Customer Rating: 
Summary: Worked Perfectly
Comment: This device is well designed, very simple to use, and it actually does what it is advertised to do (unlike too many products these days). It's great for transfering VHS tapes & DVD's to MPEG4 files. It will also capture TV shows and save those to MPEG4 files as well.
It can be used with either standard red, white, & yellow connectors OR an S-Video connector. I bought an expensive S-Video connector to see if it made a difference in the quality of the video capture. I didn't notice any difference, so my suggestion is to just use the standard red, white, & yellow connectors.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Killed a hard drive AND my iPod
Comment: This piece of junk would not work for me at all. I followed the directions, plugged in a brand new external hard drive and waited for the usb port light to turn on, the unit just shut itself off. Tried several more times with same results. Then tried to plug it into my Ipod (5g video), same results. Now, both the hard drive and the Ipod are completely unresponsive. 80gb of music and video wiped out just like that. JUNK!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Video Transfer for the "Video Challenged"
Comment: Let me start by saying I'm not any kind of expert in video technology - I usually just hand stuff over to my son and he takes it from there. That said, I wanted something to transfer my old family VHS tapes to a digital format. I had read in a local paper that this device was quite easy to use, so I gave it a try.
I had no trouble connecting to the TV or my very old VHS player - the device recognized both quickly. I did have some trouble with the storage drives. It didn't recognize my Toshiba portable or my IOGear USB flash device. Scored with my Iomega portable and the cheapy USB flash drives I picked up at conventions. Once everything was connected and recognized, I turned on the TV/hit play on the VHS and pressed a button on the Pinnacle device and let it record.
First, I tried capturing from both the TV and a 15 year old VHS tape using the "better" setting. Both were painless. The video is converted to MOV format and when I went to play them on my computer, the only trouble I had was that I needed to download an upgrade to QuickTime. They looked very good on the monitor. Later, I burned these to DVD to see how this quality setting would look on a TV - not very good...
Next, I recorded from VHS at "best" quality, which is really a misnomer apparently, since this setting interlaces the video which is supposed to be better for viewing on a TV (but not computer monitors where my movies recorded in "best" setting looked terrible...). And it did look much better than the "better" quality recordings, though we're not talking movie theater quality here.
I should note that the VHS tape was recorded at EP (as in worst quality) and I didn't use an S-video connection - just regular analog cables - so you may get better results.
The only glitch was burning the MOV files to DVD. I had edited one in QuickTime and then saved it. My son tells me that was a big mistake and I should have edited it in Nero (the software I used to burn the DVD). Since I kept getting error messages from Nero, I had to start from scratch and re-edit. I couldn't use the "re-writable" option in Nero either (so I could add more later...but maybe you just can't do that...).
All in all, if you're looking for a relatively easy way to transfer those old VHS tapes to a digital format, this does the job. The captures were very good for monitor viewing (even my son said so!) and considering the quality of my VHS tape, I was pretty happy with the TV quality.
QuickTime and Nero are the only software I used - and I didn't do much with them - just what I needed to view and copy/burn. Expect to tie up a big chunk of computer time converting the files to TV-playable DVDs...which is why I'm sticking with just copying the MOV files to DVD to play on my computer instead.
Only gave it 4 stars because the documentation is pretty meager - I suspect the manufacturer assumes that people who use this device know a little more about video transfer/editing than I do. But even without a lot of guidance, I got the job done!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy to use, but poor video quality
Comment: While I was surprised at the ease of use of this device, I was disappointing at the poor quality of the video it produces.
This is a well designed device that does exactly as it promises: transfers analog video to digital with a simple click.
Now, here you have the disappointing parts:
- The resulting video is very pixelated, even in "highest quality" mode. No better than what you'll find in youtube.
- It doesn't resolve interlaced video properly, producing even more noise in the resulting video.
- It does work well with hard drives and flash devices, but had a hard time having it transfer video to a computer. It only seemed to work with an external storage device.
In the end I found the video quality poor for archiving.
This device is well designed and may work well for people that just want to capture old VHS tapes to digital so they can put them online. And to do it quickly and painlessly.
If you wish to capture your memories in good quality, this product is not for you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Suitable for Ipod, not for viewing on Tv
Comment: The biggest mistake a person can make in purchasing this item is to assume that the converted video will be of any reasonable quality when viewed on a tv. The results were extremely fuzzy, lots of trails. . .plain horrible. On the other hand, the quality on the Ipod itself was great. Viewed on the PC, don't change the window size from anything other than what it was converted to or intended for or you'll be greatly disappointed again. The video loses it's integrity very quickly.
I started by recording at the highest setting onto a hard drive, thinking I could burn a DVD. . .big mistake. Terrible picture. I then sent the video to my 3rd generation nano, plugging that into my tv with the available adapters from Apple. . .still horrible. The adapter allowed for component input to the tv. Tried the s-video input to the tv to see if it might help improve some of the trails and it did to some extent, but the picture was still terrible. By the way, if you own a 5th generation Ipod, don't bother using the highest setting. It's not supported.
If you're planning on making clips available online or just using it to view movies on your Ipod, you won't be disappointed. If your expectations are any great than that, don't waste the money.
