StarTech.com SVID2USB2 USB S-Video and Composite Video Capture Device Cable with Audio

I bought this to save some video footage from a GoPro 64GB card that reported itself as unformatted. I played the video from the GoPro through the HDMI port and the StarTech unit was able to capture it perfectly in HD for me when every other option I had tried did not work.This unit did exactly what it was supposed to do and saved the day! Worth the money because it works as expected - not true of a cheaper box I tried first.

I purchased this converter to store my video tape collection onto DVD for future use. I use a modest Toshiba satellite laptop with twin 1.5 Ghz processors and 2Gbyte ram and Vista premium. I found the printed instructions OK but somewhat dated - referring to old Windows operating systems only. However I successfully navigated my way through the instructions to load up the USB driver. I then went to Startech's website and downloaded the latest drivers - and loaded these. I will never know whether the originals on the enclosed CD would have been OK, but took advice/comments found on Amazon.com site for this product and loaded drivers from manufacturers website. I then loaded the GrabBee application from the CD - straightforward enough. I ignored the other bundled Video software on another CD in the package.So to use - connected to composite video and audio from my Freeview converter, started GrabBee and immediately got image in preview window. All I then needed to do was to select composite video (rather than S video default)and video was fine. My experiments on video grabbing through USB showed no dropped frames at all on 640x480 with computer operating normally (internet via broadband on, e mail running, virus checking/firewalls all on).I increased the frame to maximum of 720x576 and got a dropped frame every 30 secs or so. However I am confident that when I switch off wifi and internet ( and possibly temporarily switch off virus checking), set power options to max power, and have no other applications running this would be OK.The video and audio quality is excellent - and I use MPEG2 option with Windows Vista bundled software to edit, add titles etc before burning to DVD. All in all very pleased so far, and product looks pretty robust.

I have given this item three stars where initially I would have given it one or if possible, zero. I had purchased this to archive my video 8 files. I already had upgraded my computer to a stonking 3.4 G to enable me to cope with HD video files. Installing the unit and software on my desktop was not rewarding. I repeatedly had similar problems to other users; videos that had no sound, poor resolution or that caused my software to freeze up and be unplayable. Searching sites of both the supplier or manufacturer was not rewarding. GrabBee software refused to load on the ground that my USB ports were slower than USB2. In fact they were USB3. A bit of lateral thinking required. I installed the unit on my old laptop (Windows XP) with a dual core Intel 1.64G and find that it works perfectly. I will now archive my files on my laptop and transfer them to the desktop and then to DVD. If you have an old computer and want to use this unit and software then buy it, it's great! If you are post windows 7, you might have problems; get your old analogue tapes archived before the technology prevents it. The suppliers need to get their act together and support this item rather than continuing to sell something that relates to older computer technology without admitting that more recent purchasers will have similar problems.

Plugged this into my windows 7 laptop, and it configured itself perfectly without any software from the discs.It captures video perfectly using any of the video editing software I have to hand.Of course, by 'perfectly' I mean that VHS quality is never going to look good on a modern tv. It might be advisable to find some video editing software with a smoothing effect to reduce the video noise.

Hi there, this is a really awful product. Very very old I think, because it talks about Windows 2000.Just tried it on Windows 7 and it'll display the video coming from the capture source UNTIL you hit record, at which point it'll go blank. The video file it creates is empty.Also, the user interface is something from 1996.

I've tried two other USB video capture devices and this produces the best quality results when used with decent software.Unfortunately the packaged software insists on converting interlaced video to progressive scan, leading to ghosting/blurring when anything moves fast in a scene. This might be acceptable for old VHS recordings but can look awful for high-quality sources such as a digital TV box.Fortunately the device is compatible with other software including Virtual Dub, which is free. For the best picture quality use the S-video input and configure software settings to match the source exactly (e.g. PAL_I, 720x576, 25fps, interlaced, upper-field-first for digital TV sources in the UK). Use uncompressed AVI capture if your software supports it (Virtual Dub does) and your disk is fast enough (20+ MB/s continuous), then run a 2-pass variable-bit-rate MPEG encoder if burning to DVD.For information, my PC runs Windows 7 64-bit and I had no difficulty installing drivers from the supplied CD. The other capture devices I tried were Geniatech iGrabber (a.k.a. ClimaxDigital VCAP800) and HonestTech VHS to DVD 5.0 HD. Incidentally the software packaged with these was easier to use but suffered from picture quality problems.

Works well, but, as advertised, does not record HDCP content.

Place my xbox on my laptop screen with sound in full hd, i work away so this enables me to travel lighter now as i dont need to take my television with me