Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U - Capture cards

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Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U

Analog VideoIn
MPEG1 hardware
MPEG2 hardware
MPEG4 hardware

Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP
Vista? NT4 MAC Linux
*based on user reports.

USB2

$150

6.6 (6.6)
22 votes

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Description (from the manufacturer site)

Plextor’s ConvertX PX-M402U is the ultimate solution for encoding video into the DivX®, MPEG-4, MPEG-1/Video CD and MPEG-2/DVD formats. The PX-M402U captures video from TVs, VCRs, DVD players and camcorders; automatically converting video with its built-in DivX® Certified hardware encoder. The PX-M402U’s multi-format encoder chip allows you to capture video straight from your video source and automatically convert it while you are capturing your video. Using a hardware encoder can save hours of time since it encodes video into the chosen format while you are capturing the video and provides excellent video quality.

Key Features

Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Video Capture Peripheral
Composite Video, Composite Audio and S-Video Inputs
Hardware Encode to DivX®, MPEG-4, MPEG-2/DVD, MPEG-1/VCD Formats
Includes InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2 Video Editing and DVD Authoring Software
Hardware and Software Certified by DivXNetworks

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Comments

25 comments, Showing 1 to 25 comments

I've used this piece for more than a year and found these problems, hope it can be useful:
1. compared to a real dvd, the HQ capture quality is a lil bit grainy, i mean its not bad but not ecxellent either
2. as someone else mentioned a lot of options go gray which means u can not use them.wtf?
3.the divx capturing is a total waste of time bcuz u dont have any options for amount of compression and it captures with the highest quality only and this is against the whole idea of divx. u need to rerender the divx
3. usualy it works great and theres no dropped frames but if u run a simple prog which is associated with images say ie or image viewer the audio video sink is gone

Comments posted by Amir from Iran, Islamic Republic of, September 06, 2007:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10.

this card works amazingly with MythTV, infact I would propose its the best USB-2 Mpeg4/Divx hardware Encoder on the planet period.

Yes the windows software is garbage, yes it does crash in windows but its not the hardwares fault and is stable as hell in linux

I recommend anyone that has this product to buy or build a Mythtv PVR then use the Plextor PVR to do your transcoding. ie. make your VHS tapes in to Mpeg4 formart or DVD or whatever you planned to use this device for in windows.

There are some advanced features on this card like 4MV encoding, High Quality Encoding, DHT de-interlace support aswell as other features like bitrate and quality tweaking you can do only in linux. And yes this card blows away Hauppage 350 because its stable and does a decent job ( once properly tweaked)

I have a Celeron 400 and running this beauty and have not even gotten a dropped frame for the past 10 months.

I have the PV -TV402-NA model but the same results can be observed with the 402 model without the TV tuner.

I have read all the bad things here and all your problems are with windows and windvr, nothing hardware specific.

I have had NO quality issues uncluding No frame drops even no clicks or ticks have used this product for the past year.

at 720X480 at 29fps

Goodluck

Comments posted by Mythtvuser from Canada, January 20, 2007:
Compatibility: Win95 Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4 MAC Linux - Rated: 10 of 10.

Very good capture quality using the divx templates. Dropped frames with the MPEG2 captures. Still, a great piece of equipment.

Comments posted by Dani from United Kingdom, June 26, 2006:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

I bought this on the plextor name, I thought it would be superb. The unit might be good but the windvd creator people should be sued. Their software is absolute garbage. I tried Ulead which came with it too and that is junk. I have to admit I have made two vhs to dvd's and they look fine on our tv and audio and all is fine. It is the unbelievable hassle you have to go through to make one movie. It must take 6 to 8 hours for the process to complete. The next thing I want to try is to see if my new dvd player will play the captured file with out all the authoring. If I capture a hour and one half movie and then cut 4 minutes off the front and two minutes off the end and add a title I am now going to watch a progress bar for about 6 hours. This is on an AMD 2400+ with 512 megs. And that six hours is just to "make movie". Now you have to "burn movie". I can not understand what the hardware encoder in plextors unit did, I thought it made movie. And like some one else said almost 90% of every option in capturing is greyed out. Why is it there if it is greyed out? Same thing with the Ulead, the options for capture must have been set up by an idiot. I have tried other programs to author and burn and capture and am still looking for something that works.