Summary: Worked Perfectly
Comment: This device is well designed, very simple to use, and it actually does what it is advertised to do (unlike too many products these days). It's great for transfering VHS tapes & DVD's to MPEG4 files. It will also capture TV shows and save those to MPEG4 files as well.
It can be used with either standard red, white, & yellow connectors OR an S-Video connector. I bought an expensive S-Video connector to see if it made a difference in the quality of the video capture. I didn't notice any difference, so my suggestion is to just use the standard red, white, & yellow connectors.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Killed a hard drive AND my iPod
Comment: This piece of junk would not work for me at all. I followed the directions, plugged in a brand new external hard drive and waited for the usb port light to turn on, the unit just shut itself off. Tried several more times with same results. Then tried to plug it into my Ipod (5g video), same results. Now, both the hard drive and the Ipod are completely unresponsive. 80gb of music and video wiped out just like that. JUNK!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Video Transfer for the "Video Challenged"
Comment: Let me start by saying I'm not any kind of expert in video technology - I usually just hand stuff over to my son and he takes it from there. That said, I wanted something to transfer my old family VHS tapes to a digital format. I had read in a local paper that this device was quite easy to use, so I gave it a try.
I had no trouble connecting to the TV or my very old VHS player - the device recognized both quickly. I did have some trouble with the storage drives. It didn't recognize my Toshiba portable or my IOGear USB flash device. Scored with my Iomega portable and the cheapy USB flash drives I picked up at conventions. Once everything was connected and recognized, I turned on the TV/hit play on the VHS and pressed a button on the Pinnacle device and let it record.
First, I tried capturing from both the TV and a 15 year old VHS tape using the "better" setting. Both were painless. The video is converted to MOV format and when I went to play them on my computer, the only trouble I had was that I needed to download an upgrade to QuickTime. They looked very good on the monitor. Later, I burned these to DVD to see how this quality setting would look on a TV - not very good...
Next, I recorded from VHS at "best" quality, which is really a misnomer apparently, since this setting interlaces the video which is supposed to be better for viewing on a TV (but not computer monitors where my movies recorded in "best" setting looked terrible...). And it did look much better than the "better" quality recordings, though we're not talking movie theater quality here.
I should note that the VHS tape was recorded at EP (as in worst quality) and I didn't use an S-video connection - just regular analog cables - so you may get better results.
The only glitch was burning the MOV files to DVD. I had edited one in QuickTime and then saved it. My son tells me that was a big mistake and I should have edited it in Nero (the software I used to burn the DVD). Since I kept getting error messages from Nero, I had to start from scratch and re-edit. I couldn't use the "re-writable" option in Nero either (so I could add more later...but maybe you just can't do that...).
All in all, if you're looking for a relatively easy way to transfer those old VHS tapes to a digital format, this does the job. The captures were very good for monitor viewing (even my son said so!) and considering the quality of my VHS tape, I was pretty happy with the TV quality.
QuickTime and Nero are the only software I used - and I didn't do much with them - just what I needed to view and copy/burn. Expect to tie up a big chunk of computer time converting the files to TV-playable DVDs...which is why I'm sticking with just copying the MOV files to DVD to play on my computer instead.
Only gave it 4 stars because the documentation is pretty meager - I suspect the manufacturer assumes that people who use this device know a little more about video transfer/editing than I do. But even without a lot of guidance, I got the job done!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy to use, but poor video quality
Comment: While I was surprised at the ease of use of this device, I was disappointing at the poor quality of the video it produces.
This is a well designed device that does exactly as it promises: transfers analog video to digital with a simple click.
Now, here you have the disappointing parts:
- The resulting video is very pixelated, even in "highest quality" mode. No better than what you'll find in youtube.
- It doesn't resolve interlaced video properly, producing even more noise in the resulting video.
- It does work well with hard drives and flash devices, but had a hard time having it transfer video to a computer. It only seemed to work with an external storage device.
In the end I found the video quality poor for archiving.
This device is well designed and may work well for people that just want to capture old VHS tapes to digital so they can put them online. And to do it quickly and painlessly.
If you wish to capture your memories in good quality, this product is not for you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Suitable for Ipod, not for viewing on Tv
Comment: The biggest mistake a person can make in purchasing this item is to assume that the converted video will be of any reasonable quality when viewed on a tv. The results were extremely fuzzy, lots of trails. . .plain horrible. On the other hand, the quality on the Ipod itself was great. Viewed on the PC, don't change the window size from anything other than what it was converted to or intended for or you'll be greatly disappointed again. The video loses it's integrity very quickly.
I started by recording at the highest setting onto a hard drive, thinking I could burn a DVD. . .big mistake. Terrible picture. I then sent the video to my 3rd generation nano, plugging that into my tv with the available adapters from Apple. . .still horrible. The adapter allowed for component input to the tv. Tried the s-video input to the tv to see if it might help improve some of the trails and it did to some extent, but the picture was still terrible. By the way, if you own a 5th generation Ipod, don't bother using the highest setting. It's not supported.
If you're planning on making clips available online or just using it to view movies on your Ipod, you won't be disappointed. If your expectations are any great than that, don't waste the money.