Customer Reviews

HP DVD Movie Writer dc4000

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

If you are new to the DVD movie making process using a PC, like myself, the HP dc4000 is a godsend. As advertised, I was able to make a movie, albeit an unprofessional looking one, on the very first try.

This was my second attempt trying to convert my Sony Mini DV TRV-22 home movies to DVD. I initially bought a generic DVD-+RW recorded and used the USB out of the Sony to make a DVD. The quality was really bad. I did some research and it turns out that the data/signal coming out of the USB port is compressed and only suitable for VCD. The Sony does have a DV port, but my PC didn't have a DV (firewire?) input. Rather than waste more time buying additional hardware, I read a review for the dc3000 and went shopping.

For movies to be played back on a home system, HP recommends DVD+R discs. I burned my movies on DVD-R discs and they played fine on my really old DVD player (Onkyo DV-C601) with a single laser pickup and my newer JVC multi-player. From what I read online, 95% of all home DVD players should be able to play DVD-R?

Here are the pros and cons of the HP dc4000:

PRO: Easy to use and has good quality analog/digital converters (RCA style and S-Video input). Use S-Video if you have it.
PRO: Nice bundled software. I've only used Arcsoft's ShowBiz 2 for editing and burning, but I really like the product. Much better than the Sonic bundle offered with most other DVD burners.
PRO: Quite.
PRO: Works with both USB 1.1 and 2.0.

CON: The external case is painted silver and parts of it are missing some paint.
CON: Unit is heavy.
CON: Made in Malaysia.

The Pinnacle Systems video capture device I bought last year was totally useless from day one - a dead loss. This HP unit, once it was hooked up and the software loaded, worked from the start. Eureka! Of particular interest to people who, like me, have rare or unusual items on laserdisc that may never show up on DVD, is that it will indeed capture video from a laserdisc player. I used the S-video connection for the picture and RCA connectors for the audio. This is important to know because I called HP customer support before buying mine specifically to find this out. After talking to a couple of people in what I assume is some country in the far East, and being on hold for a total of about 25 minutes, I was told that the DC4000 wouldn't work on laserdisc transfers. But something about the way they explained it suggested to me that they weren't really sure, and I suspect that the info HP supplied them to parrot back to inquiring customers didn't address the question at all and they had to improvise their (wrong) answer. Way to go, HP! Anyway, for those who are interested in this application, I can tell you that it does work. I won't suggest that a transfer of a 2 hour film is going to look quite as good as the original laserdisc source, but it does look noticeably better than a VHS copy. Also I'd say that the DC4000 is particularly worthwhile for transferring old VHS tapes, as they tend to deteriorate a little more every year that you keep them, and the two or three that I've copied look reasonably close to the original source. As I understand it, commercially produced DVDs have dual layers for twice the data capacity, as opposed to the one recording surface that recordable DVDs have, which is why they never look as good as the professionally produced product. Nevertheless, this is a very cool item to have, and I'd say that the few discs I've produced so far look better than most homebrewed discs you'd get from eBay sellers or internet entrepreneurs.

I had previously tried the 3000 movie writer, but was unable to make it work. Alot of compatability issues with my Dell. I read that alot of others had the same trouble. Then the new 8x 4000 series had came out. So I took a chance it would be better, and it paid off!!! The NEWER writer is not only compatible!! but it works to my amazement!! HP should have done more testing before releasing the first version. Hopefully more people will be willing to try this newer version!!! I enjoy being able to transfer non copyrighted viedos to DVD!!! The quality is excellent!!! I hope more companies can follow in the footsteps of this wonderful product!!! (REMEMBER TO STAY AWAY FROM THE OLDER VERSIONS)

I was about to send my DC4000 and rate it as a piece of garbage. Software installed easily enough, very simple process to transfer tape to DVD, but when I played my first DVD the quality was terrible!!! Jerky, choppy, poor sound quality, mosaic like picture, yeck!

Turns out your PC needs to meet the minimum configuration. My 800Mhz PC just couldn't keep up. Installed the software on my 1.6MHz laptop, burned a DVD that looks as good as the tape!!

