Good hardware, software so-so

I wanted an inexpensive video capture device to convert my VHS and Hi8 home videos to DVD.  I did a lot of research and decided on the KWorld Xpert.  I found that for most of these devices there was about a 50/50 split with half liking the device and half not liking it. The Xpert was no different.

I chose the Xpert because I could use either the included software (CyberLink PowerDirector & PowerProducer) or Windows Movie Maker (MM2).  Some USB capture devices are not recognized by MM2 and others require proprietary software.

I first put it on my son's new PC, an Asus M2N68-VM with X2 CPU & 2 GB of ram running XP SP-2 and directx 9.0.  Then on my older system with a 2GB RAM, 2.2Ghz Athlon, and XP SP-2.

I tried the included CyberLink software.  Power Producer (PP) seems to be a less sophisticated version of Power Director (PD).  I captured video from 3 tapes using PP and tried to make 3 DVDs using both products.  I didn't capture from PD because I could not hear the audio during the capture.  Maybe a setting problem.  The first video was burned to DVD using both PD and PP.  No problems.  On the second video I got fancy and tried having chapters & menus and ran into my first problem.  Windows would abort PD 3% into the burning process.  I e-mailed Tech support and got a reply a couple of days later.  I tried their first suggestion and fixed the problem.  I tried to burn the 3rd video using even more chapters & menus and got the abort at 9%.  When I tried to burn again just to see if I duplicated the abort, PD wouldn't load the files.  It complained that there was some kind of problem with the video files.

I ran into this video file problem again when I tried to clean up my file structure and renamed some folders.  I e-mailed Tech support and got a reply the same day.  Apparently the project file contains links to the input files such as the captured video.  Tech support believed this was the problem and not any acutal corruption with the video files themselves.  I changed the names back to the originals but still could not re-load the projects.  Even if the capture files were OK, it took me hours to edit the video investing the time and effort to redo the editing was not attractive.  Especially if after doing it twice I ran into the same problem again.

I also was concerned about the size of the output file.  I have a 1.5 hour video burned to DVD with the PD High Quality setting.  The file size was > 5GB which required a Dual Layer DVD (expensive).  Even the HQ setting did not produce an impressive video picture on my 56" wide screen set.  There was visible pixilation on the letters of the text titles.

Finally I am not sure of the encoding of the PP captured video files.  They were not recognized by any video players I tried.  They may be encoded using a proprietary codec which means they can't be used with any other software.

Apparently some people are able to use the CyberLink applications and not have these problems.  But I didn't trust it anymore so I switched to the free Windows Movie Maker 2.0 (MM2).  No problem capturing via the Xpert.  I burned a 1.5 hour movie in MM2 and it took about 3/4 of a standard single layer DVD.  The MM2 version looks better on my TV than the much larger (~ 2X ) PD version on a dual layer disk.  (Technically MM2 can't burn a DVD, I had to get a standalone DVD burning program to burn the MM2 output file to the DVD so I used Super DVD Creator which can add chapters & menus).

I suspect that some of the problems reported with the Xpert in other reviews may have been due to using underpowered PCs or Vista.  I would recommend using as powerful a machine as is available.  The minimum spec for the PC is about 256MB and ~ 700Mhz CPU, but don't expect much with this low powered PC.  The Xpert worked well on two different Windows XP PCs.  The least capable PC is old and has 2GB of DDR-3300 RAM and a 2.2Ghz Athlon 2700 CPU at 166Mhz FSB.