VHS to DVD 7.0 Deluxe (PC)

The item was delivered promptly. I had a bit of problem with it initially as my old JVC VHS Camcorder only have a SCART output. I had an old SCART to Component Adaptor but it has the wrong end. I managed to get it working with an old one-to-many SCART adaptor by switch the adaptor from OUT to IN. The capture quality was really bad. In the end, I have to purchase an Nikkai SCART to Component Adaptor (gold platted) and a Nikkai Connect SCART Coupler from Maplin. I was able to capture some good quality video. So far, I have captured about 10 videos. The picture quality is reasonably good except for a line of interference at the bottom of the picture as some people has already mentioned. Sometimes, the captured picture was twisted at the top half of the picture in the middle of the video and I have to re-captured part of the video again. That is no big deal as the Editing Software allow you to cut and merge the video. It is just time consuming. My conclusion is that this is a reasonably good product but you have to make sure you have a good input source (i.e. get a good connection between your camcorder and the Honestech device.).

For years I have been trying to find a way of converting my old Hi8 camcorder tapes (21 in total) of my 3 children from 0 to adulthood to DVD, and finally found this. It's absolutely brilliant. No bigger than a cigarette packet but with so much technology inside. It's exactly what I wanted. It was important to me that I could edit the tapes to eliminate any messups or footage that's not particularly good or interesting, and with this you can do just that. After downloading and printing off the manual, it was incredibly straightforward. I use my camcorder to transfer the footage to my laptop, and if you convert a whole tape to file (when using Advanced Mode), it will tell you that it's too large and would you like to split it. If you say 'yes' it will split it in any random place and so I prefer to previously split the footage myself into separate events, and then convert them individually, which you can then burn the files to DVD, or keep as files on your laptop. You can then fit them onto a DVD as you wish, and no event has been split. I love it! Since writing this review I have noticed that Keith Lawson is not too happy, as he has to buy DVD's, when he would prefer to have the footage converted to digital and not necessarily to DVD. If you use 'Advanced Mode', it is perfectly NORMAL that you will first of all save this footage as a file on your laptop. You can then transfer it to a memory stick to view directly on your TV/DVD player if you wish, or you can burn it to DVD. It's your choice. I have bought a hard drive to keep all of my memories as files on there, so that should anything happen to the DVD's which I have burned for all my children and family members, we can easily burn another copy. Simples!

At last I got round to dumping my VHS deck but first I wanted to convert my film tapes and also ones I made on a camcorder. The outcome is OK but not to the picture standard of the original. At least I have still have all the recordings of the many holidays. I was thinking that I need not purchase a digital recording if I wanted to start take videos again (for several years I have gone back to a DSLR and prefer it) but no, I would need to buy a digital recorder. There is one annoying 'feature' in the software when using the full edit mode. When cutting during the play back the recorded picture does not align itself back in the frame but gradually moves down to the bottom right of the full screen. This can be overcome by moving the app window to the top right of your screen, minimising the app and then restoring it and hey presto it is all aligned again. There is also a colour band at top and side of the converted film. Did anyone bother to test this? Seems a rushed job which was not finished. Overall view is that is OK but have a looking at other products where the picture quality has a higher rating.

I'm very happy with the device and have now successfully captured hours of VHS. But even in advanced mode the software doesn't support large file editing and is geared more to making DVDs than other file formats. Even accepting the product name I'd have thought editing a project and building to other formats would have made this much more relevant.