ClonerAlliance Box Pro, 1080p@60fps Video Recorder, DVR with HDMI Capture, Playback on TV. RCA/YPbPr/VGA to Digital Converter. Schedule Recording. No PC Required. Electronics

Weight	3 lbs
Brand	‎ClonerAlliance
Series	‎ClonerAlliance Box Pro
Item model number	‎CA-998P
Operating System	‎Windows
Item Weight	‎6.8 ounces
Product Dimensions	‎4.3 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
Item Dimensions LxWxH	‎4.3 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
Color	‎Black
Voltage	‎5 Volts
Batteries	‎2 AAA batteries required.
Manufacturer	‎ClonerAlliance
ASIN	‎B012T1D0IG
Country of Origin	‎China
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer	‎No
Date First Available	‎June 12, 2016
Customer Reviews	4.1 out of 5 stars
Best Sellers Rank	#25 in Internal TV Tuner & Video Capture Cards

60 reviews for ClonerAlliance Box Pro, 1080p@60fps Video Recorder, DVR with HDMI Capture, Playback on TV. RCA/YPbPr/VGA to Digital Converter. Schedule Recording. No PC Required. Electronics

Rated 4 out of 5
Giacinto M. – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good unit and does what is advertised. Missing 5.1 surround output though
I had issues with the unit properly performing when formatting my Sandisk 256 GB 3.0 USB drive to NTFS. Yes….you get one large file but it’s not worth the issues and features you lose on the unit. I had to format the drive with FAT32.The unit then corrected all the issues I experienced which if it hadn’t it would have been returned.Issues which were:1. FFWD and RWD feature of my recordings did not work. RWD gave “not supported” message and FFWD just gave choppy forward movement at no accelerated pace.2. Encountered audio/video lip sync issues. (Still occurring but not as severe)3. Resume playback feature didn’t work.FAT32 format fixed all the above. My main motive of using this unit is to record streaming content off my Roku to FFWD through all the commercials. The FAT32 format produced and split about 2 GB files in Medium bitrate recording which was just about a 30 minute file recorded at 1080p. The cool thing is the unit jumps right to the next file thats recorded if it’s say splitting up a program you were in the middle of recording. Pretty much uninterrupted playback. I was concerned you had to go back to the unit menu and select the next file and then continue to play the program you were watching that was split but it does this on its own.I don’t see too much difference if at all between the medium and high bit rate recording setting so I’m leaving in medium to avoid the file splits to be somewhat less.I’ve tested the unit a week so far and had to work through their chat tech support to sort through some of these items I experienced but so far so good. They were helpful.My biggest gripe so far is that the unit does not have recording output of DD 5.1 or DTS Surround. For the cost of this unit it should have it. Tech support says they didn’t ave any plans as of now to support these audio formats in a firmware update. Perhaps the hardware in this unit can’t support. That’s the only shortfall I see for this unit and hope they can update it at some point to include. Otherwise at this point even though you may be receiving a 5.1 audio format into the unit to record, it only pushes out stereo sound. I would have given 5 stars if not for this detail.Another gripe is I wish you can label the recording in the menu so you know what you have recorded per specific file. You have to pretty much let the video preview to get an idea of what you recorded which is hard when you really start filling up the library on the USB drive. I’m not using this device to audit the clips on a PC. I’m pretty much just using for direct playback.Heat the unit produces is another concern as some other reviewers stated but they will stand behind the product and cover for 2 years. Anything goes wrong they will replace no questions asked. I’m a pretty big A/V enthusiast that knows his stuff and pretty impressed with this thing so far with what it can do. Also having a splitter to bypass the HDCP is a must have if your connecting strictly with HDMI cables.
Rated 1 out of 5
Amazon Customer – December 20, 2023
1.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent capture device but watch your harddrive for corruption/bad sectors.
I mainly purchased this to take off recordings from my cable box so it doesn’t fill up with the paltry server oriented 500gb offered. One nice thing about the ca pro is that it has a small profile so you can put it and your external hard drive on the same table top as your flat panel. It will not obstruct the tv viewing experience. Hookup was quick and easy and took 2 minutes to do it. You are basically putting the device between your cable box and flat panel.Once you turn the device on for the first time you will invariably get a dark screen with the words: “ouch blah blah”. Just hold the source button (located on the front of the device) in for about 10 seconds, then release. It should then show a normal tv picture.I record at 1080 and a 12 bitrate. An average 1 hour show uses 4.15gb but the picture quality is superb on playback. I have a roku tv so you can plug the usb from your drive into your tv and use roku media player to watch your shows or watch them via the device itself. Why anyone would want to use a key drive is beyond me. At 4.15gb/hour you can’t get much on one. An external hard drive is much easier and can hold much more data.Here is the rub. I use WD hard drives. The max you can use is up to 2TB. I use a 1 and a 2. They are only about a bit over a year old so should be no problem. For some reason or another I have had each of the two drives develop bad sectors and I MEAN BAD SECTORS. I have read about not disconnecting the drives w/out first turning off the ca pro. I always did that and still got bad sectors. This means once hooked up to a desktop you are unable to open the drive ie corrupted/bad sectors. Of course, you can format the drive and fill the bad sectors with 0’s but say goodbye to your videos. How do you notice this “in action”? You hit record on the cloner box and you do not see any read/write via observing the lights on the hard drive. The easiest solution to fix this and still save your videos is via the command prompt. Use CHKDSK /f/r X: where X is the letter of your drive. This takes a long time so be patient. You will then be able to see the files. I recommend backing them up to a folder on your pc hard drive. All I can tell you is that sooner or later the drive is going to fail. This is the one and only reason why I did not give this product a “5”. Correct this and I will amend my rating.You must format the drive in MBR (Master Boot Record) NTFS file system. If you don’t know how to do this cloner has an excellent “how to” pictorial on their website.Although tech support had no clue regarding the constant bad sectors, their support and response time is excellent. If you send them an email you will get an answer in less than a day from Julia. The answers tend to be canned but when you are going through the short learning curve, they can be helpful.I have had ca pro for about 3 weeks now. I will change my rating if and when the hard drive issue is corrected via a software/firmware upgrade. Otherwise, it is an excellent product.UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020I have given this product a 5 star review. This has nothing to do with anything they did or advised. To avoid hard drive problems, you must and I REPEAT, you must plug your external hard drive into a ups device; they are available for about 50-70 bucks. I found out that after a power blip the external hard drive becomes corrupt. Hooking it up to the ups has fixed everything. On the safe side, I also turn the external hard drive off when not in use.UPDATE AUGUST 8, 2020I cannot recommend this anymore for anyone wanting to take off tv shows, movies, big time. For this, tiny flash drives will not suffice. The reason for dropping my 5 star rating to a 1 is simple. A COMPLETE AND UTTER NON COMPATIBILITY WITH NTFS FILE SYSTEMS when using an external 1 or 2TB drive. I cannot get more then 25-30 shows recorded w/out the thing crashing. It JUST stops recording. I have run CHKDSK /F/R from the dos prompt but that does no good outside of correcting bad sectors. You cannot use EXFAT file system. So all I do is swap out ext drives then use diskpart and win/r key to bring up disk management to run new volume/format. This is ridiculous. Until they get the product compatible with NTFS drives this device is basically worthless.
16 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Movie NutMovie Nut – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
WORKS AS ADVERTISED !
April 20th – Just contacted support via Chat, but she was very helpful. Only recorded one item so far, but seemed to work very well. I still need to load the software on my PC to try out the editing features. Will post a follow-up after I have more experience with the unit.Update May 5th 2017.First, my use of Cloner Box Pro is to take Movies I own and create a backup copy that I place on my Home NAS unit. I can then view the videos with Kodi (XBMC) on several TVs and computers in my home. I have now recorded almost 40 videos and unit has worked great. Contacted customer support via chat, a couple more times and they were very helpful.I did experience the initial screen/error “Och, something wrong!’Don’t worry:)” message.Followed their instructions:1. Please confirm LED is solid BLUE or solid GREEN (NO FLASHING).2. Press and hold the SOURCE button( It is located at one side of HDML-Cloner Box Pro, which is next to the button “REC/STOP” and “ON/OFF”.) about 10 seconds. Then HDML-Cloner Box Pro will restart (The LED will turn off and then turn on).3. After restarting, the LED will illuminate solid blue or solid green and you can see images on TV.My suggestions for settings:1. My first recording seemed way too dark, changed the Picture Mode from Standard to User and increased the brightness level to 50. Left the Color Temperature at Medium2. Picture was a bit truncated on both sides, so changed Aspect Ratio from 16:9 to “Just Scan”3. MP4 files for 2 hr movie were over 8GB, I changed Recording Bitrate to Low and set resolution to 720P. I think the bitrate setting did the most to reduce file size.5. I purchased a second 16GB thumb drive, formatted it NTFS, and use it to record on while I process other thumb drive to my NAS.I also used MP4-Cloner software to trim MP4 file when I accidentally let recording run too long. You must first set the start time (0:00:00 for me) and then select the play function. Then you can move the slider close to the end point you want, wait for exact spot and press pause. Then set the end time. If you try to move the slider without first mouse clicking the play function, the software with abend (crash for newer generation).I tried the MP4-Cloner to “Burn” a DVD (this was my initial test to reduce the size of the recording). This created a proper set of DVD files (VIDEO_TS folder and .vob & .ifo & .bup files). It created two .vob files of 1 GB each and a 3rd that was 268MB. (See attached images) This was a full length movie so I expected at least 4 .vob files. Per chat they said they are aware of this problem. The Movie was playable, I was just concerned about video quality. Perhaps they are utilizing a DVD Shrink type process??Overall I am very satisfied with the unit, it has saved time and reduced the steps in the process.Cons:The second HDMI port will NOT take an HDMI cable, it is specifically for the MMI cable that can be used to feed in a VGA/AV/YPbPr device.Must have unit powered on to watch TV, I may introduce an HDMI splitter before the HDML-Cloner box to avoid thisInstructions could be a bit more detailed in outlining what effect the different settings would have on video quality and file size.Firmware update process seems a bit complex, but my unit was up-to-date, so I have not had to perform update yet.
