Convert Video to DVD with the HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000

D. Eric Franks
April 2004

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We cover lots of cool DVD gear and software in this magazine, but feedback from our readers reveals that while you love reading about all of this fancy technology, most of you just want to put your home movies on DVD. You aren't really interested in capturing, editing, authoring and burning, except as a means to an end. The easiest solution would be to get a standalone VCR-replacement DVD burner for video to DVD transfer. HP has another solution: the DVD Movie Writer dc3000. This external DVD drive is a great solution if you have a computer with a USB 2.0 port and analog video sources you want to put on DVD.

The heart of the dc3000 is a standard HP 300n 4x DVD+R burner that you connect to your computer via a USB port (USB 2.0 is really a requirement). It shows up as a DVD disc drive on your machine, just like any other DVD burner. You can burn data discs as well as CDs.

The essence of the HP dc3000, however, is its analog video capturing and MPEG-2 encoding capabilities. The side of the unit has a standard array of S-video, RCA composite video and stereo RCA jacks, so you can plug an analog video source into the drive.

We hooked the dc3000 up to our computer and it immediately appeared as a DVD drive in Windows XP. At this point, we could burn data discs and music CDs. We then installed the included software suite, which is necessary for video to DVD transfer from your camcorder.

After we rebooted, a dialog popped up and automatically installed a firmware update for the drive. Firmware is a small piece of software that resides on a solid-state memory chip on the drive. This firmware is what controls the drive. Your computer's software says "Burn a DVD+R disc, please," but it is the firmware that tells the laser where to go, when to turn on and how fast the disc should spin. Firmware updates have been important since DVD technology has been improving and changing so rapidly. For example, a firmware update may allow your older 2x DVD burner to work with 4x blank media (even though it won't increase the speed of the drive itself). Screwing up your firmware when attempting to update it can ruin your drive, so we appreciate that HP made the process foolproof.

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