Kworld DVD Maker 2 from f%$#ing Jaycar

[GK]

I'm an idiot. Against all prior experience I went ahead and did something that I shouldn't have. I bough a piece of dodgy-brand AV kit from Jaycar, namely Kworld's "DVD maker 2" video and sound USB capture dongle:  https://www.jaycar.com.au/usb-2-0-dvd-maker/p/XC4867

Note that that product page on Jaycar's website is out of date. The version they are currently selling is supposedly compatible with Windows 7 through 10 (I have 7) and comes bundled with Power Director version 12.

The unit comes with software and driver installation instructions but absolutely nothing else. There is no description of how the supplied software is supposed to be used in conjunction with this device at all.

When I run PowerDirector 12 and intuitively click on the "Capture" tab I get this:



When I plug in my "DVD maker 2" into a spare USB 2.0 port, it is recognized as an audio capture device only, as indicated by the illumination/activation of the microphone icon:



I can click on this microphone icon and record audio through the device.......



....... but I cannot get the device to be recognized by Power Director 12 (or anything else) as any form of video capture device. There is a "One click capture" button on the unit which is presumably supposed to activate recording, but it does nothing whatsoever.

So far I've wasted a few hours of my life with this piece of crap and the most pertinent review I have found is this one:

http://www.toptenreviews.com/computers/peripherals/best-vhs-to-dvd-converters/kworld-dvd-maker-review/

.... which declares that the unit is incompatible with the supplied software and the reviewer states that he/she only managed to get the device to work/recognized with a Win XP version of Windows Live Movie Maker, which is no help to me. And so far I've also googled in vain for any information at all pertaining to specifically using this thing with version 12 of Power Director on Win 7.

Just marvel with jaw agape, for example, at this Youtube video "review" of the product, extolling its many virtues:



Holy vacuous waffle Batman! Useful technical content: ABSOLUTELY ZERO! The only thing of worth there is the comment left by Jeff Duck:

This is simply a piece of crap. It says on the box "Win8 Ready" but nothing anywhere else says anything about Win 8. It doesn't seem to do anything. It doesn't look like it does in the video (physical design is slightly changed) and includes a button and a light. The button doesn't seem to do anything and the light doesn't light up. By my experience and reports of others, it doesn't run with the version of PowerDirector that's included in the box and it also doesn't run with the PowerDirector that I got on my Win 8 PC. The instructions don't say anything about how it works - just how to install. The installation instructions just tell you to click on OKs and Continues - not anything about what's actually happening. There's no software interface for the product and the drivers don't include the Win controls that it shows. It just doesn't work and there's no information to tell you what to do to make it work or how to verify that it will work.

Yep!
 
And finally, while the drivers at least seemingly installed correctly for me, Windows in Device Manager still reports a potential issue (whatever relevance the described issue might have or is supposed to mean I don't know.):



I'm now practically satisfied that I've wasted enough of my life on yet another junk/turkey/unusable/not-fit-for-purpose Jaycar product. This post is just a reach-out to anyone potentially reading the forum who might have bought this thing also but maybe figured out how to actually make it work.

That failing, I'm just going to return it in a day or two.

[GK]

Back to the Jaycar product page:  https://www.jaycar.com.au/usb-2-0-dvd-maker/p/XC4867

.... I notice that under the specification table there are a pair of links for downloading the products driver and software files; specifically:

Driver:
https://www.jaycar.com.au/medias/sys_master/images/9055145721886/XC4867-driverMain.zip

Software:
https://www.jaycar.com.au/medias/sys_master/images/9055145820190/XC4867-softwareMain.zip


I don't know if these downloads are to be my savior or if they are just a copy of the seemingly useless software that comes bundled with the device on a CD, but so far I've downloaded the "driver" .zip (freaking twice) and, despite being 33MB in size, windows reports it to be an invalid zip with empty content   

I am currently limited to a download speed of less than 30kB/sec so I haven't attempted to download the "software" .zip. I don't know how big the file is and my browser can't estimate either as the files on the server don't have an appropriate header.

Can anyone else try to test/confirm if these .zip files are valid to download and extract?

Thanks.

[Kean]

Yep, I get the same problem with that ZIP file.

A quick peruse of the file show is starting with "PK" so it is a ZIP file, but corrupted.
It seems to only contain a folder structure of "XC4867-driverMain-update/XC4867-driverMain/Acrobat" and that Acrobat folder has copies of Acrobat 8.12 in German and Czech.
Seems like it has been truncated when they uploaded it to the site.

[GK]

Thanks mate.

