Easy to use HP DVD writer should prove interesting to digicams users
Hewlett-Packard has unveiled an interesting, simple to use, DVD-recorder that could be attractive to digital camera users. The HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 is a 2.4x DVD+RW and 4x DVD+R external DVD burner with its own integrated composite video digitiser.
Although primarily aimed at people wanting to digitally archive analogue video recordings, the dc3000 drive has bundled photo slide show creation software and its movie editing software can be used with digital video footage shot by various digital still cameras.
HP's research indicates that while DVD burners are now rapidly becoming established as standard specification for many up to date PCs, users find it difficult to set up and use convenient and reliable video to DVD recording. Matching up the drive, PC, digitiser and software is a non-trivial task. This means that we apparently use DVD burner drives mainly for writing to recordable CDs. HP's goal was to supply an all-in-one DVD burner and digitiser, complete with a bundle of easy to use utility programs making up a matched and tested out of the box DVD recording solution.
In essence, the dc3000 is a cased and mains-powered external DVD+R/RW writer drive sporting composite video and S-Video AV-inputs. There is no support for direct IEE1384 DV connection from, for example, digital camcorders. Besides DVD recording, the dc3000 can read and write music, data and video CDs too. Being a DVD-writer, you can use the dc3000 to store any PC files and back-up your hard drive.
It's not a stand-alone recorder, so you need to connect it via USB (ideally USB Hi-Speed) to your PC. Mac users, unfortunately, there is no support for your OS. You can connect any conventional video source to the dc3000 and record in either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format onto DVD+R or DVD+RW discs. The drive can be used physically in horizontal or sideways orientation.
One impressive item of software bundled with the dc3000 is 'Muvee' – an automated video highlights builder that intelligently analyses long video footage and selects short clips to build a jazzed up sequence of highlights in time with a music backing track of your choice – it's very impressive. The digital stills slide show builder has a good set of features, including various fades and wipes between images and musical backing as required. Slide shows and video movies can be saved to either DVD or CD formats.
At £279 inc.VAT the dc3000 undercuts most stand alone DVD recorders designed to replace VCRs in the living room. You can buy and install a DVD burner, video digitiser and the various software required, for less than the cost of a dc3000 but the attraction is that it works out of the box with the minimum of installation hassles. The HP Movie Writer dc3000 should be in the shops around the end of this month.
www.hp.co.uk
