Ez Grabber designed to capture video source from VHS, V8 and Hi8. You can then burn files from your PC DVD, VCD and SVCD after editing
Product Description
We’ve all got something on video cassette that we’d like to be able to keep forever whether it’s your daughters wedding footage of the kids when they were young or simply a recording of a television programme that’s never going to be on air again. The problem is that video cassettes are fragile and with every watch the tape is becoming slightly more erroded and more liable to break. The Geniatech EZ Grabber Hardware Video Capture unit enables you to keep hold of all those video clips not to metion offer them a new lease of life. The EZ Grabber allows you to connect any video source to your PC and records your videos directly on to your computers hard drive ! That’s not all the EZ Grabber does though with the supplied software you can edit your newly saved video file add titles music or simply remove the ad breaks! The EZ Grabber is as simple to use as it’s name suggests. There’s just one button on the device; push to start push to stop it’s as easy as that. Once your video files have been saved on to your computer you can then burn them to DVDs VCDs or SVCDs to keep the files backed up or to pass on to family and friends. System requirements Pentium-IV 1GHz or higher (recommended) 256 MB RAM of system memory or above (recommended) One available USB port (USB2.0) Graphics Card (Must support DirectX 9.0c) Sound Card (AC97 compatible sound card) 1GB Free HD Space CD-ROM Drive (For software installation) Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista Features Easy to use push to start push to stop capture button; USB 2.0 PnP Interface Real-Time MPEG 4/2/1 encoding Burn edited files onto DVD VCD SVCD… Capture video source from VHS V8 Hi8… Burn your own DVD/VCD USB audio (pro version) support one USB cable to your PC especially for Notebook without Line in port.
- Easy to use push to start push to stop capture button;
- USB 2.0 PnP Interface
- Real-Time MPEG 4/2/1 encoding
- Burn edited files onto DVD VCD SVCD…
- Capture video source from VHS V8 Hi8…
My overall experience with this product is thankfully GOOD. I was very wary about the uneven feedback for this product but thought “what the heck..IF this works….” – which for the price is admittedly a bit of a risky strategy.
I bought the ‘Vista version’ of the EZGrabber in December 2008. You might find this review helpful if you’ve got PowerDirector on your pc.
The product manual is pretty good. It has screen shots of all the key stages of the install with good visual and written instructions. The English instructions are at the back of the booklet and are intelligible. My advice, just take your time. There’s still some areas they could improve on with the installation instructions but I’d say if you’re used to installing software you should have no problems at all.
I selected the video system as “PAL_BDHIG” but really, this is no big deal you can just try the different options.
I do have a pretty hefty pc (AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual 2.02GHz, 1GB RAM, Windows XP SP3, DirectX 9.x) so look carefully at the product System Specification is my advice.
Once EZGrabber is installed (<15 mins end-to-end for me), I tried recording using the user interface consul that EZGrabber supplies. It worked fine but I found (by accident) that for me the easiest was to use Cyberlink PowerDirector Express. If you have this software, you just connect-up the cables supplied by EZGrabber, plug the EZGrabber USB in, open PowerDirector and choose Capture. PowerDirector detects EZGrabber as an "analogue device" and should show a screen with a red record button. You simply press play on your video player (in my case a JVC video camera - with mono sound so yellow and white cable connections only) then you should see & hear the video playing back on your pc screen in PowerDirector. I assume it should work more or less the same with other software like PowerDirector.
EZGrabber records fine when Norton Antivirus is running on my system. More importantly, I had no problems at all with image quality or sound synch. That said be realistic about the quality of VHS input. Even so 12 year old video cam tapes recorded well for me. Newer ones (still 8 years old), that have been replayed less frequently recorded really well. Each 45 min tape takes up about 2.4Gb of space if recorded in PowerDirector using the DVD High Quality setting.
Well, it’s back to the recordings, looks like I’m going to be able to offer up a nice Xmas present of a DVD set of precious recordings to a nearest and dearest.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought the EZ grabber with the switchable scart socket (as recommended) at the same time and found it easy to put together. The instructions were pretty dire because the “manual” (if you could call it that) is not written in English, and the English translations are actually so bad in places that they’re quite funny. You might need a microscope to read the print, too – I’d guess it’s written in font size -2 or something. That said, experienced computer users shouldn’t need the instructions.
Software installation took a surprisingly long time, but it went smoothly enough. And immediately afterwards the grabber was doing exactly what it was supposed to do – reading (really old) VHS video tapes in a (really old) VCR in to my trusty PC.
I would advise against installing the Corel U-Lead Video software supplied with the grabber – it’s a load of old rubbish. The EZ Grabber’s own software is actually much better. Or you can use something like Nero or Roxio to take care of the capturing. Anything but Corel!
Be advised that you will have to fiddle around with the configuration to get the best results, but that’s no chore at all. I just set it to PAL instead of NTSC then tried each sub-option, one after the other, until I found the one that put the best picture on screen.
I should probably add that I haven’t tried the grabber with anything but a direct PC to VCR connection and bog standard VHS tapes. Maybe that’s why I’m having more luck with it than seems to be the case with other reviewers – who knows?
The only reason I don’t give this piece of a kit 5 stars is because of that whole Corel thing and the appalling “manual”. Neither are a real problem, but they are irritating.
Oh!
And remember not to expect DVD quality film output from scratchy old VHS tapes – it just ain’t gonna happen no matter how much you fiddle with the software colour controls.
Happy grabbing :o)
Rating: 4 / 5
I had to write this review as the 1 star reviews are unfair. Install the driver software, following the instructions carefully, plug in the device, and off you go. It records VHS onto your Hard Drive in real time with no problems at all. Use roxio or equivalent to transfer to DVD and it works perfectly well. (Just make sure you use the right sort of DVD disc, and tell it to record in PAL format) The quality is not 100% it has to be said, but if all you want to do is keep a few hours of personal video (holiday footage etc) because you no longer use a video recorder, then it works just fine.
Rating: 4 / 5
Having purchased this to capture Video for a VCR with a VHS-C adaptor, I can only say i’m delighted.
Sure is was a bit fiddly to set up, but if you are in the uk just select PAL_BDHIG in the EZ Grabber Video Format window and you are away, it couldn’t be simpler.
The device works every time, I have captured over 90 mins of video without so much as a hitch.
Great product for the price
BTW I was using it with XP Pro, 2 different machines, and it worked fine first time on both
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a great piece of kit for the price and does exactly what it says on the tin within minutes of plugging it in. I was transferring my first VHS to the hard drive within 15 minutes of opening the box and I have transferred over 4 hours already. If you have any kind of experience of installing software (and I’m no genius) you will have no problems. Fair enough, the English translation of the instruction booklet reads like it may have been done in a pub in France late at night and I had to contend with the disc’s first install menu in French but between the booklet and the, somewhat limited, FAQ on the website I had no trouble.
The quality is good at “DVD” setting, when you consider that some of my tapes are over 20 years old, although a 2 hour VHS has converted to a 5gb mpeg video file on my hard drive. So beware if you’re short on HDD memory and you want the best quality. My 4-year-old 1.8ghz Athlon, 2 gb RAM running XP sp2 has managed no worries.
I haven’t tried the bundled Ulead software yet to author any DVDs but even if it is useless there are plenty of free DVD author softwares out there for me to choose from and I still have hardware that I’ve seen at Maplins for twice the price.
I’ve only given 4 stars because of the dodgy translated instructions and first install screen. The dongle hardware and conversion software themselves though are excellent for the price.
Rating: 4 / 5