Product Description

An external DVD writer with built-in analog video capture and full DVD ?R/?RW and CD writer capabilities, the dc4000 lets users quickly and easily transfer home videos directly from tape to digital format via their PCs.The HP DVD Movie Writer is the fast, easy way to transfer home videotapes to DVD using your PC. It installs in seconds and the included Video Transfer Wizard offers automatic conversion of home movies to DVD.The HP DVD Movie Writer is the all-in-one DVD video and storage solution that lets you transfer, edit and preserve your home video with one easy-to-use device and your PC. No complexity, just a simple, complete home-video-to-DVD solution.The HP DVD Movie Writer lets you easily transfer your precious video memories to long-lasting DVDs and protect them for future generations. Turn your home videotapes into DVD movies, share them with friends and family and enjoy them all over again.Choose among editing features that are right for your skill level, from novice to enthusiast. Delete unwanted scenes and keep the highlights; automatically set video clips to music; create special presentations for family and friends.Easy-to-use digital editing software makes it fun to bring your photos and home movies to life with special effects, music and more.

Product Details

• Brand: Hewlett-Packard
• Model: Q2125A#ABA
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 7.55 pounds

Features

• Read and write CD-R and CD-RW discs, as well as DVD± R/± RW discs
• Transfer home videos to DVD fast and easily
• Includes software that lets you edit video, photos, music and data applications
• Compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and 2000 Professional.
• One-year limited hardware and software warranty

Amazon.com Product Description
Ready for a one-stop platform for organizing, editing, and burning digital media? HP's DVD Movie Writer dc4000 is an external 8x DVD writer with built-in analog video capturing abilities to let you quickly and easily transfer your treasured home videos directly from tape (via camcorder or VCR) to both your PC and to recordable DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, and CD-R/-RW media. But it's not just for video--the drive's full suite of video-editing software also includes dedicated applications for photo, music, and data.

Write speeds are 8x DVD+R, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD+RW, and 4x DVD-RW, with up to 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW. Connected to a desktop or notebook PC through its USB 1.1 port, the dc4000 is designed to digitally encode VHS and other analog sources and create digital negatives on long-life DVD discs. It converts video from a variety of formats, including VHS, Hi8, Digital 8, and BetaMax--essentially any format from any component offering analog video outputs. The dc4000 is also designed to function as a standard DVD/CD writer to burn music, photos, and data to both DVD and CD.

After the dc4000 converts analog tapes to the digital MPEG-2 format--the same format all commercially available DVDs are written to--you'll be able to edit and share your DVD masterpieces with friends and family. And you can get as detailed as you want in editing your DVDs--the dc4000 includes ArcSoft ShowBiz 2.1, a full editing package, and muvee autoProducer, a simple music-oriented video-editing application.

ShowBiz 2.1 lets you add or delete scenes, add music or special effects, and create slideshows set to music. Easy-to-use screens let you drag and drop video clips, digital photos, and music files in either storyboard or simple timeline-editing formats. autoProducer is a fun and easy editing package that quickly turns digital movies into music videos with a few clicks of a mouse.

The dc4000 also includes an enhanced video-transfer wizard that simplifies batch loading of multiple tapes or clips to a single DVD and permits time-saving background processing. Other software updates include the 6.5 version of RecordNow and ArcSoft PhotoBase 4.5 to help you create, organize, and burn photo slideshows.

Veritas RecordNow and Simple Backup help you save data, video, or music on DVDs and CDs. Simple Backup reliably backs up, protects, and restores individual files or folders and can also help restore an entire PC hard drive. Additionally, Cyberlink PowerDVD software makes it easy to play DVD movies on a PC.

What's in the Box
HP DVD movie writer dc4000, software CD (including electronic user's guide, quick-start installation guide, and getting-help support guide), a USB cable, a composite-video/stereo analog audio cable, an audio splitter cable, and 1 blank recordable DVD.