Comments posted by Doug from United States, January 07, 2006:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10.

Hi there. I am Bill from Athens – Greece and I want to say my opinion about the Plextor card.
Well, the card do it’s job, as best as it can. I can’t say a bad word about Plextor (I’ve already buy 3 different products of them). In Greece, we all know that Plextor is more expensive in their products, than the other companies.
However, I had many problems with DVD Creator. Unfortunately the company’s behavior is unacceptable. I asked them about their software (which was including in the package) and they told me that they don’t support me (and other users too) because we didn’t buy the program from them.
They suggest me to download the trial version, and if it is OK for me, I can buy it.
Too bad! Intevideo’s bases is at the States. If they were in Greece, tonight all the “news” will talk about them.
For sure, I can inform you about all the problems I have with Intervideo Win DVD Creator but for sure, it will take to me so mush space. If someone wants it, I can do it!

Comments posted by Bill Bakogiannis from Greece, December 02, 2005:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating.

This is my first venture into video capture. I purchased this based on the name first, and reviews I read here second. I am doing the capture using my Toshiba P4 2.3ghz laptop. It captures fine, but hard drive is too slow for editing. So I move the files over the network to my AMD 2600, 1 ghz ram, which handles the editing pretty well. I have ALL windows updates and service packs installed on both computers. It came with the WinDVD software and the Ulead Videostudio software. I use the Ulead software for editing. For capture, I downloaded the Plextor GoCap program. A free download from Plextor. My first attempt was sucessful for the capture, but when I finished editing, the audio was out of sync. I found some messages on a UK forum about this and followed his advice, turn off the smart render, this solved the sync problem. I since have been playing around with different quality setting and am now getting great looking DVD's from my captures. The only problem I have had with this device, was after I had captured 7 hours of shows, (7 one hour shows) the 7th one was again out of sync. The unit did not get hot, not even slightly warm, So i am at a loss as to explain why this occured. I recaptured the one show after a computer reboot and it was fine. I did purchase longer cables, as the cable that come with the unit are very short, about 3 feet maybe. Videostudio is a bit clunky and slow, but does an ok job for editing/rendering/burning. The multi trim option is great for editing out commercials.
Make sure you go to Plextor website and get all the updates for the capture device and the software, then head over to ulead and get those updates as well. As I stated, this is my first experience with doing any type of video work at all, but the unit performs well and was easy to get up and running.

Comments posted by Steve from United States, July 20, 2005:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

This is the comment from Hong Kong! (sorry for the late report which my capturing work finished in Jan 2005)

AMD2500+ o/c to 2800+, HD: 80G7200rpm w/ 8m buffer, 512 ram, xpsp2
Update the provided drivers after installation the CD drivers from the Plextor Office Website (Asia area) I use the WinDVD creator to do the capture. The audio and video in monitor are not syn. or out of Syn > no problems at all BUT The AV out of Syn at some parts but some parts not after burning the file in dvd and play the file in dvd player!

I also find that the drivers update in Asia area is slower than the Euro / USA area. I download the drivers and update them accordingly. It may be the language support software problems. The WinDvd Creator cannot be updated by the latest driver (Dec 2004) downloaded from USA website! BUT WinDVD could be updated! > Why?

Also I download the Gocap (plextor provided capture device). It allows the CBR/VBR max. 9.8 Mbps. I USE CBR 9.8Mbps to capture a LD (laser disc) but AV out of syn problem! AND the output file cannot be recognized by TMPEG for authoring due to GOP problem >>interesting but horrible~!!
Finally, I give up WinDVD and GoCap and change to use Nero Express version. IT WORKS!
The nero can detect the hardware and it has the encoding rate to HQ mode (9.8Mbps) better than WinDVD creator HQ mode (6Mbps). However, during authoring by TMPEG, the output file is just recognized at 7000bps only (7 Mbps). Why?? > I hope/guess it may be the default bitrate!
The CPU usage is around 48%-53% generally by WinDVD creator during capture! It is quite high level! Is it really a hardware encoding/capture machine?

