Rating: 
Summary: Bad
Review: I didn't see the negative review when I bought my Movie Writer. I have spent days on the phone with HP and finally a gentleman in India admitted that HP was having a compatibility issue with Dell computers and so if you have a Dell, do NOT buy this movie writer. It is totally frustrating. No one admits the compatibility problem at first! So, I have hours invested in a product I have to return.
Rating: 
Summary: Published on-line problems
Review: I have had my dc3000 for three weeks, burned over 40 DVDs, transferred video, made photo slide shows and made data disks all flawlessly. What I wanted to share with readers was what I have learned from reading all the problems that people are having, as reported at this site. The site is operated by one of the HP design engineers.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hpdc3000 Here are the three biggest problems, 1. People did not read what the system requirements were before buying the unit. Typically they did not have USB 2 ports, or enough memory, or big enough hard drive or fast enough processor. 2. They are new to computers and thought they were purchasing something simple, like plug & play. 3. There have been some genuine equipment problems, so do not buy one of these units over the internet. If you get a bad one you will want to return it easily so shop at a local store. I posted comments before and I said READ READ READ and I am saying that again. There is no excuse for being disappointed because the unit does not have FireWire, or is DVD+R only. You should know these things before you buy. And if you do buy I hope things go well for you, I love mine.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time or Money - Buyer Forewarned
Review: HP acts like a company on its way down. Great concept - poor execution. HP support on this product is horrific. I have been waiting over 3 weeks for a response to inquiries and each time I initiate contact, I am told someone will get back to me in 5-7 days. Product has bugs that HP knows about but you spend hours conscientiously trying to debug. Worst of all, they offer s-video hook-up but no where can you find the proper cable or can you get the specs from HP. Some idiot at HP told me it was a special 5-pin connection. As it is, it is a 7-pin and most connectors to either a Camcorder or PC are 4-pin. I have spent hours trying to find a 7-pin male to a 4-pin male and it is not going to happen. I have already returned two cables. I have wasted hours trying to get this product to work like promised and I don't expect that to happen anytime soon or ever. Buyer be forewarned.
Rating:
Summary: Dont waste your time with this product
Review: Good concept, glowing reviews in PC Mag and others, but the installation process is not ready for prime time. Spent hours following advice from HP support, tried on 3 separate machines. At the end of the day, it worked once, then couldn't be recognized by the systems. I even, per HP, ordered a replacement system because it would "fix all the problems", and reinstalled the OS (WinXP). Still no luck. Documentation pretty thin (the trouble shooting page takes you to a generic HP drive page). Clearly a wine before its time .......
Rating:
Summary: Almost bought one of these
Review: While in theory this could be a great device, allowing you to easily capture video to a DVD, I ended up NOT buying it, for two reasons: 1) Doesn't support DVD-R. DVD-R media is much cheaper than DVD+R media, and is far more compatible with normal DVD players. Since there are plenty of drives available now that support both DVD-R and DVD+R, and many more -R than +R drives in the market, it seemed like a bad idea to get locked into +R. 2) No FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. It's astounding that they'd limit a device intended to edit video to USB. Admittedly, many PC's don't come with FireWire standard, but since the cards are only $30, that shouldn't be a major issue, and FireWire is (1) faster, and (2) most importantly would allow you to capture a clean digital signal from a DV camcorder to DVD, which would be much cleaner than playing back the DV tape as an analog signal and re-digitizing it. I'll wait until I find until I find a unit that does what this one does, but isn't senselessly handicapped.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm Pleased My Movies are Protected
Review: I read the reviews, some saying the dc3000 doesn't work and many complaining about lack of instructions. I've tried video card add-ins for my PC in the past because I'm so worried about my VHS and Hi-8 home movies disintegrating but I didn't have success--the quality was poor (maybe I didn't spend enough.) But the dc3000 connects as simply as plugging in an external DVD drive and it does work!
The hardest part is figuring out how to use the ArcSoft ShowBiz2 video software. Between what's included on the CD (I had to find the files through Windows explorer because when I selected that feature on the intro menu it kept telling me to reload the software--this is the only thing that doesn't work for me) and what's available on the ArcSoft web site, I got it (my daughter had to help me with understanding how to edit but the tape-to-disk part is straightforward.)
One problem I did have was the capture process freezing midstream. After turning off my screen saver and turning off the computer's power save feature in the BIOS setup, I'm able to start the capture and walk away.
I think the HP instructions could be greatly improved but I am so happy that I'm finally digitizing my tapes! I even bought a new hard drive for a capture/edit workspace. The product works.
Rating:
Summary: Not ready for market
Review: I got this DC3000 for Christmas and now, two weeks later, still have not been able to get it to work on my late model, high-end computer. My computer will not recognize it. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software numerous times with no success. The only suggestion from HP was to do extensive editing of my Windows Registry. Well, no thanks. It's too late to return it for a refund, so I'll dump it on eBay. I think HP rushed to get this unit to market for Christmas before they had the bugs worked out.
Rating:
Summary: Very nice
Review: This is my first time working with video on DVDs and I am very impressed with the dc3000. No problems, it worked right out of the box. There is no instruction book as we all like to have but rather it is on the CD and there is a wealth of information, just print out what ever you are looking for. A word of caution, if every time you get something new for your computer and you have to spend lots of time on the phone with tec-support this would not be a product for you. Before you make a purchase READ READ READ go to the HP web site they have a lot of good information, go to the ArcSoft site, know what you are getting into ahead of time. The next generation is due out in April 2004, called the dc4000, I never think it's a good idea to be one of the first buyers on a new piece of equipment, let the bugs get worked out. I think all the bugs have been worked out on the dc3000 and what an amazing piece of equipment.
Rating:
Summary: could have been 5 stars
Review: First had problems with a code 10 USB Mass Storage Device error and the drive not being detected in the device manager(Win2k). I have seen this same symptom in alot of reviews. Opened up the case and hooked it up as an internal drive via the IDE connection and that showed the drive was ok however it wouldn't burn a DVD properly. I got a longer spare IDE cable and replaced the one that the burner came with (ie. between the drive and the capture card) and have the drive in a spare bay. I actually like it as an external/internal better however, the capture card is kind of free floating in my computer. Prefer this setup rather than taking it back for an external. Had problems with rendering quality. Downloaded update for Showbiz2 from [website] under "Known Bugs". Quality now looks great. System seems to have been rolled out before a thorough quality check on initial shipments. Seems they may have just had a bad batch of IDE cables get into some of their systems. Those who got a good cable give great reviews, those who didnt think it's trash. Don't forget the showbiz patch for quality rendering.
Rating:
Summary: So far so good...
Review: I set up the Movie Writer last night. There was a kink or two with installation which caused me to install twice, but once it was up everything was fine. I burned a 2hr dvd without any issues...even with USB 1 instead of 2. The lack of a comprehensive manual is mildly annoying but I was able to figure out the basic functionality pretty fast.
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