Tevion DVD Maker Review

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Tevion DVD Maker
3.2 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.2 out of 5

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BobTech's Review of Tevion DVD Maker

6th Apr 2008

Overall Rating

4 stars
  • Value for money
    4.5 stars
  • Ease of Set Up
    3.5 stars
  • Time Video Capture Hardware Owned
    Between 1 - 4 Weeks
  • Ease of Use
    3 stars
Good Points

This gadget is tiny but it lives up to the claims made about it, unlike the other similar products I tried. In conjunction with the supplied ArcSoft Showbiz DVD2 software, it turns composite/S-Video video signals and stereo audio from a VCR etc into good quality digital files and DVDs without needing a late generation very high performance PC.
They say it will work well with a 1.6GHz P4 processor and it works OK with my 1.7GHz P4 ... as long as I close down all other programs so they don't steal CPU resources.


Bad Points

No complaints about the actual device. The ArcSoft software is a bit daunting the first time you use it and the instructions aren't very clear in places.
There's a slight lag (maybe 1/10th of a second) between the video and the audio which is usually not noticeable.
It's a very slow process, first digitising the contents of old videocassettes etc then working out the layout you want for your DVD, then having your PC do the file converting to make the actual DVD. But this applies to all analog video to DVD conversions using a PC. Maybe dedicated DVD recorders with inbuilt VCRs are a better idea?


General Comments

Aldi stores sell this DVD Maker under their Tevion brand but it appears to be identical to the Dexatek unit which looks the same, has exactly the same model number and includes the same software.
After I got a refund on the Belkin F5U228 DVD Creator I reviewed here recently, I bought the DK-8701 on special at Aldi. I wasn't expecting it to work very well, but as they say, it rocks! It was very soon up and running and I was successfully saving old videotapes onto my hard drive. Now I'm starting to run out ouf hard drive space, but that's another story.
It took a bit of practice and experimenting, but I was able to edit my video files and create a fairly professional-looking DVD which plays properly on my DVD player, from some of them.
If you're looking for a good USB 2.0 video + audio grabber, I recommend this one way ahead of the Belkin F5U228 and the Cypress USB201 which I also experimented with and was equally disappointed by.

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Members' Comments onBobTech's Review

  • sandy3424 on 2nd Jan 2009

    i have used this over the past couple of days and can not get any sound to record. Video capture is easy but not much good without the sound. Any advise welcome.

  • tsperry on 17th Apr 2009

    I really like what I cant do with this device but the only problem I am having is that I can't figure out how to convert what I have done and put it onto a dvd. Can you help me please???

  • BobTech Rank: Major on 19th Apr 2009

    Review Centre isn't a good place to discuss how to use products. There are lots of newsgroups inhabited by people who do video encoding etc and you're likely to get good advice if you post your question on one of those. Sorry I can't help any more than this. :(