To all WinXP users, don’t upgrade to SP2 just stay in SP1 because I find that after upgrade to SP2, the usb seems to have a problem which the USB cannot work properly. The hardware USB cannot be detected by the system! I just need unplug and plug in again and again! It is not happened in XPSP1
I did not use WinDVD to play or use WinDVD creator to do the authoring becos I don’t trust them from the previous user comment!
However, I guess Power Director 3.0 may detect this hardware as well! If you got the problem, change to use power director (I did not try but I guess it is worked!)

Output file:
The TMPEG can recognize the output files by nero express and solve the joint problem happened in nero express! The quality of the capture film seems ok in my 25”TV. The price of happague (alternative device) is just a little pit experience than plextor in HK. If I can restart, I will not stay in Plextor and I must go for happague or compro! At least the bundle software is not worked. The buddle software of happague can do the cut, render and authoring in one-off. It is better than Plextor! OR
I may go for compro U1500 or 1350 TV box (new model) which also has the hardware capture function. From the demo, it is good!

VideoRedo is a helpful and useful tool! Great! I can trim out something or cut the file into different files without rendering the whole film! VideoRedo will also show the bit rate of your film! However, my trial period is in expiry. Any other free alternative of VideoRedo?

Summary of problems:
Slow update the driver in asia area (product sold in China refer the software update to the euro/usa website!)
USB problem in WinXPSP2
Bundle software problem!
GoCap has problem!

It may work smoothly and fast by higher performance cpu, say 3.0G if for original configuration.

Conclusion: it is fact that hardware is good but software is rubblish! Comparing with the price in HK. If possible, I will stay/go for either Happague or Compro than Plextor! If the software is sick one, that product must become rubblish even the hardware is top one!

Comments posted by cryingfreeman from Hong Kong, June 11, 2005:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10.

My ConvertX 401U worked fine for many months before XP Svc Pack 2 was installed, however freezes up - typically in 1/2 to 4 hours with Svc Pack 2 installed. Again works OK when I revert to pre Svc Pack 2 version of XP. After freezing you must reinstall 401U driver before Creator2 will function again. It is definitely not a thermal heating problem or a USB port issue.

Questions. Does this also happen with 402U? Are there recent driver versions for 402U that fix the XP Svc Pack 2 problem? Do some have this problem and not others?

Comments posted by DonMac from United States, January 11, 2005:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating.

I own this piece of equipment and really like it. Haven't had any problems with drivers, computer locking up, or corruption. Some people must have compatablility issues. Like others, I feel the software is limited, but the hardware is great. I have found that if you capture using the High Quality setting, then use the high quality setting when u burn, the same goes with the lower qualities. Say you capture two 1-hour videos in high quality and then try and cram them onto one DVD at the lower 2-hour quality then the movie will have to be re-rendered. However, if you burn them at the 1-hour quality then they won't have to be re-rendered. And yes, it does capture in DiVX, but it will have to be re-rendered if you burn it on a DVD with WinDVD...which takes forever. I highly recommend the Convertx. Great quality captures.

Comments posted by Daren from United States, November 16, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

Well its been over a month now and I first gave this product a 8 but thats much too high. I've had several problem with this unit. The biggest problem is no matter what I do cannot capture in high quality without dropping frames. I've done everything to try to correct but with no luck. I even re-installed my hole system hoping it would cure it but to no avail. The software is mediocre at best very flaky and hangs a lot. The driver gets corrupt every once in a while and I have to reload it. I manage to do about 20 movies but only about half has no frame drops because the quality was reduced to ntsc 4.33. At the highest quality its drops about 6 to 10 frames on a 2 hour movie. Not great. I just tried another product winpvr 250 and the captures have been flawless see my review on that later. I will probably sell this unit as it is not doing what they claim it can do....

