Video Capture Product Review: AVerMedia DVD EZMaker USB Plus

The AverMedia DVD EZMaker USB Plus is a very useful device to capture video straight from your video tapes. I recently purchased one for $49.95 at Fry's so that I could capture my videos on my computer.

I have found this video capture device very useful. One of the best things about the AverMedia DVD EZMaker USB Plus video capture device is that it attaches to a computer externally. There's no need to crack the case on the computer, or struggle with installing an internal video card. Also, this video capture device can be easily removed and attached to another computer. Just plug the USB into a port, and place the jack in the line in on the back of your computer. The other end attaches to your VCR or video camera. I use an extension cable so that I don't have to move my VCR.

Two pieces of software come with the AverMedia DVD EZMaker USB Plus; CyberLink PowerDirector 4.0 and CyberLink PowerProducer 3.0. CyberLink PowerDirector is a a video editor, and CyberLink PowerProducer is just an overblown DVD and CD burning program. I already have an adequate CD and DVD burning program on my computer, so I had no interest in PowerProducer.

I have used both of these pieces of software, and I find that CyberLink PowerDirector 4.0 is the one I need to use most often. With PowerDirector you can capture video and audio and save them in wide range of formats. MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 formats are available, as well as AVI format. This program can produce DVD quality video and audio from cassette tapes. I was producing videos to stream on the web, so I didn't quite need all the features of this program. However, it did seem like PowerDirector was able to produce very high quality DVDs. However if you needed to alter the format or reduce the size, there was an option to "produce" the piece to Windows Media Video format. There are a large variety of different options in the program to reduce the size of the file as much as possible, without losing too much of the quality.