of junk.

Oh, boy - this thing is such a dud. I got it installed, managed to copy one piece of video (after several software crashes and restarts), only to discover that it had screwed up my Real Player and Windows Media Player, so now all my other video files wouldn't play! No solution on their site, didn't have the patience to deal with calling tech support, so I did a system restore, packed it back up in the box and it's going right back. What a waste of time and money! It's not even heavy enough to use as a doorstop.

I bought a "Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 Hi Speed". I had heard high reviews about it's performance, supported by Pinnacle software, so I bought one.

Dazzle is now owned by Pinnacle. They've turned this unit to junk. Now they are trying to rename this unit and sell it as a "PINNACLE S DAZZLE DVC 150 VIDCAP-USB 2.0 EDIT SOL"?

I've been in contact with their tech support over my issues and they are either not willing to divuldge any information or really have no idea what they're doing. I've isolated the problem with my system to a single file and all they tell me to do is uninstall/reinstall. Recently, they have only inquired about my recent findings.

Unless you have the knowledge to create registry switches to use this, as I have done, proceed with caution. Don't rely on any advanced tech support.

This thing is as bad as the other reviews you've read, and in my case *worse*. I can't even get the USB driver for the device to install on any of my systems. Both installers I've tried just lock up as the installer initializes.

I'm taking it back and getting a refund. I recommend you don't even try this thing. The wallet you save may be your own.

The image quality of this camera was not so great to begin with. To make things worst Kensington stopped supporting this camera a while ago and doesn't provide XP drivers so now as I upgraded to XP the camera is simply useless. Save your money and stay away from Kesington.

This camera is by far the worst I have ever seen. And in the past couple of years through work I have dealt with more than 8 different web cams. This crushed several computers and did work neither with PC nor with Mac. In fact when I tried to make it work with my Mac after several hours of continuous crushing I had to wipe the hard drive! I guess that it crushes both PC's and Mac's is the reason why they think this product is both platforms?!
With one word horrible...

I bought this camera four months ago. This company is not making this product and will not give you any help.

The quality is poor and if you upgrade to windows 2000 or XP forget using it at all.

What another poor buy.

I shudda read the reviews before I bought this POS. After spending hours trying to get the card to function properly I finally realized why Compusa had placed it on sale: they were trying to dump this loser on me by dangling a low price in front of my nose! Well, price isn't everything, obviously; like the man said, lets see how good the return policy is!

Unfortunately I fell prey to not researching peer review of this product. I must admit that in the end, I find the product a worthless collection of electronics, worth little more than 'dot.com' cube-art.

I took Pinnacle System Support's word (found with great difficulty navigating their poorly developed FAQ) and exchanged the card 3 times, trying it in multiple systems with different OS's. Every card created earsplitting static at max volume when using the audio jack. When trying to use audio signals delivered directly to the video card, the audio/video sync was never accomplished, and continued to degrade indefinitely. The drivers are another story, never installing correctly despite all efforts. Continual installation errors and application lock-ups forced me to eventually give up on this card.

I learned an important lesson from this: don't purchase items without first reading peer reviews, and don't purchased items from Pinnacle Systems. This is not the only item from Pinnacle Systems that I have had problems with.

Hopefully those that read this will look into another TV card tuner; and hopefully Pinnacle Systems will begin practicing ethical business!

I am in complete agreement with the other reviews I have read about this product. Unfortunately, I didn't read them before I bought the Pinnacle Systems PCTV Pro. Besides most of the other *bugs* listed,(eg. audio-sync problems, lack of basic editing functions in the main program, and no radio tuner) I have found that the PCTV mysteriously turns itself on at random times throughout the day even when nothing has been scheduled to record.
The documentation is terrible. The support website is full of dead links or loops that send you back to where you started without an answer to your question or a hint of how to find one.
I would not recommend the Pinnacle Systems PCTV Pro.

This reminds me of the days of Windows '95 when about 1 in 4 products took hours, sometimes days to work right. Mine came with QuickStart 8 and I never got it up and running, even after downloading patches, re-installing, ect..... Total garbage.

I bought this after reading reviews on other sites that said if you follow the directions and get all the updates,you would not have any problems. There were many reviewers that disagreed, but I thought I'd try. I did everything I was suppsed to do. The software that comes with it is flaky at best. It will work once and then quit. Or it will work for an hour and then hang up. I could never re-open anything I had made to edit it more. Dazzle has just been bought out by Pinnacle and the Dazzle messagge boards are closing down Aug 31. Becareful before you buy.

This product was frustrating to try to use, the software didn't work, and tech support was very unhelpful, and expensive, considering you waited on hold on a non-toll-free number. I returned it and went with the ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder 7500, which I love.

yeah, I bought this camera thinking that it was great, for the first week that is. The backup battery only works if it has 90% power. If there's less it doesn't work. My camera doesn't read my CF card. Sometimes it does, but when I turn off the camera, it forgets the CF Card was even in there. Also, the internal memory will sometimes say it's full; but when you go to see if there's pics the camera says there's no pics. The camera was a joke from the start. I have wasted money trying to get this thing to work.

