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Adaptec ADAPTC VIDEOH DVD MEDIA-CENTER 2310 USB KIT ( 2042900 )

Adaptec ADAPTC VIDEOH DVD MEDIA-CENTER 2310 USB KIT ( 2042900 )

List Price:
Your Price: $125.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: works well especially with different software
Review: I just bought this so I can watch and record tv on my laptop like tivo. I haven't had a chance to test the recording features but I was able to get pretty good live tv pictures using USB 2.0.

One problem I had with tv tuners (not just with this particular one) for computers was that there was no way of changing channels on cable boxes. This makes their tivo-like functionality to drop considerably for those of us that use cable boxes/satellite descramblers. One workaround I found was to use a 3rd party software from Snapstream called Personal Video Station (I found version 3.2 to work well with this particular card). Personal Video Station allows you to use an IR emitter (also known as an IR blaster) that, when connected to your computer, allows you to program your computer to change channels automatically like a remote control. The IR blaster is also available from Snapstream. I have not yet gotten my IR blaster yet so I cannot comment on how well it works. I will update this review after I have everything set up.

Personal Video Station also offers lots of other cool features that I will not go into here. Another side note though is that I can get slightly better picture quality using personal video station if I tweak some settings.

I've since found that the IR blaster found on the snapstream website did not work with my cable box. I've since bought a different one, myBlaster (do a google search to find it) that performs flawlessly once you configure it to work with snapstream.

I sometimes get crashes or bad recordings using this tuner with snapstream (very rarely now, I don't know if its because of the free updates to the latest version of snapstream or tweaking of windows xp but hey it doesn't matter as long as it works right?). Actually, I left my computer on for about 3 weeks while I was away during the holidays and it didn't crash at all during that time and recorded all the shows I scheduled. I'm very satisfied with my setup. It changed completely the way I watch TV.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: High quality Device
Review: I purchased this about ten days ago and I'm very pleased
I now have it hooked to my 2Ghz laptop and it performs flawlessly both playing live and capturing and recording TV video at USB2 speed on my CD Laptop burner or my hard drive
The software even has controls for video quality which I used to achieve the best quality image on my LCD display
If your machine is fast enough you can simultaneously watch TV and surf the internet

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Working flawlessly for VHS Camcorder conversion
Review: I purchased this yesterday for converting old home camcorder tapes to DVD and it's working as advertised with good quality.

I haven't bothered reading any of the instructions and it's working fine. No hassle installation.

The digital output is good quality.

Can't give five stars though as I havent tried to record anything from TV yet and the software does seem a little limited in editing options (although haven't read any help or tutorials).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: ADAPTC VIDEOH DVD MEDIA-CENTER 2310 USB KIT sucks
Review: I recently bought the Adaptec videoh media center and right from the start I had problems. When trying to install the drivers I would get an error saying that this hard-ware cannot be installed. I called the tech support. They sent me an email on how to install the drivers which didn't work, so I called tech support again. They had never heard of this problem, but told me that the problem was with my computer. So I reformatted my hard-drive. When I tried installed the drivers the computer would freeze up and my mouse would not work. I called tech support one last time. Their response was something is wrong with my computer and they could not help me. I tried this on another pc and I ran into the same problems. I sent this back to Amazon with a note explaining all the problems I was having asking for a full refund.
Don't buy this product! I am a computer tech at a university and this was the first time I had any problems like this or ever heard someone say sorry we can't help you.
If I could I would give this product no stars, but I can't

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: PEEeeeuuuuUUWWW!
Review: i would give this zero stars if that were allowed. i use a winxp machine, 512rdram, 2.4 ghz, almost vacant 80gb hard drive,400mb bus. software is horrible. sometimes freezes my computer when trying to capture analog. bungled (not bundled) software windvr3 did not work with the included remote until i downloaded a plugin. tv channels take several seconds to change. if i change channels like a normal person "3-4-5..." my "puter freezes. I must...change...channels...slowly...zzzzzz.
i purchased this product based on reviews at a well respected computer (pc) product review site that also publishes a similar real world magazine. for the past 5 years, i've had very good experience with products recommended from unsaid site. this is the 1st dud and boy is it.
in all fairness i have not tried the SONIC software bundled with the VIDEOH DVD MEDIA CENTER. Just the bad, very bad WINDVR3 bungled in the box.
I wanted software and hardware to capture and author analog video from old 8mm tape and vcr tape. at the rate this is going i definitely gotta get some better software that doesn't cost hundreds of dollars and requires loads of time debugging. Geez, i even had a hard time registering this crap so i could try to get fixes. you would be wise, to steer wide of intervideo windvr, probably anything from intervideo. do yourself a big favor...pinch your nose and walk quickly past this stinker!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: o.k. product with dreadful software
Review: I've had this product for about 2 months now. I use it solely for watching television on my laptop, so I haven't explored the bundled video-editing software, and can't comment on that.

