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| Date Reviewed: 01/21/2004 |
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Strengths: excellent video quality
Weaknesses: Limited to the bundled version of the software
Summary: (1/21/04)
VideOh! DVD Media Center USB 2.0 Edition
I have a Win XP Pro SR-1 machine with 512RAM and 28Gb free hard drive space and installation was simple once I used the bundled versions of the software, see software notes. The total install time took 20-30min for set-up and installation. The video capture quality using MyDVD was excellent, see video quality below. I was able to compile a DVD and drop it into the DVD player to watch on TV without any problems (both burner and player were Phillips). Tech support was helpful and prompt to answer question. They usually responded within 24-48 hours. Overall, I am very satisfied with the product.
Con’s
(Software) Limited to the bundled version of the software (MyDVD 4.0.4 and WinDVD 3.0) only. Retail version of MyDVD and WinDVD even if they are later that the bundled version would not work. Therefore, if you created projects in a newer version of MyDVD, in my case 4.5, they would not open in the 4.0.4 version. Furthermore, Adaptec currently states that all software update should come from them.
(Video Quality) Slight distortion in the last few scan lines of video capture from the camcorder and VHS. This distortion was not present when I captured video from the cable and a DVD player. The VHS/Camcorder distortion was only noticeable on my 1600x1280 computer screen (raw MPEG, MYDVD Preview, and Finished DVD). I saw no distortion in my finished DVD home movie when I played it back on my 1080i HDTV monitor using my progressive scan DVD player. I believe this is an issue resulting from some sort of over scan area of the VHS/Hi8 process and the resolution of my monitor. Furthermore, my main method for play back is on the TV so I don’t consider this an issue.
(Tech support) The website has very limited FAQ and requires a customer number to contact them directly.
 100% of People (16/16) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 09/10/2003 |
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Strengths: Video capture from VCR to DVD
Weaknesses: Have not found any yet
Summary: After about 20 minutes out of the box I was transferring VCR video to DVD'S. I captured over an hour for each DVD disk with no problems. Burned several DVD'S without hangs, crashes or sound problems. Save yourself money and frustration by buying this product first. I have tried others that are junk. Software bundle is easy to use.
100% of People (15/15) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/17/2004 |
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 Browsing on IE & watching TV causes really choppy ... Strengths: Good Third Party Software, Sturdy very good Userinterface on hardware Box.
Weaknesses: - DEVICE >to> PC connection is USB 2.0 cable which carries AUDIO & VIDEO. Problem here: Audio & Video is very choppy.
My System: IBM T42 Laptop, 2GHZ, 1GB RAM, WINXP SP1, USB2.0 Ports.
Summary: Browsing on IE & watching TV causes really choppy experience on both TV and Webbrowsing.
Changing channels from one-to-another, is quite delayed. Makes me want to at times just put all this TV-TUNER-PC stuff aside & just buy a TV. So Not a good thing.
I like the ATI-ALL-INWONDER USB, which is what I may go for. I also tried the Airlink+ (www.airlinkplus.com) USB2800 external tuner. Much better experience with the Airlink+, it uses USB2.0 only for VIDEO, with audio input through microphone (or LineIn). Much quicker transition between Viewing/Recording mode. Clarity on Airlink+ could be better. Price is much better than this Adaptec.
hope this helps. rgds,
100% of People (4/4) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 12/09/2003 |
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Strengths: Easy to use, worked great with my system
Weaknesses: None so far
Summary: I had purchased a Dazzle product to do what I wanted and had troubles from the get go. I bought this product after days of frustration and right from the start, this product worked. I am having so much fun editing video from my VHS tapes.
90% of People (9/10) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 09/21/2003 |
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This product works as it is supposed to, but it do ...
Strengths: Sonic software produces acceptable results
Weaknesses: software and drivers are pretty buggy
Summary: This product works as it is supposed to, but it does have several quirks ranging from puzzling to annoying. 1. On my computer, the showbiz software absoultely refuses to have anything to do with clips produced by Sonic. Attempts to do so produce a loud screech and a locked up computer. Hard boot is the only way out. Happens 100% of the time. Works okay on other clips. I finally uninstalled it and have tried other editing programs with varying success. I have now upgraded to the version 5 of Sonic Mydvd and it has it's own editing abilities. I should not have had to do that. 2. WinDVR program will not remember any channels if you boot the computer. Fortunately you can save channel settings and reload them after rebooting, but that is not how it is supposed to work. 3. There is supposed to be a web site that give you scheduling info. It is extremely slow to respond. The program guide is supposed to insert programs into the recording scheduler, but it does not work. Gives a nonsense error about "integers" 4. Drivers for the capture device will crash my machine if they are left loaded and you are not using either the sonic program or windvr. I have found it is imperitive to turn off the machine when not in use. Fortunately there is a power switch. 5. Customer service is very poor. I have called them on all of these things and their comments have all boiled down to "huh. It shouldn't do that" NO helpful suggestions whatsoever.
