Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device Reviews

• A product that works!

  
  By A23ROZGHU215K7 on 2007-12-05
  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.
  
  

• A bargain that is real quality!

  
  By A954QD0JVPDYF on 2008-04-16
  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.)
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Not good

  
  By ADPSN9IGEAMKH on 2008-08-04
  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).
  
  

• Inexpensive and Useful Solution

  
  By A1XY46Y032Y3IP 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.
  
  

• A lot better than what other people say it is

  
  By A2LKP7H7RZ2Z63 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)
  
  
• Returned from repair, but still does not work.
  By A40N3GM97ELDQ on 2008-03-09
  I received my VC500 back from repair last week but it still does not work. It has the same problem.
  The "Record the current video being captured" and the "Stop the current recording" buttons flash alternately, two or three times a second.
  Each time it does so it produces a file in "...Grabber\My Videos"...with no viewable content. After a minute or so, there are hundreds of files.
  I returned it to DIAMOND MULTIMEDIA, USA. 9650 De SOTO AVENUE. CHATSWORTH
  CA 91311 for repair. After one month it was returned but has the same fault. Now, the company does not respond to my emails.
  
  
  
  
• Capture Video in a Breeze
  By A2KG97KI74FG19 on 2008-03-20
  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.
  
  
• Couldn't be happier with this little device
  By A2OW9V58VS9I5O on 2008-06-28
  Extremely easy to setup, easy to use, works great, and is cheap.
  
  I was facing with trepidation converting my old VHS tapes to digital files but this was much easier than I ever imagined. After the easy installation, just pop in a tape, double-click the icon on your desktop and voile the playing tape shows in resizeable window on your desktop.
  
  When you get to a part you want to record just hit the record button (in the settings you can change the quality) and in a few seconds you have file on your computer you can play in any video player or can burn to a DVD. Has never locked-up and even works great when fast-forwarding through a tape. I'm watching a VHS movie on my computer as I type in this my browser. :-)
  
  On the highest record setting (called DVD), you virtually lose no quality from the original VHS tape. That creates a big video file though so I'd recommend compressing it with a decent AVI file editor from there if not burning to DVD if using that setting.
  
  If you have Windows XP/Vista and a good video card/processor, this should work great for almost anyone.
  
  
• Works great on Vista!
  By A1LIRKVD44KUZE on 2008-04-12
  I bought this system after returning the USB2800 DVD Maker device. It was not compatible with Vista.
  
  The Diamond device works great - captures both video and audio. Software is not great but the device is compatible with other video capturing and authoring software.
  
  
• cheap
  By AG4HR059WS2IP on 2008-04-10
  I bought this when Vista made my old capture device obsolete. I'm glad it was inexpensive because it isn't very usefull. At DVD quality its fine but that's 50mb per minute. The AVI capture is 300mb per min (DV I guess.) The MP4 and WMV are unwatchably compressed. The capture settings cannot be adjusted. No video capture software I own, not even the bundled ULead, recognizes the device so all captures must be done in the rudimentary proprietary software that comes with the device. It drops some frames even on my new, smokin' fast dual core. The previews look washed-out because its software is incompatible with Vista's color scheme so it's no good for watching TV on your computer. (Once captured, the video looks normal.)
  
  On the plus side, the audio sync is good (a chronic problem with these things) and at DVD (50mb/m) the picture quality is good. At SVCD (20mn/m) it looks okay. If file size isn't an issue for you then you can't beat the price. Oh, and the bundled ULead video editing software is not bad at all, just import the captured video and edit/compress it any way you like.
  
  
  
• Does not work with XP service pack 3
  By A3I5R1VXSNDP11 on 2008-09-12
  The program with the Vc500 changes some files that are used by XP Sservice Pack 3 which Windows needs to function properly. I had reloaded SP3 and then checked the program for the device and it was all messed up so i has to remove it. So if you have XP SP3 i suggest not getting this device.
  
  
• Small in price, large in usefulness
  By A2RUALZP4B8VED on 2008-06-12
  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.
  
  
• Works GREAT on Windows Vista for VHS to DVD
  By AVNFOWFZBBBN1 on 2008-06-28
  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.
  
