Product Reviews

Video capture from analogue sources can be messy. The theory is simple: digitise the incoming signal, compress it to MPEG2 (or similar) format and save it to hard disk. In practice, the minefield of video and audio standards and the time-critical, processor-intensive nature of video capture means getting it to work reliably can be a struggle.

The Video Editor aims to simplify this. It's a USB device, so installation is straightforward and it is suitable for desktop and notebook PCs. What's more, it handles video compression to DV, MPEG1 or MPEG2 formats in hardware rather than software, taking the strain off the host PC.

Capture from the S-video and composite inputs is handled smoothly using the bundled Ulead VideoStudio 8 SE and MovieFactory 3 SE video-editing and DVD-authoring software. A range of capture templates is available, including MPEG2 with Dolby Digital audio at various bit rates, making it ideal for DVD projects. A FireWire port is also included

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for digital transfers from DV cameras. Our only gripe is that input selection is hidden under the advanced settings. Moving between DV and MPEG formats sometimes changed the selected input without telling us.

The hardware MPEG2 compression gave excellent results, even at lower bit rates. The built-in Dolby Digital encoding is a rare and welcome bonus, allowing more space for video on DVD Video discs. However, the audio input used during analogue video capture was a little noisy. Video capture is only possible using the supplied software and the FireWire port can't be used with other peripherals. Still, captured video can easily be imported into other software for editing.

The device is also a USB sound card and four-port USB hub. Specifications for the former are similar to those of Creative's Audigy 2 NX, reviewed in our speakers and sound cards test (Labs, Shopper April 2005). This provides excellent audio quality and great features, including 7.1 surround output, DVD-Audio playback, many connections and a remote control. Unlike the Audigy 2 NX, this device supports Digital Theatre Systems (DTS) sound and Dolby Digital soundtracks in DVDs, and comes with DVD playback software. The only thing missing is an ASIO driver for low-latency performance in music-production and video-editing software.

This is one of the friendliest, most straightforward analogue capture devices we've used. The price is what we'd expect for the video capture features alone, so you're effectively getting a USB hub and top-notch sound card for free.