5 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Mary – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Useful In Many Cases, But Not All
Like many rural people, we are stuck with satellite services like Directv. I was hoping this could be used in pulling DVR movies stored on the tower so that I can transfer them to a stick, and clear out the cache on the DVR. Directv made sure their newer boxes no longer have features that I used to be able to do that between their box, and my computer. Unfortunately, neither does the Cloner Alliance. While I can see how it’s a good application for things like a VCR, or even DVD, there’s nothing on Directv’s tower, or box that it can connect to. Contacting the company for ideas around this did nothing to help as they simply refer you back to the instruction manual. Like others, we are trying to get Directv to resolve a problem they seem to be having in letting us watch our DVR movies wirelessly on our computers. Once that is resolved, I’ll simply transfer what I see on my computer to a stick, and use ClonerAlliance to hook up to my TV to watch everything recorded via USB.
2 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Erkle – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Records direct from HDMI. No timer function. File storage function and playback are child like.
ClonerAlliance Box Pro, 1080p@60fps Video Recorder, DVR with HDMI Capture – Records direct from HDMI instanly.The bad. No timer function. Scheduler, File storage function and playback are child like.Would be great for a Timer function to turn off the recording. E.g. set for 1hr 1min start program and it turns itself off.File storage no search.Playback no skip, only a slow fast forward.
3 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Danny D. Hobbs – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great box for backing up your videos.
I have a cloner box I had bought a couple of years ago. I didn’t like the 2gig limit. It would break up a movie into 20 minute pieces. This allows me to record an unlimited file size. I recorded a marathon of shows overnight. 12.5 hours of video in a 55gig file. I used the included software to break these down into individual shows. I don’t recommend recording this way, more on that later. Fanless units produce heat when used for long periods of time. I have a heat sink from an Xbox 360 under the box and a small fan I got for $5 beside it cooling it off. The box ran all night and was cool to the touch in the morning. I am using an internal hard drive connected outside my computer. I am using something similar to this:https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-5-25-INCH-Converter-Activity-USB-DSC9/dp/B00DQJME7Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1527097659&sr=1-1&keywords=sabrent+hard+drive+converter#customerReviewsThis allows me to connect the USB to the cloner box and then quickly to the PC to process the files. If I leave it running longer than expected, it keeps recording without running out of room. I am currently using a 500gig SATA drive with no issues. I have an 8gig USB drive I use when I am editing the shows on the large drive.The software that comes with the cloner box is better than I expected. I am able to cut off the front and end of a show easily. The software will let you save segments of the show, allowing you to cut out commercials. There is a button to mark the start of the video and another to mark the end of the video. If would be nice if these were active when removing commercials. You need to manually type in the start and stop times for each segment you want to save.This brings me to the 55gig file. The only way to move forward and backward in the video is to click the time bar or click and drag the small ball on the time bar. In a 12.5 hour video, this is next to impossible. You have to let the video play and edit it very slowly. It would be great if they could add a 10 second back button and a 30 second skip forward button. With a 30 minute to 1 hour recording this isn’t as much of an issue. Also, the longer the recording, the longer the seek time. If you want to cut out from 01:00:00 to 01:30:00 the program takes a while to find 01:00:00 to start the cut. I am using a very fast computer with 16gigs of RAM, so it isn’t the computer.I have used Avidemux in the past to edit files from my previous box. These files won’t open in Avidemux. I have grown to understand thefree included software, so that isn’t a big problem. The files are easily processed by handbrake. They are processed to about 1/5 the size.I was reluctant to buy this box for $150. I wanted a quality box that would do everything I needed it to. This box fills all my needs. I haven’t tried any scheduling or other features of the box. I don’t need them right now. This may be more box than I needed, but I am very pleased with the results.One last comment, I am using a video splitter with my satellite DVR to get a crisp clean picture.I hope this rambling review has helped you make a decision to buy or pass up this box.
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
philzee – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent picture and simple remote recording. Lifesaver for streaming and DVR recording.
Updating my 4 star review to 5 stars! This unit is reliable and versatile (after using it for a while, you get a better appreciation of the features).I had been searching for an HDMI recorder for a while, but the prices were crazy .. this one is worth the money!Many streaming services have great content, but pesky ads and often inconvenient windows for seasonal offerings (e.g. Christmas shows / movies in October or March). Also, busy people have little time to see their favorites before they disappear. Add to that, those annoying cable / satellite DVR units with encoded hard drive storage, which can’t be off-loaded for future perusal on a laptop.You PAY for that DVR (with limited disk storage), or the streaming service .. so watch the programs at YOUR convenience .. before they remove the limited time program you want to see in the future!Just place this device in series with your HDMI sources (2 inputs available) .. or from any component or composite video source .. and feed the output to your TV (the TV doesn’t have to be ON). I thought it limiting that a USB drive is preferred for recording (FAT32 in 2GB segments) … but this unit has never bungled a recording! Cropping off a longer movie using the 2GB segments is not a hardship at all! The 720p and 1080p format recordings are crystal clear!With their Cloner MP4 trimming and combining software, it’s a quick and simple matter to get just the segments you want to record (including a simple multi-segment trimming feature for those pesky free streaming site ads). I have tried several of the “higher end” video editors to perform the same trim / combine functions, but gave up due to complicated procedures and very lengthy times to edit an program (these “professional” programs have lots of features, but a simple, non-compressive ‘cut and combine’ seems to be lacking). The included (via web site) software does an amazingly fast job of trimming and combining (along with some MP4 conversion choices, after the editing is done). This, currently, only works on MP4 files (which are generated on the storage device by this unit) .. so if you need to use their program to edit other video file types .. use a general video converter program, first.The software won’t save you video file size by compression, but the ease of use is worth it (you can always compress the video with the “convert” feature .. or use a “higher end” compression program for those phones and tablets).You can use the included remote to control the recorder .. or you can perform more complex record / play functions by using their PC software. The manual can be somewhat overwhelming .. but it covers things in depth for the technically inclined.Finally .. their customer service is very responsive and helpful .. and I would purchase other devices from them, whenever those birthdays and holidays come around!
2 people found this helpful
Rated 3 out of 5
Barbara Peisch – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not really a substitute for a DVR
I like to record news programs that may have stories that aren’t repeated on later news shows. I’m not always around to watch these shows when they are streamed, so I was looking for a device that would record a streamed broadcast.This device does the job, but it has some severe limitations.First, when it’s recording, you can’t do anything other than watch the live stream. So, if it’s recording a broadcast, but you want to watch an earlier broadcast, you have to stop the current recording or wait until it finishes. You also can’t change any schedules while it’s recording.Second, since this device doesn’t have its own tuner, you have to have the TV’s source (like the Fire Stick) turned on, and tuned to the correct source for it to record what you want. (You can have the TV muted without losing audio on your recording.) You can’t catch a broadcast from one source, and later from a different source, if you’re not there to switch the tuner.Later…after using this device for a while, I’ve found some additional drawbacks:1. You cannot delete any scheduled recordings. You can edit them (but you can’t set the start and stop times to all zeros), and you can turn the entire set of schedules on or off.2. If you start watching a recording, pause and exit the playback screen, then come back later, it doesn’t “remember” where you left off. You have to start the recording from the beginning again.3. The buttons on the remote are poorly placed. The play/pause button is between the skip forward and back buttons. Those skip buttons move you to the next or previous recording. If you only have one recording and you accidently hit the skip forward button instead of the fast forward button, it goes back to the beginning of the current recording.On the plus side, the recordings are in MP4 format, so they can be viewed on anything that can play an MP4. Although there are supposedly two fast-forward speeds – 4x and 8x – they both appear to be advancing only at 4x.
9 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Gregory – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Box works super excellent as stand alone
This box is amazing I can get really great copies of whatever I have on my PC display. Also I’m using this to get a quick copy of old videos to digital. I have an old matrox mx02 mini which I love for getting old videos into an Edius system but something is happening and I picked this up to use as a possible stop gap to get at least something off the old tapes to digital. Good enough for my review of old videos. I’m not sure how well this competes with the much older matrox system which dos do a great job when it worked but this is in a different class for new material. For new material it seems like it captures lossless even in the mode below the highest. 27 minutes per 2 gigs for full HD capture which is fairly large. Like blue ray storage space of HD but it definitely gives blue ray quality. I love the flexibility of inputs I can do composite, analog component VGA or hdmi. Amazing that a box which costs so little can do so much. Tech support is stellar other say but I’ve had no need for it. Love the remote option which allows me to use it without w computer and bring the USB files over the the computer. Is there any room for inprovement? It would be nice it it could take the adapter plug which concert SVHS to two channels of component like the matrox box does but that is probably a hardware requirement change so it probably won’t happen. It seems that it shows more of a pixelated almost 720 grain look when recording or using it as a go between from my full HD computer. This only in darker grey areas a bit of pixelizarion but that is completely missing from the recording so back on the computer the file plays like a complete clone copy of the image. It could even be due to my computer the way my computer is driving the hdmi monitors. I may have drawbacks from the computer and perhaps a reduced chipset for playback happens with the Cloner box losing some quality but the quality is in the recording on the USB stick which is where it counts. It’s really good enough for practically any use. Amazing I may do my digital archive of a large amount of old analog tapes with this but I have to do more tests. I’m color correcting those during recording input a bit and that may prove to be challenging because my other equipment is adding up not the Cloner box. I have composite and SVHS out but not component from an old mx70 mixer: the Cloner box could handle component out from the mixer if my mixer was working. It’s difficult to say for sure how well this stacks up against the older mx02 for an older standard definition archive for future edits but it may stand up quite well.