Comments posted by Pierre Voyer from Canada, November 16, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 4 of 10.

Please read this 18 pages review that published on August 17, 2004:
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=10154

The hardware itself is good. The captured image quality is excellent in DVD HQ mode. Audio is synchronized with Video. My P4 2.0GHz CPU usage is 40%.

To set up the M402U drivers & USB 2 connection are tricky. I have to:
1.Unplug all USB devices (printers, scanners, ConvertX etc)
2.Go to your device manager.
3.Open the Universal serial bus controllers section.
4.Right click on each item listed there and choose uninstall.
5.Reboot. All of your USB drivers should reload at this point.
6.Once everything has reloaded, plug back in the ConvertX at the first port of my 4-port USB 2.0 PCI card.

The WinDVD Creator 2 does not burn on my NEC DVD rewriter. I have to use another software, Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator, to burn my DVD.

Comments posted by mqi from United States, October 09, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10.

The hardware itself is very good -- it works reliably. The problem is the bundled software, WinDVD Creator 2.

This is the only software that can be used to capture video from the ConvertX, and yet if you use it to author a DVD, it will ALWAYS transcode the MPEG2 files that you captured with the ConvertX -- which defeats the purpose of having real-time hardware MPEG2 conversion. I believe the problem is that the WinDVD creator supports certain fixed bitrates for its output, but those bitrates don't match the native bitrates of the hardware. (E.G., the highest quality mode of the hardware is 6000 Kpbs, but the WinDVD Creator supports either 7200 Kbps (the "one-hour per disc" setting) or 6500 (the "two-hour per disc" setting) -- so if you capture an MPEG2 file with the ConvertX at its highest quality setting, then author a DVD in WinDVD Creator, the software has to transcode the 6000 Kbps file you captured to either 7200 or 6500, which results in an increased file size AND of course takes quite a while, even on a fast PC.) It makes no sense that Plextor would bundle a software package that is so poorly matched to the hardware.

Therefore, I use the WinDVD Creator ONLY to capture, and then I author in Sonic MyDVD, which will author a DVD without transcoding the MPEG2 files produced by the ConvertX. I also use VideoReDo to edit out commercials and otherwise trim the MPEG2 files.

I wish the hardware offered more choices of bitrates, but for an inexpensive and simple device it works pretty well.

Comments posted by mweitz from United States, October 09, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

Ok well I'm running athlon 3000 with asus a7v motherboard with 512 meg ram. Burner is lg 4040b 4X.

This capture box works very well I've captured directly to burner with the highest settings with 100 % success. It comes with windvdcreator and it works great. Editing is mediocre but I'm converting vhs tapes to dvd and for this its great. Rendering or formatting as they say is 75% faster than pinnacle dv150 usb. The price was more than pinnacle but no av out of sync problems. I'm still playing with the settings but over all its a good device. Very simple to setup and install. Suggest that only a fast system should try it pentium 4 or athlon 2. and up. Plextor's support is very good.

Comments posted by Pierre Voyer from Canada, October 06, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10.

I have to go against the majority here. It's worked fine on my system and I've captured in several different formats. The included software is a bit pokey when authoring a disc, but I can work around it. When you consider that it captures to MPEG-4 and Divx as well, there isn't much reason to complain. I hear it doesn't like other capture software, but the capture software included can do the job and you can leave the editing to something else. Best of all - I have 2 VCRs to edit from and I don't have to go behind the computer to switch cables!

Comments posted by Steve from Canada, August 28, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

Tested on an older 1GHz Athlon WinXP-Pro without USB2.0
Immediately updated the software to the 19-Jul-04 V1.2.0.3 drivers. This required use of the uninstall utility from Plextor website to force the update.
Updated WinCreator to 24-Jun-04 V2.0B014.424.

Very pleased with the capture of analog Hi-8 tapes via S-Video. This was using WinCreator direct to DVD+RW in DVD-SP format.
No audio/video sync problems noted at start/middle/end of files.