  
• Diamond VC500
  By A2R1ABY0FKY4DS on 2008-07-20
  Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Capture Device
  This unit is supposed to work with Vista. It does not! After loading the software and connecting the unit my computer crashed so badly it took some time to get it back up. It was returned to Amazon for a full refund. I have since purchased the Pinnacle Dazzle and it works like a charm. No problems at all.
  Sandy
  
  
• Works like a charm...
  By AN6KQZHJKWYF1 on 2008-07-24
  This piece of equipment works very well. I wanted to transfer my VHS home movies to my computer. Plug this baby in to an output jack on the VCR, press play on the VCR, and hit record on the included software. Stop recording when you are done. Now I can edit my home videos in software such as Windows Movie Maker and burn them to DVDs. Very satisfied.
  
  
• Not Compatible with Windows XP SP3
  By A3T2Y8AEN8YVNS on 2008-10-03
  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.
  
  
• One Touch Capture
  By A3GH3P9LQ4ZA1Q on 2008-04-05
  It was terrible. The quality of the capture was worse than a cheap cellphone. A waste of time AND energy.
  
  
• This Item is well worth the price!
  By A337UUHBC8LG1Q on 2008-05-26
  The Diamond VC500 Video Capture Device is probably my smartest choice of equipment to order, and the FREE SUPERSAVER SHIPPING is too good an offer to pass up either.
  
  The software is very easy to install and then all you do is connect the USB cable into a USB port on your Desktop tower or your laptop computer, connect the audio and video cables to your VCR or DVD player and you're ready to go!
  
  I get great HD picture which looks much better than how my TV's picture looks. Plus I love how portable it is and I didn't have to buy a TV tuner in order to record TV shows onto my computer. This device does it all for me.
  
  I also love to tape TV shows live and edit the commercials out so that I can just watch the show on a DVD with no commercials. This was much cheaper than buying a DVD recorder.
  
  I would recommend this product to anyone who is looking for a good quality product that is worth the price.
  
  
• Easy to use for video transfer
  By AV71FRPO5GQ7B on 2008-07-12
  I just wanted to transfer my old videos from VHS to digital form before the tapes turn to dust, and this product did just that. The software can be a little awkward at times but generally it was very good. All my transferred files look almost as good as the original, and now I can store them on my hard drive or make DVDs at my leisure. I leant it out to the rest of my family, so I'll see if they are as successful as I was with this item. It's certainly way cheaper than the "professional operations that charge up to $25 or more for a single tape transferred to DVD.
  
  
• Great for quick and simple video capture!
  By AEKID8YBJSV8K on 2008-08-06
  I bought this to transfer some old VHS tapes to DVD. It is so simple and absolutely worked great. The videos I ended up with looked just as good or better than the tapes. The included Ulead software made editing a snap too. I would highly recommend this product.
  
  
• Captures video, but too much pixelation
  By A1G3LE8KNXH88T on 2008-08-16
  This product does capture video, but has limited options for the quality of the captured video. Even at highest quality, captured video is overly pixelated (e.g., color blocks throughout motion scenes).
  
  
• handy gadjet
  By AQZXWMOHVA3CN on 2008-06-26
  I purchased this unit for the reviews it had and its portability. The unit arrived and worked perfect for a day and then quit. Tried everything, contacted Diamond.. I must say they were very prompt and tried but nothing worked. They suggesed I send it back to Amazon which I did. The service from Amazon was superb. They sent me a new one fast and free and so far all is working great. I have Vista which a lot of products seem to have a problem with...
  
  
• Just what I needed
  By A2X8ANPHQV7S7I on 2008-06-28
  Product works just as intended. Plugged it in, installed drivers, installed capture software, connected VCR and hit record. Quality was good (I'm capturing 20+ year old VHS tapes), and the software is easy to use and supports a wide range of output formats. I'd highly recommend this product to anyone trying to capture an analog source to digital.
  
  
• Exactly what I needed
  By A3KJHB568NYZIC on 2008-07-22
  This little converter has done a great job in extracting my VHS tapes and converting them on to my laptop for editing in MS Movie Maker. I am very happy with the quality of the conversions and hope it will last me a long time. I have a lot of video to convert before it disappears on me. One of the really good features is the start/stop button on the converter. You can take care of a lot of the editing before you edit it further (if necessary) in Movie Maker. Two thumbs up (;-)
  
  
• It just doesn't work
  By A10OM66AC2HAVK on 2008-07-29
  I bought this product to capture all my VHS collection into VCD/DVD and was a big disappointment. I would never recommend others to buy this, because it just doesn't work. It is non-compatible with Vista and on XP, it would simply won't work.
  
