The Digitnow! HD video Recorder is an all in one transcriber box that will allow you to transfer videos from various sources. Sold as a console game capture device, it will easily transfer old VHS or your Video 8 footage without a problem.
Recordings are saved as MP4 format onto a USB drive.
Made from the US company Digitnow (somewhat similar to a competitor ClearClick), they produce and sell a variety of devices from Turntables, cassette to USB, scanners and video capture.
- 【ALL IN ONE】 The upgraded version of Video Capture Card has built-in H.264 chip, with wide compatibility, with HDMI...
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This capture device also known as the BR107 will capture and upscale to 1080p at 30FPS. With older video types like VHS it will recognize and record at 50FPS or 60FPS (depending on NTSC or PAL region).
I was curious to see how this HD Video Recorder would play out as it’s one of the don’t need a computer type devices.
Not saying that Digitnow! are saying that, but it’s obvious you don’t have to be connected to a PC.
Other features that had me intrigued was the composite and component record options and HDMI in.
Similar to the EZCAP 283s that I reviewed, but at half the price, I wanted to see what other devices from Digitnow! could do.
I did an earlier review of the BR150 USB Video Grabber which is also from Digitnow! and I liked that device.
Digitnow! HD Video Recorder – A Closer Inspection.
Taking a closer look at the BR107 the build quality is hard plastic, safe enough to knock but certainly not an accidental drop.
Along the left hand side we have:
HDMI IN – which will allow you to record from a HDMI input. The device says it is HDCP compliant which I think it is a bit overzealous.
USB – this will be where the MP4 recordings will save to. The test USB I used was a 16Gb formatted to FAT32.
Along the back of the device there are the COMPONENT and COMPOSITE inputs.
Component is only the video signal. You will still need to use the Red/White for sound input.
Composite will just be the yellow, red and white.
Along the right hand side are the:
HDMI OUT – this allows you to use the HD Video Recorder as a throughput, meaning the signal can continue to a TV so you can see what you are watching as you record.
REC-KEY – This is for the remote that comes with the device. (I didn’t use it for these tests).
Along the front of the HD Video Recorder:
RESOLUTION – you can change the resolution from 720p to 1080p. The lights at the far right side will indicate red for 720 and blue for 1080.
INPUT – clicking this button will change the input signal. HDMI will indicate by a blue light, Component will be a red signal.
Clicking a third time will indicate that Composite has been selected.
Along the top of the device is the RECORD button. Simply clicking on the button will commence the capture. Clicking a second time will stop the recording.
A few seconds will pass as the record light flashes as it saves the file to USB.
Digitnow! HD Video Recorder – What’s In The Box?
One thing the HD Video Recorder doesn’t skimp out on is the extras it supplies you with.
As far as value for money, Digitnow! do supply a lot compared greatly to other companies in the same industry.
You receive the BR107 itself, the power supply, the record remote, a HDMI cable, composite RCA cables, software CD and instructions.
Granted you may already have these cables lying around but it’s great to see some companies supply you everything from the get go.
The power supply cable does come as a US plug.
You will need an adapter if you’re from other countries (like myself). The adapter does not come with the BR107.
RCA composite cables are male to male. Yellow for the Video, Red/White for the sound.
The instructions come with a thick booklet covering the simple setups in diagrams and any trouble shoots. All this covered in five languages.
There is also a thank you card from Digitnow for the purchase.
The record button remote is an option if you’re further away from the HD Video Recorder itself.
I guess there are scenarios where you could need it, I personally never have had the need to use the remotes supplied.
A HDMI 1.4 compliant, one meter cable is also supplied.
Interestingly, Digitnow supply a CD for editing. That software is ArcSoft ShowBiz 3.5.
I have a post that covers what ShowBiz 3.5 is like and while some elements are great, there are other elements that are crap.
Digitnow! HD Video Recorder – Connection and Results.
Before connecting a USB it is wise to make sure it is formatted. The HD Video Recorder it will accept NTFS or FAT32 without a problem.
I conducted a test using an old VHS cassette using the composite cables.
I set the device to 1080p, just to see what or if there would be any results.
It says it can upscale but that must be for the gaming capture as my results just showed a normal 720×576 PAL size.
The bitrate is actually not bad and the FPS is (aiming for) 50FPS.
Files are saved in a MP4 format, which is great if you after a quick simple method of saving your memories.
Something I didn’t expect was how sensitive with the input signal.
The above test was stopped at the ten minute mark because the tape was chewed and would go fuzzy for a few seconds. But it was certainly playable.
The HD Video Recorder stopped the recording as this happened.
So what does this mean? You certainly cannot walk away and let it just record by itself unless you are sure there is no problem with any cassettes.
And how can you be sure of tapes sitting in a box for twenty years how they will play back?
Digitnow! HD Video Recorder – Mini DV and HDMI
OK, so I tried testing the BR107 with a Mini DV camera connected via the RCA composite cables plugged in.
Weird, it only accepted the sound. There was no picture?
Confusing times.
The camera records at 50FPS, so is that causing the issue? Didn’t make sense as the VHS tape that I used previously was at 50FPS as well and that worked.
I tried to use this AV to HDMI Upscaling box which allows to receive from AV and export the signal to HDMI.
From there, I plugged the other HDMI end into the HD Video Recorder only to have no picture or sound.
The above method works when using the AverMedia C875 so I was surprised to see it didn’t work here.
So finally I decided to see if it would record from the ezcap 271 playing a downloaded YouTube video.
The reason the screen is black on the ezcap 271 is that when connected via HDMI, the device thinks it is plugged into a TV.
The Digitnow BR107 recorded from the ezcap 271 and upscaled the results to 1280×720.
Maybe its the HDCP being over sensitive and blocking the signal from the HDMI box. I can’t be sure.
And that still wouldn’t explain why the device will not see a Mini DV composite connections.
I may have to do an update on this.
Conclusion.
What do I think about the Digitnow! HD Video Recorder?
I like it but I don’t love it.
I was expecting this to be able to read all cameras and videos thrown its way.
It’s great that it records to MP4 , that I do love. Similar to the ClearClick Video2Digital 2.0, this simplicity of having your old videos in an MP4 format makes copying and sharing much easier than before.
For the moment I’m going to leave it as good but not great.