I think that all hope is lost truly with this doovalacky, LOL.

Bugger this for now, I am going to bed.

[BrianHG]

Why are these yoyo's feeding their .zip files as a stream instead of as a standard http/ftp file with defined length?
Why do they send you multiple copies of adobe acrobat in the same .zip file?

Try here:
https://www.solvusoft.com/en/update/drivers/dvd-maker/kworld/dvd-maker-2-dvd-maker-2/sub-models/

[Ampera]

I know too late now, but for that kinda dough, go on Newegg and get yourself a real capture card. I spent a bit more than that and got a PVR2. It's great, and the software is "usable" to Happauge's standards (although they have stopped being dicks about their software now). It does composite (they say you need a cable, but you can use the component cable and use a specific combination of the connectors) component, HDMI, and S-Video (cable needed for that). Works over USB 2 and is fine.

Honestly, any generic capture card should do off Newegg. For VHS, just something that does composite is fine enough, as that's all the quality there is on VHS.

EDIT: Actually, try OBS with it. If you have the drivers installed, it might detect it and be able to use it. Better than nothing.

[GK]

Try here:
https://www.solvusoft.com/en/update/drivers/dvd-maker/kworld/dvd-maker-2-dvd-maker-2/sub-models/

Tried that link and it's basically a con. The "Download Now
(Kworld Driver Update Software)" isn't actually Kworld-specific at all.

Clicking that link just installs the Solvusoft "Driver Doctor" software onto your machine. When you run Driver Doctor, it scans your PC, virus-checker-like, but gives you a list of system drivers which it has identified as out of date. I have no idea where it is sourcing the various up-to-date drivers from and I wouldn't trust anything for non-mainstream stuff like Kworld products to be legit. However when you click the "update drivers" button you are taken to a registration/payment page and you can't actually use the program to find and auto-update any drivers at all without paying for it.

A pretty damn sneaky marketing strategy. 

[Shock]

OMG you nonce don't link spyware to people in the forum.

[Ampera]

I was about to say, solvusoft is a load of crap. They are just a driver scam website that insists you download a "tool" to "help" you with your drivers.

[BrianHG]

  Sorry, my bad...

[cdev]

There are FOSS DVD creation programs on all platforms, no need to buy commercial software.

But if you do buy commercial hardware, "Hauppage!" are great people who stand behind their stuff, who go out of their way to help people get the best out of them, including Linux users.

[GK]

Returned for a refund this afternoon with no argument, though the salesman did state with bafflement that it should work right out of the box with Win 7 and DirectX 9 or greater as specified, though he would say that in any case I guess.

[digsys]

OOOOOOOPS .. should have checked with EEVBlog first ! :-)  Just bought one from JC as well ...
OK, so originally I bought the ElGato type from cpl. Very happy with it, but the supplied software is a bit "simple". Works fine, but bugger all controls.
Tried a few programs to P/Process after the capture, and that was fine, but getting messy. (somehow I have 60+ 3hr (LP) tapes to convert)
Happened to be in JC for a s-video lead (last people on earth with one), and I saw the KWorld, specs seems ok, so bought it.
Auto-install (Win7) did not go well - all sorts of new errors that I haven't seen before. Fiddled around with manual install of drivers etc, back and forth,
and finally got the DVD Maker 2 (dongle) and Power Director 12 working and talking to each other.
Not happy with PD12, decided to see what other programs are compatible .... STUCK. FIRST google search brought me here :-)
I'll persevere with KWorld for a bit, then if no luck, go back to ElGato, at least it installed flawlessly. I'll report back.
How did you end up GK?

[amyk]

Look up the VID:PID pair and you'll find appropriate drivers. Based on the eMPIA description I believe it to be a https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Em28xx_devices

The problem with these is they all use one of several different chipsets and the provided software often only has drivers for the wrong one.

Ironically, they're probably easier to get working in Linux than Windows.

[GK]

How did you end up GK?

As stated in my prior post, I returned it for a refund. If you actually manged to get the bundled drivers and software to recognise the thing as a video capture device in whatever version of Windows that you are running, then you got further than I did.

[digsys]

As stated in my prior post, I returned it for a refund. If you actually manged to get the bundled drivers and software to recognize the thing as a video capture device in whatever version of Windows that you are running, then you got further than I did. 

It was a battle, and couldn't find any other video editing program that worked with it "nicely". PD12 etc were just too complicated, so I went back to ElGato.
Very simple, basic, DAMN fast - and I can do fancy post-edit IF I desire. So you never tried anything else?
Well, one good thing, I already have ONE xmas present ready :-)