Customer Reviews

Adaptec VideOh! USB 2.0 DVD Video Converter Kit

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I was looking for a soluton to transfer VHS to DVD and I found this product. After working for a week with it, it's going back! My first time sending anything back purchased on Amazon.

The drivers included with the package didn't work with my system (XP). I had to download new drivers (required complete delete and re-install, really slick process NOT!). Software, don't even bother as I got random error messages when trying to use it.

Besides big hassle with getting software to work, the resulting output is POOR at best (very grainy and distorted looking).

Also, Adaptec's customer service is POOR at best, the link to their "forums" doesn't work. Only option is online submission of problem - figure at least 48 hours for a less than well thought out response from their tech support.

My recommendation - I have instead picked up competing product Dazzle Video Creator 150 and find it to work MUCH better compared to Adaptec's product. The output from Dazzle looks great compared to the output from Adaptec's product. I was burining my first DVD in under an hour after installing the unit. I spent more than that just getting Adaptec's product to even capture any video!

If you're trying to get your VHS tapes into your computer so that you can put the videos onto DVD, this is exactly what you need. I'm very surprised at the bad reviews seen on here, I haven't had *any* issues with this - while other software I've tried has failed miserably.

It's actually pretty simple to use this system. One end of this device has 3 holes in it. You plug your VCR right into those holes, like you would into a TV. The other end of the device has a USB cable. You plug that USB cable into your computer. You hit PLAY on your VCR. The signal goes out of your VCR into your computer! I use XP and was able to record smoothly without any issue at all.

The Adaptec device comes with Sonic software that lets you read in that video as a variety of file types. While it first comes in as the standard encoded MPG video file, you might want to use this video for other purposes. Their editing software lets you turn those MPG files into AVI files or a variety of other files so that you can use the video segments with just about any video software you might enjoy using. I personally use Roxio's Easy CD & DVD Creator for the actual DVD creation.

The input device is VERY easy to use, just hit PLAY on the VCR and RECORD on the Sonic software. Once you get your entire VHS cassette read into your computer, you can use either the built in software or another package to start adding music, putting on titles, and doing much more! When your creation is complete, create a bunch of DVDs and send them off to family and friends to enjoy!

Not only did the device work wonderfully, but the tech support group was very helpful even when Roxio and other software groups were completely unhelpful. The Sonic guys talked me through exactly how to get everything to work properly, to compensate for the problems the other software I own had. I was able to get my video files just the way I wanted them. I give Adaptec the highest praise for this product.

Note: This is meant to work with the super-fast USB 2.0 connector, but if you don't have a USB 2.0 card, you can still get it to work with the old USB connectors. It'll just run much more slowly.

I do not know why a lot of people cannot make the device to work. I bought it from a local store so that I can return it easily just in case it does not work.

To my surpusise, the device works perfect for me. I am running a PIII 866MHZ/40GB/USB 2.0/Windows 2000 with sony 510A dvd writer. My main purpose is to transfer my old VHS to DVD. So far(less than a week), I have burned 6 DVD+R using Sonic MyDVD program, without single failure. the Quality is in line with my original VHS video, actually I felt it was better than original. No frame drop or unexpected stop capture. I did not do any video editing, only used the feature to create chapter point every 5 minutes.

Since the device has MPEG encoder itself, it does not require too much CPU power. But you do need USB 2.0 with faster HD.

The only complain I have is it can only burn 85 minutes video on 4.7GB DVD+R with Better setting. That is the reason I give it 4 stars.

After reading the horribly negative reviews about this product, I feel somewhat compelled to chime in with a different view. I've had the Videoh DVD capture device for about 4 or 5 months and it has provided me with adequate DVD's from my old VHS tapes. I have not experienced the problems described by other reviewers (error messages, failure to capture) and have churned out about 20-30 DVD's that all record and play very well. I've yet to ruin a DVD disc. Yes, the video quality could probably be better, but most of the DVD's I have burned using this device have been with VHS tapes that are 10-15 years old, so I expected that the video quality to be compromised because of the age of the tapes, but the result is fine for me. MyDVD, the software that is included with the unit, doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but if you do a decent job in capturing the video, it works pretty well.

I have found that best quality allows about 1 hour of footage to fit on a DVD, better quality around 1 1/2 hour and good quality around 2 hours, a little less than expected reading the literature. I use better quality most of the time because it is close to best quality and much better than good quality.