Rated 3 out of 5
Alan Vallazza – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
The good, the bad and the ugly
Tough to do a review but after 18 months have to state its the best out there but has issues. The box does as promised but had problems. First box was returned but barely out of warranty so 15 dollar shipping fee. The recording button wasn’t working after 13 months. They made slight changes resulting in replacement being a different UI and format of recording. So older YouTube videos have the old interface and the old remote is useless with new Box. Comes with a new remote. Tough to figure out timer. The instructions on newer box from last fall are the same are original box in fall 2020. But remote is a bit different now. Now sometimes recordings won’t save. Depending on what you use it for the results vary. I am recording tv off a Firestick and sometimes casting videos with Chromecast. Own no gaming console. No VHS stuff. I wish I could say customer service is good but being its all emails it is not. No number or chat feature, if I recall right. They do respond timely but it feels like you are constantly waiting for replies because you don’t have the issue resolved. Yes it’s worked. But now I press stop to save recordings and half the time it freezes or if you put on another app it freezes and recordings lost. It’s tough to explain and lots to unpack but it is the best out there.Update: 11 months later and the box kept freezing when I stopped recordings. Now it can’t find the signal of the box. Overuse perhaps. Recorded TV and videos..but is that not a purpose for it? So now without a dent or a scratch ..Today it cannot find the signal on two TV’s. Looks like it might have burned out. Blue light does come on but cannot tell if it is faded. Wanted a replacement or at least refund but decided let’s get the support involved. All email. Though a newer live chat area said 4:30pm.to 1:30pm…..Eastern? Well I am in the central time zone and it is 8am. Highly upset or a tad confused. I was supposed to update firmware before this happened. Now it’s useless if it will not appear. Rating is now at 3 stars. Only two years with this device and already on a second box.
2 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Joshua – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works well. “Passthrough” is not a true passthrough and driver is tricky. Component is great.
Overall this device actually works great. I very much like the fact that it can operate at least somewhat externally from the computer without taking up a card slot. This means it will never interfere with the PC upgrade process and can be used with a wider variety of devices (for instance a laptop if its CPU is powerful enough.) Its form factor is small and convenient for the most part (though once you have those cables sticking out it gets significantly less convenient.) The choice to give us a remote for controlling various function is actually a huge plus and I have to give them kudos on that.I just have two main complaints in regards to the product itself. First, the driver can be a bit tricky. They don’t offer a naked driver but, instead, it’s part of an install process via software they give you a link to download. The software is unintrusive, but I ran into a problem where somehow I managed to accidentally install the wrong driver and it was then nearly impossible for me to get the right one in there. You can’t manually point the device manager to a driver (the files in the installation folder didn’t work right even,) but pretty well must get it to install the driver during the software install process. If you somehow load the wrong driver like I did you have to uninstall the software and force remove all of the files that driver uses, reboot, and reinstall. Most of the time this won’t happen if you install normally, but this is something to bear in mind.Probably the biggest thing that is both a con and, ironically not (more on why not in a moment) is that the “passthrough” function is NOT an actual passthrough. Rather it still goes through the device itself and has some processing. This has two down sides. One, a tiny bit of latency is still added and two, the image ends up less clear with just a tiny bit of blurring. The latency is actually very little and in most things you won’t even notice (really even 2D fighters seemed to be ok for me) but I did try playing Overwatch (PC version with a mouse) running through it and I found the latency to be sufficient to completely ruin my ability to play. (I had hoped to offset at least part of the capture and encoding process via the device with a bit less load on the PC versus just directly capturing the game.)Now here’s the advantage of the output actually being processed a bit: this actually means that when you feed it a signal from an analog source it can work on LCD monitors. For example, I was positively ecstatic to discover I could play my PS2 on the monitor I’ve been using with all of my other consoles. A normal low latency HDMI converter for the PS2 still leaves the output at the usual 480i which a typical monitor simply will not accept, however, this thing produced a progressive output (probably 1080p in fact) that the monitor would accept. Also, as I’ve stated, the latency is actually low enough that it does seem I was able to play 2D fighters and music games in my testing so far. That was a pleasant surprise. I’ve actually been trying to find some way I could get a device that could handle converting the PS2’s component output to my monitor’s HDMI with a progressive output that wouldn’t have too high of a latency and it’s actually surprisingly hard to find. (Most that do cost as much as this thing does, so you may as well get the one device that does two purposes I guess.) It also has composite and VGA inputs for other analog options. I haven’t tested these yet, but I expect that the results would be very similar.It’s worth taking a moment to note that if you record from an analog source (like the PS2) the inverse telecine in the actual recording to USB seems to be very simplistic — maybe even just a simple deinterlace. While the output on the screen looks completely normal and great, I think the recording probably just drops the framerate in half instead of trying to apply a complex IVTC filter. This makes the recording a lot less nice than the image you see on the screen. It still comes out pretty well for a device that can handle this in realtime though. A true IVTC filter likely would require too much processing for an embedded device to handle on the fly like this. This mostly only matters in really high motion scenes as slower motion will mostly look normal with this. I didn’t see any options to configure this or even to leave it out. It may not do this if you’re recording through OBS or etc — I haven’t had the opportunity to test that yet.One thing I would also say would make for room for improvement is if the device itself could handle the encoding when you’re using it along with a computer for streaming or etc. Even though the device itself is capable of recording (as it does when it records to a USB device,) when you plug it into a PC it does not send the video to the computer in a ready format but must instead be reencoded by the software. It would be a lot harder to actually send it in a pre-encoded format obviously (probably not compatible with software like OBS) but it would have advantages like working with systems that have weaker CPUs/GPUs. This is not a point against it as possibly nothing does this at this time, but it is something I think would really improve it and similar products.
13 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Kelly R – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed
This product does not do what it says as great as the reviewers say .It worked a few times then I go to use it again and I get a black screen talking hdcp on everything I tried to record .Also time after time you get 10 to 30 minutes til a program is done and the stream starts buffering forever and as soon as I stop recording the stream I’m recording immediately starts back playing but now the recording is ruined .
Rated 5 out of 5
James Davis – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive little Device A Few Small Issues
2021 update ive bought another one. Yes another one. These little boxes accept line in inputs from everything. I uad to jave another one. This little box has processed 5000 recprdings so far. And is still humming along at warp speed. Really impressive. This is tue only model out of all tue game recorders out tuere to have multiple line hook ups. Of you have old dvds vhs vhs c laser discs ect. You can process them all. Worth your time. This little box is. Software can be wonky but effective. Use sandisk thumb drives 32gb to 116gb best response to recordings. Thos will record from all game systems as well. Though you may have to tweak your consoles settings depending on what you have. Customer service is in it for the long haul too. They actually have humans. Can take a day or 2 to respond but its a human…. 2019 review Okay I had to order a second box as the first one was somewhat defective.. The USB port was very loose. So Getting a replacement for it. Helpful Solution to this problem. Buy an added angled USB Extender And hook up your USB stick to that. USB sticks can be kind of heavy on the port It managed to record one tv Program and Game capture before it failed to do anything.. The picture Quality is nothing short of spectacular… Amazon has left and Right switchable angled Cables to aid in your quest for perfection.. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W56VLLY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2IME0Z5O2LH6Y&psc=1 This device so far performs well But it does have Its Quirks.. First Recording in NTFS Mode can be problematic. Your likely better off In FAT32 mode. Cloner box provides software via download from its web portal.. This will allow you to assemble your recordings nearly issue free. and they also offer Burning software to burn to disc. My issue is no ability to title your projects unless you use a PC to do it. Its a thing they are most likely working on to add in the future. The remote that comes with the unit does not have batteries with it. those are AAA in size so be sure you have some on hand. as you will need the remote almost immediately upon first use. Be sure to format your thumb drive to NTFS or FAT 32 Fat 32 being your better option.. And make sure your USB stick or drive does not exceed 2 Terabytes But make sure the USB is larger than 32 Gigabytes As most recordings will be large. You are recording in HD format MP4 video. You can lower your bit rate to make files smaller. This device does require that you have a bit of Know how to set it up. But a little bit of internet reading allows you to easily understand Bit rates and Formats for video. Not that hard to do. Make sure you read up on those as the instructions could be a little bit more descriptive. that come with the product. Cloner box does have an online instruction manual and how to section that is very easy to understand. That will allow you to save the PDF to your PC for future review. Suggestion also For a very good picture use the component in of this box or HDMI port in. But you can not record HDCP protected content via HDMI. You can however do so Using a work around Or The component YPbPr Connection. You can also use the HDMI out on your preferred device into a converter which lowers it to YPbPr which is still 1080p resolution. You will need a converter for that but that method does not transport the HDCP signal to the Cloner box. or any recorder for that matter. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F6URXYY/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=A3GE4HK1J73CN8&psc=1 Amazon has a huge array of converters so they are easy to find. You will find the picture quality is really good regardless.. until HDCP is eliminated this is the method you have to use to copy HDCP protect content.. Advisable if you are trying to copy Blue ray discs ect. Convert your signal down then back up to HDMI via a second converter. Though your image will be better via just the component Direct connection..Now that we have this out of the way. The unit itself is very small and very light.. All connections except the USB port are on the back of the device. The USB port is on the right side of the unit. Though it looks well constructed That USB port is in a very bad spot and the heavier your USA stick is the more it will weigh down on that port. The suggestion above solves this issue easily With an angled connector. All other ports were solid. But your PC Connector cable is way too short. I recommend an upgrade to this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0143K4ZSK/ref=twister_B07CBVG4L8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 This will be a 10 FT cable. Reason being is the provided cable is really short. And really thin.. If your pc is far away from the cloner box and most peoples PCs are you will need the length to use the record to PC feature.. Its basically a long phone charger cable. Make sure its USB data capable. The MIC recording feature also works really well to capture your own audio over gameplay for recordings.All in all this is a good purchase once you figure out how to get it to do what you want it to do. And Cloner alliance has very good customer support. They can help you solve a lot of problems. Note this will be some culture shock to those users used to DVD recorders. its a bit more complex but for the picture quality its worth the time. to upgrade to this format. Im sure future releases of boxes will have newer features and smoother operation. I myself will be keeping my eye open on Cloner Box They are the top of the line when it comes to capture boxes..What I would like to see added to cloner boxes in the Future.. Longer cables for PC connections. An angled USB connector for the USB port.. Titling ability via the Remote.. But you can do this Via Your pc later its just an added annoyance The box itself could be about an inch or 2 larger to space out your connectors as they are really close on the back of the box. Also I would like to see smaller Formats added as most or large format recordings that are very high Gigabyte size More of a 300 to 700 Megabyte range. That would lower image quality But it would also allow Space saving for phones and Tablets.. Other than this the box is a great addition to a mediaphiles Equipment.. I hope this helps some of you to have a good experience with this device
33 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Rick Rat – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
It records well.
