Product Reviews

If you own a digital camcorder, getting video onto your PC is easy. But if you're trying to capture video from an older, analogue camcorder or a VCR, things are a bit more tricky.

The ADS Tech Pyro A/V Link aims to make things a bit easier. It's a box that plugs into a FireWire port on your PC. Mounted on the box are all the connections you'll need to get video from an analogue device onto your PC, and then back again from your PC to the device. You could, for instance, use the Pyro A/V to capture video of the kids from your old analogue camcorder. You could edit the video on your PC into a really nice film, and output it on to video cassette so that granny, who doesn't have a DVD

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player, can see it.

Setting up the Pyro A/V is easy. You just plug it into your PC and Windows XP recognises it as a capture device. All you should then need to do is plug your VCR or camcorder into the Pyro A/V and launch your video capture software. Alas, it was set up for use in America - so we had to look up the right settings on the ADS Tech Web site and reset it to the PAL video standard used in the UK.

With that done, the Pyro Link worked perfectly. Our software detected the A/V Link and imported video without complications. We tried using a composite cable, a SCART-to-composite and an S-Video cable: all worked perfectly.

Having Premiere Elements bundled for free with this product is a real plus. It's our Best Buy video editing software, and costs £70 on its own. Beginners will find it easy to use, but there are also lots of manual controls that give you the precision to achieve exactly the effect you want.

If you only plan to do the odd bit of video editing now and then, you'd really be better off with a cheaper TV card that also lets you capture analogue video.

If you're a video-editing enthusiast, then the Pyro A/V Link offers top value for money, giving you all the connections you could need - and Premiere Elements as well.