How to choose external video converters?

on Monday, March 3, 2008

If you don’t feel like ripping into the innards of your computer, you may want to consider an external analog video converter, such as the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. These devices usually connect to your computer’s FireWire or USB (Universal Serial Bus) port. You connect your VCR or analog camcorder to the converter, connect the converter to your computer, and the analog video is converted into digital video as it is captured into your computer.

If you buy a USB converter, make sure that both the device and your computer use USB 2.0 (a newer, faster version of USB). The original version of USB could only transfer data at 12Mbps (megabits per second), which is not quite enough for full-quality video capture. USB 2.0, however, can transfer 480Mbps, which is even faster than FireWire.