Turtle Beach Video Advantage USB

Posted 07/07/2005 at 3:31pm | by

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We like the video-capture portion of Turtle Beach’s Video Advantage USB package so much that we’re knocking off only one point for the mediocre third-party video-editing software bundled with it.

The Video Advantage USB is super easy to use, but it’s not so oversimplified that it insults your intelligence. Rather than give you just one choice of video-capture format, Turtle Beach lets you choose between six: raw uncompressed AVI, AVI DV Type 1 (native DV, which consists of compressed video interleaved with PCM audio in a single stream), AVI DV Type 2 (native DV, plus the same PCM audio split into a separate stream), either of the more lossy compressed video formats (MPEG-1 or MPEG-2), and WMV format (a good choice for web streaming).

We captured our test video in AVI DV Type 1 format. The video quality was great, but the files were huge. We experienced no dropped frames or audio/visual sync problems even though we were capturing from 15-year-old VHS tapes.

You’ll want to pair this device with a fast CPU—Turtle Beach specifies a 2.0GHz P4 or 1.8GHz Athlon as minimum requirements—because the package leans heavily on the CPU for real-time encoding.

Plug one end of the diminutive converter into your PC’s USB 2.0 port, plug your camcorder or VCR’s audio and video connectors into the other, install the software, and you’re ready to go. The device draws power over the USB port, so there’s no need for an AC adapter. All the cables you need are included—your video source and PC can be about 12 feet apart if you use the provided cables.

You’ll need to launch a separate application—Cyberlink’s stripped-down PowerDirector DE—to edit your captured video, and yet another program—Cyberlink’s PowerProducer Express—to burn your movie to DVD. Although PowerDirector DE is easy to use, we would gladly trade several of its wonkier transitions for a simple fade-to-black or a good dissolve.

Our advice: Buy Video Advantage USB, but dump the Cyberlink programs in favor of Pinnacle Studio Plus ($100). Put the two together and you’ll have the best video-editing and burning solution for the money.
—Michael Brown

PINK FLAMINGOS: Excellent and flexible video-capture solution.

LAWN FLAMINGOS: Third-party video-editing software leaves much to be desired.

Month Reviewed: August 2005
Verdict: 9
URL: www.turtlebeach.com