It is a piece of crap. I have not been able to take one photo on it yet. The only thing that has worked on it is the lcd screen. Stay away.

For starters, Do not buy this or any cheap digital Camera. Spend at least 200 for a good camera. You'll get what you pay for.

Here's the story: I had a friend visit from another country, and I snapped many shots. Not only did the quality stink, but, The battery power drains very quickly(using NIMH batteries, which last longer than alkaline.) The camera functions are so slow, that if you accidently press the wrong sequence of buttons while waiting for camera to load properly, you lose the entire storage of pictures. I was fuming mad to see my storage disappear with the error "No Photos."

Also, the LCD display is so small, it's almost pointless to use. Word to the wise.... If you've already bought this camera, GET A COMPACTFLASH MEMORY MODULE(64mb or higher.) That's going to run you at least 45Bucks (See, price going up already) But, the benefit of an external memory module is that you can take it out and put it into a Digital Memory reader. Remember: Avoid this camera like the plague. Personally, I'm looking at a Sony or a Nikko camera.(With digital video included)

Initially I believed this worked reasonably well. That is if you put up with the capture freezing periodically. However, after owning it for two months (and therefore stuck with it), I find that it will capture off my DVD player perfectly, but it will not capture at all from my VCR. There simply is no video in the preview box and it does not capture. Pinnacle's "support" is poor. Forget speaking to a person. I am currently waiting to hear a response from email, however I suspect that it won't be helpful. If it was not for the expense I would simply throw it away. It is beginning to take up so much time. All for wanting to transfer tapes to DVD. I did end up buying a Panasonic DVD recorder with a hard drive for that purpose. It works well, the only draw back being the inability to edit beyond creating scences.( which is great to edit out commercials)

Everytime my source video has a scene change the capture hardware hangs, producing a stuttering image of the last frame sucessfully captured. The MovieBox manual says that during video "dropouts" the MovieBox "will wait for an interference free signal" and that this "can take a few momements" to acquire the new signal. It suggests that the unit be reset or power cycled if it does not properly reacquire the signal after it has stabilized. Since this issue occurs at every scene change you will need to babysit your capture so you can reset your hardware and restart the capture each time you turned off your camcorder during the original recording. The included software is good, but the hardware is fatally flawed - and the manufacturer is trying to sell it anyhow!

I bought this product to copy old vhs movies and copy my analog camcorder hi 8mm tapes to mpe(dvd) format. Like the other review says, the hardware is a piece of junk and in my opinion should have never been allowed to be sold to the public. It still amazes me how companies get away with this and still stay in business. The software seem ok Pinnacle Studio 8. I have a Dell 8300 running xp pro with sp1 installed, 512 memmory and 200mb harddisk, ati 9800 video card, siig 1394 firewire card. I have a high end sony hi 8mm camcorder. The bottom line is that when you capture video and you have a scene transitions(ex. tape a scene of my kids one day and then next day I tape a nother scene - normal use), it HANGS up(the video goes crazy and it starts making all these popping sounds). My first scene was 5 minutes and then it hung up. I could never get it to capture more than 5 minutes. I tried for hours to make it work and I have 20 years experience as a computer developer. I then started researching this product and found no good reviews, they were all terrible. The moviebox usb is going to have the same problem because of the mpeg encoder chipset in the box, it just does not work. If you want a great production, then the anwser is the Canopus ADVC100(approx $250.00 street price). I bought it the other day and have burned 4 hours of old vhs and hi 8mm movies to the .avi format. You can buy other Canopus products that do mpeg hardware encoding with variable bitrate, but they are in the $500 range. If you want to edit movies, you should be capturing the video to .avi(need a lot of disk space), editing it, and then converting it to mpeg-2(dvd) fromat. Editing in MGEP format does not work well. The Canopus worked flawlessly with hunderds of scene transitions. I could not find one bad review on the Canopus product. It is plug and play. I have used Microsoft Movie Maker 2 and Pinnacle Studio 8 to capture the video. Hope this review was helpful.

I thoroughly agree with the other two reviews about how crappy this power adapter is. The first one I had for my Canon Ultura video camera just quit working one day. I had bought an extended warranty on the camera, but quickly found out the adaptor wasn't covered. I then purchased another one for $125.00 in Feb., 2002. Now this one doesn't work and I will have to replace it again. I called Canon and they said they couldn't help me out and said I would have to buy another one. This leaves you between a rock and a hard place because the camera is totally useless unless you can recharge the $50.00 batteries. I told them I'd never buy another Canon video camera, which is true. I'm going back to Sony!

This is an absolute travesty. $150.00 for a crappy ac/dc adapter? These things cost less than a buck to make. I can understand up to $30.00, but a hundred and fifty bucks is plain old taking advantage of people. I'm sure glad my other camera is a Sony. Canon is a terrible company to do this to people.

I bought this Canon Vistura DV camera 5 years ago and have gone through 3 of these units. I called canon there reply was you can buy another one for 150.00 Can dollars. Im on the look for another one( used) as this one has croaked as well I asked the service tech if it was my camera he said no Canon makes "cheap chargers". I will be selling this unit as soon as I get a charger for it . A canon will not be on the replacement list