Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device

List Price: $39.99 Discount Price: $33.09

Features:

• Easy to Use Capture by the Touch of One Button
• Capture Video from Almost Any Video Source
• Preserve Your VHS tapes with One Touch
• Ulead Video Studio SE software Included
• Software included to burn Videos to DVD/VCD

Customer Reviews:

Inexpensive and Useful Solution  [Posted on 2008-04-22]
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.

OK for certain analog capturing but not VHS to DVD [Posted on 2008-04-25]
I wanted something to transfer a home video VHS to DVD. This is not the best device for this if you want the best quality -- at least using the composite inputs (I didn't try the S-Video connection since I don't have that option on my VCR). There was quite a noticeable loss of quality and the frames would jerk slightly about every 10 seconds or so. It also introduced some "noise" of its own from time to time. Next time I will just use a DVD recorder and record directly from the VCR to the DVD player. This device could be useful if you have something other than standard media - like capturing from an old video camera (apparently you can use it to attach an analog video camera to your computer for internet video). If you just want something to get an OK quality analog capture this works fine, but if you are expecting professional results, this is not the ticket.

It's Okay [Posted on 2008-05-09]
I actually bought this to edit an analog video my son had to make and transfer on to a DVD for math class. I'm not kidding when I say prior to this, I had absolute zero experience, let alone knowledge of even where to begin. It took me 2 days to teach myself the basics. Capturing the video is the easy part. The quality was a little disappointing, but in all fairness, my analog camcorder and the tape we used is at least 6 years old. I liked the video editing software, and was able to add music to the title with ease, but lost the sound from the captured video. The program did freeze on me, too. I ended up using Windows Movie Maker, but overall, the final result was disappointing in the visual and sound quality department. Again, it was probably due to the camcorder and tape, but I won't know until I make another video. The price is decent since it does what it's suppose to do, but don't expect professional quality.

Flawed.... [Posted on 2008-05-18]
The quality of the video was fair but had way too many drop-outs to be useable. Recording from a laptop, I had to minimize the preview window to nothing, turn off my wireless on the laptop, and disconnect the power supply (introduced static into the stream....not Diamond's fault, per se)before recording became acceptable with only occasional drop-outs. Didn't work well for me.

A lot better than what other people say it is [Posted on 2008-05-22]
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)

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