The supplied software downgraded my rating to a 8.0.
The hardware is great. WinCreator can be a bit sluggish.
Use the ??? shareware MPEG2 file splitter mentioned earlier in these reviews -- it is MUCH faster.
Not possible to capture DivX direct to DVD.
Plextor website has a capture utility which I have not tested. This utility allows NTSC, PAL and custom capture formats.

Comments posted by Happy from Canada, August 25, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

First of all update to 1.0.05 driver and Wcreator update on plextor's site.

There are couple of things i learned since i am using this device which is really producing very good quality:
- I don't really think we should use it as a base for DVD because the process will be long anyway (in fact i did'nt even tried but i imagine...)
-a capture device is usually working at its best if you simply keep the file on your HD and in that situation there is no better product=== i'll explain: just record to best mpeg2 quality ,take out whatever you need with WOMBLE (there is no rendering process, no desync, this is the best tool...)and obviously now you need a smaller size so just reencode with DrDIVX in two pass and that's it, you've got your 700mo movie, cropped and no real quality loss, just playback on your TV.
And i am also sure that trying to make DVD is not worth the time spent regarding the fact you can do whatever you want with your DIVX....

If when reencoded you have sync problem just use AviFRATE and change the frame rate by 0.00... and it works

Comments posted by marco from France, April 14, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10.

P4, 2.4Ghz, 768MB Ram, an array of 7200 rpm hard drives, 3 yr Adobe Premiere6.0/6.5 user, and DVDit PE user. My reason for wanting the Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U was how their ads led me to believe that I could capture direct to mpeg2, thereby implying a simple burn to DVD disk. NOT!!
I owned it for about 10 days before sending it back. I was never successful using the WinDVD to burn a disk. Every thing I ever captured to mpeg2 always required rendering. Many of my even simple experiments would not successfully burn to disk even after waiting overnight.
Sorry to say, I sent it back to Plextor, and have purchased a set-top DVD recorder, Pioneer DVR 510H on Ebay ($599). I'm quite sure that this will meet my quick convert from TV/ VCR tape to DVD needs. Look for my posts soon regarding my Pioneer unit once I'm proficient in its use.

cnabors

Comments posted by cnabors from United States, April 09, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10.

I really love my convertx px-m402u.. a great plextor quality. There are just one or two little bugs in Windvd creator. But overall it is a really great product to purchase and I recommend it without any hesitation.

Comments posted by ozzman from Canada, April 07, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10.

Living with your ConvertX----

I view my ConvertX "mpg file" movies on a 80x50 inch screen using a digital projector, so fuzzyness is readily apparent. I find that the ConvertX movie quality can be as good as DVD movies and is usually limited by the signal source quality.

The WinDVD Creator program is perhaps not quite as bad as the manual for it. For those who want to use WinDVD Creator to excise commercials, edit in timeline mode, right click on the ruler to change the time scale or right drag on the ruler to expand the time scale. Isolate the commercial by clicking on the timeline or dragging the view time (green) to find the beginning and end of the commercial and click on the "split clip" button for each time. Finally delete, the intervening clip.

However I use WinDVD Creator only to capture movies. I have tried many "mpg mpeg movie file splitter trimmer" programs. Most don't work. HT splitter has an unacceptable audio-video desync problem. The boilsoft.com splitter, although less capable than WinDVD Creator, has the benefit that it is 10 times faster. I have used it to split >10GB mpg files into individual movies (Must use NTFS file system and set WinDVD Creator file size to "limited by system".). However it does not produce a useful output for split/trimmed files greater than 2GB. Since I typically use it to split movies into smaller chuncks, to be ISO DATA compatible, and to provide more rapid access into movies, this is not a serious problem.

Also, you can save a lot of time by acquiring a DVD player , such as the $50 Apex AD2600, that directly reads the ConvertX DVD or CD mpg files. I do not know of any hardware that will directly play ConvertX MPEG4 mpg files.

