The Creative Video Blaster MovieMaker is a USB device that allows the real-time encoding of analog audio and video from popular sources such as Hi-8 and VHS-C camcorders, VCRs, or television. The card features Video and Movie Archiving - use MovieMaker to digitally archive precious home movies that were recorded on fragile videotapes. Once digitally recorded in MPEG format, your home movies will be protected from the wear and tear of repeated viewings.It allows you to combine MovieMaker with a CD-RW drive like the Creative CD-RW Blaster 121032, and you can copy your recorded movies direct to CD for convenient and easy playback. Share your favorite home movie moments with loved ones and friends by sending recorded files as e-mail attachments over the Internet or putting them up on your very own home page!
1 Poor support, poor MPEG2 quality
No support and distortion problems
2 Not working .. Not compatible :(
Not compatible with WindowsXP.
Not really compatible with Windows 2000.
No documentation
No online information
3 For Home Videos and Streams only
This unit was not made for recording high quality movies or tv shows. If you're looking for something to capture home videos or something for your web, this is probably the best option. Installation is pretty easy, and I recommend you download the latest software from the soundblaster site, rather than use the one they give you.
It's pros are it's USB and portability. I bought one for work, but I've used it on several machines, running W2k and WinXP and everything worked fine. However, the software (and possibly hardware) only allow you to get a max resolution of 320x240. It encodes into .mpeg1 or mpeg2, each of which resulting in a file about 1 GB for a bout an hour of moving. I used it to make a bunch of streamed lectures and it works great for that. As well as adding lightsaber effects to a home movie.
But when trying to record full length movies, it's terrible. The quality just isn't good enough. Also, this unit (unlike others sold on the market) has no out feed. It can only get incoming video and audio feeds. Thus, if you need something that can feed back onto VHS, you're out of luck here.
Overall, it works well if you're buying it for web streams or home videos.
4 It is Win2k compliant
Just a quick reply to the review saying that this does not work on win2k. The product runs under win2k, which is the OS I have been running it on since I bought it. Just don't want false info out there.
5 not ready for prime time
this thing caused me mnore grief than almost all my ex girlfriends put together (almost). it is unbelievably sensitive during installation, and awkward in the extreme to use for capturing full length movies to disk. i guess you could use for capturing home movies to disk, but there are much better products available for that. also, you can't return it without talking to tech support first, but of course they don't answer email or phone calls. in the end i cancelled payment for the (...). good one creative, keep it up and you will be joining osbourne and kaypro in computer valhalla.
6 unusable with win2k, bad s/w
this device is totally unusable under the win2k o/s. i bought it for capturing feature movies, but the s/w is too primitive to be of any use. it doesn't have any provision for splitting the output stream into multiple files, so you get a giant single file that can only be split using very expensive s/w that is not included. to be honest, i can't see any other use for this product since there are many other products dedicated to home movie transfer. go out to the creative support site and try to find any information regarding this product running under win2k -- nada, zilch, squat. i will be returning mine for a refund immediately. all in all, a hastily released product. i don't think the other reviewer actually used the thing, since you have to install the s/w drivers before you hook up the usb cables (his review clearly states he hooked up the usb before installing the s/w).
7 Worked like a charm
This was the easiest setup I ever went through for video conversion. I bought this product after reading a review on cnet comparing this product and Dazzle products. I made the choice for Creative Labs for the VCD recording option. With this product you can record in MPEG1, MPEG2, and VCD however you cannot output this back onto a VCR(which is the only draw back). To set this up I just plugged it into my USB port, loaded the drivers from the disk, hooked it up to my VCR and hit play, the output appeared on my computer screen and I hit record(it was that simple). Creative Labs also packed Ulead Video software with the Movie Maker so now I can edit anything that I record. My computer is pretty beefy with an 800mhz Thunderbird, 100gigs of dik(which I bought just for this), and 768megs of RAM, however I have used it on a PII400 just fine too. My father bought the ATI Radeon All in Wonder 64meg video card to rip over media and has had trouble with it, I loaned him my Creative Labs Movie Maker and did not see it again for over a month. He is now wishing that he would have bought this product instead due to the ease at which he was able to convert movies. This product rips movies on the fly so when the movie is done so is the recording. I think that I will have to buy one for my dad so that he stops taking mine. If you are looking for an easy to use product and not worried about putting it back onto tape then this is a MUST BUY!!!
