Rating: 
Summary: Works for me.
Review: I wanted an external device for capturing video to 1) eliminate the possibility of noise between PCI cards 2) have easier access to the connectors instead of digging around the back of my computer. ConvertX has these features.
In researching video capture devices, I was stunned to see that very few products had primarily good reviews. From my investigation, ConvertX had the best.
I have a P4 3.2Ghz (OC), ASUS P4C800 deluxe, 1G ram, 120G SATA RAID 0, some IDE disks, (2) Liteon DVD,RW CD +etc, USB2.0, Firewire blah blah blah.
Installing the cigar-box sized device was as trivial as setting it down. The software provided (WinDVD creator) does what it's intended to do with respect to capture, although I admit to not having tested its editing abilities yet.
I have not had conflicts, crashes, hangs or any other problem with the hardware or software (yet) after digitizing about 20 8mm tapes.
Rarely do I take the time to write a review of something that merely does what it says it does, but that kind of "performance" is very hard to find these days.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good, simple converter
Review: I've had this for several months and am pleased with it. It's simple to setup and use and has caused no problems on my system. The output of the software (titles, buttons, transitions, etc.) is a bit amatuerish in appearance. I don't have any complaints about it.
Rating:
Summary: Best Hardware Performance, Sloppy Software
Review: Pro: I used newly-bought M402U to record Athens Olympic Games.
The clarity and vividness of the resulting video clips are really astonishing. I tried Adeptec's stuff before and thought
its hardware was pretty good. However, Plextor's latest model is
even better because it provides more user control(contrast, hue,
brightness, etc.). Of course it takes a user's capability of adjusting these controls to the optimal setting in order to get the best result out of it.
Con: the bundled software is so slow on writing output that I think it is not acceptable. A lot unnecessary re-encoding, I guess.
Conclusion: best product in this catogary.
Rating:
Summary: Great for VHS conversion
Review: The installation went smoothly (xp pro). I went to the website support and checked for a later drivers/software. There was a bit and it wasn't all clear as to it's use.
I decided to only update driver.
I did have a problem as first when the recording would stop for no apparent reason. Looking at the options found that if the tape had a bad read the recording would be stopped. Unchecked this option and all went well. If anything was dropped I'm not aware of it so it must be a few frames at worst.
Nice little device.
Rating: 
Summary: Limited DivX Encoding Profiles
Review: There are several MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 hardware encoders out there, but this is the first one to actually encode DivX directly and in hardware (real time). That was the main reason why I've bought this product - DivX real time encoding speed.But it comes down the encoding profiles are quite restrictive if one wants to produce smaller files while keeping good video quality (that's what DivX is for, right?). There are only three DivX encoding profiles available with the PX-M402U: very low, high and very high bitrate. It's either too low or too high. You can either create a small video file with lame image quality (Portable profile) or very big DivX video files with great image quality (Home Theater profiles). There does not seem to be an in-between solution for DivX encoding with this product. The frustrating part is that one can easily create WAY smaller files keeping the same image quality using software DivX compression - but software encoding takes a long processing time. For example, a 26 minutes video can be encoded into DivX 640x480 with 128Kbps MP3 audio into a rather small 200Mb file. In the other hand, the PX-M402U will force 720x480 or SIF resolutions and only offers rather obscure MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio compression, and will generate 2 to 3 times my target file size. The best DivX encoding bitrate is (IMHO) around the 800-1200Mbps range, but the PX-M402U only offers 780, 2000 or 4000Mbps - way out of range to reach my target file size. In my opinion, the PX-M402U defeats the purpose of the great DivX compression by offering only extremely low or extremely high bitrate profiles for creating your videos. Perhaps Plextor is targeting the rather yet inexistent hardware DivX playback appliances market, leaving empty handed those of us who just want to play our videos on a PC. If you enjoy using DivX to produce small video files with near-DVD quality, the PX-M402U is not for you. Of course you can use the bundled software to encode smaller DivX video files in software - but then why bother buying this product? For those of you who do not care about DivX filesizes, go for it. It does what it claims.
Rating: 
Summary: Device issue impedes performance
Review: When using this device to convert old home movies with no sound from 8mm tape to digital, the device worked adequately. However, when using the device to convert 8mm tape with sound, the sound and video are impossible to sync. Apparently (according to Plextor's support rep - I contacted Tech support and they elevated the problem to get me a response) any stops and starts within the video will cause the audio to go out of sync during the capturing process. If there are several such starts and stops over the duration of the footage, by the end of the capture time the out of sync condition (which gets progressively worse) can be ridiculous. Plextor is aware of this anomaly (and has been for some time), but they do not include this information in the technical spec's to allow the customer to make an educated decision on buying because they feel that only a minority of customers will experience (notice?) the problem. They also do not offer any support for the issue as of the date of this review (last spoke to them this morning) and are offering no resolution in the form of exchange, etc. Basically you are out of luck on that score. They suggest that during video capture you monitor the footage closely and stop recording at any "stop" in the tape to minimize the out of sync condition. This of course means that you will be tied to the computer the entire time you are capturing, so if you have two hours of footage you wish to transfer don't make any other plans for the afternoon. I don't know about the rest of you but I will not rush to purchase any Plextor products in the future.
Rating:
Summary: One of The Best Video Capture out there.
Review: writing a review is not something I really like to do. For the first time in my life, I am 100% satisfy with a product. The plextor convert X capture images and sound with a sharp clarity. when I saw the reviews, I have started to have some doubts about the product, until accidentally come across a great review written by " Pc world" I am really glad that I bought this product, it delivers as promess. The software that come with the Plextor Convert X is Tremendous. Something special about this product, you can even capture live Tv and burn them to DVD, Capture old video in tape and burn them to DVD with a crystal Sound and a Sharp image. Over all, This is great product I would recommend it to everyone.
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