Diamond VC500SE One Touch VHS/Camcorder to Digital File Converter for Both Windows and Mac OS (Supports Mac OS Ventura)

I gave Tech Support one star, only because of the lousy instruction manual. I didn't ever try to contact them. This system is hard to figure out because after the install, you are on your own figuring out how to make DVDs. In this review I want to try to help with that, because its a great, inexpensive tool, that DOES WORK on Windows 10.I needed to transfer 8mm cassettes from analog format to my computer in a digital format, so I could put them on DVDs. I didn't care about doing any fancy editing. Just preservation.Install the software as instructed in the booklet. Go to the website listed in the inside front cover (6th dot down) or check for a sticker on the back of the box for the web address of the most recent drivers available. Make sure you download that latest one so you don't have any issues with Windows 10. Once it is installed it will put an icon on your computer desktop.You do not have to download the CyberLink Power Director to make DVD's, unless you want to edit them, and then you are on your own figuring that out. But, if you just want to do a simple capture and then burn it to a DVD all you need is the EZ Grabber.After the software is installed, your USB capture device should be plugged in to your computer and the blue light should come on. Double click the EZ Grabber icon on your desktop to open the software. Check your settings (the gear wheel on the upper right corner of the controler window). The first tab, Video Format, I left the default (first item in the drop down box). Next tab, Capture Button, I selected "Capture Video." Next tab, Snapshot, I chose "jpg" and I left the default for the file location. Last tab, Record, I chose DVD.I used the cables that came with my camcorder rather than the cords that came with the capture device. I connected the yellow connector cable from my camcorder with the yellow connector on the capture device. My camcorder only has two plugs, yellow and black, so I plugged the black one into the white connector of the capture device. One is for video and the other for audio. Make sure you press them all the way as far in as they will go together.In my computer settings I set my sleep settings to 2 hours so it wouldn't try to go to sleep during a transfer.I actually hadn't used my camcorder in a long long while and it was totally dead. So I had to plug it in and give it about 10 minutes to come to life. It acted a bit funky, but unplugging the power cord and plugging it back in again once or twice seemed to fix it. I powered it on, then I pressed the eject button to open the tape drawer. I inserted a tape and made sure to fully rewind the tape. When I was ready to make my recording, I pressed the record button on the capture device and then the play button on my camcorder. The blinking red light on the capture device tells you it is recording, plus you'll see your video playing on your computer screen.Now sit back, relax, and watch your movie. There is no way to rush this process, you just have to let the movie play. You will want to keep watch though that if your tape is full it won't all fit on one DVD. You'll want to stop your video around an hour and 45 minutes and finish it in another recording. Because a full 2-hour tape ends up being about 5.75 GB and a blank DVD is 4.7.Now, on your computer, open up your File Explorer file, and then your videos file. Look for the video file you just made. It should give you a thumbnail, or it might just show a logo with a lot of numbers for the file name. If you double click on it, it should start playing for you. I was connected to the Internet and was promted that I needed to download a free CODEC from the Microsoft Store in order to watch the video. I did, and in a second or two was able to watch my video file. I renamed my videos to "Home Movie 1" "Home Movie 2" etc. Now leave the File Explorer window open showing your new video.Place a blank DVD in the DVD drawer and close it. You might get a window that asks what you want to do with blank DVDs. I just open my File Explorer folder and leave the window open, showing the DVD. Then I drag my new video from the video folder to the DVD player. Right click your mouse on the DVD player and choose BURN. A window will pop up asking what kind of DVD you want to make, and you just want to make sure you mark "with a CD/DVD player." Be sure to name the file the same name as your video file name (otherwise the default will be today's date).The DVD should start burning after you click NEXT. It takes about 10 min for it to complete. Click FINISH when prompted, and then remove your DVD. Check to make sure it recorded by placing it in a DVD player in your house.Voila! You just converted 8mm analog to a neat little DVD. I don't know how many tapes you have. I have about 20 to do. At two hours each, I know what I'm doing this weekend. :P

This is the first review that I have ever written. I felt compelled to write a review because it was difficult for me to decide which product to purchase. I took a long time to decide which video transfer device to purchase because every device had a fair amount of negative reviews. I ended up buying the Diamond VC500 because it seemed to have better reviews than the others. I also found this site: [...] which rated the Diamond VC500 favorably. I have only used the device to transfer 61 Hi8 tapes (each 1 hour in length) from my Sony camcorder to my computer. My computer specs - Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz / Installed memory (RAM): 4.00GB / Hard drive: 1TB 7200 Rpm / System type: Windows 7, 32 bit operating system. I am not a computer guru by any means. I just included this data on my computer as a FYI.When installing the driver/software from the Diamond CD to my computer, I did not receive the same prompts that are shown in the "VC500 Quick Start Guide". Nonetheless, the prompts were easy to follow. The only problem I had was that after the driver was installed, I never received a prompt to restart the computer before the software was installed. I learned from Tech support (Yes, they answered the phone quickly and were helpful) that in order for the software to be installed correctly, the computer needs to reboot after the driver is installed. Tech support even walked me through their website to make sure that I was downloading their latest driver. When you click on the settings button on the control panel there are four tabs. Under the: 1) video tab - you can adjust brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and sharpness, 2) capture button tab - I chose capture video (the other option is snapshot), 3) snapshot tab - you can choose BMP or JPG, 4) record tab - I chose DVD since I will be burning these videos to DVD; the other options are SVCD, VCD, MPG4, AVI, WMV, WMA, and MP3. Tech support can help you make a decision on which option to choose. I did not install the Ulead VideoStudio 10 SE software yet. This is a separate CD that is included. My main concern was getting all the video of my kids transferred to my computer before the tapes deteriorated. I can worry about the editing and burning to DVD later.Sometimes when I click on the "One Touch Video Capture" icon on my desktop to bring up the control panel and before I start the video transfer, I do get the green band at the bottom of the video viewing window. Tech support told me to close the control panel and then re-open it again. I never have the green band show up a second time I re-open the program. The green band never shows up during the video transfer process (If you get rid of the green band when it first appears upon opening the program, it will not show later during video transfer process). I wanted to transfer these videos directly from the camcorder to my external hard drive (1.5TB Seagate). But, when I tried, the video would stop transferring after a few minutes. Again, I am no computer expert. I just think my external hard drive could not keep up. I then tried to transfer the video directly to my computer's hard drive and had no problems. Each one hour video that I transfer to my computer is on average 2.98GB. You can multiple that with the number of one hour videos you have to transfer to see if you have enough space on your hard drive. After I finished transferring all the videos, I transferred the videos from my computer's hard drive to the external hard drive without any problems.The quality of the videos that I transferred to my computer are the same as the images on the tapes themselves. I was very pleased that the video images did not degrade during the transfer process. I did not have any "audio lag" problems. I am very pleased with this product. I hope this helps!