From the Manufacturer
The HP DVD Movie Writer dc4000 is an external DVD writer with built-in built-in analog video capture. It lets you quickly and easily transfer transfer home video directly from tape (via camcorder or VCR) to digital digital format on your PC and to DVD± R/± RW discs. It provides a a full suite of software to enable video editing along with photo, music music and data applications, and it lets you write and read CD-R and and CD-RW discs as well as DVD± R/± RW.

simple

• The HP DVD Movie Writer is the fast, easy way to transfer home videotapes videotapes to DVD -- without the need for additional hardware or software. software. External drive installs in seconds
• Included Video Transfer Wizard offers automatic, unattended conversion conversion of home movies to DVD

complete

• Transfer, edit and preserve your home video -- even print DVD case case covers -- with this simple device and your PC
• Everything you need is in the box

preserve

• The HP DVD Movie Writer lets you transfer your precious video memories memories to long-lasting DVDs
• Protect your home movies for future generations.

create

• Bring your photos and home movies to life with special effects, music music and more
• Transform your home movies with digital magic, and enjoy them in a a whole new way

flexible

• Make original DVDs and CDs using this DVD± R/± RW and CD-R/RW. CD-R/RW
• Choose among editing features that are right for your skill level, from from novice to enthusiast

Customer Reviews

Mini DV to DVD made easy
If you are new to the DVD movie making process using a PC, like myself, the HP dc4000 is a godsend. As advertised, I was able to make a movie, albeit an unprofessional looking one, on the very first try.

This was my second attempt trying to convert my Sony Mini DV TRV-22 home movies to DVD. I initially bought a generic DVD-+RW recorded and used the USB out of the Sony to make a DVD. The quality was really bad. I did some research and it turns out that the data/signal coming out of the USB port is compressed and only suitable for VCD. The Sony does have a DV port, but my PC didn't have a DV (firewire?) input. Rather than waste more time buying additional hardware, I read a review for the dc3000 and went shopping.

For movies to be played back on a home system, HP recommends DVD+R discs. I burned my movies on DVD-R discs and they played fine on my really old DVD player (Onkyo DV-C601) with a single laser pickup and my newer JVC multi-player. From what I read online, 95% of all home DVD players should be able to play DVD-R?

Here are the pros and cons of the HP dc4000:

PRO: Easy to use and has good quality analog/digital converters (RCA style and S-Video input). Use S-Video if you have it.
PRO: Nice bundled software. I've only used Arcsoft's ShowBiz 2 for editing and burning, but I really like the product. Much better than the Sonic bundle offered with most other DVD burners.
PRO: Quite.
PRO: Works with both USB 1.1 and 2.0.

CON: The external case is painted silver and parts of it are missing some paint.
CON: Unit is heavy.
CON: Made in Malaysia.

Laserdisc collectors note - So far, so good
The Pinnacle Systems video capture device I bought last year was totally useless from day one - a dead loss. This HP unit, once it was hooked up and the software loaded, worked from the start. Eureka! Of particular interest to people who, like me, have rare or unusual items on laserdisc that may never show up on DVD, is that it will indeed capture video from a laserdisc player. I used the S-video connection for the picture and RCA connectors for the audio. This is important to know because I called HP customer support before buying mine specifically to find this out. After talking to a couple of people in what I assume is some country in the far East, and being on hold for a total of about 25 minutes, I was told that the DC4000 wouldn't work on laserdisc transfers. But something about the way they explained it suggested to me that they weren't really sure, and I suspect that the info HP supplied them to parrot back to inquiring customers didn't address the question at all and they had to improvise their (wrong) answer. Way to go, HP! Anyway, for those who are interested in this application, I can tell you that it does work. I won't suggest that a transfer of a 2 hour film is going to look quite as good as the original laserdisc source, but it does look noticeably better than a VHS copy. Also I'd say that the DC4000 is particularly worthwhile for transferring old VHS tapes, as they tend to deteriorate a little more every year that you keep them, and the two or three that I've copied look reasonably close to the original source. As I understand it, commercially produced DVDs have dual layers for twice the data capacity, as opposed to the one recording surface that recordable DVDs have, which is why they never look as good as the professionally produced product. Nevertheless, this is a very cool item to have, and I'd say that the few discs I've produced so far look better than most homebrewed discs you'd get from eBay sellers or internet entrepreneurs.

WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!!
I had previously tried the 3000 movie writer, but was unable to make it work. Alot of compatability issues with my Dell. I read that alot of others had the same trouble. Then the new 8x 4000 series had came out. So I took a chance it would be better, and it paid off!!! The NEWER writer is not only compatible!! but it works to my amazement!! HP should have done more testing before releasing the first version. Hopefully more people will be willing to try this newer version!!! I enjoy being able to transfer non copyrighted viedos to DVD!!! The quality is excellent!!! I hope more companies can follow in the footsteps of this wonderful product!!! (REMEMBER TO STAY AWAY FROM THE OLDER VERSIONS)