Another way to capture digital video

Digital video is easy to capture with web cams  but they're usually have an unzoomable wide angle lens and have no viewfinder, so you have to watch the computer to point them.  Video is easy to capture with Mini-DV cams, but then you have to connect the thing to your computer and do a real time capture of the video.  There are VHS webcams out there that are pretty good camera's, but what use is a VHS tape these days.  Pinnacle systems has come up with a device that can help all these problems.  It has analog video connectors on one side and a USB port on the other into which you can plug a Flash drive or a USB hard drive.  Almost all camcorders, digital or otherwise have analog video outputs that are live whenever the camera is on. (Although I think the intention was to use that to play back recorded material on a TV set.)  With this new device, the Pinnacle Video Transfer, you can use them to capture digital video.

Here's a link to a five minute video demonstrating it I made for the Communications Faculty at UW Oshkosh.

It's also great for  capturing all those VHS tapes in digital format.

Here's a link to the product website