Plextor's reputation for manufacturing high-quality CD and DVD optical disc drives has been extended to the ConvertX PX-M402U, the company's first foray into the digital video market. The ConvertX PX-M402U is a compact, stylish and very capable real-time hardware digital video converter that lets you input analogue video from a variety of sources and output high-quality video onto both CD and DVD media. Video capture formats are plentiful, but there's no digital inputs and it doesn't support Dolby Digital encoding or widescreen aspect ratios. Nevertheless, it's one of the most stable and easy-to-use devices for encoding video into popular formats for DVD playback, as well as Web and portable-device video delivery.

Pros: Stable; easy to use; supports DivX and MPEG-4 encoding
Cons: No DV or FireWire inputs, Dolby encoding or widescreen support


Plextor Europe entered the digital video market at CeBIT 2004 (Hannover, Germany 18-24 March), when it unveiled the ConvertX PX-M402U, a real-time hardware digital video converter and editing device for Windows-based computers. Reviewed here, the stylish and relatively robust device makes light work of converting video to any of the today's most popular video formats, including DivX, MPEG-1/Video CD (up to 352x288 pixels), MPEG-2 (up to 720x576 pixels) and MPEG-4 (up to 720x576 pixels). Unfortunately, only 4:3 aspect ratios are supported, so you won't be able to record in widescreen (16:10).

The ConvertX PX-M402U is really easy to use and provides non-technical users with a good-value offering to get into video-editing. The package consists of the everything you need in order to capture and record DVD-quality video from a TV, VCR, digital camera or camcorder and automatically convert it into the desired format. The package contains the silver ConvertX PX-M402U unit itself (184x155x32.4mm, 525g), stereo audio and S-Video cables, USB cable, Scart adapter, power cable, Quick Installation Guide, and a more in-depth User Manual on the CD-ROM. Plextor also supplies InterVideo's entry-level WinDVD Creator 2.0 and WinDVD 5 software applications for authoring and playing back DVDs, respectively.

Installing and configuring the ConvertX PX-M402U on our test system was straightforward and trouble-free as it requires just a single power and USB 2.0 connection (FireWire not supported). After installing the software, the ConvertX PX-M402U is then recognised as a USB device, allowing you to then import and edit video. We tested the device with a Sony DCR-PC100E digital camcorder, which worked seamlesslyy using S-Video and audio connections. Unfortunately, there's no DV or FireWire inputs, which would have made it even easier and quicker to transfer digital video files.

The ConvertX PX-M402U is the first product of its kind to support MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 encoding, providing you with several options for long-term storage of video. For example, MPEG-1 could be used to record one hour of video on a VCD, while MPEG-2 could be used to record up to two hours of high-quality video on a single DVD. MPEG-4 could be utilised to store around 2 hours of highly-compressed video on a standard CD or around 10 hours' on a DVD.

Creating a CD or DVD is done in four steps using the WinDVD Creator software: capture, edit, create and share. The first task is to capture video from your A/V source, or pictures from your camera, either directly via the ConvertX PX-M402U or from a file saved on your computer. Alternatively, you can copy video straight to a re-writable DVD, such as a DVD-RW or DVD+RW disc, which is a quick and easy way to archive un-edited video.

The next step is to edit your video. In the software's editing mode, you can arrange your media content in the order you want the clips to be viewed, as well as trim the files to the desired time length using either timeline or storyboard views. You can also add other images or video, as well as add video transitions from the supplied library. Audio can be added from CDs, a microphone, or other source, and you can also add titles and effects. Other features of the software include the ability to select recording quality, use a countdown recording timer and view real-time encoding playback. Editing controls include trimming, title insertion, an MPEG cutter and combine/divide video tools.

The third step is to author the CD or DVD by adding menus and other interactive features using the software's themes. Authoring allows you to add the menus that your viewers interact with when they playback your CD or DVD on their computer or regular DVD player. The software automatically adds a play button and a chapter menu thumbnail to your project, which when clicked on shows a preview.

Finally, the fourth step is to share your project by clicking the software's Make Movie button. This allows you to burn your movie to a CD or DVD using one of several formats. From here you can also specify the TV system you use (PAL or NTSC), as well as name your masterpiece. If preferred, the video can be saved to your hard disk and burned at a later date. There's also a preview button for proofing your video before committing to disc.

The thing we liked most about the ConvertX PX-M402U is that is produced stable, well-saturated output that was free from frame dropouts - even when capturing poorly recorded test material. Its hardware-encoded DivX output (the only encoder certified by DivX Systems) was also surprisingly smooth and never lost audio synchronisation when transcoded to an MPEG-1 VCD or MPEG-2 DVD. You'll soon likely outgrow the bundled software, but it's still a well-rounded and good-value offering for those looking to get into Windows-based video editing.

Links:
ConvertX PX-M402U Web site

BIOS, Aug 24, 04 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Video