Gigaware� VHS to DVD Converter

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

This is a Windows 8 replacement for my old Windows XP Capwiz Audio/Video hardware capture device. Since I couldn't use the Capwiz on my new laptop that came with Windows 8, I figured I'd make a reasonable investment and it seems to work just fine. Installation was easy.

Although the software appears to be capable of it's entry level intent, I use Sony Vegas for editing and will stick with it. This will be a great capture device for standard definition recording from my multi-camera video mixer.

I've seen some not so great reviews for this product on other sites, but I thought I'd take a chance on it because Windows 7 & 8 are so similar. I find it works great on my laptop equipped with an 8-core 3rd Gen i7 CPU @ 2.4Ghz + 8GB of RAM + 1.6GB GPU. In my opinion, most consumers try to use substandard equipment to do professional work. I'm very happy with this recent purchase. I'm interested to see how long this item will hold up in the field.

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

I noticed there is a lot of negative reviews reguarding this product. This product works great but only if you have the right cables and have them hooked up correctly. I only have one compliant "The device doesn't have drivers/firmware for windows 8", so are there going to be drives and firmware for Windows 8???

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

Best [$] I ever spent... User friendly... Easy hookup...

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

Did a great job right out of the box. I've had other video editing software that was WAY too complicated. This does the job and gives me results TODAY. Can't understand those other reviews. This is a great, easy-to-use product.

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

I don't blame the software, because I used the converter with several different products. Didn't work with any of them, including the one it came with. Dozens of attempts, but in every case, the video is useless, choppy, freezes, etc. Usually got good audio, but without video, what good is it?

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

It's the software , it has so many problems and no fixes . I will NEVER buy another product from Radio Shack

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

Terrible picture quality when I transferred my VHS movies to dvd. The program actually made my VHS movies look worse… The program also doesn't work very well either. I had many times where it would burn the vhs movies to dvd and the dvd wouldn't work or had no sound. Not a very good product, would not recommend it. It definately needs some new software updates.

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

I don't know how the others in this review state that their product is working fine. I tried using this product on three of my computers running on Windows 7 and a laptop running on XP Pro. I installed the driver and software according to instructions and restarted the computer and then connected the product. On all 3 Windows-7 computers, the software isn't detecting the signal off the VHS player, TV, or VHS-C camera. So I called Gigaware tech support and they gave me a link to download the driver for Windows 7. I thought this would solve the problem, but the problem remains. So I Called Gigaware again and they told me they will have a tech specialist look into it and call me back, Gigaware stated it could be the software that's messing up or the device I have is defective. Well me being me, I couldn't wait forever; When I buy something I expect it to do what it's going to do. I went back to Radio Shack and got another one, uninstalled the software and drivers off all computers and installed again only to have the same problems. On my laptop running on XP Pro it states an error "device not supported". Gigaware needs to go back to the drawing board on the driver and software for this product.

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

International SOF:

What parameters did you change to increase the quality of the DVD?

So far product works great. Easy to capture and edit. It's just very pixalated when played on the TV.

Comments about Gigaware® VHS to DVD Converter:

The product installed with no problems on my HP notebook, and the first try I had with it was no problem. The image quality was fine after I adjusted some of the parameters (which some other packages I looked at wouldn't allow). More importantly, Windows Movie Maker Live is completely usesless in WIN 7. I used this all the time in the past and am horribly disappointed MS did away with most of what was good about it. So it was great to see that the ArcSoft ShowBiz software that came with this pretty much replicates everything the old Windows Movie Maker used to do. The only issues I have with it are: 1) When you hit record, there is no delay per se. But it gives you a menue to define what you want to name the file to be created and where it should be stored. Every other capture program I have worked with did this AFTER you hit STOP and timing of the clip recording was no longer an issue. It limits your ability to do on-the-fly capture and slows things down; 2) One of the things I really loved about Movie Maker was that you could graphically trim clips just by dragging the leading or trailing end of the clip in the time line forward/backward respectively to set the new start/end point. The software that comes with this product does not allow that, but it does still have a pretty convenient trim function that you really need to make individual clips fit within a project in the right way. All in all I am very happy with this. Functionality and price are in sync. I am disappointed I can't find a software support site for it. Neigher Gigaware nor ArcSoft who wrote the capture/edit software have any reference to it. I just bought it but there should be someone who is responsible for SW improvements and updates (or letting you download the software in case of loss/destruction of the disk, it is S/N protected after all.)