I have had this program up and running for several days now, but in that short time have discovered that this is a wonderful one! I had previously purchased a Different Program from Another Company that had excellent technical help, which was a good thing because they needed it! I am not a computer whiz, in fact my family shudders every time I have to do anything new or complicated on the computer because I become a nervous wreck. I have Vista, and Honestech's VHS to DVD program loaded perfectly on the first try. Utterly painless. They give excellent, concise install instructions, and the whole program is on a single cd. Even better, at the same time it is loading your VHS to DVD program, it is also loading a detailed pdf manual with its own desktop icon. I learned from experience that this manual can be kept open while you are running the VHS to DVD program, so if you need to doublecheck anything, you can just click over and follow along in the manual.
I use the Advanced feature where I can edit, merge and save, plus reopen projects for later burning. I have not done the basic, straight to dvd feature because I want to save to my external hard drive once they have been burned. The Advanced feature is not difficult to learn, and as I said, you have the nifty, clear and easy to follow manual to figuratively hold your hand if you need it. The Edit feature is more fun than fun. There is a cute scissors icon that you click both before and after any parts you want to delete. The forward and reverse icons have a choice of increments for more precise editing. Segments that have been edited are just dragged and dropped into the Storyboard, where you can also add special effects (I haven't done that yet) or titles, which I have done. (Something I learned is that you cannot get into the special features like Titles until you have placed at least one section onto the Storyboard.) I will confess that the "Merge and Save" after editing takes a while, but it makes a very smooth video.
The Other Program wouldn't open again after I closed it, so I was a bit jumpy when I closed this program the first time. However, it opens happily every time.
I suppose people want to know the downside, too, so there are a couple things to take into consideration. First, this is not a quick thing. You have to play videos into it in real time. Then it does take time to process if you use the Advanced feature, both in the "Merge and Save" feature previously mentioned, and again when preparing to burn to dvd. If you hoped to transfer all your VHS tapes in a weekend, revise your estimate, at least with the Advanced feature. Third, you cannot fit a lot onto each dvd. The dvds say they hold 120 minutes, and that is about what you will get here, depending on the "quality" feature you choose. I was able to put a lot more per dvd with the VHS to DVD vcr machines, but none of my machines ever lasted more than 6 months before they died.
I love this program! I am enjoying it immensely, and agree with the reviewer who said it was lovely to rediscover old memories. I say this is the best program you can get, affordable, easy to learn, and fun to boot!
4/27/2011
Addendum: I have been using this program every day since I got it and discovered another Really Nifty thing it does. I had one truly awful video, dark and with washed- out color, and this program has a feature beneath each segment of the Storyboard where you can brighten, increase contrast, and saturate what color you do have. Using this feature, I was able to transform a virtually unwatchable video into one that I am glad to share with others.
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