Moreover, with my 3GHz Pentium computer, I often run the boilsoft trimmer/splitter (start WindDVD Creator first!!) or burn movies while capturing movies with the ConvertX. On average then, the total time to produce a DVD copy is just the capture time.

Comments posted by DonMac from United States, April 07, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

This unit was purchased in large part on strength of the Plextor name. It comes up with exactly the same problems on each of 3 computers I have (all different brands). These machines are 2/2/2.8 GHz P4s with dedicated video H/D and lots of RAM. One of these machines has been in use for a year for video capture with Pinnacle s/w and their Studio AV/DV card and - no problems. I recently wanted h/w encoding to save time as the Pinnacle s/w rendering takes around 3 X the capture time and is a real pain. (The Plextor direct-to-DVD feature does not interest me as I will usually need to edit anyway.) IOW, I have a good deal of experience with video and computer video processing so my findings and attempts at solutions carry some weight:

(a) After an unpredictable period of capture/monitoring time (but usually between 10 and 20 minutes), the WinDVD Creator capture hangs and cannot be terminated even with Task Manager(!). I have never come across such a severe "hang" before. You must actually reboot WinXP to kill WinDVD and enable a restart of the app. How did Plextor/Intervideo come up with this one<g>. Maybe they missed their calling and should go into virus writing.

(b) The capture profiles are really wacko. There is no way to select between MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoding that I can discover so just what does it use? The profile for DVD says "MPEG1 and MPEG2" as if it is going to make 2 files or maybe pick a format for you. Huh? Anyway, it makes only one capture file as you might expect *but it is only 1/2 the size the manual (and my calculations) says it should be* for a particular profile. This suggests a glitch in how capture resolution is set and, sure enough, to my eyes the captured material does look a bit soft on the computer monitor (a pro grade 19 inch graphics unit). There has not been any trouble with speech sync but then, since the app usually hangs 10 to 20 minutes into a session my test may not be definitive.

(c) Some important device controls like recording volume and certain video settings are permanently grayed out. I can live with this but just what is going on? Did they not finish the program?

After 4 days of struggling I have not gotten far enough to burn a DVD but would probably use Nero instead of WinDVD. Nero works.

A couple of nice things: The video controls are exceptionally easy to set (hue, brightness), permitting a fine degree of control, although half of these are also grayed out. The unit runs cool and is very compact - potentially great for portable applications when combined with a digi-cam that has video-out, for example.

I have the feeling this could be a great piece of hardware saddled with some crappy software and drivers that were pressed into service by an unreasonable deadline placed on the programmers. I downloaded the new drivers but nothing has changed. I have also prepared and submitted a problem report to Plextor but too soon to expect a resonse. I am debating whether to stick with this and work with them to get the product fixed or just take it back to the store.

Considering all the complaints about other capture products the conclusion dawning on me is that economy priced capture simply hasn't been invented yet. Even mighty Plextor has feet of clay.

weez.

Comments posted by weez from Canada, March 14, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10.

After two weeks of further testing:

I have watched 3 movies I did a direct to DVD burn to using Memorex DVD+RW. I found that the time frame & quality settings stated in the manual don't appear to be accurate. The manual states that NTSC HQ DVD video will store 60 minutes. I got two hours on that setting and only part of the DVD was burned. The quality of the movie was mediocre. I tried another DVD using the NTSC GQ DVD setting which is supposed to provide 120 minutes. Again, only part of the DVD was burned and the movie quality was mediocre. I strongly suspect that it doesn't matter what settings you make, it burns at perhaps SP quality regardless.

I have made around 15 DVD captures. On many of the the video and audio was synched throughout but on some of them the audio gets unsynched 10 minutes into the movie. I saw this phenomenon during a capture as well as watching after the capture was over.

The poor direct to DVD recording on the Convertx is the main reason I will be returning it. Other aspects I am unhappy about:

One of the benefits if Divx is supposed to be a much smaller file size than mpg2 at the same resolution. However the Convertx doesn't produce much smaller files than an equivalent mpg2.

Audio sync sometimes off.

