I read the reviews here and went ahead with my purchase anyway. I'm glad I did.
It couldn't be any more simple to record from an analog source to the Mac. My project is converting some old VHS home movies to digital videos. I wanted to try a test before I jumped into the real projects, so I decided to encode a small section of a VHS tape purchased around 1992.
I popped the software disc into my laptop and it installed in a few minutes. When finished, I launched the application and it presented me with a screen to test the video signal. I plugged in both ends of the device and I saw what was playing on my VCR instantly. The next screen made sure I had audio. Once set-up was out of the way, it was off to the races. I tested with a 10 minute section of the video and the software stopped recording exactly when I told it to.
I wanted to address the "issue" the other reviewers mistakenly have with this product not outputting H.264. The first video I captured has a file extension of ".mp4" and the description is "MPEG-4 Movie" in Finder. When I right-clicked and chose Get Info on the file, under Codecs, I see H.264, AAC listed. This proves H.264 encoding works with this product. I request the reviewers who said this is not working do the same and report the results.
Bottom line, this is a very simple to use product and I am looking forward to using it to convert those old movies from VHS. MUST BUY. Elgato Video Capture Device (White)
If you're like me, I have way too many old VHS tapes that I want to convert to DVD, but haven't found sofware/hardware combination that is easy to use, and does a great job.... Well, I've solved that problem with Elgato's Video Capture, it's so easy to use and understand. This company comprehends what we want and gives it to us. Yea.
Ok, all I need to do was first install the supplied software, hook up my VHS player with the included cables, and then read the well written instructions by Elgato. Sound easy, it is.
I looked up the first tape I wanted to do, and it had the time of it, so I set that up, All of the steps were made even easier with the step by step video/slide training on Elgato's site. Each step showed what I was to do, cables, plugs, settings, all of it there.
So once I made my first DVD from VHS, I was able to trim the boring stuff at either end, good idea. Then I was asked if I wanted to:
Play with Quick Time Player that's already on your Mac
Add to iTunes
Edit with iMovie
Upload to YouTube
I chose iTunes, so I could watch it on my iPhone/iPod or on the computer. I highly recommend it. no issues found ...I looked and could see that I could also use my camcorder, DVD player, and other analog video to my Mac via USB 2.0. The software that Elgato gives you yields H.264 or MPEG-4 that I easily sent to iTunes. Great!
Elgato Video Capture Technical Information:
Elgato Video Capture automatically detects NTSC, SECAM, PAL, and PAL/60 video formats for worldwide compatibility.
Video resolution: 640×480 (4:3) or 640×360 (16:9)
Video format: H.264 at 1.4 MBit/sec or MPEG-4 at 2.4 MBit/sec
Audio: AAC, 48kHZ, 128 kBit/sec
Generated files can be synced with video capable iPods, iPhones and Apple TV and can be edited in iMovie `09 without re-encoding.
System Requirements:
Macintosh computer with Intel Core Duo processor
512 MB of RAM
Built-in USB 2.0 port
Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard (or later)
QuickTime 7.6 (or later)
iTunes 8.1 or later
I've recorded about 20 8mm camcorder tapes onto my Mac Mini (1.66ghz cpu, 2gb ram) using this device. My system isn't powerful enough to generate H.264 files, but it produces mpeg4 files that play fine, they just take up about 1gb per hour of video. Video quality is about the same as the original tapes.
The software couldn't be simpler - just hit a record button. You can set it to automatically stop recording after 1,2, or 3 hours, in case you are recording overnight. There is a bare bones trim feature that lets you trim off extra video before or after your desired recording.
There is an encoding process that occurs when you are ready to save your video. It's very quick. On my relatively low powered Mac it takes about 10 minutes for a 2hr video.
My only problem is with dropped frames, which results in choppy video. It happens consistently on the first few seconds of every recording, and occasionally in the middle of a recording. It doesn't happen often, and I can just re-record the choppy scenes, but I don't know why it happens at all. I've asked Elgato on their forum, but no response yet.
Overall this has been an easy product to use. If I can figure out how to avoid the dropped frames/choppy video I'd give it 5 stars.
Update: I still don't know the reason for the choppiness, but I was able to associate it with unrecorded portions of the 8mm tape. Whenever there is an unrecorded portion of the tape, the video that follows will be choppy for a few seconds. This can be avoided by starting the Elgato recording immediately after the recorded portion of the tape begins to play. This is somewhat annoying if you have multiple recordings on the tape with segments of unrecorded tape in between them. It means essentially that you can't leave the tape unattended while it transfers to the computer. I've raised my rating to 4 stars based on my understanding of this quirk, but I would certainly prefer not having to deal with the choppiness at all.
It is possible that Elgato corrected this quirk. I've recorded all my tapes, and therefore haven't used the device in quite a while. There may be an update. - Elgato - Video Conversion - Video Production - Video Converter'
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