The only drawback to the whole thing is that it only does a maximum of 16 gb files. That means, if your movies run longer than two hours, it’s gonna be splitting the two files.I had to buy an HDMI splitter, to get it to work. Also, I had to switch my Apple TV from 5.1 to stereo audio to get the audio to record properly.
Rated 4 out of 5
WebWomper – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
It works, but could be better
I use it daily and I like the 1080p version. BUT the sound does not match the lips most of the time. Motion is sometimes jumpy instead of fluid. User interface and recording status (only shows recording duration) could be improved.
One person found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
music lovermusic lover – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Small size works well
The small size works well in making a fairly discrete installation. The unit sits on a fireplace mantel at the bottom corner of my 65″ Samsung, the Firestick is tucked in behind it, and my Seagate 2TB hard drive is sitting on top of the soundbar. Once installed I asked my wife what she thought about the installation, and she responded “where is it”, and trust me she is very observant. Easy installation and setup, recording what appears on the TV is a breeze, picture and audio quality of the captured recording is excellent (set at 1080p). Not quite sure what type of file its stored at on the external drive, however once downloaded onto the computer I use Video Converter software to convert the captured file to MP4 HD 1080P, the recording is very clear, great detail, and the sound comes through well on my soundbar, no loss of volume and decent bass, and no latency. The reason for taking it off the hard drive is to store it on my media server which can then be accessed by any one and any device on my network.Not having a power button on the remote is not a deal breaker, don’t mind having to get up and turn the unit off. I did communicate with Customer Service, and asked about leaving the device on all of the time, and they said it may get a little warm. So I turn it on when I get up, and shut it down before going to bed. I’m just a little paranoid when it comes to electrical components and overheating.P.S Keep in mind that this unit only captures what is seen on the TV screen/monitor. I don’t see the scheduling feature working, at least when used with a Firestick. Additionally it is critical to have a stable, decent internet connection speed to capture any video, generally speaking a minimum of 25 to 30 mbps for 1080p quality. any lower speeds may cause buffering, and if there is any buffering that will be recorded as well. Hope this info is of help to anyone considering purchasing this device!Thanks to Cloner Alliance for a well designed and quality product!
One person found this helpful
Rated 3 out of 5
M Coo – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Device, Though Mine is Defective…
The media could not be loaded.
As it appears that my HDML Cloner Box is defective, I’m leaving this review with an interim rating. I did get to test the device before catastrophic failure, whereby although the Cloner Box would act up and the menu would alternate between being fast and sluggish, the recordings did not have any anomalies. At the time, HDMI, composite, and component inputs worked fine. I will test the VGA inputs when I receive the replacement.FILESYSTEM PREFERENCEDo note that I am biased against using FAT32 for anything as large as digital video. I am converting over 50 VHS tapes and DVR-DVDs to the thumb drive, and the last thing I want to do is spend time digging through a huge number of 4GB files to see which of them belong to which video and then stitch them all together, and then transfer them back to the thumb-drive. It is just an extra step that consumes time that I don’t have. Therefore I feel strongly that any NTFS issues should be tackled immediately, and/or ExFAT should be an alternative to FAT32.THUMB-DRIVESI tested both standalone and PC recording. I tested using the following thumbdrives, both in FAT32 and NTFS file systems for each:(1) Older generation 16GB SanDisk Cruzer USB 2.0 @ ~14-16 MB/s tested write speed(1) Newer generation 16GB SanDisk Cruzer USB 2.0 @ ~18-22 MB/s tested write speed(1) Very old 2GB Verbatim USB 2.0 @ ~5 MB/s tested write speed(1) Brand-new Lexar S75 256GB USB 3.0 @ ~60 MB/s tested write speed for USB 3.0.The Cloner Box accepted all of the above thumb-drives and recorded to them without problem. I expected problems with the 256 GB drive and the older, slower Verbatim, but experienced none.NTFS FILESYSTEMSome reviewers have had issues with using the NTFS file system whereby recorded files and/or the filesystem became corrupted. While I did not experience that, I did experience a problem where the onboard file browser could not see the files it recorded on any of the thumb-drives when pressing the ‘playback’ button. However, it did record them without corrupting the files or filesystem. I have not yet read any reviews stating that other people had the exact same problems with the onboard file-browser with NTFS. I will test it again when I receive a replacement.FAT32 FILESYSTEMI didn’t experience any problems at all. The file browser did not have a problem seeing the files.CAVEATinitially, I wanted to start transferring old VHS tapes and DVR-DVDs straight to thumb-drive while monitoring the recordings on my PC, so that I could continue working on my PC while babysitting them. Unfortunately, it appears that once the Cloner Box is connected to a computer via USB, it will not record to thumb-drive; pressing the ‘record’button on the remote effectively does nothing. Instead, you must use the Helper software to record to a local hard drive. Since I want these recordings portable, this just causes another extra step whereby I have to transfer titanic files onto the thumb-drive.PROS-Has all of the inputs I need for both new and old devices.-All recordings in 1080P-30 and 720P-60 were fantastic.-The HDML-Cloner Pro Helper software has great features and is easy to use.-The remote is well designed and contains the buttons that are expected/needed.-The device recognizes the difference between different inputs, including interlacing and frame rate.-The device is small and easy to place.CONS-For those of us with only one HDMI, this device does not have pass-through. It must remain on at all times and it gets warm.-The onboard menu selection for video quality doesn’t offer the full range of stream sizes that the PC software does.-The remote must be pointed directly at the device’s infrared window.-Though the clock survives unplugging, video creation time metadata says your video was created on January 1st… 1970.-Doesn’t utilize ExFAT instead of FAT32.WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE-Device requires pass-through so we don’t have to leave it on.-It should probably have a ventilated case, as it does get quite warm.-I would like to have all of the same options in the onboard menu as I do in the Helper software.-I would like to have a choice of recording destination when connected to a PC.-Add ExFAT support. It lacks the limitations of FAT32 and reportedly has less overhead than NTFS.CURRENT PROBLEMIt appears that my early troubles with the Cloner Box were warning signs that something was wrong, as the box initially did not want to recognize a signal. I updated the firmware, but was told by Cloner Alliance via email that mine should not require the update. However, after re-flashing the firmware, it recognized the input.Today marks the third recording session and about 1.5 hours total with the device. It has begun to overlay older video data over new frames, occasional frame looping, and the video frame itself jumps up and down. For example, when a person scratches their nose once in the original video, the recording and the preview show a loop of them scratching their nose about seven or eight times. Then as they walk away, part of them stays in the frame and then disappears. It does this from a cold start, so I know that the device is not overheating. It is apparent in the recordings as well as the preview window when using the Helper software. I tried recording to PC as well as a thumb drive, but there was no difference.As the reviews are generally quite good for this device, I feel a bit more secure in believing that this is just a fluke, and not indicative of a poor design.I will update my review at some future date when I can be sure that the replacement Cloner Box Pro is working as expected.
9 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Bob Burqawitz – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
This thing has so many features, it’s almost a must-have for everyone.