Can't edit video without doubling the size of the resulting file.

There is really not much benefit here if you have a DV camcorder. I get better results using my camcorder firewired to my laptop and ulead videostudio to convert.

Comments posted by Scott Horne from United States, March 03, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 5 of 10.

I must say i'm quite happy but this product is not perfect at present.
I am using it to capture TV as a real time VCR: with the first driver there are some issues about full screen playback (black bars on left and right + purple vertical line on the right...) but they just released a new driver fixing part of these problems excepting purple line.
The quality is better than any device i tried but if you are looking for a smaller file size i would recommend to reencode with Dr DIVX so you can do what you like.
Anyway i think this product can only work better in the future so this is a good choice i think and nobody can say this is difficult to use. RECOMMENDED.

Comments posted by marco from France, March 02, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10.

Quick review:

1. The unit comes with full version of WinDVD Creator 2.0 and WinDVD 5.0
2. It comes with 9V 2A (110-240) power supply, which is usefull if you are on vacations in Europe or Asia and want to send vacation DVD to family.

3. USB, S-VIDEO, RCA-stereo and composite cables are supplied.

4. PX-M402U only support MPEG1 (VCD) /MPEG2 (DVD) /MPEG4 (MS and Divx) It does not capture AVI.

5. Video is program stream @ main profile. Cannot capture video only or audio only. Audio port is only accessible via WinDVD creator 2. So you can not use SoundForge or WabLave to record just the audio. The quality of audio is excellent. Can capture mpeg, lcpm, or Dolby digital 384 khz audio information.

6. All capture presets capture to deinterlaced materials, no interlaced whatsoever. Video capture quality is great both for DVD and DivX, did not try VCD (who is using that still?).

8. Ulead Video Studio, Movie factory 2 or Wokshop 1.2 can not use PX-M402U as a capture device. Even some other Intervideo products can't. The only program that can fully access PX-M402U is Intervideo WinDVD creator.

9. I tried capturing for 4 hours (continously) of high quality D1, the unit does not get warm at all, unlike other USB devices I have tested or heard of.

10. Video and Audio is syncronized at any preset.

This unit is great for those who have Laptops and do not have lots of rendering time. It is a hardware MPEG capture device, so no need to spend time on rendering. It is also great for people who want to transfer their analog materials to CD or DVD discs.

I would give 8 point (1 to 10 scale) for this product.

Comments posted by Manokat from Canada, March 01, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

These comments DO apply to the convertx 402

Issue 1) Be aware that the green power light does not indicate that power is connected. Sometimes the power light is off with power connected and it doesn't mean the convertx is broken. Shut down computer and unplug convertx. Then restart both and the convertx should work. Support says has to do with reassigning something when the convertx usb is plugged in a second time.

Issue 2) Watch your time setting. It has a nice feature to specify the duration for a capture. However, if you capture for, say 30 minutes and later go back to do a direct to DVD burn, it will stop after 30 minutes if you don't change this setting.

Issue 3) If you capture some video, then save that video using the Windvd creator, the file saved from windvd creator will be much larger than the original capture. At this point that really reduces the usefulness of the convertx. If you edit the convertx file by just trimming the edges a little it still has to rerender the whole file. This takes a LONG time if you do a Divx capture. it almost make the convertx useless. I have brought this to the attention of Plextor support. They acknowledge the problems and have not provided a solution yet. I would not recommend capturing in Divx. File sizes arent much better than mpg2 and editing and rerendering is ridiculously time consuming.

Does ANYONE make a product that lets you capture to mpg2, trim the edges and not require rerendering the whole thing?

The convertx works well as a general capture device. Quality seems pretty good. As long as you don't have to do any editing you will be very pleased with it.

Windvd creator that comes with it is pretty primitive editing software.

Comments posted by Scott from United States, February 25, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating.

