| |
| |  | Turntables & Accessories | Home » » » Video Capture for Mac USB2 Video Capture Hardware | | | | | | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 8.25 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.5 inches | | Product Height:
| 2.75 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.5 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.65 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 31 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 31 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
64 of 64 found the following review helpful:
 works just fine, but there are some annoyancesDec 06, 2007
By race_of_doom
Pinnacle's Video Capture for Mac is essentially their earlier Dazzle capture unit but for the Mac instead of the PC. And that's it.
There are no frills whatsoever. You don't even get standard RCA cables in the box -- just the unit itself, which is nicely small and lightweight, and some almost non-existant, uninteresting reading material (the "manual" is a single page with no troubleshooting sections).
It works just fine, for the most part. I did not have nearly the same trouble with my audio as the previous reviewer -- in fact, I haven't had any. It sounds fine. If you already have abnormal volume quality with your material, you should probably expect subpar results as per the previous review.
Visually, it looks just fine. For this price I couldn't ask for any better. It's a lot better than television recorded from a VCR, for example.
I have a few gripes, though.
#1 -- There is (an incredibly small) lag between the visuals and the audio. It's not that bad, and in fact if I were not paying such close attention I would not notice. But for those who know their videotapes forwards and backwards and then some, it will be apparent and it will certainly be annoying.
#2 -- The first time I powered up the unit after installation was near horrifying. The video was glitchy and blocky and the sound twenty or so seconds behind. It looked like I literally just wasted money. I closed the program and unplugged the Dazzle unit from the USB port, plugged it back in and tried all over again and it was just fine. I haven't had the same problem since, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does happen again.
#3 -- This is nitpicking, because this is a pretty good price for a video capturing device -- but, there are zero options with the software. You have no choices at all. It will capture your video at 640x480 and in MP4 and that's it. There are no audio options, and you can't save your file to a specific place (it goes directly to iTunes). None of this is truly terrible, because it takes only seconds to start capturing a video, but Pinnacle tried too hard to make this too easy. What if you want your file to be saved on the desktop, or more convienently, on another hard drive? Nope. Only in MP4, only 640x480, only in iTunes. You basically press a button to start recording and then press it again to stop. Nothing else.
(Of course, you can do all the hard work yourself afterwards. Moving files, converting them to another format, editing them, etc. It's all possible, but by using more of your time with different software.)
Despite my annoyances with this product, I'm enjoying it all the same -- it's my first video capture device, and it's doing exactly what it should: capture decent looking video. If that's all you need, the Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac is certainly worth a shot.
22 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 Great ProductApr 09, 2009
By Ryan Parker
I spend a lot of time capturing video from my Xbox 360 to my computer for doing Machinima. (Machine Cinema, creating cinema using a video game as a medium) I had to buy this product because I am on the switch to everything mac. I was previously using the Dazzle Video Capture for windows. So I had to purchase the same thing but for the mac. after reading some reviews I was skeptical, but purchased it anyways. I received it today and tested it. I am very pleased with this product. It was very easy to get up and running. Maybe five minutes and I was capturing video. There was no sound delay for me at all. I do not have the money together yet to purchase Final Cut. So I can not use Final Cut to import the video with the Dazzle for the mac, nor can I import it from Imovie. But the Pinnacle video capture program works well enough. Then you can drag and drop straight into Imovie for some quick editing if need be. It was a bit pricey compared to the windows version but worth the money if you own a mac and that is what you need or want to capture with. If you just want to capture home videos or video game play and you are not willing to spend the money on an HD card. This is defiantly worth the money.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 Not what I hoped for.Aug 10, 2008
By L. Nogg
Ultimately, I was disappointed in this product.
THE GOOD: I purchased this for a friend who is not very computer literate, but she was able to install it and transfer some video without problems.
THE BAD: Her primary use was to transfer VHS videos of family events which she would put onto DVD to preserve them as well as make copies for other family members. The problem is, the quality of the transfer is poor at best. The unit captures the original video onto the computer as an MP4 into iTunes. There is no option to transfer it at a better quality or into iMovie (which would have made more sense). We burned the captured video using iDVD and played it back on a regular 19 inch TV. I was shocked at how poor the quality was. The audio was a bit tinny, but worse was the video. I flipped back and forth between the original VHS and the new DVD and the picture from the DVD was probably 30-40% worse than the original material.
Since this gets transfered into iTunes, maybe the quality would be okay for playback on a 2 inch screen on a Video iPod, iPhone or maybe on YouTube, but if you plan to watch it on a TV, I'd suggest spending more money and get a better capture device... particularly if you want to preserve family memories or other material that is important to you.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 It works great with only a minor problem.Jan 12, 2009
By Octavio N. Ortiz
PROS: Its simple and it works great. I was trying digitize some old tapes and this was the best choice for me. Its cheap and imports the video straight to your itunes in MP4 format.
CONS: The only thing i didn't like about it was the fact that the audio is off by like 16 frames. Thats like half a second. But thats a quick fix with final cut.
There were other options but they are expensive. Besides who wants to spend a bunch of money on a tape deck? Think about it, most people are going to use this once or a few times and thats it. So why pay more.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 LOUSY VIDEO TRANSFERAug 09, 2008
By Saudi Editor
"VIDEO EDITOR"
The Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac is a waste of money. I used Dazzle years ago with an iMac and it was fine. This new device for Mac does not let my VCR sync with my MacBookPro ( Tiger ). It lags a few seconds behind in both video and audio and then the computer tries to play catch-up which it is not able to do. So the results are full of pixels trying to form an image. Pinnacle's support services have been very annoying since they have continually told me they could not read my emails to them and have asked me to send in my complaint 3 times. Are they trying to discourage me ??
I had great hopes for this product ( not really cheap ) and have been very disappointed. I could not recommend this product.
See all 31 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| | |
|
| |
|
|
|