When we first got this box, it seemed like it didn’t work at all. We were ready to ship it back. But as other people have indicated these guys have great customer service and helped us get it up in running within a day. You have to hold down the power button for a long time to get it to turn on the first time you use it. Just pressing the power button, or even holding it down for a few seconds, does nothing. Just keep holding it down and eventually the thing will turn on.I bought this to capture videogame footage for my youtube channel, and it works spectacularly for that, but the multitudes of additional features give it far more functionality than that. All those extra features also makes this far superior to other gaming capture cards on the market too.Since it has a remote, you can start and stop your captures without having to trek across the living room to the TV, which is spectacular. But the box is also capable of playing back the video you record instantly right on your TV, without being attached to a computer. This makes the box essentially function much like a DVR – except with external usb drives, so you can just swap out a new device any time your drive gets full, rather than trying to deal with replacing an internal hard drive, or deleting old files to make room for new ones. It even has a timer, so you can set it to start recording at a specific time – although this functionality is limited and won’t have as much versatility as an actual DVR. You can only schedule a single recording at any given time.The video doesn’t have a lot of compression, so the files are quite large. If you were using this for movies that you’re planning to keep, such as backing up and digitizing your blurays or dvds, you’d probably want to run the files through handbrake or a similar file compression/conversion tool to get the files down to a reasonable size.You can choose to record at various resolutions, including 1080p, 720p, and a PC setting that can vary slightly, and you can choose between a few odd resolutions by pressing the PC button multiple times. Video is saved as mp4 file type, with h.264 compression. Long story short, that means the files will be readable by almost any device that can handle video.You can also take still images, which are saved as .jpg. I would have preferred something with lossless compression like a .png, but this isn’t a huge issue.Additionally, the device can read and play back many different types of video, music, and image files, and even txt files, so you can use it as a media box, transferring various types of media to it for playback on your TV, beyond just what the box is capable of recording. You press the playback button on the remote and it switches your display on the screen to a menu where you can select and play back various files. All this is available without running the box through a PC.The device comes with a MMI cable converter that allows you to connect VGA, Component cable, or AV input – allowing you to connect almost any device to it for recording. I only use the HDMI input myself, but it’s nice that I could connect a non HDMI computer video output to the device if I needed to.The actual video quality seemed a little lower than my last capture card at first, but then I realized I was recording at a lower datarate. You can actually choose between three datarates – high, medium, and low, from the device’s menu settings, in addition to the resolution setting. The highest data rate is around 16MB/s, which is very high quality. There is some signal loss with this device. My previous setup, running through a splitter, was not viable. It caused an extremely grainy picture with terrible artifacting. Luckily, this device can bypass HDCP protection, allowing me to record my videos without needing the splitters. After removing the splitters from the chain my video came through just fine. I still run everything through an HDMI hub so I can switch between multiple game systems as needed.The recorder changes resolution output based on the output you select on the remote, allowing for changes with the press of a button, which is also extremely convenient for recording game footage, because I can adjust my resolution without having to take the time to go through the game console system settings.The box also has both in and out jacks for audio, so you could use it to add a headphone jack to any device you’re using, or to add commentary to videos with a microphone.You may have to do a firmware upgrade on the device to enable some functionality. This can be kind of a technical process, but from what I’ve heard the customer support is great if you need their help installing the newest firmware. I didn’t have any trouble doing this, but if you’re not used to doing this type of thing it could be difficult.After the update you can create large video files – taking up the full space on your attached drive in a single file. The drive needs to be formatted to NTFS file system to do this. Without the update, video files will be broken down into a maximum of 2G file sizes.I don’t have the device attached through my PC. I don’t need that functionality and was specifically looking for a box that I wouldn’t have to run through my PC to record. But it’s nice to have the PC option available to me. This makes it possible to do streaming setups and a few other options if you wanted to use it for that. I also haven’t tried out any of the software that came with the device. It’s just not anything I need. I have other tools for doing these jobs.One complaint I have is the naming convention. It’s just a bunch of nonsense numbers – which seems pretty random, and can sometimes apparently place a video you just recorded right in the middle of a group of videos, making things difficult to find at times.
26 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Thomas D. Pietrzak – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
UI for Stand-a-lone Very Good
The device I recently retired gave no indication that the device was recording. If I didn’t use a USB Flash that had its own write led, I had no idea if it was working. This device indicates recording in two ways. First the LOGO on the top of the device flashes and the output screen (not the recorded video) shows a REC indicator along with the length of the video recorded in that session in minutes and seconds. The quality of the output is what I would expect from old VHS tapes. No negatives so far, only positives.
Rated 2 out of 5
Ken G – December 20, 2023
2.0 out of 5 stars
Works for me! (Sometimes!)
Edit: 3/12/17 – as much as I like this thing when it works, therein lies the problem. It’s glitchy. First, I have to post that we are an Apple using family. No Widows/Microsoft products here. I don’t know where the problem lies but I think it has to do with how the flash drive (that’s what I use) is formatted. If the drive is formatted as FAT32, the device will break the recording into approximately 2Gb files. It’s up to you to then join these file into one continuous file. Keep in mind that this thing produces a 2Gb file for every 20 minutes of recording time (approximately [at 1080p]). I’ve used Lexar 64 Gb flash drive formatted as NTFS which allows you to record much bigger files. There are times when this thing will record 2-3 programs without a hitch. I can then remove the drive and save the files to my (admittedly old) iMac. I have re-inserted the drive into the unit and then the crap shoot begins. Sometimes the recording work; sometimes not. Sometimes my Mac can recognize the recorded file; sometimes not. Sometimes the Pro can playback the recorded file; sometimes not. Frustration with a capital F. I don’t know where the glitch is and frankly neither does the staff at Cloner Pro. I’ll give support a shout out. They get back to you very quickly to try and address your problem, much better than most software/hardware purveyors (are you listening Logitech?) but I think they’re still trying to figure out all the possible problems that this thing is running into. Essentially this thing appears to me to a “Beta” product, not quite ready for prime time. I’m gonna let my original review stand (originally 5 stars now reduced to 2) as there might be some info in it that may assist other users/buyers. If anyone has any insight or recommendations re: we Apple product users, please post them and/or let me know. To repeat, when this thing works, it’s great. However, be prepared for some FRUSTRATING experiences. Good luck.My wife and I are cord cutters. Been so for about 2+ years. We use an indoor antenna, HD Frequency Cord Cutter Indoor/Outdoor Digital Antenna. You can see my reviews of it under “K”, 5 stars. The antenna is NOT wired directly to my TV but rather to a Tablo TV DVR box. Also 5 stars; also reviewed under “K”. Everything runs through my home network through a Roku 3 box. I use powerline 500 boxes to get an ethernet signal to everything. Use both Netgear & TP-Link Powerline modules. Both highly recommended if you don’t want to be stringing Cat-5 cable all over your home. Between the antenna, the Tablo TV and the Roku box we were pretty much set. We stream most everything via Amazon, Netflix & Hulu and we get the local OTA broadcasts via the antenna. Not much missing there. I’ve even recently tried Sling TV to fill in the missing pieces but to tell you the truth I’m not really thrilled with it. If you’re a sports fan and need ESPN you might want to take a look. AT&T is launching Direct TV Now (as of today). Apparently you’ll be able to stream satellite/cable channels much like Sling TV. I’ll take a look. Now to the Cloner Box Pro. One of the short comings on my system is the inability to record some stuff. I can record OTA stuff via the Tablo TV but anything that came through the Roku box, nope, That is until now. Yeah I had to buy a HDMI splitter and a couple of short HDMI cables to split the Roku box signal (one goes to the TV, the other to the Cloner Box). Money well spent. The Cloner comes with a 16 Gig 2.0 USB flash drive (a nice touch by the seller. Thank you.) Be advised; the flash drive that I received was already formatted as NTFS. All well and good as this format will allow you to record large videos as one file as opposed to a FAT32 drive breaking the video up into 2 Gig segments. What was not well and good was downloading the firmware update onto this drive and then trying to update the Cloner Box. Wouldn’t take. Then I remembered reading (probably here on one of the reviewer’s comments) that the firmware update has to be loaded onto a flash drive formatted as FAT32. Fortunately I already had a drive formatted as FAT32 and the download and firmwear update went smoothly using that drive. Just a word of caution. Tried a few short recording through the Roku Box. Yeah the software is a bit clunky but it’s not a deal breaker at least not for me. I can’t speak to the editing software that came with the package as it’s written for Windows and we’re an Apple family. I have an old Dell laptop running Windows XP and I might try giving the software a whirl and if it’s worth it, I’ll update this review. I recorded the two test segments (just a couple of minutes each to get a feel for the hardware and software) at 1080. Looked good to me. Couldn’t really tell the difference between the original version and the recorded one. What’s not to like about that?! The thought then occurred to me: will this file play on my iMac? ON MY IPAD MINI? Yes it does! The file is recorded as Mp-4. The IMac and the Mini will both play Mp-4. Think about the possibilities. Now, file size: I recorded a one hour 40 minute movie at 1080, The file was humongous, 12Gb! So I went and bought myself a 64 Gig 3.0 flash drive ($16.00) for use exclusively with the Cloner Box. I don’t know if there is any upper limit to how big a flash drive you can use but if you need space apparently you can hook this thing up to a hard drive, one, two TBs. How much more do you need? So far works for me. As other reviewers have already written, the support staff is really good. She, Julia, actually gets back to you in short order. I spent 30 minutes yesterday on the phone waiting for someone at Logitech to answer. They never did! Julia got back to me (both times) via e-mail THE NEXT DAY!
8 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Tom M – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
I LOVE MY CLONER BOX PRO!
