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I didn't have a Sony PSP to hand but for testing I used a 30GB iPod Video and a 4GB USB flash key. Throughout testing, the device generally worked without a hitch and I successfully recorded a variety of video clips from my satellite box and DVD player at all the different quality settings. However, it was when I tried to view the captured video on my iPod that I started to run into difficulties.

Video clips captured onto the iPod are supposed to be viewable immediately after recording, but I was disappointed to find that I couldn't locate and play back any of the saved video clips using the iPod's menu system. Updating the PVT with the latest firmware didn't fix the problem and, despite the best efforts from Pinnacle Support, I was unable to resolve the issue. In order to watch the clips on my iPod, my workaround was to hook it up to iTunes on my PC, then browse for the video files manually (in the hidden F99 directory) and finally add them to my iPod's Video library, but that of course defeats the whole purpose of PC-less video capture. It may well be the case that the latest-generation iPods will work as they should with the PVT, but with only my two-year old iPod Video to hand I have no way of knowing for sure. That's said, Pinnacle will hopefully address this issue.

Quality-wise, the captured video recordings were impressive. Even at the lowest capture setting the recordings looked smooth and clean with no visible jerkiness whatsoever. At the higher quality settings the video looked even better with fewer compression artefacts, and to be honest I had to look (and listen) quite hard to distinguish a difference between the original and the copy.

Verdict

At just under £100, the Pinnacle Video Transfer is a unique little gadget that will appeal to people who don't like the idea of messing around with computers and complicated capture software in order to digitise their movies. Despite the issue I encountered trying to view recordings directly on my iPod Video's display (which hopefully can be fixed in a future firmware update), I found the Pinnacle Video Transfer very easy to use and the results first rate.

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