Honestech VHS to DVD 5.0 Deluxe

• Bestselling all-in-one video converter software and hardware solution: U.S. consumer video editing category, NPD 2008 Report
• All-in-one solution: Provides everything you need to easily convert your video to DVD, including USB 2.0 video capture device.
• HD Editing: Capture and edit high-definition video from HDV camcorders. Supports up to 1920x1080 resolution.
• Upload to YouTube: Uploading video to YouTube is easier than ever with a One-Click option.
• DVD & Blu-ray Disc Creation: Burn your movies onto DVD, CD or Blu-ray Disc (requires Blu-ray writer); enhance menu pages with motion and music.

This software does what it says: it helped me convert my old VHS home movies to DVD. Yay! The software has two settings: 1) The basic mode works smoothly and simply. 2) The advanced mode was incredibly S-L-O-W on my computer, but it works if you're patient.

Basically, you install the software on your computer, then hook up your VCR (or camcorder) to the conversion box, which you then connect to your computer via USB. The box includes all the cords you need. The software has a preview screen so you can see what's playing/recording right on your computer screen.

Basic Mode: You record directly from the VHS to a blank DVD in your computer's DVD burner. As the movie plays, it burns. It saves the digital file in a temp folder, so you can immediately create more than one DVD of the same movie without having to run through it all over again. (But once you say you're done, it deletes the temp file.) The finished product doesn't have a menu or chapter points. It records exactly what's on the VHS from beginning to end. Simple and easy.

Advanced Mode: This converts your VHS into a digital .mpg file and saves it on your computer. You can then assemble clips, add music, add menus and chapter points (for navigation), etc. Then once you've assembled everything, you burn it to a DVD. This mode is super-duper slow on my computer, and it froze up a couple of times. But it works if you're patient.

(There's a third setting that you can use to transfer audio from LP or cassette to a CD. But I haven't tried this.)

One note about transferring video to DVD: While watching the preview screen, it will seem like the audio is out of sync with the video. But when we play the DVDs back on our TV, it matches up fine.

I've transferred 7 tapes so far. Overall, it does what it says. I do wish the advanced mode worked more smoothly, but for now I'm just thrilled it works, and that I can finally watch -and share -my old home movies!

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So bought this item in a gold box deal and had not used it till couple of days ago when i had some off time so I decided to give it a try.

First of all the kit comes with all cables that u need to connect, a small box called vidbox and instruction manual. You insert the CD into your laptop and off you go.

You will of course need a separate VHS player to play your VHS tapes.

Run the CD, register the product online which is easy and remember to re-start the computer, the software should prompt you to restart the computer once fully installed, once done the Cd installs the software and instruction manual onto your computer, click on the icon which guides you through the process. Now that I have used both easy menu and expert menu I can comment on both.

One caveat is that the best quality is achieved only when you record upto 110 minutes in one sitting, you can still record for longer duration with slight compromise in the quality of the recording. SO MAKE SURE UR TAPES ARE NOT LONGER THAN 70 MINUTES DURATION BEFORE U START RECORDING, if they are longer than 70 minutes duration then you can adjust the recording time on the menu pretty easily to fix this issue.

overall the converted video quality is decent, I personally use cocusoft products to reconvert dvd files to MP4 for palyback on quicktime.

Of note though you will need a seperate 3.5 to 3.5 mm cable or 3.5 to rca audio cable to convert audio cassettes to mp3 or wma format, I ordered them from amazon and recieved them today.

I am using 3.5mm to RCA cable via vidbox to convert my audio cassette files to WMA files, and LO IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM, AWESOME!!!.

I have previously tried audacity but found it complicated and confusing to use, but with Honestech the audio-file conversion is a breeze!!!, truly, just remember few things.

1. In the settings click on the noise reduction box and set noise reduction below 10.0 ( minus ten point zero), I initially set noise reduction at the highest and the recording quality was very bad but once I set it to low level it worked like a charm, no hissing unlike with other software. ( NOW NOISE REDUCTION LEVEL OF 11.2 IS WHERE I FOUND THE BEST QUALITY OF RECORDING WAS, BUT FOR YOU ALL IT MAY DEPEND ON YOUR COMPUTER SETTINGS AND ALSO THE QUALITY OF THE TAPE USED TO RECORD THE ORIGINAL, SO BY TRIAL AND ERROR USE YOUR OWN JUDGMENT.!!!)

