Customer Reviews

Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device

5 star:		(155)
4 star:		(146)
3 star:		(74)
2 star:		(41)
1 star:		(134)

 

 

I couldn't be happier with this. I'm not a professional video person, but someone who just wants to transfer VHS tapes onto disk. A professional might find some objections to this device, but it works and does exactly what I needed it to do. Plug it into the VCR, plug the other end into the USB port, start up the VCR - hit the record button and Bingo! My VHS movie is now a MPEG movie. No problems with the software or hardware. Well worth the price.

The Diamond VC500 capture device is awesome!

Load the driver program, open the program, plug in the device in the USB, connect to A/V outputs on a VCR or a DVD player, start to play your source (VHS or DVD) and you will see it on your computer screen and hear it through your audio card. Then, when you see the scenes you want, press the record button on the device or on the program and you are capturing.

The tool command on the program allows you to adjust picture capture quality and output mode (and quality).

After years of handling videos by direct transfer from VCR to VCR in order to make a composite, now I can do the editing on my computer. The files created can be used and edited directly in Windows Movie Maker (the device comes with another editing program, but I find WMM to be easier to use with a wider range of output files).

As a person using clips from many movies in an educational setting to illustrate my topics, this device has made my life much easier -- and the quality of what I get is much, much better!!!!!

And all of this for a price much less than the usual video-capture internal card.

(and a hint - you can use this device with sources such as phonographs or tape decks to capture and edit the sound through your USB port without having to delve into the audio input ports on the back of your PC.)

Luckily, I didn't listen to the other reviewers here and actually checked the reviews on Newegg. Glad I did, this product is awesome! The quality is great (however, you must change the the output settings to something other than default of VCD [read the manual on how to do so]). It doesn't have Vista support (but being a gamer, I am staying on Windows XP).

The VC500 is great for recording gameplay on videogame consoles.

It's best if you do install the Software that comes with it. Movie Maker has a hard time capturing from this device, but the software that comes with this works a lot better.

If you are trying to decide whether to buy the Pinnacle Dazzle or this, I would suggest you buy this because:

1. It's cheaper
2. The quality is the same, if not better than the Dazzle
3. The Live Preview allows you to play console games in full screen
4. The software is high quality
5. Comes with a RCA Audio/Video Cable (which is one less purchase to make)

I bought this product to capture VHS tapes onto my computer, which I would then edit in another program. I am running Vista. I installed the software with little difficulty and was up and running in under 10 minutes. However, over the course of using the product, I discovered that the video and audio frequently get out of sync...just enough to be annoying. The audio somehow gets ahead of the video, so after a few minutes of capturing, it gets out of sync and boom, it's worthless (unless you don't care about that, but I personally find it annoying when people's mouths aren't moving in sync with the audio). For me, this is enough to get rid of the product, it doesn't do what I need it to do. I gave it two stars instead of 1 because if you're just trying to capture something small, like 30 seconds long, it should be fine. However, for anything longer, forget it.

I also found that the software that comes with it is a bit buggy with Vista. It changes the color scheme when you open it up, which causes your screen to go blank for several seconds. Then, if your computer goes to sleep while you're recording, you can't get it to wake up and have to completely restart which is a huge pain. But then again, if your computer is set to go to sleep after 20 minutes, it won't matter because by then the video and audio will be WAY out of sync (it gets progressively worse as time goes on, starting to be noticeable after 3-4 minutes).

I have a 15 yr old analog camcorder, and wanted to transfer the original tapes to my computer. I'm an old (mid 80s) guy. not really skilled with computers. But, I had no trouble installing the Diamond capture device. Connected it to the camcorder, plugged it into the USB port, started playing back the video, pushed the button on the capture device, and without further ado a 2 hour, analog video was in my computer as a *.avi file. All I could ask for. I heartily recommend it.

I have a very good, but older, video camera plus some older tapes. In addition I have some 35mm slides and device for recording them on a VCR. Up until the Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device came along, the only solutions for capturing the videos and slides digitally were expensive and cumbersome. I've been waiting for a better solution.

The Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device is very simple to install and use. It enables me to move my old tapes to more convenient and modern DVD format with minimal hassle. The added convenience of being able to digitally edit the captured videos is a plus. I'm not all that fond of the application user interface's style, but it's very workable.

The quality of the captured videos is quite acceptable for my home-made videos. I've not tried to use this on commercial-quality VHS tapes.

I would caution buyers to ensure they have a fast enough computer, enough memory, and enough disk capacity for the videos.