This is a great product. Caution- some sites say minimum PC speed is 800Mhz, this is wrong. HP site says 1.2Mhz. Also, make sure you are using USB2.0 interface and cables.

Love the product. If you are having issues, chances are it is with your system and not the DC4000.

This is my first DVD-WRiter and i love it. I don't have any trouble with the software and the driver. I use it with my laptop (512mB - 60gb HD). I only recommend a lot of free space in your hard disk. I like the software too.

Excellent product. I'm passing all my Tapes (VHS) to dvd with excelent quality. Everything was perfect since the first time i installed it.

I like this because i have 4 in 1:

1- DVD-Writer (DVD+R/RW - DVD-R/RW) for data porpuse / Backup
2- Capture Device (Audio-Video)
3- I convert my analog video to digital video (DVD-VCD)
4- CD-WRITER CD-R / RW

Good for HP !

I've burned 50-75 DVDs and I've yet to get a coaster. Using the built-in wizard, the included DVD-writing software (which is extremely flexible for a lot of video-related tasks beyond simple DVD writing) and using it as stand-alone DVD writer with other software, I have found this product a joy to operate.

The capture, editing, and writing tasks are nearly idiot-proof and very reliable.

Highly recommended.

I almost did not buy this item because of some of the reviews that I read about it. But I did and I love it. So far I have made several DVDs from my video camera as well as several data DVDs. I have had no problems and found the whole process to be pretty simple. Some of the programs that are included can be a little difficult to learn but that is ok. Overall, I feel that I made a good purchase. As long as you have some knowledge of audio/video equipment it is very easy to make homemade DVDs. Installation was also easy. Just make sure your computer meets all the requirements.... esp. USB 2.0 I would recommend this product to anyone who wants a good DVD Writer without having to install it into their computer.

I bought this about 2 weeks back and I love this product. I already converted nearly 20 of my VHS and miniDVs to DVD. There are 3 software applications given along with this... which I think is a bargain. I love the Arcsoft ShowBiz product. I was able to edit my video, set chapters, backgrounds on the DVD tilte page etc. I have not tried adding any audio yet. I like to keep the original talk/chatter on my home videos. It's kinda fun to hear those later.

As for the negatives and the reason I only gave 4 stars is that the direct transfer software does not seem to work correctly, at times. I set the capture time to 1.5 hours and it wrote only .5 hours of video to disk although I saw that the complete video was captured from tape. I don't know what went wrong and lost couple of disks because of this. Another reason I gave only 4 stars is that the backup software (not related to DVD conversion) does not seem to work well with 1.1 USB ports.

The installation instructions could have been better.

Another reviewer mentioned that they had problems with no video signal after a couple of conversions. Well, I had the same problem and tried changing the cables a bit and figured out that the USB cable was defective. Replaced with a new USB cable with gold plated edges and it worked fine.

Over all, I am pleased with product.

I bought this recently and I am not too happy with this product. It is easy to setup and works most of the time (with XP). However, it may decide to stop working by giving this error - No video signal detected. Powering it off/on and restarting the Arcsoft software (which is pathetic) makes it work again. I called HP tech support (somewhere in India), they asked me to re-install the driver. I re-installed the Arcsoft software since the USB 2.0 driver is already part of XP. No luck.

Also, using the S-Video cable makes the device or the arcsoft software not too friendly (video signal not detected problems)

I also upgraded to a USB 2.0 PC card but burning a DVD takes the same time as using USB 1.1. Not sure what else needs to be done.

In short, buy it if you just want to capture video from your old camcorder and burn straight to DVD. Forget editing the captured video.

I bought this in excitement and anticipation of making DVD's out of my kids home videos. It just would not work. I run XP and had 1GB of RAM, --plenty of resources, lots of memory. I spent HOURS on the phone with tech support. Finally, they managed a way to get it to work, but the quality was really choppy--I got better images using the MPEG mode of my digital still camera. It would only work using the USB and the image quality just wasn't worth the price I paid.
On a positive note, the tech support was very good, they really tried to help, and after spending several hours, the guy on the phone said he'd call me back the next day to contiunue to try to find a solution. I wouldn't buy this unit again, but I would certainly buy from HP again, for their excellent customer service and tech support.