Adaptec ADAPTC VIDEOH DVD MEDIA-CENTER 2310 USB KIT ( 2042900 )

Rating:
Summary: Plenty happy with it....
Review: When I started shopping around for a video capture card/device I was pretty overwhelmed with the myriad of nearly endless (yet no-two identical) choices. I finally decided I needed a USB device as opposed to a PCI card, with a TV tuner and an on-board, hardware encoder (I found that most claim to have "real-time MPEG encoding" as if that actually meant something...but few are equipped with actual hardware encoders.) I got the Adaptec VideOH! DVD Media-Center USB device over Memorial Day weekend, have used it constantly over the last three months and I've got to say that I'm pretty happy with it.

Installation of the hardware and updated drivers as well as the two primary software programs took only a few minutes...I had no headaches, no issues, no conflicts...everything immediately worked. I've used the device to convert material on approximately 40 VHS tapes to DVD and the results have really exceeded my expectations. After reading a lot of articles on tape-to-DVD transfer, I wasn't expecting very satisfying results, but I've been VERY surprised at the quality of the DVDs I've made out of old VHS videotape. Of course they're not "DVD quality" but the results look at least as good as the old tapes (in a much tidier package).

As with most hardware/software bundles, a lot of people gripe (myself included). I'm "famous" for my disatisfaction with included software and am never happy until I've tested every possible program and selected the "best". That being said, I've found that the software from Sonic and Intervideo seem pretty adequate. Sonic's MyDVD 5.2 works fine for capturing signal from analog video devices (like a VCR), but I don't use it for editing or authoring due to its limitations and bizarre need to re-encode everything it touches. Intervideo's WinDVR 3 seems perfectly capable of handling TV functions and recording, although I haven't used it much. I've just started playing around with a trial of Snapstream's Beyond TV (both BeyondTV and Frey's SageTV support the Adaptec device).

So, overall, very pleased with Adaptec, except for the usual complaints: more robust software would be better and if they could work with a few more software companies to broaden our choices it would be very nice.