Review: Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac


So you're a Mac user and you have loads of movies that you've recorded from TV or you've shot yourself and you want to copy them to your iPod or iPhone? Pinnacle has a very simple solution.


Image: Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac Box Shot
Pinnacle's low-cost, easy-to-use Dazzle video converter has been around for a long time and has been used, with varying degrees of success, to enable the conversion of older video formats like VHS, Video8 and Hi8 videotape based recordings into something you can be played on your computer or on DVD.

Whilst Windows users have taken advantage of all this stuff for many years, it's been a long, long time since Pinnacle has directly addressed the Apple Mac market and is intended to capitalise on the huge popularity of the iPod Video, iPhone and also Apple TV home network media centre management system.

The process of digitising the analogue video and audio input results in a single, non adjustable video conversion to a 640x480 pixels MPEG-4 video file as recommended by Apple for files to be transferred to iPod Video and iPhone, and that's what the application creates. Having done so, it will automatically push the file into the iTunes Movies folder from where it can be added to existing playlists for syncing with your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV as required.

Designed with the intention of making it as easy as possible for Mac users to get their analogue "legacy" recordings onto their Mac and onto secondary devices, Pinnacle Video for Mac is essentially the Dazzle unit in a new box and accompanied by some Mac-specific software.

Design and Usability


The Dazzle's three RCA phono connecting sockets on the front are complemented by an optional S-Video socket which can be used in place of the yellow composite video input where conversion from either S-VHS or Hi-8 analogue tape or camcorder source is required. It should be noted that no input cabling of any kind is supplied with the unit, however. Installing and setting up the unit for use is a very quick affair - just plug the Dazzle's USB plug into any available socket on your Mac and install the Pinnacle application disc provided.

As Mac users will know, even this is easy. With the disc in the drive, a splash-screen will mount the desktop containing a simple instruction to drag the picture setup folder into the other pictured Mac Applications folder. The application itself is just over 50MB, and once installed you're ready to roll without even the need for a restart.

Image: Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac layout diagram

With the application software open, you're presented with a very user-friendly screen which guides you through the process of checking that you're getting a video picture input and also sound. This is done by playing your source material in order to check that everything's OK - the software takes you through this process in a step-by-step manner, with "Continue" buttons leading to each new step in the process. During this, you'll see and hear the incoming video in the small video window, and the audio levels are graphically represented along the bottom (see image below). When you're happy that it's all OK, simply run the source back to a position a few seconds before the start point, play it and click the big red "Record" button to start the capture process. You can also give the movie file a name by which you wish it to be listed in iTunes.

pinnacle-vc-mac-audio-setup-650

Above: Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac's main window provides a step-by-step setup process which includes checks that pictures and sounds are coming in properly. Here, the incoming stereo audio level is checked (as represented by the horizontal green metering icons). The audio level can be increased or decreased by clicking the little "Loudspeaker" icon situated at the top left of the video window.


You can, if you wish, take aninput from a live video source, such as a digital TV box or video camera, enabling you to (for example) record your favourite TV show direct to iTunes - literally. The software gives you a drop-down option in which you can tell the system to stop digitising after a given period - minimum 30 minutes to a maximum 120 minutes. That means that you can go out for the evening and leave it to get on with it.

Performance


There's no doubt that the product (hardware and software) is so well designed that a complete beginner will have no problem getting started. The quality of the resulting MPEG-4 digital video clips (when played in iTunes) is entirely dependent upon the quality of the original material, of course, but where that material is good the conversion is more than acceptable when played on an iPod's video screen. More importantly, you use your usual method of getting your movie clips across by either dragging and dropping or by using the device's "Sync Now" option. It becomes part of the standard iTunes-to-iPod workflow.

Although the unit was quick to properly display the incoming video image in the preview, we did encounter a problem when the source was paused or, having set-up the inputs properly in preparation to record, the source being put into "stop" mode for a period. Once the player is returned to normal playback mode the Dazzle with then lose timebase stability and the image will break up. The only way around this is to close the application down and open it with the source video actually playing first. Providing that the source video isn't stopped (or the player/camcorder not switched off) there's no subsequent problem.

It's not a major issue, but is one that will certainly confuse - and antagonise - a compete beginner, and assuming that others have also experienced this problem it's something that perhaps Pinnacle should look into.

As a test, we captured a 14 mins 57 seconds video clip via composite video and stereo audio. This resulted in a 640x480 pixels MPEG-4 file (extension ".mp4") totalling 230.6MB in size with an average bit rate of 131Kbps.

Conclusion


As we all know, the Apple iPod product line is now pretty much ubiquitous and it's no surprise to find that many people now prefer to get their older analogue recordings into a form where they can have an extended life on an iPod Video, iPhone or accessible via Apple TV, so Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac will make a perfect bridge for such users. From Pinnacle's perspective, it's a way of extending the life of its Dazzle product, too.

Not having access to an Apple TV installation, it hasn't been possible to test playback in that context; however, we're not convinced that a digitised 640x480 pixels MPEG-4 clip is going to look that impressive on a largish display, to be honest. However, on an iPod-sized window it's pretty good. For the total beginner looking for an easy-to-use device providing a convenient means of extending the life of older legacy video recordings, the Video Capture for Mac is probably all that's required to get a good job done.

Reviewed by: CB. May 2008. Product images courtesy Avid/Pinnacle. Used by permission. Screengrab Copyright 2008 Colin Barrett / SimplyDV Limited.