Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

GOOD LITTLE GADGET!! DOES THE JOB! For the sake of this review, please keep in mind that I am not a connoisseur of audio or video signals! Personally, I can’t tell the difference between HD, hi-def, ect. I can tell basic differences in picture quality and sound if those differences are pretty big, but that’s about the extent of my ‘expertise’. With that said, let’s get to the actual review! Over the years, I have tried several different products and have had very little success and much frustration. To name a couple, I have tried ‘Dazzle’, as well as two different ‘Roxio’ pieces of hardware. Both gave me the same frustrations… they worked for a minute or two, but then I started getting a lot of picture static, as well as frames freezing and skipping! Also, after the ‘recording’ was finished, it would then lock up my computer for quite some time while is ‘saved’ the transfer conversion. Sometimes it would even freeze my computer and I would have to reboot it. At that point, I would lose the 1.5 hr film I just tried to convert and save. Lastly, both of those programs would not allow me to save it directly as an mp4. I would have to save it as their file type, then convert it later. (or at least I didn’t know how to save it directly as an mp4 file type from those other products. My current project is converting about 30 old Hi-8 tapes of family birthdays/Christmas’s to digital for safe keeping and watching later. So far, I have completed about 15 of these so far without any problems since getting this converter. It has not disappointed and has worked as expected. There were a few glitches, as well as some pros and cons, but all in all, well worth the money. I will explain a little more further. 1) make sure you have the needed wires to connect your video source to this converter. It does come with RCA jack cables, but in my case, I'm using my old camcorder as the source to play the hi-8 tapes. My camcorder only has 2 output types… one is a 3.5mm a/v port, and the other is an ‘s-video slot’. Just an fyi for those who might not know, the s-video cable will only transmit video, it does not transmit sound. (I did not know this until I read it in someone else’s review  ) 2) it seemed like a got a little bit better of a picture using an sd card to record on rather than on a usb drive. However, I then transferred it to a usb drive to save for later. I would recommend to get 2 sd cards.. that way while you are recording on 1 card, you can put the other card in your computer to work with the file. 3) the unit itself is nice and compact. It is about the size of a ‘larger’ cell phone. It seems to be sturdy too. 4) with this device, it does not tie up your computer. As you are recording directly on the unit itself 5) it does save the recording in ‘real time’ as an MP4 file. Therefore, no need for the conversion or the save to take another 1.5 hours after you just got done playing the full tape into the unit. After you push ‘stop’, your file is ready! **important note.. i read reviews where people were having ‘corrupt file’ error messages after trying to record/convert. After doing multiple experiments, I discovered that if you press ‘stop’ on your source device while you are still trying to record on this device, you will get a corrupt file every time. It’s as if the loss of signal causes the file to error out. 6) this is very easy to use, right out of the box. Which is good, because the directions seem to be lacking. 7) Other reviewers were complaining that the ‘auto-stop’ function causes ‘dead space’ which then corrupts the file. On my version of the unit, I was able to turn off this ‘auto-stop’ function, therefore I have not had this issue. 8) Other reviewers stated they were having problems with the media card not ‘clicking’ into place, therefore not able to record on. I will say this was an issue at first until I looked a little closer. Normally when you try to insert an sd card, you push it till the pad of your finger touches the computer ect. At that point, the sd card typically clicks into place. However, with this unit, the card actually ends up being ‘inside’ the unit after it clicks into place. Therefore, I have to use my fingernail to push it into and out of place. This is a bit annoying, but once I figured it out, no problems. I'm assuming this is for the safety of the card? 9) other reviewers stated they were getting ‘corrupt file’ error messages after converting. As I mentioned above, it is IMPORTANT that you stop recording BEFORE you press stop on your source device. The converter itself senses an input video signal and will not allow you to record until it does. Therefore, I'm assuming that when it stops sensing this signal, it stops recording but doesn’t finish the file out correctly. 10) this is the same for when you start recording… the unit will not allow you to start recording until it senses the input video signal from your camcorder, ect. This wasn’t too big of an issue, but I did occasionally miss a second or two of my original tape due to this lag in recording. 11) as far as the ‘quality’ of the recording.. I wasn’t really able to notice a difference. Again, I do not have a trained eye either… I will say this though.. Remember, you are recording from an old TAPE of some sort (aka, non digital)… it is not of extremely high quality to begin with. 12) some reviews said to make sure you update the firmware once you get it. I was not able to figure out how to do this. However, it doesn’t seem to actually need an update. I don’t remember where I saw it, but I saw somewhere that stated if you ordered your unit after a certain date, then the unit is already updated. I know this was a pretty lengthy review, but I hope it helps yins make a good informed decision. Happy converting 