Early Adopters Pick: October 2003The first DVD ReWritable Drive with built-in analog video capture lets you quickly and easily transfer home video directly from tape (via camcorder or VCR) to DVD.

The HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 is an external DVD writer with built-in analog video capture. It lets you quickly and easily transfer home video directly from tape (via camcorder or VCR) to digital format on your PC and to DVD+R/+RW discs. It provides a full suite of software to enable video editing along with photo, music and data applications, and it lets you write and read CD-R and CD-RW discs as well as DVD+R/+RW.

The DVD Movie Writer dc3000 lets you better preserve your family memories by easily transferring outdated VHS and other analog videotapes to DVD. HP created the DVD Movie Writer dc3000 as a simple tool to convert videotapes by combining the analog-to-digital conversion and video compression function with a full-fledged DVD writer.

Connected to a desktop or notebook PC through either the USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 port, the HP DVD Movie Writer transfers VHS or other analog tapes and creates digital negatives on long-lasting DVD+R/+RW discs. It can convert video from a variety of formats including VHS, Hi8, Digital 8, Mini DVD and BetaMax, as long as the appropriate format player connects to the Movie Writer. The DVD Movie Writer also functions as a standard DVD/CD writer to burn music, photos and data to CD and DVD backup program files.

After the analog tapes are converted by the Movie Writer to the digital MPEG-2 format--the same format all commercially available DVDs are written to--consumers can edit and share their DVD masterpieces with friends and family. And, users can get as detailed as they want in editing their DVDs. The DVD Movie Writer comes with a number of video-editing software packages, including a full-suite editing package, ArcSoft ShowBiz 2, and MuVee autoProducer, a quick and easy video editing software.

ArcSoft ShowBiz 2 lets consumers add or delete scenes, add music or special effects, or create slideshows set to music. Easy-to-use screens allow users to drag and drop video clips, digital photos and music files in either storyboard or simple timeline editing formats. MuVee autoProducer is a fun and easy editing software that quickly turns digital movies into music videos with a few clicks of a mouse.

The HP DVD Movie Writer also comes with software to help save data, video or music on DVDs and CDs, including Veritas RecordNow and Simple Backup. SimpleBackup reliably backs up, protects and restores individual files or folders or helps restore an entire PC hard drive. Additionally, Cyberlink PowerDVD software makes it easy to play DVD movies on a PC.

What's in the box

• HP dvd movie writer dc3000 external USB drive
• Software CD including electronic user's guide and integrated install software
• Quick start placement
• Getting help guide
• How do I? Guide
• USB cable
• Composite video/audio cable
• One blank DVD+RW disc and one blank DVD+R 4x hi-speed disc