Capturing Videos using the Turtle Beach Video Advantage

The Package

Turtle Beach includes everything you'll need to use the Video Advantage PCI straight out of the box. A complete set of cables - over-promoted as a $50 value - includes an ordinary RCA stereo patch cord, RCA to mini-jack stereo patch cable, thin S-Video and composite video cables, and a 4-pin IEEE-1394 FireWire cable. The other cables shown are used for connecting the card to the front bay panel and soundcard ports. Also included is a full-sized manual (not shown), quick setup guide, software CD, extension brackets for mounting the bay panel on systems that require rear support, and several screws.

Software

An excellent software package makes the Video Advantage a standout product. The ordinary AD FullCap capture software is supplemented by Cyberlink PowerDirector 3 capture/editing package, PowerProducer Express DVD authoring package, and the Voyetra Audio Surgeon audio solution. In fact, the retail value of the included software exceeds the price of the Video Advantage! Although PowerDirector 3 is one version outdated and PowerProducer Express lacks features already found in PowerDirector, if you were in the market for good software, this is as close as you'll get to free hardware!

AD FullCap takes care of your basic needs, but compares poorly to PowerDirector

PowerDirector includes lots of great features you'll want to learn

PowerProducer offers additional authoring tools and direct DVD/CD burning

After starting with AD FullCap, a switch to PowerDirector leaves some amazed at its abilities. More than just editing software, you can also capture directly from within PowerDirector; the software also supported all our input sources, not just the Video Advantage. A little time spent browsing the menus goes a long way toward figuring out the features. Advanced features take a little longer to learn, especially when you didn't know you "needed" them.