I couldn't be happier with this. I'm not a professional video person, but someone who just wants to transfer VHS tapes onto disk. A professional might find some objections to this device, but it works and does exactly what I needed it to do. Plug it into the VCR, plug the other end into the USB port, start up the VCR - hit the record button and Bingo! My VHS movie is now a MPEG movie. No problems with the software or hardware. Well worth the price. Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device
The Diamond VC500 capture device is awesome!
Load the driver program, open the program, plug in the device in the USB, connect to A/V outputs on a VCR or a DVD player, start to play your source (VHS or DVD) and you will see it on your computer screen and hear it through your audio card. Then, when you see the scenes you want, press the record button on the device or on the program and you are capturing.
The tool command on the program allows you to adjust picture capture quality and output mode (and quality).
After years of handling videos by direct transfer from VCR to VCR in order to make a composite, now I can do the editing on my computer. The files created can be used and edited directly in Windows Movie Maker (the device comes with another editing program, but I find WMM to be easier to use with a wider range of output files).
As a person using clips from many movies in an educational setting to illustrate my topics, this device has made my life much easier -- and the quality of what I get is much, much better!!!!!
And all of this for a price much less than the usual video-capture internal card.
(and a hint - you can use this device with sources such as phonographs or tape decks to capture and edit the sound through your USB port without having to delve into the audio input ports on the back of your PC.)
I bought this product to capture VHS tapes onto my computer, which I would then edit in another program. I am running Vista. I installed the software with little difficulty and was up and running in under 10 minutes. However, over the course of using the product, I discovered that the video and audio frequently get out of sync...just enough to be annoying. The audio somehow gets ahead of the video, so after a few minutes of capturing, it gets out of sync and boom, it's worthless (unless you don't care about that, but I personally find it annoying when people's mouths aren't moving in sync with the audio). For me, this is enough to get rid of the product, it doesn't do what I need it to do. I gave it two stars instead of 1 because if you're just trying to capture something small, like 30 seconds long, it should be fine. However, for anything longer, forget it.
I also found that the software that comes with it is a bit buggy with Vista. It changes the color scheme when you open it up, which causes your screen to go blank for several seconds. Then, if your computer goes to sleep while you're recording, you can't get it to wake up and have to completely restart which is a huge pain. But then again, if your computer is set to go to sleep after 20 minutes, it won't matter because by then the video and audio will be WAY out of sync (it gets progressively worse as time goes on, starting to be noticeable after 3-4 minutes).
Luckily, I didn't listen to the other reviewers here and actually checked the reviews on Newegg. Glad I did, this product is awesome! The quality is great (however, you must change the the output settings to something other than default of VCD [read the manual on how to do so]). It doesn't have Vista support (but being a gamer, I am staying on Windows XP).
The VC500 is great for recording gameplay on videogame consoles.
It's best if you do install the Software that comes with it. Movie Maker has a hard time capturing from this device, but the software that comes with this works a lot better.
If you are trying to decide whether to buy the Pinnacle Dazzle or this, I would suggest you buy this because:
1. It's cheaper
2. The quality is the same, if not better than the Dazzle
3. The Live Preview allows you to play console games in full screen
4. The software is high quality
5. Comes with a RCA Audio/Video Cable (which is one less purchase to make)
I have a 15 yr old analog camcorder, and wanted to transfer the original tapes to my computer. I'm an old (mid 80s) guy. not really skilled with computers. But, I had no trouble installing the Diamond capture device. Connected it to the camcorder, plugged it into the USB port, started playing back the video, pushed the button on the capture device, and without further ado a 2 hour, analog video was in my computer as a *.avi file. All I could ask for. I heartily recommend it.
I have a very good, but older, video camera plus some older tapes. In addition I have some 35mm slides and device for recording them on a VCR. Up until the Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device came along, the only solutions for capturing the videos and slides digitally were expensive and cumbersome. I've been waiting for a better solution.
The Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device is very simple to install and use. It enables me to move my old tapes to more convenient and modern DVD format with minimal hassle. The added convenience of being able to digitally edit the captured videos is a plus. I'm not all that fond of the application user interface's style, but it's very workable.
The quality of the captured videos is quite acceptable for my home-made videos. I've not tried to use this on commercial-quality VHS tapes.
I would caution buyers to ensure they have a fast enough computer, enough memory, and enough disk capacity for the videos. - Usb - Video Production - Vc500 - Video'
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