video capture and editing devices

I've had this product for about 2 months now. I use it solely for watching television on my laptop, so I haven't explored the bundled video-editing software, and can't comment on that.

My impression is similar to that described in some of the other reviews on Amazon, but I can sum it up by saying that the device itself is functional and works as I expected. It's the bundled software that stinks, and it's just as bad as one of the other reviewers suggested. Intervideo WINDVR 3.0 comes with the Adaptec Videoh, and it's what you use for viewing, and recording, live television. It often has a tendency to hang for no apparent reason, and then when you try to use the "Windows Task Manager" to shut it down, it doesn't work.. 5 minutes later, the computer goes to the dreaded blue screen, completely out of the blue (so to speak). And I'm running this on a new laptop (1300 Ghz Centrino, 256, 80 gig, etc.). The Windvr software crashes the whole system almost on a daily basis.

You can't trust the scheduling software, and one of the most serious design defects I've encountered is the fact that Windvr will stop recording when it reaches the 4 gigabytes limit for the individual file it's recording - in other words, slightly more than an hour's worth of recorded material. Imagine that you've paused a live broadcast of a movie you've been wanting to see.. after about half-an-hour of recording, you come back to press play. Everything is fine for another half-hour, when you notice that Windvr is no longer recording the live feed.. the "delay time" (indicating how much recorded material you have left to watch) keeps getting smaller, when it should remain the same. You reach the end of the recorded portion of the movie and the screen pauses.. you have to hit "stop" - so that you're now viewing the live feed - and by now the movie has gone off the air and they're broadcasting something else.
I've missed more movie endings, and more exciting finishes to sports events in this way, you'd think they would have released an update for this obvious flaw.

Think again. A quick survey of the Intervideo website reveals that they have *never* issued any sort of update to this software, and evidently don't intend to - there is truly no support. Why Adaptec chose this particular software to bundle with their product, I'll never know.

I am told that other software is compatible with the Adaptec Videoh, including the "Personal Video Station" software (which for some reason wouldn't install on my machine). At any rate, the added software will probably set you back an additional $100 or so - but it sounds like it does have the advantage of being more functional, at least.

I recently bought the Adaptec videoh media center and right from the start I had problems. When trying to install the drivers I would get an error saying that this hard-ware cannot be installed. I called the tech support. They sent me an email on how to install the drivers which didn't work, so I called tech support again. They had never heard of this problem, but told me that the problem was with my computer. So I reformatted my hard-drive. When I tried installed the drivers the computer would freeze up and my mouse would not work. I called tech support one last time. Their response was something is wrong with my computer and they could not help me. I tried this on another pc and I ran into the same problems. I sent this back to Amazon with a note explaining all the problems I was having asking for a full refund.
Don't buy this product! I am a computer tech at a university and this was the first time I had any problems like this or ever heard someone say sorry we can't help you.
If I could I would give this product no stars, but I can't

I recently bought the Adaptec videoh media center and right from the start I had problems. When trying to install the drivers I would get an error saying that this hard-ware cannot be installed. I called the tech support. They sent me an email on how to install the drivers which didn't work, so I called tech support again. They had never heard of this problem, but told me that the problem was with my computer. So I reformatted my hard-drive. When I tried installed the drivers the computer would freeze up and my mouse would not work. I called tech support one last time. Their response was something is wrong with my computer and they could not help me. I tried this on another pc and I ran into the same problems. I sent this back to Amazon with a note explaining all the problems I was having asking for a full refund.
Don't buy this product! I am a computer tech at a university and this was the first time I had any problems like this or ever heard someone say sorry we can't help you.
If I could I would give this product no stars, but I can't