HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000

Review:
We've seen a few different products that let you transfer VCR tapes -- through either a VCR or a camcorder -- onto the DVD format, but most of them involve connecting a capture card or other devices.

The HP DVD movie writer dc3000 is basically a DVD burner drive with a bunch of audio and video connections, and a USB port that connects to a computer. Connect your VCR or camcorder to the dc3000, pop in your tape, put a blank disc into the dc3000, press a button and the software pretty much does the rest, recording a DVD off the playback of the videotape.

The only problem is that your video capture is in real-time, which means if you have an hour-long videotape that you want to transfer, the video capture takes an hour. If you have a lot of home movies that you want to transfer to DVD, it will take a long time to complete the entire task.

Still, after you're done you will probably have a bunch of shelf space freed up, as your videos will now all be on DVDs.

In addition to burning DVDs, the drive acts as a standard CD and DVD drive (so you can play regular DVDs from the device on your computer). Additional bundled software lets you design a DVD (titles, chapters, etc.), as well as a video editor for those more brave and creative on that front.

The device connects via RCA (composite) jacks, but you can also connect via S-Video to help improve the video quality. In addition, make sure that you have a USB 2.0 connection, which will speed up the writing process.

Setup is somewhat complicated. The first time we attempted a setup, we had some glitches and after an hour of video capture the software told us that something went wrong. We had to re-install the software, and try again. The second time worked, and we were happy with our new DVD.

Reviewed by Keith Shaw