Tape-to-DVD technology put to the test
By Matthew Fordahl
Associated Press
As DVD players push the venerable videocassette recorder toward obsolescence, all of those tapes of birthday parties, vacations and weddings — not to mention your Hollywood movies — are at risk of becoming technology orphans.
Just about any recent-vintage personal computer loaded with the right equipment and software can solve the problem, but converting analog video into a digital format, such as DVDs or video CDs, has until recently been a costly endeavor with a steep learning curve.
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s $399 DVD Movie Writer dc3000 is billed as a simple, all-in-one device that includes a DVD player-recorder, the cables and the software necessary to get the tape-to-digital job done.
It works as advertised, though it's not perfect.
One major disadvantage
The biggest drawback is that it supports copy-protection technology built into many commercial videos, particularly Hollywood movies. So much for converting the closet full of films you've already bought on tape.
For that job, those of us who want to make fair-use copies — and pirates, for that matter — would be better off buying a separate DVD burner and converters such as ADS Technologies' Instant DVD 2.0 ($199) or Adaptec's VideOh! DVD ($149). Both include the software and hardware needed for simple transfers but don't include a DVD or CD burner.
Hewlett-Packard's dc3000 is basically an external DVD player-recorder in a silver-and-black case with added jacks and buttons. The cables from a VCR or analog camcorder plug into the jacks. It connects to a computer via Universal Serial Bus 2.0 or 1.1.
The unit ships with a wealth of Windows-only software, including HP Video Transfer Wizard for simple transfers, ArcSoft ShowBiz 2 for capturing, authoring and editing video, Veritas' RecordNow for burning data and music discs, and Simple Backup for backing up the PC's hard drive. Other programs support DVD playback and automated video editing.
I tried transferring several videos, with mixed results.
Using an 11-year-old videotape shot at my college graduation, I pressed a button on the dc3000 to automatically launch HP's transfer wizard, which guided me through five easy steps from inserting a blank DVD+R and connecting my VCR to creating simple menus for the finished DVD and the jewel box label.
Real-time transfer
Transfer is in real time, so if you've got an hour of video, it will take an hour to transfer. After that, it takes more time to process and burn it to the blank DVD.
The finished DVD, whether played on my computer or on the three-year-old DVD player that's hooked up to our television, looked as good as the original videotape.
Another videotape, recorded years ago as I flipped through channels to capture the flavor of local TV during a stint in the Midwest, didn't transfer so well.
The channel-changing caused the audio to be several seconds out of sync with the video.
Finally, I tried to copy a Hollywood movie. It seemed fine at first, but then the picture started distorting and the soundtrack was marred with pops and clicks — apparently the copy protection at work.
It's not clear why HP made this gesture to Hollywood while its rivals do not. Transferring a VHS video to DVD for personal use is a great way to preserve what you've paid for. Instead, everyone becomes a suspected pirate.
The ADS Tech and Adaptec analog-to-digital video converters don't support the copy-protection system. They also cost considerably less than the HP device because they don't include the DVD recorder. They're a very good deal if you already have a burner.
For $285, ADS Tech sells a similar unit (Instant DVD+DV) that includes a jack for connecting a digital video camera.
It's a good way to ensure the device doesn't just gather dust once all your videotapes have been transferred.
The products shipped with different video editing and burning software that produced roughly the same results.
For capturing, I preferred Sonic's myDVD, which shipped with the Adaptec unit. It made it easy to manually break the video into chapters by simply clicking the spacebar.
For editing, I enjoyed ArcSoft's ShowBiz 2, which shipped with the HP gadget.
It comes with a variety of transitions and effects, and makes it easy to create a movie by dropping clips into a timeline, much like Microsoft's free MovieMaker 2 or Apple Computer's free iMovie.
