Customer Reviews

Avermedia MDVDEZUSB DVD EZMaker USB 2.0 External Video Capture Device

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Simply amazing! This palm-sized video capture device has on one side 3 composite video cables (yellow, white, and red) and an S-Video connection, and then on the other side a USB 2.0 connection and a sound cable that connects to your sound card. You can use it to capture VHS and even videogames in action into your computer, turning them into digital files that can be burned to CDs/DVDs very easily. The only catch is that you'll need a reasonably powerful computer in order to use it.

My computer is using Windows 2000 & XP Home, a 2GHz Athlon XP 2600+, 512MB memory, and an AGP 8x GeForce FX 5200 videocard. On an even more technical note: My system uses the KT400 northbridge/VT 8235 southbridge chipset, and yet this device still works great on my system! I mention this because I was very surprised to see this note in the instructions- "This device requires the system to support isochronous transfer. At present, VIA KT400, KT333 and K266A chipset motherboards are not supported.; VIA 8235 and VT6202 chipsets can only operate on Windows XP & 2000." It's a confusing note because the KT400 (which the note states isn't supported) actually comes with the VT 8235 (which can run with 2000/XP). In any case, confusing note aside, my KT400/VT8235 chipset/system and this device work great together! I'm sure anyone with a similar setup will be okay. This device's minimum requirements are Windows 2000/XP; a P4 2GHz/Athlon XP 2100+; 256MB DDR memory, AGP 4x videocard; audio line-in with soundcard; and most importantly- USB 2.0 compatibility. An ordinary USB 1.1 connection will barely work, if at all.

My favorite thing here is the 2 very nice software applications included: Broderbund's MovieShop Select 6.5 (my favorite), and Mediostream's neoDVDstandard 4. These are excellent programs for beginners! Either one can be used during video-capturing, as they both have nice preview screens that show exactly what your VHS player or video game system is playing at the moment (You can play videogames within Windows! I've played Crazy Taxi with my Dreamcast attached to this product, and the live-action footage is captured into the computer). MovieShop automatically converts captures to Quicktime, while neoDVD converts to MPEG-2. Once captured, these programs can re-encode clips to MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Quicktime, or AVI- it's your choice. While MovieShop requires 1024 by 768 screen resolution, neoDVD works well in either 1024 by 768 or 800 by 600, which makes the preview screen even larger. The main difficulty I've had with this product so far is that I've occasionally had trouble with the sound and video being out-of-sync a bit after a capture. This doesn't always happen, and when it does I usually just start the process over again and it works fine, or I just capture video in the other of the 2 software programs included (when MovieShop gives me trouble with a particular clip, I just switch to neoDVD and everything's usually okay). It's also important to note that while MovieShop's preview screen shows your video/videogame footage very smoothly during capture, neoDVD's preview will always become jerky-looking, which can be very disconcerting, but the capture actually turns out well nonetheless. If you're capturing a videogame in action, then you'll definitely appreciate MovieShop's smooth-playing preview screen, as it's hard to play a game when the screen is jerky-looking! Also, sometimes after re-encoding a clip there will be a noticeably thin, yellow-green line wavering at the base of the clip when viewed with a media player. This only happens when you re-encode a clip that's already on your computer- the clips created during capture are very high quality indeed, and are without this particular annoyance. Overall, this product is highly recommended!

I have a P4 2.4G system with 512meg memory with USB2.0 ports. This DVD EZMaker USB2.0 converted my old hi-8 tapes (graduation, wedding, cruises, birthday parties, ...) into good quality DVD's at a breeze with S-video connection. It transferrs the S-video inputs from my old Sony Hi-8 camcorder, Panasonc VCR, and Pioneer DVD player to VCD (for old VHS tapes) and DVD (for hi-8 tapes and DVD disc backups) very smoothly.

The resulted video quality is really a pleasure to watch. I am very happy with it.

I wanted to turn a VCR video feed into an .mpg file for the purpose of burning a DVD. This inexpensive device did the capture with ease. I was concerned that there might be mysterious problems or incompatibilities, as some have reported, but for me it "just worked". I installed the software and hardware and ran the software and then clicked to start and stop the capture, and the result is an .mpg file. This is on a Dell Dimension 4500 running at 2.26 GHz with the latest WinXP.

This device doesn't pack a lot of (or any?) processing power, so it relies upon your PC's CPU to do the crunching to digitize the video stream. That's why a 2 GHz or better processor is required, and presumably why this unit can be sold more cheaply than others that claim similar functionality. As far as I'm concerned, this architecture is a good thing: Why should I pay for another specialized processor when my existing PC can do the job? Also, the minimal hardware means that this unit is powered completely by the USB connection, and does not require an external power supply as more complex products do. That's a nice advantage, since we can all do without additional "wall warts".

I have used this device for about 3 months now. I have had few problems - none of which did not have a workaround.

My setup is a hp Pavilion a650e, WinXP Home OS, 512MB RAM, Athlon 2.4GHz processor, USB 2.0.

The setup was fairly easy. Only note was that you either needed a set of composite video cables (left & right audio + video - this is the one that usually have a red, white and yellow connectors at both ends) or you could use a S-video cable. Neither was provided, but given the price it was not a major concern. But the point is that one needs more h/w to use the product.

No problems installing the s/w and getting it to work with my computer set up. I just followed the instructions.