2. In the audio device properties keep the ''master input mix'' bar at 25% level or lower, and in this setting the recoding was smooth and the output file had no hissing for me and the quality of recording was better than original.

3. Now this one is important, when you record using 3.5mm to rca audio cable via vidbox I have very little hissing only, however if you use 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm cable bypassing vidbox there is lots of hissing noise, so i think either the vidbox has a built in filter or it just does good job eliminating hissing, I have so far used only one type of 3.5mm to 3.5 mm cable to record the audio so unsure if the quality of the cable i used had anything to do with it??, anywayz if you want to convert cassette to wma then connecting to your computer through the vidbox probably gives you the best quality.

I shall try out various setting for video recording over next few weeks and update this review again.

Once again the audio conversion software works like a charm, I am happy with this software, so far it has been a great buy, instead of spending a fortune at walgreens or sams or other stores trying to get your old tapes converted, with he help of this software and a laptop you can get it done at home!!!, wow, I am happy.

Overall this product works as advertised and is a winner, thanks Honestech for a great product.

ADDENDUM 01/06/2010

Advanced Video options are nice to use as well.

You can convert either in 4:3 of 16:9 format, one can convert the VHS to WMV format and store it on hard disc whils the basic simple format only lets you burn it onto dvd immediately after aquring the content. Easy record format only lets you record 110 minutes of best quality of video whilst advanced recording input u can do about 5-6 hours of WMV format recording which is awesome.

Some of the settings I used for advanced format included WMV format best video output possible at 4:3 since my VHS tapes were standard definition only. I initially did a mistake by trying to record to an external source HD connected via USB drive, you will achieve best performance quality by recording on the internal hard-drive of a laptop or a desktop, you can always transfer it to an external storage device, software froze up when i tried to record to an external HD but worked fine with internal HD.

You can also edit, join, unjoin, add effects to your video using th existing software which is cool too. you can also record it in various formats suiting VCD or DVD or WMV. For some reason there are no options for recording the video in MP4 format.

Overall an excellent source for someone who doesnot want to spend a fortune trying to get their home videos or LP or cassette tapes converted to digital MP3 or WMV pr WMA formats.

Read Best Reviews of Honestech VHS to DVD 5.0 Deluxe Here

I tried other software and had great difficulty getting it to work. When I purchased this product I had my fingers crossed because most of the other copy software I used created a lot of work and I never did get decent copies. VHS to DVD 5.0 worked right out of the box. No problems with computer (Vista OS) no problem with audio or video. I was thrilled to be able to view old vhs tapes for the first time in years and convert them to DVD! The video looks fine on my HD television set... considering the source of the video... plays on my regular DVD player and my Blu-ray player. Set up was simple...just install the software and you're ready to roll. If you have old VHS tapes with irreplaceable programs and you want to save them to disc, this will do the trick!

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I have never written a review before but after using this product I just had to. I wanted to convert a VHS tape to a DVD. I researched several products and based on the reviews I chose this one. And, boy was I glad that I did. Yes, it cost a little more than some of the others but it was worth it. The set-up and installation took only 5 minutes. The process of recording the VHS tape then burning the DVD was easy. The instructions were great. The first tape I converted would play on my desktop but there was no audio. I called their Tech Support (someone actually answered the phone). The tech walked me through a few steps to make sure that the tape was being recorded properly it was. He then had me update my Windows Media Player and the DVD played fine (both audio and video). It not only will play on the computer but it also plays on both of the DVD players that I have in my home. The audio and video remained in-sync through the recording and burning. In my opinion, this is one great product and works as advertised. Thank you everyone who has ever written a review!

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I was looking for a product to transfer all my old VHS tapes over and needed something that was Windows 7 64 bit compatibable and this product works great! So far I have converted over 40 VHS tapes over without any issues and you can also lighten them with the settings and some of my tapes are over 30 years old and had a dark picture, so this product cleared them up and made them sharper. I researched other products and I would reccomend this one over all the others. Comes with all the connections you need, so nothing else needs to be purchased.