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IN THE LAB^

REVIEWS OF THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

W

e still remember when capturing
video—even standard-definition
resolutions—was a Herculean
task. Today, you can do it with a stand-
alone black box hooked directly to a USB
2.0 memory stick. Such is the story of the
Pinnacle Video Transfer device. Simply plug
in the wall wart, plug a memory stick or
hard drive into the standard USB A port (the
square USB B port is currently not support-
ed), and plug standard composite video and
stereo RCA jack inputs into the other side.
The device also supports S-video input for
slightly higher-quality captures.
Once your USB 2.0 hard drive or memory
stick is connected to the device, a blue light
turns on indicating that the PVT is ready to
capture video. You can select from three qual-
ity levels: good at 320x240, 512Kbps; better
at 320x240, 768kbps; or best at 640x480,
1.5Mbps. The good setting records audio at
96kbps while better and best bump it up to

128kbps. On the best setting,

the PVT turned an hour’s worth

of Hi-8 tape into an 800MB fi le.

You simply press record and it goes.

The end result isn’t stellar, but

it’s not as bad as you might expect. It’s

certainly good enough for the web or an

iPod. But would we use the PVT to archive

our treasured memories from the glorious

1990s? At first we said no. The device pro-

duced too many compression artifacts for

our taste. But then again, are you really ever

going to capture that stack of moldering

family videos if you have to haul your VCR

to the computer? Hell no.

The PVT is stupid-easy to operate and ul-

traportable, which means you’re more likely

to use it. As much as image quality matters,

in our book, it’s better to have flawed video

than no video at all, and the PVT makes it a

breeze to capture those old video sources.

- G O R D O N M A H U N G

Pinnacle Video Transfer

Capture video without a PC

+ -

VERDICT

$100, http://www.pinnaclesys.com

8

The device is easy

and convenient to

use.

Creates too many

compression

artifacts.

LASER DISC

PINNACLE VIDEO TRANSFER

DVD

You’ll trade image quality for convenience with

the Pinnacle Video Transfer.