BOUGHT IF FOR PLEXTOR NAME. BOUGHT IT FOR MPEG2 AND MPEG4 CAPTURE. EVERY THIRD TIME I TURN ON COMPUTER IT WANTS DRIVERS ALL OVER AGAIN. THE WINDVD SOFTWARE LOCKS UP CONSTANTLY AND RARELY EVEN SEES THE CONVERTX. THE ONE SUCCESSFUL MPEG2 CAPTURE WAS VERY GOOD. THE MPEG4'S WILL ONLY PLAY ON THE PROVIDED SOFTWARE. ELECARD AND MEDIA PLAYER WONT PLAY THE FILES. ELECARD EASILY PLAYS OTHER MPEG4 FILES. 2 LISTED UPDATES ON PLEXTOR SITE FOR DRIVER AND SOFTWARE. DRIVER INSTALLS BUT PROBLEMS DONT GO AWAY. SOFTWARE UPDATE FAILS. FORMATTED HD AND REINSTALLED OS FRESH WITH LATEST DRIVERS AND DIRECTX HOPING STABILITY WOULD COME MY WAY. IT DIDNT AND IM RETURNING THIS HORRIBLE DEVICE IMMEDIATELY. 20 PLUS HOURS WASTED ON TRYING TO GET IT TO WORK. INFORMED PLEXTOR. STILL WAITING TO HEAR BACK. THEY ARE USUALLY GOOD WITH THEIR TECH SUPPORT.
THE WINDVD CREATOR WILL NOT ALLOW CUSTOM BITRATE OR RESOLUTION SETTINGS. ONLY "MPEG2 HIGH, MPEG2 LONG PLAY, MPEG4 BEST, MPEG4 LONG PLAY", AND SO ON. NOT FOR THE ADVANCED USER TRYING TO CUSTOMIZE BITRATE. WINDVD CREATOR DOES NOT HELP THE PLEXTOR'S SUCCESS. ROXIO6 AND ULEAD MOVIE FACTORY SEE THE CONVERTX BUT WILL NOT USE IT FOR CAPTURE.
BOTTOM LINE: DONT GET REELED IN BY THE PLEXTOR NAME. THIS DEVICE DOES NOT EXHIBIT THE QUALITY TYPICAL WITH THEIR OTHER PRODUCTS. MPEG4 CAPTURES ON THIS DEVICE ARE WORTHLESS. AVOID THIS THING LIKE THE PLAGUE. ILL POST FOLLOW UP IF PLEXTOR RESOLVES THE WOES. MORE R&D AND BETTER SOFTWARE NEXT TIME PLEASE. FEELS LIKE A RUSHED PRODUCT.

Comments posted by UU from United States, February 19, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10.

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Feature
What kind of main capture features it supports
Analog VideoIn = Analog composite or/and SVHS video input
Video Card = If it is a Video Card/Graphic Card
Tv Tuner = Built-In TV-Tuner
Digital TV = Built-In Digital TV-Tuner
DV/Firewire = DV/Firewire/i.Link input
DV Converter = Analog composite or/and SVHS video input and converts to DV video
MPEG1 hardware = Capture directly MPEG1(VCD) video using hardware*
MPEG2 hardware = Capture directly MPEG2(SVCD and DVD) video using hardware*
MJPEG hardware = Capture directly to MJPEG using hardware*
MPEG4 hardware = Capture directly to MPEG4(DivX,Xvid) video using hardware*
* = Most capture cards can capture to this format using software but it usually requires a very fast computer, if it supports realtime capturing it uses the capture cards hardware and it doesn't require a very fast computer and you may get better quality but less options/settings than software capturing.

Compatibility
What Operating System our users have reported that it works on, Win95=Works ~~Win95~~=Does not work Win95?=Not tested This is user based.

Cnx = Connection
What type of connection the capture device has to the computer, PCI, AGP, USB1/1.1/2, DV or PCMCIA.

Price
The price in US dollar.

Rating
The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the true Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get a weighted rating.
The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average rating.

Comment
User comments, click on view to view them or add to post a own comment.

We can not gurantee that this list is 100% correct. Don't forget to read the User Comments for more Info about each Capture card. If you find any features that are not correct contact us instead of posting a comment about it.