I initially purchased the HDML Cloner Box (non Pro) because of the good Amazon reviews. I was looking for an HD DVR device and the HDML Cloner Box reviews said that it would record virtually anything across an HDMI connection with excellent video quality. I ran into the common issue of the “blank screen” after hooking up the Cloner Box and went the manufacturer web site (Cloner-Alliance) for help and found the “Pro” model with Remote Control, Timer Recordings, and Instant Playback. The Pro being a new product had no reviews on Amazon so I didn’t see it on first pass. After testing the Cloner Box and seeing for myself that recorded everything I tried (CATV, Blue Ray, PC Stream) with Excellent Quality, I instantly purchased the Pro Model and arranged to return the Box version. The blank screen on the Box version was resolved by pressing the 1080/720 button for 5 seconds (you do the same with the Input button on the Pro).In addition to wanting an HD DVR, I also am in the process of moving my owned DVDs and Blue Rays to MP4 files for my Home Theater Server. I have another software solution for moving my Blue-Ray movies to MP4, but the Cloner Box can do that too. I have found using the Cloner Box for the “Extras” is nice because I have to view them to choose which one to copy and it is easier on the Cloner than the software solution.I LOVE the HDML Cloner Box Pro. Similar to the non-Pro Box, it records EVERYTHING coming across the HDMI port with EXCELLENT Video quality. The Remote functionality is fantastic. I have yet to test the Timer recording, but understand how it works. The Pro also allows you to Record on the PC through a 2nd Mini-USB port using their HDML-Cloner Pro Helper Application. The PC recording functions worked perfectly, giving you a mirror image of the HDMI stream on the PC (with a slight delay) and full recording control (with the addition of a Pause that you do not get on the USB Drive recordings). The recordings on the PC were as perfect as the ones on the USB flash drive. I can see one advantage of the PC recording is that you can record without having an HD monitor handy. I’m going to test recording from my DSLR Camera where that functionality will come in handy. The Cloner Box Pro Also has a Mic AND Headphone Jack (Mic Jack also on the Box), adding a headphone monitoring capability I currently do not have on the DSLR. The PRO also allows you to control the volume of the HDMI stream and Mic to get a perfect mix. One thing I noticed is my initial recordings had low volume (the Box recordings were slightly louder than the original program). I had to adjust the HDMI volume higher (controlled via remote) to get my recorded volumes back to “normal.”The file sizes on the recorded videos are very large. Cloner-Alliance obviously made a decision to provide the best possible MP4 video quality and did not try to over-compress the video. I’m seeing that the Pro files are about 2G per half hour of video. You can choose between 1080 or 720 recording quality, but the file size does not change a whole lot. The Pro also has a 2G file size limit so it creates a new file every 2G (or 30 minutes). Cloner-Alliance recently removed that restriction on the Box version and is promising new Pro firmware soon that removes that restriction. I had a problem trying to record baseball games where the recording stopped after 1 hour and it appeared the Pro had trouble creating that 3rd file after filling 2 2G files. Cloner-Alliance support was excellent and suggested a different USB flash drive. That appears to have been the problem. Since changing flash drives I have been able to record two 2 hour movies without issue. After the All-Star break I will try baseball again.Cloner-Alliance also provides another software application “MP4-Cloner” which allows you to “Trim” “Combine” “Convert” and “Burn” (to Disk). The Trim and Combine function do not re-compress the video so they work very fast, and do not diminish the quality. “Trim” allows you to remove extra things that are recorded at the beginning or end of the file (lead-in and recordings after the program had ended). Trim on a 30 min 2G file only took a few minutes. Combine allows you to combine the 2G MP4 files together into one file. The last 1.5 hour movie that I combined only took about 10 minutes to complete. “Convert” allows you to convert the native MP4 streams into other formats, although what I used it for was to reduce the 6G movie file down to 3G by decreasing the BPS setting. “Convert” does re-compress the video so it takes a bit longer. The video quality of the 3G file was still very good.The Pro also allows you to record from various other input types: VGA, RGB, and standard AV signals. This is accomplished by a provided cable with those various plugs that feed into a multi-purpose plug (reusing a 2nd HDMI-looking physical connector). Of course I purchased the Cloner-Box to get away from an older RGB recorder so I don’t see using anything other than HDMI.If you’re looking for a device that will record Full HD Video from your Game Console, Cable TV Box, PC Streams, or Blu-Ray Player, the Cloner Box and Cloner Box Pro is the device you have been looking for.
27 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
NYCSteelerNYCSteeler – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Raised rating back to 5 stars – phenomenal support
UPDATE 6/12/2019 – I’m reassigning my original 5-star rating as working with Julia from Cloner-Alliance support, I was able to resolve the audio synch issue I was having when I used the recorded videos in my video editing software. It turns out the HDML-Cloner Box Pro does not work well with my Samsung 850 Pro (or SanDisk) SSDs which is what I use for my recordings using my AVerMedia EZRecorder with no issues – I had audio synch issues with the 250GB drive while the 32GB and 512GB drives did not work at all (received a “Scanning storage device” message).I have to point out and commend the incredible determination by Julia and the Cloner-Alliance Support Team to research and resolve this issue. It’s absolutely unreal the amount of time and effort they put into fixing the problem – something severely lacking in most companies these days. Per Julia’s recommendation, I tried 4 different USB Flash drives and the recordings on all 4 drives worked perfectly in Adobe Premiere and my other video editing software. I also tried the Samsung and SanDisk SSD drives as well and could not record to the 32GB and 512GB drives while I still continued to experience issues with the 250GB drive. I’ll just use large Flash Drives with the HDML-Cloner Box Pro.Overall, I once again highly recommend this recorder as it does a great job and comes with outstanding support.UPDATE 12/28/2018 – I had to reduce the rating for this recorder from 5 to 3 stars as I had issues trying to edit the recorded video files in various software editors such as Premiere, Vegas, Nero Video, Corel Video Studio, CyberLink PowerDirector, and Pinnacle Studio. When I was able to load the file in the editor timeline – I could not load the file in some of the editors (received a file format error), none of them would display any of the recorded video files properly – the voices were not in synch; by a lot. I can’t recommend this recorder anymore due to this issue. I contacted ClonerAlliance tech support and was advised due to the idiosyncrasies of mp4 file formats, I should download a free software they provide called “MP4-Cloner” which would allow me to convert the file to a usable format. It’s too time-consuming to convert each file and then use the editing software to make my edits and render the final file, so I gave up and purchased the AVerMedia EZRecorder ER130 (available on Amazon) which provides excellent recordings which can be edited in any editor without the need to first convert the file.ORIGINAL REVIEW: This is definitely the HDMI recorder to get, period. It is extremely user friendly, comes with a well-detailed instruction manual in color and in excellent English, and the customer support is phenomenal. It allows you to schedule your recordings as well as playback of your recordings, and it also allows you to play images, audio, and video in various file formats. The one reservation I had was the 2GB recording limitation where a 1 hour recording would be split into several 2GB files, which was resolved when they provided a firmware update yesterday – I had asked them about it on a Monday night and they advised Tuesday morning that it would be released later in the week, and sure enough, it was available on Thursday. Now that’s customer service the way it should be – they respond quickly and care about their customers. The firmware took a couple of minutes to install and the 2GB size limit is gone – my 1 hour video is now a single 7GB file. IMPORTANT: Before undertaking the firmware update, I highly recommend you format the USB flash drive in NTFS, then copy the firmware update file to it and proceed with the firmware update.The recordings are beautiful – crystal clear and vibrant – no degradation of color at all. Besides the option of recording in 720 or 1080, you can set the recording resolution to Low, Medium, or High.There are also additional adjustments for aspect ratio, output display, and sound. You can record to a USB drive or your PC but note that PC recording will require installation and registration of their software; if you don’t register the software, you’ll be limited to 10 minutes of recorded video.VERY IMPORTANT TIP: Make sure your USB drive is connected to the unit BEFORE you turn the unit on.This will allow you to play your recordings. If you connect your USB drive after you’ve turned on the unit, it will allow you to record, but video playback will not be possible. I learned this the hard way going crazy trying to figure out what was wrong.The unit comes with a remote control that is well laid-out and easy to use. It provides a full complement of options including turning the box on and off (other units I’ve used stay on all the time). You can take a screen capture, start and stop recordings, change the recording input and resolution, schedule your recordings, and best of all, play your video recordings.I highly recommend this little unit – it is a fantastic value considering all of its capabilities. Yes, it costs more than some other units out there, but the options, build, quality, and customer service of this unit are beyond compare. This is a frustration-free HDMI recorder that provides beautiful recordings and a host of options. With the new firmware that you can download and install in a few minutes, recording size limitations is a non-issue.FYI, I purchased this unit at FULL PRICE – I did not receive a discount or compensation of any type for this review. I see too many 5-star reviews for crappy products out there – this is not one of them.If you have any questions or need me to test something, let me know and I’ll get back to you.