My impression is similar to that described in some of the other reviews on Amazon, but I can sum it up by saying that the device itself is functional and works as I expected. It's the bundled software that stinks, and it's just as bad as one of the other reviewers suggested. Intervideo WINDVR 3.0 comes with the Adaptec Videoh, and it's what you use for viewing, and recording, live television. It often has a tendency to hang for no apparent reason, and then when you try to use the "Windows Task Manager" to shut it down, it doesn't work.. 5 minutes later, the computer goes to the dreaded blue screen, completely out of the blue (so to speak). And I'm running this on a new laptop (1300 Ghz Centrino, 256, 80 gig, etc.). The Windvr software crashes the whole system almost on a daily basis.

You can't trust the scheduling software, and one of the most serious design defects I've encountered is the fact that Windvr will stop recording when it reaches the 4 gigabytes limit for the individual file it's recording - in other words, slightly more than an hour's worth of recorded material. Imagine that you've paused a live broadcast of a movie you've been wanting to see.. after about half-an-hour of recording, you come back to press play. Everything is fine for another half-hour, when you notice that Windvr is no longer recording the live feed.. the "delay time" (indicating how much recorded material you have left to watch) keeps getting smaller, when it should remain the same. You reach the end of the recorded portion of the movie and the screen pauses.. you have to hit "stop" - so that you're now viewing the live feed - and by now the movie has gone off the air and they're broadcasting something else.
I've missed more movie endings, and more exciting finishes to sports events in this way, you'd think they would have released an update for this obvious flaw.

Think again. A quick survey of the Intervideo website reveals that they have *never* issued any sort of update to this software, and evidently don't intend to - there is truly no support. Why Adaptec chose this particular software to bundle with their product, I'll never know.

I am told that other software is compatible with the Adaptec Videoh, including the "Personal Video Station" software (which for some reason wouldn't install on my machine). At any rate, the added software will probably set you back an additional $100 or so - but it sounds like it does have the advantage of being more functional, at least.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: good Hardware But software stinks!
Review: The software that is bundled windvr which I found to be full of bugs,
Too bad though because the hardware looks pretty good as far as quality for this device's hardware

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: truly awful
Review: This product has been a terrible disappointment. After lots of USB driver issues during setup, I've got the unit to run at a basic level... but the scheduling software just does not work. I tried several times to record shows on a weekly schedule, but it just doesn't work. I'm reduced to entering each recording manually (a fairly tedious process that runs across several screens), but about 30% of the time the scheduling service crashes and misses the show (nothing gets recorded until I reboot). There have been no driver updates since July.

In addition, the "electronic programming guide" is actually a web page, and the only way in which it's integrated with the program -- the ability to record a show by clicking on it in the browser -- doesn't work at all (I get a dialog that says "Load Fail" most of the time).

Unfortunately, this product is worthless due to fatal technical problems. I wouldn't under any circumstances recommend it. Haven't tried any of the other brands yet...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Avoid at all costs
Review: VideOh! DVD -- USB 2 / MPEG 1 & 2 Video capture device.[]

Bottom line, this product is NOT worth it.

The software supplied (ArcSoft Showbiz) would not even recognize the unit, despite the fact that the XP op system could see it (though not use it). Adaptec admits that this is the case, and their only option is to use the included (and very simplistic) DVD-recording software for capturing, but that is so limited that you can't even edit your video. I had to find and use third party software (MovieMill & VideoVegas) before I could even get the unit to perform.

No driver or software updates have yet been made available for Windows XP. When using XP, unless you have the unit plugged into the USB port and on at all times, you may have to re-install the drivers when you want to use it (I have had to do this at least a dozen times so far). For an external unit, this is highly unusual, and needless to say, rather inconvenient... especially for a laptop user such as myself.

After 3 months of use so far, the unit has stopped working correctly. It sporatically loses or fails to recognize video input, and will no longer accept video from analog tape sources (vhs, vhs-c, camcorder 8MM). Only DVD and sat/cable come through as stable video. All tape input is shaky/wavering, despite using several different tapes and tape decks, and the unit's alternate S-video input. I bought this product to transfer older home movies to DVD-R, and now cannot even continue.

Support is nearly non-existent... Drivers aren't updated and the support department has not responded to emails. The software is not supported at all. The manufacturer's web site has a question and answer forum, but it is hardly helpful. As is typical with most tech products these days, you have to hope another customer has solved the problems the manufacturer won't.

Avoid this product!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Using the Adaptec VideOH DVD Media Center
Review: When I first tried to capture the audio and video of a VHS
tape I experienced a great deal of radio interference. Upon
advice from Adaptec to use shielded cables with filters and
that solved the problem.
I haveconverted more than 50 VHS tapes to DVD without any
problem whatsoever.
The editing process could be a little less complicated
but beyond that it does exacly what I wanted it to do.

Max E. Grubb


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