  
• Diamond VC500--I Was Disappointed
  By A1EB5MNQXS4M5 on 2008-09-06
  The Diamond VC500 One Touch Video Device is easy enough to set up. I don't know how it works on others computers, but my computer is fast enough to handle the transfer. It is easy to record to your computer and it starts out fine. After a little while the audio and video are not synchronized together. I tried it several times and got the same results. I wouldn't recommend this product. I was very disappointed in it and ended up returning it.
  
  
• UTTER DISASTER
  By A2VZZUK2PIZ6AE on 2008-09-12
  Poorly written drivers and incompatible video capture software ruin this product for me. This is going back to Amazon immediately. I've spent hours on the phone and via e-mail with Diamond's so-called "technical support." First, the driver doesn't allow me to capture sound in Corel/Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus. Second, if I install Diamond's "One Touch Video Capture" software, it renders Corel/Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus absolutely inoperable; any attempt to launch Corel/Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus results in a RUDE, hideous ordinal 17 and MPGVOUT.DLL error message. To fix this, you must uninstall Diamond's proprietary One Touch Video Capture software. Fortunately, Corel/Ulead will then start working again. But -- then -- the driver that ships with this USB 2.0 device doesn't work with my brand new Dell Optiplex: NO SOUND! No sound no matter what I do in the system audio configuration settings. I've long known that Canopus Firewire analog-to-digital converters were the best way to go because they don't require proprietary drivers. They're more expensive. But what is worse? Dealing with a clueless Diamond Multimedia tech? Or paying a little extra money for something that actually works?
  
  
• Not performing as expected - must manage your expectation
  By AD8VA7Z8ZAGAM on 2008-11-16
  (Please also see my review on DVD Maker 2 by KWorld if you wanna compare the products)
  
  SUMMARY:
  Pros: Very easy to use for anybody. Works in a snap. Best sub $50 video capture product you could get.
  
  Cons: Somewhat PC/notebook load sensitive, may not be ideal if quality is optimal, or if you have very long programme to record (25 minutes+).
  
  ************
  
  The copy I got comes with the Ulead editing software version 10. I didn't bother trying it since my utmost priority is capturing quality.
  
  Be forewarned that if you are using Vista, be disappointed unless you are running it on server class speed hardware. Anytime Vista is trying to do something (thus launching new and/or waking up an existing process) you could see the impact on the video. Even worst, if you happen to capture long programming, the audio will be noticably out of sync with the video starting around 25 minutes mark. I tried it on 4 different intel dual-core notebooks (3 are game-playing class notbooks, not the cheap sub-$1000 notebooks) and turned off everything possible (that includes killing spyware detector, virus checker, print spooler, screen saver, adobe daemon, iTunes daemons.... everything that Vista allows me to kill.......) but still having issue.
  
  On 2nd experiment, I used the fastest notebook I have and installed Windows XP Professional SP2 (I didn't try SP3 since somebody said the capture software won't work on it). The results are way better but still the audio would start getting out of sync around 50 minutes mark.
  
  The fact that the product is improperly shielded doesn't help neither. S-video is a must and not an option.
  
  So to me, this is useless. I have much better luck (albeit more painful and time-consuming process) by using DVD recorder to capture the programme, then use DVD converter on my computer to convert it to MPEG4, WMA, etc. The quality is way way better - never an out of sync issue, and the overall is closest to original.
  
  So if you just wanna capture some video to YouTube, some vintage quality home VHS (which the quality is low compare to recent playback technology anyway) that you ain't too crazy about, or if you are into video pirating (in which the downloading party typically watch it on computer and thus don't give much damn about quality anyway), you may find this tool very time-saving and convenient.
  
  But if you wanna use it for archiving valuable programme (like, your wedding video, out of print TV program, etc), I am not sure about using this in lieu of a good DVD recorder.
  
  The good comment: The tool is so easy to use, even an dummy could use it in a snap without getting an dummy how-to book.
  
  
  
• More requirements ...
  By A1WIRNCWOPISMO on 2008-04-04
  Good product but you need a good USB 2.0 port (maybe processor) or impossible to make video at DVD Quality. I had to upgrade my computer (from P4 to Core2Duo) and all works ok ...
  
  
• It's Okay
  By A2JO40XHIIQ6KQ 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.
  
  

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