Video Blaster Digital VCR

Rating:
Summary: Nice hardware MPEG-2 TV tuner/PVR for a desktop.
Review: After using the Video Blaster Digital VCR for almost a year, I'm totally confused by the review by "An electronics fan". He appears to be having a problem more with his system than the product. The Creative Digital VCR is my favorite tuner from the interface and my second favorite from an image quality viewpoint (it's surpassed by the Hauppauge WinTV PVR250). All functions of the Digital VCR software are available via the remote, including starting the software. The software uses a menu interface similar to the remote interface in WindowsXP Media Center Edition. The WinTV PVR250 has better video quality, but it's disappointing from a usability perspective because it's impossible to use the features without the mouse and keyboard, unlike the Digital VCR. The remote control included with the Creative Digital VCR is very complete and allows variable speed forward and reverse, direct channel selection and full use of the program menus.

Under Windows XP and Windows 98, which I used, setup is extremely simple. The drivers and software install without a glitch. I've never had audio/video sync issues mentioned in the other review. I've recorded everything from short segments to hours long programs. The card is based on a hardware MPEG-2 compression chipset, so CPU usage is very low (under 10% watching live TV or a prerecorded program and under 20% while recording or timeshifting a program on a P4 system). For comparison, software based TV cards typically take 50%-100% CPU time while compressing MPEG-2 on the fly.

An included utility lets the user export the recorded video files as MPEG-2 files. I never had any problems playing back the videos with Media Player or PowerDVD. There are 3rd party utilities for converting the files to standard DVD video or AVI files.

The minimum requirements for this product are low since the hardware MPEG-2 compressor chip on board does all the grunt work. Only a Celeron, Pentium 2/3 or K6 400MHz or faster is recommended by Creative.

While it's not a perfect product (only the WinTV PVR's better quality would make it nearly perfect), it's a easy to use, stable, decent looking TV/PVR product.

Rating:
Summary: Nice hardware MPEG-2 TV tuner/PVR for a desktop.
Review: After using the Video Blaster Digital VCR for almost a year, I'm totally confused by the review by "An electronics fan". He appears to be having a problem more with his system than the product. The Creative Digital VCR is my favorite tuner from the interface and my second favorite from an image quality viewpoint (it's surpassed by the Hauppauge WinTV PVR250). All functions of the Digital VCR software are available via the remote, including starting the software. The software uses a menu interface similar to the remote interface in WindowsXP Media Center Edition. The WinTV PVR250 has better video quality, but it's disappointing from a usability perspective because it's impossible to use the features without the mouse and keyboard, unlike the Digital VCR. The remote control included with the Creative Digital VCR is very complete and allows variable speed forward and reverse, direct channel selection and full use of the program menus.

Under Windows XP and Windows 98, which I used, setup is extremely simple. The drivers and software install without a glitch. I've never had audio/video sync issues mentioned in the other review. I've recorded everything from short segments to hours long programs. The card is based on a hardware MPEG-2 compression chipset, so CPU usage is very low (under 10% watching live TV or a prerecorded program and under 20% while recording or timeshifting a program on a P4 system). For comparison, software based TV cards typically take 50%-100% CPU time while compressing MPEG-2 on the fly.

An included utility lets the user export the recorded video files as MPEG-2 files. I never had any problems playing back the videos with Media Player or PowerDVD. There are 3rd party utilities for converting the files to standard DVD video or AVI files.

The minimum requirements for this product are low since the hardware MPEG-2 compressor chip on board does all the grunt work. Only a Celeron, Pentium 2/3 or K6 400MHz or faster is recommended by Creative.

While it's not a perfect product (only the WinTV PVR's better quality would make it nearly perfect), it's a easy to use, stable, decent looking TV/PVR product.

Rating:
Summary: Very Poor Product From Creative Labs
Review: Throughout 2001/2002, I went through about a dozen different TV tuner cards. I finally settled on a Hauppauge WinTV board, which worked quite well. When Creative Labs came out with the Video Blaster Digital VCR, I read the feature list and bought it almost immediately.

Installation and setup couldn't be simpler. The hardware side of the package seemed very solid. Everything seemed fine until it came time to actually use it, at which time I was immediately disappointed. The software seems third rate... like something you would download for free. I've always been impressed with Creative Lab's software and the software included here was nowhere near their usual quality.

To start, I'm using Windows XP Pro on a Pentium 4 system with 512mb of memory.

First, watching television: The video quality is decent at best, the audio sometimes is out of sync with the picture, and simply having the screen up takes up too much of your computer's resources. My WinTV card took up almost no resources when simply watching television.

Second, the TV Features: There's the replay/pause system that lets you pause and rewind live programs while you're watching TV, as if you're watching it on a VCR or Tivo. However, it's extremely awkward to use... it's nothing like Tivo. First, you have to manually turn the feature on which drains a LOT more resources. If you're watching TV in the background, leaving this feature on can make a noticeable dent in performance. When you do use it, controlling playback is neither smooth nor straight forward... trying to maneuver through the awkward software makes you realize replay is only for emergencies where you REALLY need to go back and see it again. Also, there's no still capturing... a feature which just about all other cards I've tried had.

Third, the VCR Features: The software also captures video like a VCR (hence the product name). This is the worst part of the software. Recording is, again, extremely awkward and takes up too much resources. Pressing the record button doesn't start the recording immediately and stopping it is like trying to stop a train... pressing the stop button doesn't always stop the recording. I've resorted to simply closing out the program to make sure it's stopped. The software also allows you to store prerecorded shows in a menu of categories, such as 'New Shows', 'Keepers', etc. The problem is, this part of the software seems extremely buggy... delete a show from the menu, it shows up under recycled, delete it from recycled, it's gone, right? Not always... close the program and reopen it, 50% of the time it's back in the menu. Even when I've positively deleted it, a search of my hard drive reveals that it's still there.

Exporting a show only allows for saving to MPEG-2 files. Playback on Windows Media Player or just about any other video viewing software is extremely poor... either the sound is out of sync, two speeds to fast, or there's blips in the video. This happens no matter what computer I play them on. Also, these files can only be edited with the latest software (Adobe Premiere 6.0 or lower can't decode it). Even editing it with Adobe Premiere 6.5 yielded disappointing results.

Finally, here's no printed User Guide... if you need help, you have to read it off the CD.

On computers with less then a Pentium 4 processor, the Video Blaster Digital VCR must be much too slow to use efficiently. I used this card for just over a month before going back to my WinTV card. There's really nothing good to say about the board. Creative Labs needs to get back to the drawing board with this product. If you need a TV tuner for your computer, I'd recommend looking into a Hauppauge WinTV board.