VuPoint and the Art of Digitizing Old VHS Tapes

I’ve been playing with the VuPoint ST100B Digital Video Converter for several days now, and so far I’m pleased with my impulse purchase. Digitizing old analog media is more an art than a science, but one that at least has gotten easier over the years.

Set-up with the VuPoint converter is quick and painless. It comes packaged with cords to plug into your TV and VHS player, and once you insert an SD card, hit power, and switch over to the right TV input, you’re good to go for recording. Your choices at this point are limited, but in this case, that’s a good thing. There are only four buttons on the VuPoint box – Power, Record, Play, and Next. Hit Record once to start recording, and again to stop. To enter playback mode, hit the Play button once, and then press it again to view your latest recording. If you have multiple videos recorded, use  the Next button to cycle through your library.

And that’s it.

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iPhone SlingPlayer Updated for HQ, New Guide

Late last night, an updated SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone was released to the App Store. And the refreshed placeshifting software inherits two notable features from its iPad big brother… the new program guide and, much more significantly, higher resolution streaming — I’m thinking in the neighborhood of 640×480 and utilizing H.264 encoding. Which is why … Read more

Roku Update Deployed, 1080p for XR

Looks like the good folks at Roku aren’t phoning it in this holiday season as they’ve pushed a modest update to their media streamer lineup ($60 and up). Highlights include the promised 1080p support for prior generation XR units and a variety of Hulu Plus optimizations for everyone. The complete 2.9-b1509 changelog can be found … Read more

YouTube (2.1) for Android (2.2) Updated

Google has rolled out  a new version of its YouTube app for Android, with a retooled user interface that lets you view video descriptions, rate videos, or browse for related videos without stopping playback of the video you’re watching. YouTube 2.1 also lets you post comments while a video continues to play. Additionally, the new … Read more

Goodbye, FLO TV

Looks like Qualcomm has given up on the idea of transitioning FLO TV to any potential suitors, as they’ve just unveiled a generous hardware rebate program: In consideration of the FLO TV service ending on March 27, 2011 we are offering a rebate on FLO TV devices. The rebate amount is determined by the retail price of … Read more

First Impressions: Xfinity App for Android

If you’re an Android user and have been dying to try out the new Xfinity app, you’re wait is over. Comcast released the app for the Android platform this week, complete with email inbox, digital voice account access, TV listings, on-demand menus, and access to your myDVR Manager app. The new Android implementation is solid, … Read more

TiVo Premiere as Box of the Year?

In response to my Boxes of the Year column, I received some interesting correspondence wondering why the TiVo Premiere wasn’t more highly regarded – especially as I’m an owner. First off, I’m the owner of many boxes. Some I like more than others. So that doesn’t really play into the equation. Also, if I weren’t … Read more

Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb Coming to Tablets

Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread? That’s so yesterday morning. Last evening Google’s Any Rubin pulled a prototype Motorola Tablet out of his bag, and it was running an early build of Android 3.0 Honeycomb. He says the new operating system will be available “next year” and it’s designed to work with both phones and tablets. That means it supports … Read more