AverMedia EZMaker DVD PCI

This card works great as specified in its product description. It creates MPEG2, MPEG1, or VCD output files. It also creates the DVD-Video files that can be burned into DVD right away. Video quality is good. I used the boundled software for video capturing purpose. I used Nero 6 for DVD burnning. You can specify the time duration for each video capturing. Based on the time duration that you specified, the software tells you how big the video file would be. This is a nice feature in case your video source is too long to fit into a single DVD or CD (for VCD or SVCD). With only $29.99 per card, I think this is a very good deal. I highly recommend this product to my friends.

This card is a great product for me. I'm using it to convert old low quality VHS videos into DVDs. I don't intend to improve the original quality. I'm converting also from PAL to NTSC in the same single step!!! Instalation was fast and easy. Actually I didn't have to do anything after installing the hardware. Drivers were recognized automatically by XP. I agree with other users about the software. You should use it just to capture video. I'm using Roxio Easy Media Creator to edit and burn DVDs with no problem. The mono audio doesn't deliver high quality but it's not important for my project. Audio is always well synchronized. I have a Vaio Desktop, P4 2.4mhz and 512Mb memory. This is more than I expected for $30.

The package that I bought from Amazon included the AverMedia EZMaker DVD PCI card and a CD with the driver and the capture/editing application, called "neoDVDstandard version 4, 5, 1, 518 L000015" (I've never seen such a long version number). The PCI card lacks component video inputs, but is otherwise quite satisfactory. I'd rate it at 9/10. The software package, however, was quite a disappointment. I would rate it at 1.5/10, in part because of the following specific problems: 1. There seems to be a huge difference between the "better" (middle-quality) and "best" (highest-quality) recording modes, both in terms of quality and file size. The "best" mode produces enormous files (more than 3 GBytes per hour of video). The "better" mode produces much smaller files, but at much lower quality. There really should be an intermediate quality level between these two modes. 2. One can set the path to the Output File as many times as one likes, but the program does not remember this setting, i.e., one must specify it again every time the program runs. There should be an option that allows one to permanently set this output path. 3. Regardless of what one specifies for the total capture time, the time shown under "Maximum Capture Time" doesn't change. This is confusing. 4. When one is recording, there is no indication of elapsed time. 5. It would be really handy if the documentation gave some guidelines for the relationship between file Video Quality setting and the size of the output file. For each Video Quality setting, there should be some simple relationship between the number of minutes of video and the typical output file size. 6. When I click on the Tutorial button, it brings up my browser (Netscape Navigator 7.2) and I see a replica of the launcher interface with the text "Click on any module to begin". If I click on the Capture button, I then get a screen with 10 numbers in red circles. It looks as though clicking on these buttons is supposed to provide more information, but nothing happens when I click on them. 7. After editing an MPEG file to trim out just the part that I wanted, I wanted to save the edited file to disk as another MPEG file, but it appears that there is no way to do this. 8. During editing, it should be possible to speed up and slow down the playback. Without the ability to speed up the playback, it takes too long to find the chapter boundaries. Without the ability to slow down the playback (to less than real-time speed), one cannot accurately set the chapter markers.

I am running a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz with 512 MB RAM. I defragged my drive with Diskeeper. Still, I had audio sync problems and dropped frames. Also, the captured video even on the best setting was very pixelated compared with the analog source. I'm returning this and looking to invest in a better product with hardware conversion. You get what you pay for!

Amazon had the best delivered price and I got it fast! This small PCI card is very easy to install including the software. The included software, when transfering,does not show smooth video (and it SAYS that right on the screen - it is not a problem) but the resulting conversion comes out fine. However, this card also works with other software, such as Pinnacle Studio 8, which often comes with DVD burners for free. That is what I use as it is a better software product. This card works just fine and a huge bargain. If you have VHS tapes to convert this is the ticket. Now if you plan to buy a DVD burner, consider one that comes with software such as I mentioned and you get even a better deal.

Received in 2 days!!! I read some of the reviews and disagree with them in that I think the soft ware is great, worked just as advertised. Remember that you only get the quality that you have in the old tape. I have copied 5 VHS tapes so far and find the video edit and everything else works great. Just plug in an old tape from the VCR or analog camcoder and play around with it. Hint...when you delete film strip in the work area it dosn't really delete the file itself. Be prepared to mow the grass or something else when you burn to disk as it burns at 2K...very slow..I think the quality of the capture will determine at what speed it writes not the speed of your disk. So start with some chep 2K disks. Hopes this helps... Ron

I have a bunch of Hi-8 and VHS movies that I need to transfer to DVD. After installation on Windows 2000 Pro, this product allowed me to record a HI-8 video directly to DVD. Easy as pie! I don't have a lot of time to "bit-twiddle" with home videos, etc using high-end graphics editing programs. This card is exactly what I needed to convert analog movies to digital. I just plugged it in, pressed a button, and left the room. There are a few more advanced features that I have yet to use, such as recording video to MPEG-2, or a few other formats the NeoDVD software provides. Maybe later, but for now this hardware is cheap and does exactly what I need.

I bought a AverMedia EZMaker DVD PCI card and was disappointed with the quality... the price was great, but video where the camera was in motion (panning left to right, for example) was very pixellated. The NeoDVD software that came with it was horrible; it dropped frames so all my videos looked like the scary part from "The Ring". Using Roxio's Easy DVD Creator software was better, but still pixelated. Set up was fine and easy. Please see my review for the Pinnacle Systems Studio AV/DV 9 card, which costs twice as much but which produced perfect video.