Rating: 
Summary: Didn't work
Review: My son bought me the HP DC3000 for Christmas and I hooked it up to a Dell 4500s which contained everything the system demanded including Windows XP and 256mg of ram. My system would not recognize the unit. I spent a day trying many of the fixes offered on the HP website and it still would not function. I called and was on the phone with a techie for almost two hours trying different fixes - nothing! I then connected it to my wife's PC which is newer than mine and it still would not recognize the HP drive. The unit was returned today.
Rating: 
Summary: Great product, and the kinks have been worked out
Review: The dc3000 has been great, both for transferring old video tapes and photos to DVD, and even more for editing videos before writing them to DVD. As others have noted, some people have experienced problems with their machines. The lead architect on the product has setup a suport/discussion/feedback group on yahoogroups and has done a great job in helping people with problems get them corrected and to correct problems with HP or the software vendor. The problems people have had seem to lie in three categories: 1) There was apparently an assembly error in some devices resulting in intermittent problems. All of the units do not seem to have had the cable routing problem, and Lee (the HP architect/designer) has made manufacturing aware of the
problem so it shouldn't recur.
2) HP ships a new version of ShowBiz with the unit. It is so new that the manual isn't even available yet, but there is onscreen Help built into the package and it is very similar to other storyboard-oriented video editors. There is an update to the version of ShowBiz that ships on the CD that you should install. It eliminates a proplem that many of us have encountered. The update is available via the FAQ at k0lee.com/dc3000/index.htm and on the HP support website
3) Lee has explained that there are conflicts between various DVD
burning software that have affected some people who have installed the HP software and other DVD copying software. The first problem is being addresed by HP and if you have a faulty unit you can exchange it. The other two problems should be easily avoided by most people, once they're aware of the cause and solutions.
Rating:
Summary: should have read these reviews before purchasing
Review: Dead out of the box. Installed programs..had recognition problems as stated before by others...would not run on brand new Dell system With XP Pro and 1 Gig ram. Spent 2 hrs on phone to tech.. " needed to research problem more". Email got multiple suggestions to no avail. Finally concluded it was defective...new one to ship next day....15 days later it had not shipped. Solved my problem by returning it to place of purchase and exchanged for new one. New one works finally. Still trying to get them to cancel shipment. Quality of productions so far have not met my expectations.
Rating:
Summary: More than adequate, less than professional
Review: I am wrriting this review to provide some clarification to some of the previous reviews. To this end, I'd like to clear up a few things: 1) If you want to copy the DVDs you rented at Blockbuster last night, that's all you. This device has the capability, but was never intended, to do this. 2) I personally know two people (other than myself) who have bought this product and none of the three of us have had any problems installing or using it. To accentuate this, I offer to you the oldest computers stats (mine): AMD Athlon 1700+ (1.463 GHz)
Windows XP Professional w/ SP1
768 MB RAM
ATI 7500 64 MB Vidoe Card
USB 2.0 PCI board by Belkin All three of us followed the installation instructions EXACTLY, step by step and never jumping ahead (it's only like 5 steps, anyway). 3) The video editing software will easily capture your video. For the simple purpose of copying old video camera movies to DVD, the software is way more than enough. The software also provides you with literally hundreds of fade-in/fade-out, text, audio comentary, and graphics options if you wish to spice up your videos. There are enough tools to allow you to create near-professional level results. The most beautiful thing about the software, though, is that it is very easy to use and learn. While it's not the best tool as far as file management goes, the interface itself is very comfortable feeling; options are well laid out, logical, and easy to toggle between. There are a few improvements that could be made to the software suite, but considering this is 'lite' software, it is very good. 4) Did I mention that all these movies you have created can be burned to a DVD+R, DVD+RW, VCD, or just to your computer's hard drive? 5) Most DVD writers come with a disk for you to use, but this drive comes with a DVD+RW, wich allows you to experiment and erase, a very nice and USEFULL touch. 6) The digital to analog (DA) converter works very well. I have experienced no hickups or static from any source, including my VHS-C tapes when played directly from the video camera to the dc3000. 7) The HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 can be used as a regular DVD+R / DVD+RW / CD-R / CD-RW drive for data purposes as well, not just for the video recording aspect. OVERALL: While not a professional level product, the HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 is perfect for everyone else, no matter how much effort you want to put into spicing up your videos or backing up your data.