If you've upgraded your Windows XP OS to service pack 3, this device will not run. Worse, after you install the software, Windows becomes unstable and there is no way to fix the damage except to reinstall Windows or do a System Restore to a point before the installation of this device.

But what bothers me the most is that Diamond offers NO support. I tried to phone them but there is no telephone contact info listed on their website for tech support. I tried their tech support chat facility for three days and was always told that no operators were online. I tried emailing them and they never replied. This left me feeling pretty negative toward Diamond products in general.

I was skeptical that a $40 device could record at full resolution in full 30 fps but this thing has proven itself worthy!

Installation was a snap and using it was even easier. The paper documentation was very limited, but by exploring the interface and reading what was available in the documentation I was able to figure out what all the settings mean and how to get the button to record to video files.

I used it to transfer a few of my old VHS tapes to DVDs and it worked flawlessly. Audio and video remained in-sync in full DVD resolution and I was able to burn the videos to DVDs without any post-processing at all.

The only problems I had were with the video editing software, so I just used Windows Movie Maker instead. The packaged video editing software has nothing to do with the capture software so I wouldn't recommend even installing it and just using Windows Movie Maker instead to burn the video files to a DVD.

I do have a very fast computer with a lot of memory so it's possible the video frame problems other reviewers are having is due to their computer's speed. I would recommend that you use a very fast computer (at LEAST a Dual Core with 2GB of RAM and a SATA hard drive) if you want to get zero frame loss.

Citing that my old valuable VHS tapes are fading away with time, I bought this device to covert them into digital format from which I could store away, edit, or do other enhancements with them later. As mentioned by the other reviewer, "I couldn't be happier with this". Setting up and installing the software is a breeze and after bridging up my (stilling working) VCR and my PC with this device, I'm already capturing and converting the first night.
The only drawbacks I cited are:
1) You need to play each and every VHS tape which takes at least 5+hrs each. I start the capture & conversion before I go to bed and the next morning I'll start the process with a different VHS tape. A time consuming and low throughput process.
2) Each hour of VHS approximates to 5+ Gigabytes of video file in mpg format. A 6hr tape recorded with Extended mode would take up approx 30Gi. So be sure you have plenty of free disk spaces.
3) The Ulead VideoStudio that comes with the device is an old version 9 from 2005. It freezes up occasionally when you are just doing basic editing. Of course you can upgrade to the latest version for a fee.
Other than the above I am happy with the device and would recommend it.

Over the past few years, I've owned four devices which help capture video. I've paid well over $100 in the past. I personally have never been able to differentiate the quality of captured video, and have not found any device that was noticeably more reliable than others. And, I have always had very fast computer processors with lots and lots of RAM.

XP vs VISTA: These devices work much better with Windows XP than with Vista. In fact, you'll find Vista doesnt usually work with these devices ? Why? I guess no one really liked Vista, and just decided to let it die the death expected of it. And it has.

The device is recognized by XP, and no drivers need to be installed manually. I had terrible luck getting any of these devices to work reliably with Vista, and given the impending release of Windows 7, I'd not rush out at this point if I had a Vista PC, since none of the software manufacturers are going to work on further improving their interface, even if they advertise their software as "Vista-enabled".

I've simply continued to use my XP computer for video capture, with fingers crossed that it wont break down on me before Microsoft manufactures a computer language which third-party software manufacturers can actually work with.

REGARDING IMAGE QUALITY: I'm no techie, but it seems logical to me that any difference in captured image quality will derive from the number of frames captured per second, and most "home" devices seem to capture about then same number. Accordingly, I find most video is somewhat "fuzzier" than the original, though personally the quality suffices for me, because I'm not a perfectionist.

SOFTWARE: I find the real difference in the final product (ie, a captured and edited piece of video) is in the software thats used to capture, and then to edit the video.

This device did not come with software matching the software pictured and described in the short instruction manual. Mine came with ULead Video Studio SE, and ArcSoft Showbiz Software. Not a surprise -- most of my past devices were horror stories regarding the "free" software coming with them. Personally, I find AVS and ULead seem to both work, though neither is a software miracle standing head and shoulders above the competition. Adobe makes great photo software, but I've not tried their video softare, Premiere Elements. I've had terrible problems with Roxio's products which I never intend to use again.

I suggest buyers read the various software reviews, including Ulead, Adobe Elements, Roxio, Nero and AVS, and then judge for themselves: If you dont have a fast computer with lots of RAM, reconsider whether you really want to take the plunge. If you do, think about video editing as taking up a new hobby. It is not intuitive, no matter how its advertised. There is a definite learning curve, and its pretty steep.

And finally, buy your device and software from a vendor that allows returns. You'll see why when you read on about others' experiences.