219 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
The Gadgetman – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Records as advertised and customer support a huge plus
I’ve been procrastinating to purchase this product due to some negative feedback. However, now that I’ve used it for several days I should have purchased this sooner.This produce does record as expected. The only minor issue I encountered was when I first connected it for the first time. I got the “Och, something wrong!” messag, but was quickly resolved by pressing on the “source” button on the unit for 10 seconds.I’m currently using SanDisk 128GB Cruzer USB 2.0 Flash Drive and it is working. I first recorded with FAT32 to verify that the cloner and USB were correctly recording, then reformatted to NTFS so I can record it to a single file. I was able to record 2.5 hours of 1080 without any issue.Now I’m looking for a larger capacity. So far I tried my WD 1TB My Passport SSD (NTFS) without success. I’d like to at least have 512 GB capacity.I gave 4 stars because the UI is very clunky. Some features like deleting just do not make sense. I’ve decided to clean up by doing it on my PC since I can also rename the files for better identification.Another annoyance is the enabling the recording indicator. I expected it to be like a display-only indicator that shows up on your display like when you start/stop recording (to make is easier to see if it’s recording or not). However, the flashing red “ball” is actually recorded so when you pla back it displays on the screen (very annoying since it flashes). I don’t know anyone who would want that on your recorded file since anything you play is “recorded” to begin with…so I now have to rely on looking at the top of the cloner device (flashing blue) to verify if it’s recording or not.Overall, I am pleased with the product as the most important feature of recording seems to work as expected.Now, I’ll see how long this device will last. I do wish I can have this turned on all the time so I don’t have to split the HDMI input (because even when plugged in it doesn’t passthrough when turned off) and I’m not sure if this device was designed/built to be left turned on 24×7.Update:So the reason My Passport SSD didn’t work was because it’s GPT and ClonerPro only supports MBR, but I decided not to convert it to MBR. I’ve come to realize that using128GB Flashdrive is more than adequate for me because I now use the device for recording only. Since it takes a couple of seconds for the ClonerPro to actually start recording after you press the record button, I just start recording in advance. I then edit the video (trim/combine) on my laptop using the free app from them. So 128 GB is more than adequate for this purpose. I did upgrade to USB 3.0 SanDisk Ultra because it’s much faster to copy the videos to my laptop. I then move the videos to my WD MyPassport to play on my set of laptops. WIth this, keeping my SSD external drive as GPT was the better choice.I upgraded my review from 4 to 5 because of their customer support and they outweighed the product shortcomings I described earlier. As others have mentioned, they are quite amazing. They respond almost immediately and clearly shows that they want to provide the best support they can offer. It is quite refreshing when these days contacting a customer service are waste of our effort.
3 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Joseph C. – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
With the ClonerAlliance Box PRO, you can record ANY TYPE of TV programming!!!!
The ClonerAlliance Box PRO is a MIRACLE!!!! I put off installing the box because of the long, technical videos I’ve watched on this box! Well, one night I decided to DO IT!!!! ALL I DID was plud the included HDMI cable into the ClonerAlliance Box PRO, the other end into the HDTV’s HDMI #3, then my Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max into the CA Box PRO and, last of all, plugged the flash drive into the CA Box PRO. I plugged in the power cord to the CA Box PRO and turned the TV on…and VOILA!!!! The ClonerAlliance Box PRO recorded RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT!!!! ANYTHING thru my Fire Stick 3K Max can be recorded!!!! THANK YOU!!!!
2 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
CirothUngol – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Records anything you throw at it in 1080p@30fps or 720p@60fps.
Initially I was skeptical that this little inexpensive video box would perform as well as promised, but fortunately for all involved I was wrong. It does everything as advertised and then some! I’ve had it for about two weeks now and have been testing it extensively by recording from the following input sources:VGA – Current Quad-Core Win7, Old Win98se, Older DOS box. Looks exactly as it does on the monitor.HDMI – Cable Box, BluRay Player, Roku 3. All work perfectly with no HDCP issues.Composite – VCR, LD Player, PlayStation, Dreamcast, etc. Everything looks as good as composite looks.Component – Cable Box, ATSC Tuner. Both record with crisp, bright colors, almost as good as HDMI.The remote is full-featured and allows switching between inputs, making it a nice hub-device for viewing old video devices on your new HDMI TV. It records in either 1080p@30fps or 720p@60fps, and I’ve found 60fps is necessary for all composite and SD sources (VCR, LD, SD Cable) to avoid stair-step and herring-bone patterns due to dropped fields (30fps @ 2 fields per frame), even if it wasn’t actually interlaced. No real loss, 1080p is overkill for SD anyway. ^_^The recordings are standard MP4s (h264 video with AAC audio) and are between ~10 to ~15 MiB per second when recording to the USB. This results in ~4.5 to ~6+ GiB per hour of recording, which yields about 20 to 25 hours of recording on the 128 GiB MicroSD (formatted as NTSC @ ~117GiB) I paired it with for less than $40 (search ‘Kingston USB microSDHC’ for the best adapter out there). I’ve also used both a USB-powered 500GiB hard drive and an externally-powered 2TiB hard drive, neither of which it had a problem with.The system menu is intuitive and easy to use. It offers some nice perks like color, aspect, menu transparency, and equalizer settings. The playback menu is also nice, with full-motion thumbnails that provide file size, resolution, and stream information. It’ll play MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC and M4A audio, MP4, AVI, VOB, MKV, MOV, and MPG video, as well as show BMP, PNG, and JPG images. There’s also some helper software you can download which allows a few more resolution and bitrate options (up to ~18MiB per second), as well as AAC, AC3, or MP3 for audio. When used as a USB capture device in this manner, it certainly out-performs every other USB video device I’ve ever used. Hands down.A few caveats and suggestions:* If you have no sound, be sure to increase the input volume using the left-right arrows on the remote.* If you get no video signal, be sure to select the appropriate source using the remote (it does not auto-select).* If you have HDCP issues, hold the ‘source’ button on the front of the box for five seconds to reset the HDMI.* If using scheduled recording, the box must be left on. It will not turn itself on to record.* If you have stair-step or herring-bone patterns on diagonal or curved images, use 720p @ 60fps.* If the light on top of the box if blue, it’s set to record in 1080p. If it’s green, it’s set to record in 720p.* If the light on top of the box is blinking, it’s recording. Wait for the light to stop blinking before doing anything.* Be sure to always turn the box off before removing the USB drive, otherwise the drive may become corrupt.* Be sure to avoid on-screen displays when recording, as it will record it’s own menu overlays (why?).* Be sure you are running the latest firmware, otherwise recorded videos may be clipped into ~2GiB chunks.* Be sure to back-up any recordings before updating the firmware, otherwise you may lose them.* The files produced are huge! You will probably want to re-encode them before archiving or distributing.If I’m listing my disappointments:* You can only schedule one recording using the system menu. You’d think it’d be unlimited.* It records all of it’s own on-screen display. It even records the ‘Recording…’ that appears when you hit record.* No S-Video input. I hate using composite video when recording from S-VHS and LaserDisc. *sigh** Max recording time is only available in the helper software, and not via the system menu.* When using scheduled recording, the device should turn itself on and off.That’s actually a rather short list of disappointments considering the HDML-Cloner Pro’s modest price. All in all, there’s really nothing to complain about with this inexpensive little device. It does exactly what you’d expect of it. Just like the modern digital equivalent of the VCRs of yore, it will record any device that outputs video in one of it’s many accepted sources. So far, there are no exceptions that I’ve found. I’m currently using it in an attempt to archive all of the bizarre stuff I have on VHS and LaserDisc before the media (and their requisite playing devices) crumble to dust. If you’re looking to do the same, or wanting to snag some video from Cable TV, ATSC tuner, video game console, or any other archaic device, then this nice little box is currently the best thing out there.
152 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
ccar2868 – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two hour movie without splitting video
If you want a movie without splittingit into 20 minute parts just format theusb drive to NTFS but it will still split thevideos into 3.9 gb so you have to go intosetting in the cloner box pro and select16 gb file size then you can record up toabout a 2 hr movie at 1080p without splittingthe movie into separate parts. I have done 5movies already some from the roku and somefrom the xfinity cable box it works perfect. I’ve nevertried setting the video quality to 720p so maybe youcan get even longer than 2hr movie I will try at some point,
Rated 5 out of 5
WhyChan – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good product with room to improve. Extremely happy customer.
The main reason I purchased the Cloner Box Pro was to record some online videos for my daughter in our next road trips. I had a mix feeling at first because the built-in firmware didn’t work with my SanDisk 256G USB3 stick in the first 2 days, but there was no other easy solution within affordable budget. Yet very soon, I received excellent support from Julia in their customer support department. This changed the whole picture completely.Out of the box, the “old” firmware was able to record the videos (out from my laptop if that is important) into my NTFS formatted 256G USB. However, after the recording, the NTFS partition would not be accessible again in Windows 10. By plugging it back into the Cloner Box Pro, or even my home QNAP NAS, I could see the files. But not under Windows 10. I tried to format the USB with another Windows 10 laptop and did few recordings again. But I got the same results. I was very frustrated after close to 48 hours of trial-and-error. If it was another item, I would have already make a return request. Lucky I didn’t. Instead, I contacted their tech support by email, and Julia got back to me within 12 hours.Then in the next 2 days, we exchange few other emails. And most important, Julia has been very patient trying to understand my issues. She sent me few other beta firmware, which didn’t work until the 3rd one. This made me to believe that, even the item was not prefect (at least not working with my 256G USB) but the company was really behind their products. While I am writing this review, I have done over 30 hours of recordings in the last 4-5 days. Julia did even send me a follow up email 2 days ago to make sure my issues were truly solved. I am so surprised and glad for this level of tech support and customer service from a Chinese company. In the US, people usually stay away from items that were made in China. I can honestly tell you I am one of them. But this experience with ClonerAlliance really changes my mind. There is still hope. I have been shopping at Amazon since 2002, and I have been Prime member for around 5-6 years. This is one of the very few times I make a happy review.While I am 100% happy with the support & service, I believe the product still have room to improve. Below are few points I would recommend the company to spend some time on.- Having schedule recording feature is good. However, everytime the power was removed, the date / time would go back to 2016 May. It looks like the item doesn’t have a CMOS BIOS to maintain the time. Instead, it relies on the OS.- The schedule recording feature is good to record programs that with a preset program schedule (and a reliable clock). But it would be even more useful to have a feature to auto stop the recording after certain hours / minutes. For example, after I started the recording, it would be much easier for me if I could set it to stop after 45 mins. For now, I will need to either setup a timer on my phone to remind myself, or I have to go back to my bedroom to check the TV once a while. It happened few times that I left the room and forgot about the recording. And the files were so big due to the extra hours of idle screen. I believe this could be easily implemented.Even without the “auto-stop” feature, I am still very happy with this device. So I am giving it a 5-stars. Special thanks for Julia. Now I could have a relatively easy trip with my terrible twos.Few other tips for others.- It does work with my FireTV, and should work with all other HDMI output video sources. This device is just a simple “video recorder.”- The output format is MP4. In case you need to do some simple edition, you don’t need to buy any professional software. In Windows, I use Movie Maker. It came with Windows 7 but now Windows 10. In Windows 10, you could Google “Live Essentials 2012 Windows 10.” Movie Marker is part of the package.- All my recording was on 720p. The unit was kind of hot after 3-4 hours straight recording. You may want to let it cool down for a while.
