ADS DVD Xpress Converter - Page 14

Conclusion

ADS has been manufacturing professional DVD converters for quite some time now. It is currently one of the leaders in the DVD conversion arena. The DVD Xpress aims to attract ordinary day-to-day users, but the features of this small sized device have nothing to be jealous of when compared to other professional converters. It uses the popular USB2.0 interface to connect to the PC. The retail package has everything users will need, but we would like to see some high grade video and audio cables included instead of the standard cables are provided, which however in most cases will do just fine.

A set of easy-to-use wizards walk users through all processes and no advanced authoring knowledge is required to create Hollywood looking videos. On the ADS Technologies web site, you can also find all the appropriate plug ins for Ulead Software.

The main advantage of this device is the chipset it uses. The "heart" of the DVD Xpress is the Cirrus Logic CS92199, that can also be found in professional recorders. It produces excellent quality video files, even at low bitrates with moving scenes. Very good brightness levels, although they can be changed through the software. As if all these were not enough, the ADS DVD Xpress uses "Audio-Lock" technology for perfect lip synch, and temporal and spatial video pre-processing filters that reduce video and audio "noise" on old VHS tapes and TV signals.

Unfortunately, video was always captured using 4:3 screen aspect ratio. This means that with all 16:9 scenes, we produced a video file with black areas at the top and bottom of the screen. This is usually done automatically by all DVD players, since most DVD movies are 16:9. These black areas produce bigger file sizes than those of 16:9 captures. Although Dolby Digital sound encoding is not supported, MPEG-1 Layer 2 and Linear PCM audio sounds just fine.

We received many user reports regarding overheating problems with this device. It is true that the device heats up rather quickly and overheating might cause software freezes. On the other hand, you will have no problem encoding a 3 hour movie but if you need to make a time arranged recording and need to have the device plugged for many hours, you must ensure a cool environment and proper ventilation around the device. We used a small fan and made a 12 hour encoding with no problem.

Considering the video quality files the device produces, we expected to see a price from most online stores that reflected this quality. We were surprised to see that the device costs only $79.99, a very low price for what it has to offer.

- The Good

• High quality video and audio
• Audio Lock technology and video pre-processing filters
• Full retail package that has anything users need to get started
• Very easy to use software
• Very low CPU usage
• USB2.0 connectivity
• Wide range of video bitrates supported

- The Bad

• Can only capture at 4:3
• No IEEE1394/Firewire support
• No MacOS support
• No support for AC3 audio format encoding
• Minor overheating problems in some cases