Product Details

• Brand: Ion
• Model: ION VCR2PC
• Released on: 2008-05-08
• Dimensions: 6.43" h x 14.56" w x 16.25" l, 12.00 pounds

Features

• VHS tape playback
• RCA and USB outputs
• NTSC Version
• Auto tracking and tape playback
• LED-backlit buttons

From the Manufacturer
ION Audio continues to innovate with the all-new VCR 2 PC, which lets users rediscover their home movies and watch them anywhere. VCR 2 PC's transfer technology saves home movies, family videos, and personal tapes directly to a PC. Imagine never having to dig for tapes again or worry if they will work.

Once you save your precious memories to your computer, they will be saved forever in pristine digital format. Included EZ VHS Converter software can even export your video in MPEG4 format for compatibility with select mobile phones and portable multimedia devices!

Connect a VHS, VHS-C, or 8MM camcorder to the front panel jacks to backup your camcorder videos. When you're finished archiving your videos to your computer, VCR 2 PC is the perfect VHS player for any room in the house.

Included software lets you burn your home movies to DVD, watch on your PSP, iPod or laptop computer. Player Features RCA audio/video inputs to archive from external sources like video cameras Composite video output and audio line output Auto tracking, variable speed slow-motion, playback, and rewind Soft-touch backlit buttons PAL version features SCART output Software

VCR 2 PC FEATURES:

• Connects to Windows XP and Vista machines via USB 2.0 port
• Capture video at resolutions up to 720 x 480 (NTSC) or 720 x 576 (PAL)
• Sends video uncompressed over the USB cable
• Burn Video to DVD Export video to iPod or PSP® format
• Plug and play USB computer connection Standard RCA and composite outputs for connection to any TV or home theater system
• Standard RCA inputs for connecting video cameras
• Auto-tracking, variable speed slow motion, playback, and rewind
• Soft-touch, backlit buttons

Customer Reviews

Love this product!
I purchased this unit after trying various other methods of getting my old family VHS tapes onto my computer to make DVD's. I was not happy with anything I had tried so this was my last resort. Truthfully, I hated to spend the $ on another VCR. I read the reviews on this product after I purchased it and immediately second-guessed my reasons for purchasing. I planned to return it due to the dismal reviews but it ended up sitting in the box for a month. Finally I decided I might as well try it. I'm so glad I did!

This product is easy to use out of the box. Plug it into the wall, plug the USB into the computer, install the software, put in a tape and press record. I like that you can leave it recording and go do something else. I found the software installation very quick and easy. The documentation with the unit is not very detailed but it is a very simple program to figure out. I like that you can edit the video within the program before burning to DVD. I like that it saves the files onto computer in JPEG files so I can further edit and play with them in MovieMaker or another program. This unit/program can not be faulted for poor quality from old VHS tapes. I feel that some reviewers blame this unit for that. I have not yet tried this with my vhs-c tapes and adapter. If any problems are encountered I will report.

The software burns DVD's very nicely, has a menu format and different choices of menu designs. It also will print DVD jewel case inserts to match. Someone's review also seemed to blame this unit for their machine not having enough memory for video. It's fairly common knowledge that video eats up memory. Each of my 2 hr. vhs tapes is hogging up to 4 GB's on my harddrive. My solution was to purchase a portable external hard drive that I will put all family video on and that takes care of that!

I've had no problems with dropped frames but do occasionally have some problems with tracking that I feel are not the fault of this machine but due to the fact that most of my tapes are a quarter of a century old! The only fault I can find so far with this unit is that the tracking buttons don't make much difference in quality when I do have a problem. During these times, I take the tape and put in another VCR in my house and tweak it as much as I can. I expect to lose some video after all this time in storage and so far, out of 15 tapes, I'd say I've only had to edit out about 15 minutes due to tracking problems.

This unit, in my opinion, has already paid for itself. The cost of someone else converting these was expensive. I am very happy with this product; it's doing exactly what I needed it to do!

Update: All vhs tapes copied fine to pc. I then moved onto vhs-c and mini-dv tapes. I did not use the adapters and instead used the cables that came with each camera. I used the video cameras as the vcr to play the tapes and then ran them through the Ion VCR 2 PC. (The video and audio cables plug easily into the front of the unit) Set the tape/other switch to other and you're good to go. Everything went off without a hitch. I am very happy with this machine and the software. The instructional manual can be accessed while running the program by pressing the F1 key on your keyboard. This is very helpful with the software.