Rating:
Summary: HP DVD Writer does not work!
Review: Dont buy this product - at least not if you run Windows 2000. I recently bought this product after checking that my machine exceeded all of the minimum system requirements. First, it would not install and forced me to reformat my hard drive. Second, when I eventually got it to install, my computer could not recognize the device. After hours on-line to HP (via India!) and after repeated trips to the store where I bought it (the technician at the store spent an entire day trying to get it to work and eventaully gave up), I gave up in disgust. Dont waste your time with this piece of junk.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't work at all
Review: My Dad picked up one of these units for my Mom so that she could take our movies downstairs and start converting them from degrading analog tape. The unit we got does not install properly in Windows XP. After plugging it in there is a missing mass storage device in the device manager. When you get around to installing the software it can't find the drive during setup. Also it appears to hang our BIOS while the unit is plugged in when the computer reboots. I have to unplug it just to get past a certain point in our BIOS. I've had no problems with other USB devices at all and the available BIOS updates for my motherboard (GA-7S748) do not address any USB issues which leads me to believe that the unit we have is defective. There is also close to 0 documentation included in the box. If you decide to buy it at all make sure you're buying it for someone who is competent and doesn't depend on manuals.
Rating: 
Summary: A solid product
Review: As far as combos of this nature go, the HP DVD Movie Writer doesn't sacrifice much either as a DVD Writer or as an analog input device. Some notes: You can't write directly from your source to DVD with this device, you must have a connection to your PC. Also, there is a 2 hour limit when writing directly to DVD. Otherwise, I was very impressed with the quality of video transferred from VHS, although there was some pixilation caused by the compression process, it was negligible. As for the DVD writer itself, it is very much like any other external drive. Overall, I am very satisfied with this product.
Rating:
Summary: A flawed product that needs a lot more engineering
Review: HP had some good ideas with this product, particularly combining the burner and the video source reader into a single, external product. However, they apparently rushed this product to market, as it is seriously flawed.
There is no On/Off switch, and the instructions say it can be left on all the time. However, simply turning power off and back on fried two units - both of which were connected to good surge protectors. Too give them credit, HP did promply send a new unit after the two failures, but they don't seem eager to acknowledge the problem.
The documentation with the DC3000 is almost non-existant, and many common questions go unanswered.
HP has not been forthright about telling customers what they can and cannot copy with this unit. We have a lot of old purchased VHS movies that we want to preserve by transferring them to DVD simply for our own legal use. About half of these copy just fine, and the quality is as good as can be expected, but the other half give a message that the VHS is copyrighted, and the process stops. HP cleverly avoids this issue by advertising the unit as being designed to copy home movies.
So, if you are willing to live with these restrictions and are very careful about never powering the unit down, the DC3000 is OK. Otherwise, I'd advise waiting for a more mature product.
Rating:
Summary: DC3000 is GREAT! Burned 14 'home' DVDs in a few days!
Review: This has really been a fun project for the family. Before it was a chore to watch VHSC tapes. Never being able to find a favorite spot very quickly. Now on DVD, watching home videos are fun again. I had a few problems getting started: turning off the PC hibernation, disabling the screensaver, allowing the computer & movie writer to do its work, for example. But once I got the hang of it, its been smooth sailing... or burning, as it were. And even the earlier ones are still fun for the family to watch; better than VHSC! Its really a joy to be able to 'save' 8 year old VHSC tapes recordings from from their unavoidable deterioration. So far I've only used the wizard software that was included with the package. It is very EASY to use. I would recommend this product to anyone who wants to preserve their video memories before its too late.
Rating:
Summary: What a peice of JUNK!!!
Review: Where can I return this thing? If you want hours upon hours of frustration, this product is for you. I'm very computer savvy and was never able to get either one of my two fairly new, high-powered Dell computers (with a USB 2.0 port) to recognize the new drive. What's worse is that HP customer service for this product is a complete joke. I've talked to over half a dozen technical support reps (in India, of course, where HP made the brilliant decision to relocate their tech support unit), including one supervisor, who were clueless about the product. To make matters worse, several reps, including the supervisor, promised to call me back with solutions and I never heard from them again. How's that for customer service?
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