I've seen these devices come down in price a fair amount since I made my purchase, so I recommend it as an relatively easy solution to video capture and burning, but it looks like it can be buggy, so make sure it has a good return policy, just in case.

This is the first computer product I've ever had to return due to bad (real bad) performance.

8 hours have passed, and I have not yet completed burning one VCD from a 1 hour cassette tape.

First off, any "slight" hiccup of the video on the tape stops the capture. No one will want to sit through their whole VHS tape to "watch" and make sure it doesn't halt the capture. I winded up having to restart captures 3 or 4 times, with rewinding my tape because I didn't notice the capture had stopped!!! Note that this "bug" is listed on their little sheet but what a pain to keep having to restart captures!!! Ugghh!

Secondly, the software is incredibly slooowww. This is my first time with video capturing software/hardware and it is a bad experience. The software is "not" user friendly at all, considering I have been in the PC business for years. When you double-click a thumbnail of your .mpg file, you can accidentally "trim" your movie. Even though my .mpg file was 500mb (for 30 minutes), everytime I tried to add it back to the menu, it only showed me 11 seconds!! What is up with that?

Save yourself the headache and take my word. BAD!

This is a quote from Adaptec FAQ for this device:

"The VideOh! products cannot be used by Windows Movie Maker to capture video, as they are not designed to work under the application. The software supplied with the units - MyDVD - was written specifically for the Adaptec drivers to capture video."

What it means is that this device cannot be used with most of the third party software out there. They don't tell you this on the box! If this matters to you, don't buy this product.

But, other than that..... the device works fine.

VideOh! DVD -- USB 2 / MPEG 1 & 2 Video capture device. Price paid: $150

Bottom line, this product is NOT worth it.

The software supplied (ArcSoft Showbiz) would not even recognize the unit, despite the fact that the XP op system could see it (though not use it). Adaptec admits that this is the case, and their only option is to use the included (and very simplistic) DVD-recording software for capturing, but that is so limited that you can't even edit your video. I had to find and use third party software (MovieMill & VideoVegas) before I could even get the unit to perform.

No driver or software updates have yet been made available for Windows XP. When using XP, unless you have the unit plugged into the USB port and on at all times, you may have to re-install the drivers when you want to use it (I have had to do this at least a dozen times so far). For an external unit, this is highly unusual, and needless to say, rather inconvenient... especially for a laptop user such as myself.

After 3 months of use so far, the unit has stopped working correctly. It sporatically loses or fails to recognize video input, and will no longer accept video from analog tape sources (vhs, vhs-c, camcorder 8MM). Only DVD and sat/cable come through as stable video. All tape input is shaky/wavering, despite using several different tapes and tape decks, and the unit's alternate S-video input. I bought this product to transfer older home movies to DVD-R, and now cannot even continue.

Support is nearly non-existent... Drivers aren't updated and the support department has not responded to emails. The software is not supported at all. The manufacturer's web site has a question and answer forum, but it is hardly helpful. As is typical with most tech products these days, you have to hope another customer has solved the problems the manufacturer won't.

Avoid this product!

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I have a new 2.4, XP-HE, w/ 512 RAM, dual 120 gig hard drives, etc. so lack of hardware is not the issue. The software [cuts] out frequently and even with the slightest glitch on the tapes causes the entire capture process to abort. I have wasted 25-30 hours so far trying to successfully capture 1 complete VHS to no avail. This product gets returned today!

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Don't waste your money on this thing. The output is jumpy like it scips a frame on capture. The only program it will work with is Sonic My DVD which has very limited editing capabilities. I am very disgusted with this product and am ready to throw it out the window. I have bought other programs to try and edit the mpeg file that was captured but it captures the mpeg files to an unsupported codec. If there was a 0 stars rating for this that would have been my choice.

Went through nightmares with the other video convertors, especially with ADS Video Express, and found this product, contrary to many customers, A DELIGHT TO WORK WITH!
It captures easily, recognizes the hardware straighaway. The My DVD 3.2 is highly superior to the previous versions. But why oh why, does it not reproduce sound while recording? Without this unreasonable quirk, it would be near perfect.
For converting old video tapes, it is really very good. The DVD picture, synchronization and sound qualities are very good.