83% of People (5/6) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 07/30/2003 |
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 The TV is one of best for an external box. It prod ... Strengths: Excelent qualty of Mpeg-2 recorded video (best setting), both from TV and video input.
Weaknesses: 1) Lack of output ports on USB device;
2) ShowBiz is dificult to use when editing record video;
3) Cannot add chapter points from non-UTC sources like TV and analog video inputs.
Summary: The TV is one of best for an external box. It produces very high quality MPEG-2 recordings. The addition of pause on the record feature would be a nice addition to keep from recording commercials or stopping and restarting the record. Also, when recording to disk, the file breaks at 3.8GB even on an NTFS formated partition and you lose 4-5 seconds of video while it closes and opens the next file. Using MYDVD to capture TV to DVD produced interesting results. First it would not add chapter points because the source was not UTC compliant. The resultant DVD was also missing about 6 minutes of video at random points. Editing with ShowBiz is tedious and not very precise. You have to split the video segment is into smaller and smaller segments and then combine the segments to get what you want. Ofen you get one or two frames you don't want at the beginning or end of a segment. Timeline view is pretty useless because it looks like a smear with no detail. On my AMD1200+, rendering to DVD is slow, about 75 minutes for a 20 minute video. You need at least 4.7GB of free disk space to burn a 2 hour DVD. If you are going to use either MyDVD or ShowBiz, I recommend you have at least a 1.2GHZ processor with a minimum 512MB of memory and either Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
80% of People (4/5) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 12/27/2003 |
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 Not the quality one expects from Adaptec. The prod ... Strengths: When it records a good picture.
Weaknesses: Needs at least a daily hard-reboot to capture video; drops multiple scheduled programs.
Summary: Not the quality one expects from Adaptec. The product is totally buggy, and WinDVR is apparently an OEM version from InterVideo. Caveat emptor! Videoh! Response from Adaptec tech support by Email useless.
71% of People (5/7) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 03/17/2006 |
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VIDEOh! DVD Media Center USB 2.0 Edition
Strengths: None
Weaknesses: Did not work even once as supposed to.
Summary: I bought this item for the express purpose of converting my VHS tapes to DVD format. When it did download anything from the VHS tapes it was completely unusable. It was a series of still photos rather than a movie! No matter what I did to correct this, nothing worked. I downloaded the latest drivers, have a 3 gig PC with 6 2.0 USB ports. It had every chance to work - it didn't!
67% of People (2/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/05/2003 |
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This product has been a terrible disappointment. A ...
Strengths: Great bundled editing/burning software.
Weaknesses: Absolutely unusable -- the scheduling software is unstable and does not work even when it's not crashing
Summary: This product has been a terrible disappointment. After lots of USB driver issues during setup, I've got the unit to run at a basic level... but the scheduling software just does not work. I tried several times to record shows on a weekly schedule, but it just won't record. I'm reduced to entering each recording manually (a fairly tedious process that runs across several screens), but about 30% of the time the scheduling service crashes and misses the show (nothing gets recorded until I reboot). There have been no driver updates since July.
In addition, the "electronic programming guide" is actually a web page, and the only way in which it's integrated with the program -- the ability to record a show by clicking on it in the browser -- doesn't work at all (I get a dialog that says "Load Fail" most of the time).
Unfortunately, this product is worthless due to fatal technical problems. I wouldn't under any circumstances recommend it. Haven't tried any of the other brands yet...
57% of People (4/7) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 01/03/2005 |
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Invested at least 20 hours in this piece of garbag ...
Strengths: No idea... never got it working
Weaknesses: Err... doesn't work..
Summary: Invested at least 20 hours in this piece of garbage. Simply will not capture video. Have tried multiple video sources and loaded on two different PCs. Software hangs requiring reboots. Tried updating the driver from the adaptec website... no change. Don't buy it... it stinks.
33% of People (1/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 04/22/2006 |
- novideoh
- Member Since:
Apr 2006
View Member's:
Reviews
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No Capture=No DVD
Strengths: N/A
Weaknesses: No tech support
Summary: Bought this unit from amazon.com, saw a number of people got it to work, so i took a chance. I used a VHS player as the source, using the same yellow red white cables that play from vhs to my TV and ran them to the Videoh device. Installed drivers and sonic software. started sonic software to begin capture video, unfortunately, video capture doesn't work. No errors, just dark screen. downloaded latest drivers from adaptec site and tried reinstalling sonic software and drivers several times, to no avail. "start capture" = black screen. There is only email support (there is a phone # if you want to purchse additional products though. Too bad if you already bought one i guess) I just sent an email, but not too optimistic about a fix from support. I've already boxed the unit back up to return to compusa on monday. I was very optimistic about this product after reading a few good reviews, since I know my way around pc's quite well. Great for folks who got it to work, wish i was one of them.
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