For video capture, I use the provided s/w from MedioStream - neoDVD. It gives the user the ability to save into MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, or VCD. Initially I would have liked AVI, but the resulting video was not an issue. It has a feature that I both like and don't like - you can set a timer for how long you want the s/w to record your video tape. This is great for digitizing long tapes, but the problem is that the time sticks from the last recording. Say that you record something for 3 minutes, then want to record something else for 30 minutes. If you don't reset the timer to 30 minutes, it will shut off recording at 3 minutes. There is also a manual shut down, so you can record for less than the set time. But more than once, the time stick feature forced me to redo the recording.

I have experienced none of the issues involving non-synched sound to video that others have reported. Also the sound and video quality seem to be fine. It seems to be much more based on the quality of your tapes and/or VCR. If those are poor, your digitized recording will be poor. "Garbage in, garbage out". Remember that digital will pick up every defect that the analog original has.

I did find the help file for the neoDVD s/w to be lacking with not enough detail. Much of it is "try and see". But after playing around with it for a while, I got the hang of it. I am probably better than average at being computer savvy, but this is not rocket science. Most of the default values are fine.

I did not use any other module of the s/w other than video capture. I use other s/w programs to edit and burn DVDs, so I cannot comment on the rest. I use ArcSoft Showbiz or Windows Movie Maker.

I think the key point is that for the price, this little thing works great. I am not a high end video guy, I just want to view things that were once on tape either on my computer in MPEG-1, or make DVDs using MPEG-2 and view them on my computer or TV. I have not noticed any significant quality issues or usability issues other than what I have mentioned. So I give this 4 out of 5 stars. I would have liked a bit better help files to get started.

I purchased this device to convert VHS videos to DVD. I had a little difficulty installing the driver, but once it installed the capture quality was excellent. Some of the tapes that I captured were close to 20 years old and recorded at SLP speed--the quality of the captured videos was very good. I had some difficulty getting the neoDVD software to run. I emailed Avermedia support, and had a link to an upgrade in 24 hours. It solved the software problem completely. Be sure to read the system requirements. The software requires a fast processor. I had a Dazzle 80 before this. This is a 1000 times better and at a very good price.

If you are looking for a device to capture your VHS collection, then this is it. I bought it from Amazon in January 2004.

My two complaints are minor:
1. I emailed these people, and I have not received a response.
2. The software is now at 5.0. But when I received the CD along with the hardware, the software version is at 4.5 (which is why I e-mailed them). If you go to their website, they want you to pay an extra $30.00 for the latest version of the software.

I payed $200.00 on another device from another company (that starts with a letter P). Worthless piece of junk! Processor built in to that one, but of course, they aren't going to place a Pentium 4 processor for the (P) device.

None-the-less, the External Video Capture Device
by AVERMEDIA does work great! It uses your computer's processor to handle the videotapes. (My computer has a Pentium 4 2.4 gigahertz processor.) Don't hesitate buying this one, and the price is right too!!!

Pros: Compact/Simple/Easy to install. Device was detected on my first attempt and the resolution is also great. Works with Windows Movie Creator software.

Cons: Software Interface. Provided software crashed when I had the USB plugged in. Have to unplug & launch the software again. So, be ready to do in-&-out.

I bought this hoping that I wouldn't be one of the unlucky people who's Avermedia DVD EZMaker USB 2.0 didn't work as expected or was simply plagued with odd problems that effected the output. Once hooked up, I had a synching problem, and the Software that came with it didn't pick up the sound. But after a bit of tinkering I found that only my InterVideo WinDVD Creator had the synching problems and the neoDVD that came with the unit would pick up sound after you check the appropriate sound input being used even if it's checked to start with, simple solution.

The video and audio quality really depend on the tape quality. A tape that was recorded in SLP will produce a grainy video with audio sounding as if it were recorded from within an aluminum garbage can. In SP the video is acceptable enough, and the audio is virtually unblemished. Obviously the recording quality chosen in neoDVD plays a role as well, "Better" is a good setting for most things, a 15 minute recording will be about 200-300 megs. In "Best" a 15 minute recording will be around 600-700 megs.

All in all, it works just the way I wanted it to. It's extremely easy to setup and the user only really needs the knowledge of running a VCR to work with this unit.

I ordered this item and had trouble getting it installed. Dell Computer tech supoport gave bad advice and I had trouble reaching AverMedia tech support. When I did, I finally got instruction on the proper connection and the capture works well. The MovieShop editing software (by Broderbund) included on the installation CD is very troublesome, but Windows Movie Maker can be used instead (bundled in WindowsXP). I raised my rating from 1 star to four, would be 5 if the MovieShop worked. Also, the cords are a bit short, but for the money, it's great equipment.

The hardware is great value, easy to install and has excellent capture quality. On the downside, the software has a rather complex user interface with little or no documentation. The Broderbund video editing software, as you might expect, is kid-level and clunky, but the neoDVD capture software is both powerful and solid, and there lies the problem if you are not already familiar with video terminology. It includes Help and an online Tutorial, but both are skimpy, and have huge gaps in explaining the video technology. However, if you are willing to make the effort to learn, and waste a few CD-Rs in trial-and-error experimentation, then this is definitely the best buy - it only loses a star for lack of good documentation. If you want an idiot-proof, out-of-the-box system then deduct another star and plan on the extra cost of buying better documented software.