For Your Fading Memories
Written: Dec 04 '02 (Updated Dec 12 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Works pretty well.
Cons: No S-Video? No MPEG editing in Studio 7.
The Bottom Line: Gets your stuff off VHS and onto DVD. Hooray!
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| TrevorM's Full Review: Pinnacle Studio Deluxe 7.0 Full Version for PC (21... |
Problem: 100 family VHS videos ... poorly edited (if at all) ... random events on random tapes in random order ... tapes wearing out/degrading ... family VCR's days numbered ... Solution: This thing.
This kit contains a PCI card with breakout box interface, the breakout box itself, and software.
The PCI card has an integrated IEEE 1394 (FireWire or i.Link) port (for transfer of digital video) in addition to serving as the point at which video enters your system. This is nifty, because it means you can add FireWire hard drives, input devices, scanners, to your computer, and this is the only card you need to do that.
The breakout box is the blue thing on the box in the picture. It has your inputs and outputs for composite video, S-Video, and RCA stereo. It is an attractive unit which I keep on my desk (and I hate thngs on my desk). I can't get the S-Video hookup to work. The stereo inputs into the breakout box actually end in a minijack connection you must plug into your sound card. The only thing the card does is capture video.
The important part of the software included is Pinnacle Studio 7. This is what you'll be using to capture and edit videos. The main drawback to the software is that to put stuff on DVD, you need to compress it in MPEG-2 format. But once you've done this, you can't use Studio 7 to open it or edit it. Studio will only import AVI files which, depending on codec used, take much longer to compress and are considerably larger in size (megabytes).
Overall, I'm pleased with what I get out of my standalone player once I've burned it to DVD using a program that came with my DVD burner. Studio 7 does NOT have DVD authoring capabilities built in.
If you don't intend to put the captured video on DVD, I recommend holding off on this product until you have a DVD burner -- salesmen will tell you that the VideoCD (VCD) format is equivalent to VHS, but I beg to differ. DVD drives, in all their alphabet soup of flavors, are rapidly coming down in price.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
TrevorM
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Member: Trevor Miller
Location: Portland, OR
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 6 members
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