Review on 🎥 TOTMC USB 2.0 Video Capture Adapter: Windows XP/2000/Vista/7/8 Compatible by Terrence Castillo

Composite video devices are becoming increasingly rare, but sometimes there's no better way to transfer old video, so a small, cheap and reliable device like this belongs in the rarely needed but necessary category. I needed to transfer stored video from a TWC DVR - the only options are Composite or S-Video, both are supported by the TOTMC capture device. The price is good, so I ordered. I arrived quickly, unzipped and installed the drivers from the floppy on Win7-64 with no problems. After installation, I took some test shots using the included ArcSoft Showbiz software. It's basic by current standards, but good enough for basic capture and editing. Anyone who does a lot of video editing will choose to use their own tools, but Showbiz will please those who still turn to "tape" and ask if it needs to be rewound. I had a few issues (see below) that needed solving, but in general the issues were resolved according to the minimum documentation (online). After solving these initial problems, I recorded/edited/released a DVD from the saved shows; for the price this is a decent deal. The video quality is there. Well, the quality of the bond. S-Video is slightly better than Direct Composite. When creating DVDs from captures, Arcsoft's Fit-to-Disc settings can introduce significant compression artifacts. After burning some DVDs with other software, it turned out that the recordings were fine, but the mastering program can significantly affect the quality of the DVD. Of the free video editing/production software packages I've tried, ArcSoft actually did a pretty good job, while MSFT MovieMaker was very poor at compressing the same input file. ** Problem: DO NOT USE USB 3.0 port. It just won't work. This is explicitly mentioned in TOTMC's (minimal) online documentation, but is a bit unclear. I plugged it into a USB 3.0 port first. The video appeared but stopped about every 5-10 seconds 50% of the time. Without looking at the literature, poking around in various shots in vain; At this point I was feeling pretty miserable. I've reinstalled drivers etc to no avail. Eventually I switch to a USB 2.0 port - black plastic, not blue - and the dropouts are gone. I tested this and reproduced the result on all my USB 3.0 ports; All USB 2.0 ports worked perfectly. When plugged into a USB 3.0 port, protocol translation will corrupt the video stream - so just don't do this. When I later read the documentation, it actually "only" lists a USB 2.0 port. GENERAL INFO: Used correctly for casual use, this works well, serves its purpose and is a bargain.