ClimaxDigital VCAP301 USB 2.0 VHS to DVD Converter/DVD Maker-easy way to convert and edit your VHS video Tapes to quality DVD. FREE software Bundle includes ArcSoft ShowBiz DVD 3.5, supports *XP/Vista 32/Vista 64/Window 7 32&64*) +Support Xbox 360/PS3 colour recording+ upload video to YouTube+**FREE AV cable***

Easycap comes with a 'Chinese' translated type of instruction leaflet that should be ignored. However F1 will get you a decent help index in good English. The setup procedure is essential, especially for UK PAL users. YouTube has an extremely accessible guide called 'Best quality Settings for EasyCAP..'. Follow these and it works. The results are brilliant; unbelievably good value product to save your Video tapes to DVD!

Firstly my version did not come with a free AV cable so had to supply all the necessary leads myself as well as the Scart adapter but I think this free offer may not have been advertised at the time I purchased the device?. It then took some days before I finally got it to work properly so hence only three stars. Loading the drivers and software from the supplied disc was fine and video capture from a VCR worked straight away but the sound was terrible. It seemed to be pulsing on and off and no matter what I changed in the audio setup nothing would correct this problem. I tried other video capture/editing software packages other than the Arcsoft Showbiz DVD 2 which was supplied and these were worse. Premiere Elements 8, Nero Vision and Windows live Movie Maker wouldn't work at all with the ezcap, there was no video or audio, so had to stick with Showbiz DVD 2.
Trawling the net there are dozens and dozens of examples of audio problems with the `USB EMP Audio Driver', many clips on YouTube show how to correct/improve the audio but they all seem the centre on the driver not being installed correctly. Checking Windows Device Manager (I'm using Windows 7) showed my `USB EMP Audio Driver' to be correctly installed and working but clearly it wasn't!!. I did finally get around the problem and this is what I did.
In Device Manager under `Sound, video and game controllers', right click `USB EMP Audio Driver' then `Update Driver Software' DON'T select `Search automatically for updated driver software' but instead click on `Browse my computer for driver software' and then 'let me pick from a list .......' and tick `show compatible hardware'. This should give you two driver options, Window's own `USB Audio Device' and the `USB EMP Audio Device' driver which was installed from the installation disc. DO NOT select `USB EMP Audio Device' but instead select the `USB Audio Device'. Once this is loaded sound should now work properly from here on.
One problem I'm still left with is that I tried Premiere Elements 8 again recently and for some unknown reason it now see's the ezcap device and will now capture sound and video. No idea why this should be working now but all is still not well as the sound and vision are permanently out of sync and I'm not able to resolve this problem. Adobe's support site warns that capturing in Mpeg2 may not be compatible with Elements 8 and recommends capturing in AVI format. However, despite the ezcap instructions stating it can record AVI and Mpeg 1/2 it does not give me the option of AVI when capturing so again stuck with using Showbiz DVD for capture and editing which is absolutely fine for the job but I would like to have been able to use the more sophisticated Premiere Elements. I mailed Arcsoft tech support about the lack of AVI capture and was told this option had been removed! God knows why they did this!.
In conclusion the device does work and works well with the supplied software and would warrant 5 stars but I shouldn't have to dick around for days on end getting it to work and be limited to what software I can use it with but all said, for the money, it is good value.
Hope this helps someone.
Paul

Some of the above reviews highlight that this product "EzCAP" is by nature not the most straightforward of devices. It's possible that alternative products (such as the more popular "Dazzle" set) have a more straightforward installation and more clear usage instructions.

It helps to know what you're dealing with before you buy this product. Depending on how you want to record, you may need two sets of three phono leads and three female-2xfemale phono splitters. But this is typically the case with all alternative products too.

There are also specialist support forums for the UK version of this product which further explain and assist with installation and use.

More on the product itself: This model is advertised as "DC60+" and though it is largely similar to the "DC60" model it has the distinct hardware ability to record at a display frequency of 60hz in colour. This is particularly important if you are trying to record from some DVDs and video games consoles. As of time of writing, no "Dazzle" product, nor the Adaptec Gamebridge, are capable of recording 60hz in colour making this a unique selling point of the EzCAP DC60+.

The product also comes bundled with a licensed copy of Ulead software, but no instructions on how to use it. In addition to using this, you could also use other software solutions that do work with the EzCAP. This includes various software you can find online as well as Windows Movie Maker that is bundled in with Windows XP as standard.

When recording video, even when using on-the-fly compression offered by some recording software programs, you can get very large files created in short spaces of time (recording 10 seconds of footage is typically around 180 megabytes) so a large hard drive is definitely recommended.

Overall I would recommend this product for recording purposes, but as I have said it does require that you need to know what you're doing.