Great for converting VHS to digital media
just finished my first VHS Tape to MPEG conversion with the VCR2PC and it couldn't have been easier. the only issue i ran into was installing it on Windows 7 x64 because the driver on the CD isn't digitally signed. however, you go to the site and under documentation & downloads i got the instructions on how to update the driver and the digitally signed driver for x86/x64 XP/Vista/7

the video and audio quality was an exact replica of the original tape.

here are the steps i took:
1. plug VCR2PC into outlet
2. insert cd into PC
3. plug usb cable into PC and VCR2PC
3.a at this point it should have auto installed but i just got a message box in the tray that said your hardware was not installed correctly.
3.b i went to Device Manager and there a yellow exclamation on VCR2PC, i right clicked on it, updated the driver and pointed to the CD
3.c the driver installed successfully but Windows Vista/7 x64 disabled the driver because it was not digitally signed by the publisher
3.d i went to www.ion-audio.com/vcr2pc click on Documents & Downloads and downloaded the following:
3.d.1 VCR 2 PC - NTSC Hardware Driver [v1.43.07.50]
3.d.2 VCR 2 PC - Driver Update Instructions
3.e i unzipped the NTSC Hardware Driver zip file to a temp folder C:\Temp
3.f i went back to Device Manager right clicked on VCR2PC and updated the driver again this time pointing to C:\Temp
4. from the CD i ran the setup file on the root of the CD and ran the default settings
5. i opened EZ VHS Converter (ArcSoft product, excellent software package that is compatible with Media Center remotes)
5.a i got an error that said there is a problem with my sound device, i ignored this error
6. i put in Rush Hour VHS tape which wasn't rewound so it started automatically in the middle. i got audio perfectly and in sync so i figured the error about the sound device wasn't worth looking into
6.a i rewound the tape and played from the beginning
7. the movie box says approx 97 minutes so i set EZ VHS Converter to record for 1 hour 40 minutes
8. when the tape got to the point where i wanted to start the recording i just clicked Record
8.a 1 hour and 40 minutes later i had my MPEG version of my VHS in my Videos folder. (My Documents/My Videos)

you can also set it to record for more time and just click Record/Stop to manually adjust the length of recording time.
there is also a check box you can check for automatically creating a DVD.

the 1 hour 40 minutes converted to a 2.94GB MPEG.

it also has composite out and single channel audio out so it can double as a standard DVD player.

the one drawback to this product is the lack of editing software. i don't need it but it is definitely something that should be included. however, there are plenty of free editing tools out there.

i'm sure some of the negative review are from people using underpowered computers that couldn't keep up with the conversion. i have no idea what the minimum specs would be as i haven't found them anywhere. you shouldn't need a real powerful computer but i could the average user with their junked up PC having an issue.

it says right on the FAQ that it isn't compatible with XP/Vista 64-bit. but in the drivers both on the cd and the downloaded version there is a 0140_x64.sys file and a 0140_x86.sys file so obviously the drivers are either compatible or they aren't fully tested yet. i've tested both Win7 and Vista 64 and both work fine

Beware the lack of software!
I had been shopping around quite a bit for a way to transfer dozens of cherished VHS tapes to DVD. I found this product, and thought it would be a simple easy solution. Yikes! Was I wrong, big time. To begin, the installation was a gigantic pain. After consulting Ion tech support, and installing and uninstalling the software a couple of dozen times, I finally got my PC to talk to the box. OK, now we can get going! So, I loaded in some video, worked well. Then the big surprise... I wanted to edit my video using the Muvee Producer software, which the description says (twice!) is included in the package. SURPRISE!!! Muvee Producer is NOT INCLUDED with this purchase. I called up Ion to ask about this. The response was that Amazon and other dealers had the product description wrong, this software was not supported, and it didn't come with the unit.

This VCR2PC device came with the most basic of editing programs, and it did basically nothing. So, after fighting the unit for a week, finally getting it installed, I discovered no editing software was included. I shopped it back yesterday. Beware!!!