One person found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
William F. Alexander – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Touchy and Unreliable with various USB sticks. Works great via USB to computer.
I bought the Cloner Box Pro to convert my DVD and Bluray collection into MP4 files so that I can put them on my local PLEX server and play them over my Roku.Initially, I had some real trouble with this. I plugged it all together the way the instructions showed and I could not see anything on two separate Bluray players. I went into the setup for the device and things looked a little funny (e.g. the time setting had the year at 2057). This was probably caused by sitting on the warehouse self for a long time and the data stored on the device went stale (e.g. a bit flip could conceivably change 2017 to 2057 in the year setting). I went on-line and chatted with the Tech Support people and they told me push and hold the SOURCE button until the unit resets. After that, everything works great.I notice once little glitch in the video feed as it was recording. I am not sure if this is the Bluray player or the Cloner Box Pro doing it. My belief is the Cloner caused the glitch since this particular Bluray disc and player has never had glitches before. I will update this review as I continue to use the Cloner.Update 3/24/2020 – TouchyThis device is very touchy. I find that for best results, the USB flash drive should be freshly formatted with NTFS before recording. Several times, I had simply deleted files from the USB drive and then started recording. When I came back, the recording had stopped without any explanation of what went wrong and there were no files on the flash drive.Other times, I found I had to reset the device back to factory setting by pushing the SOURCE button for 10 seconds.I contacted tech support and they gave me a new firmware. Since then, I still have problems with USB drives which have not been freshly formatted.So far, I have converted about 20 of my DVDs/Blurays into MP4 format using the Cloner Box Pro. The picture quality is very good with occasional glitches. After setting up my Samsung TV to play media files from my Windows 10 machine, the MP4 files play very well and I am quite pleased with the results.I am also glad that I bought a 3 year warranty from Amazon since I a little worried that the Clone Box Pro will fail before that time.Update 3/26/2020 – Throwing in the towelAfter upgrading the firmware, I have come to the conclusion that either this product is either a bad design or the particular unit I have is bad. After two failed attempts to record one of my DVDs, I’m throwing in towel. The device is not very reliable. I am still debating whether to return the product or replace it.Update 5/4/2020I gave it one more try, except this time I connected it to my computer via USB. It works great. No glitches like with USB drives. The software is good and lets you set the recording length so that it automatically stops after a movie is done. I’ve converted about 1/2 of my DVD collection using the cloner and so far the only complaint I have is that the MP4 files seem to be a little dark.
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
A51 – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worked Great but
Worked Great, but unit I got did not look new…
Rated 5 out of 5
Vern – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just what I have been looking for
I purchased this to do the things it says it was. I was very nervous about setting it up and what I wanted to do with it. It took me longer to unbox it than it did to set it up. It works so good. I can digitize what I wanted and didn’t have to spend a small fortune. I couldn’t fully figure out about the software that you can download but I messaged them and they returned with all the information I needed within the hour. Great customer service. I highly recommend this especially to record like you used to when VCR’s were the thing.
2 people found this helpful
Rated 2 out of 5
ironorr84 – December 20, 2023
2.0 out of 5 stars
this is what I would like to say
I have 18 years of professional tv broadcast experience, and after over a month of using this product, this is what I would like to say.I think this video recorder has some amazing potential. I REALLY liked the idea of a stand-alone video recorder that didn’t need a separate computer to make recordings. Just one push of the record button, and it’s doing it’s job…that’s it! No other hassles to worry about. This kind of device is MEANT to be simple to setup and use, and I appreciate that kind of feature.Another feature that I liked was that you could record from HDMI, VGA, YPbPr, AV, Audio L/R, external Mic. I can see how this would be very attractive to MANY users across the board, from the consumer digitizing old home videos, hobbyists users, and even up to a prosumer professional user. For OUR use, I wanted to have a HDMI recorder to record from the HDMI output of our BlackMagic ATEM TV STUDIO video switcher. Our church’s video production setup uses 2-3 video sources to switch around per Sunday for 40-50 minutes at a time, so we wanted a simple to use video recorder that would record that long with prosumer quality video bitrates so we could post to YouTube. We didn’t need a high-end professional recorder, but one that would do the job, so I decided to try this one out.But in the end, I could only give this product two stars, because of a few reasons. One GIANT reason that I had to give it a low reason is because there would always be a video glitch in the recordings that would cause the VIDEO to lag behind the audio a half a second. But this glitch happened 4-8 times within 40-50 minutes, so at the end of our recordings, the video and audio was out of sync by 6-8 seconds. This desync in a/v is entirely unacceptable, even if you’re just a consumer. I can’t imagine how this glitch would be okay in any recording. It was in the raw recordings too, and just no way to fix this glitch.Another reason why I gave it a low rating is in the quality of the final video. In the unit’s settings, you only have “low, medium, high” recording options, but what’s the bitrate in which you are recording? I was told that the high quality option was around 10-14 mbps (variable bit rates too, and no option to switch it to constant bit-rate), but visually the raw recordings did not reflect this at all. The only way I can convey this is to go watch a GOOD, PROFESSIONALLY made YouTube video and set the playback quality to 1080p, but then compare it to the 480p setting. There’s just no sharpness to it at all…very blocky, very fuzzy, and so the maximum recorded quality of the Cloner Box Pro would really only be useful to perhaps VHS digitizing…but still not really useful if you want lip-synced video!The customer and tech support was very responsive to my emails, and even let me give them some suggestions and feedback to their device. They did their best to help me troubleshoot, and even wanted my raw video recordings sent to them for analysis, but in the end, they left it as “We will try to fix this in the future.” Sadly, this final response left me no other choice but to return it, which they agreed that they will give me a refund.I would rate the customer assistance and tech help 5-stars!I just wish there was a product like this one! As far as my researching has come up, there is no other stand alone video recorder that will take all HDMI, VGA, YPbPr, AV, Audio L/R, external Mic video inputs, record and playback with a USB drive, HDMI loop-out, and user-friendly, really easy to use. I mean really…this thing would have been a gem to keep and use for our church video productions!My final cons on this device is listed below:-Fix the video/audio sync issues.-Fix the final recording qualities.-Offer H.264/H.265 instead of .mp4
83 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
bob@the.electrician – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great product if you have the correct work flow sorted out.
The files are huge, well beyond what you want to handle in any post-processing operation. Count on 2 GB for a 44 minute TV show at 720p/30 FPS using a minimal data rate. This is good enough quality to view on a 35”+ TV. That will jump to over 8 GB for an hour of 1080 programming. The files consist of largely uncompressed video saved in .mp4 format, so they stream easily on slower systems and are directly playable in VLC, Quicktime, PLEX, WindowsMedia etc on either Windows or Mac without any conversion being required.When setting up the box for the first time, use the remote and raise the sound volume to the max.If you use the remote and record directly to the supplied USB thumb drive, it will become corrupt after a few recordings and must then be reformatted on your PC as FAT32 or NTFS. Anything on that thumb drive may be lost, including your current recording, so I have a certain reluctance to attach a large hard drive directly to the USB outout port.If you must use thumb drives, FAT32 format will be more stable, but all of your files will be broken up into 2 GB chunks. ClonerAlliance provides a utility to join and edit the segments, but file size makes this largely impractical. Continue to use NTFS and the files will not be chopped up but the corruption issue will come back sooner.If you want a bulletproof work flow, attach a 2 GB NTFS hard drive to your router and share that drive. Using the free ClonerPro Helper app on your PC to record to the network drive will bypass the file corruption issue and enable instant access to your library on another networked machine. The PC used to record does not have to be anything swift; a Thinkpad from 2012, Win 7/32, with 2 gig of RAM does the job quite adequately and provides a monitor of what’s going on.Sharing a router-networked drive will also sidestep some NTFS and Windows compatibility issues for Mac users by granting full read/write permissions.As others have mentioned, ClonerAlliance seems committed to great support and has a liberal refund policy. Firmware updates seem to be just a few months apart so I expect the file handling issues may be resolved soon.
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Bob – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Send In The Clones
I was plesantly surprised with the operation of the unit. It does exactly what it says. You have to plug in the connector in the rear to the input you want to record from. Such as HDMI, VGA, YPbPR, or AV. connecting is easy and following the diagrams makes it easy. The directions for recording are easy to follow also. One button to record and one to stop recording. But, you have to remember to not be too fast when removing the thumbdrive from the unit when it’s completed a recording. wait until the indicator on top stops flashing before removing otherwise it won’t complete the task and you could end up with no video. What a pain if you’ve recorded several hours of video. Then, have to repeat the process. I wanted it for recording town meetings and have the video directly on a flash drive with MP4 file (the requested medium at the cable network). It would have been just fine except for one thing the audio level was very low and I had to increase the gain in Vegas Pro. I tried using Movavi to convert to an audio file and then increase using Audacity. But, this upset the timing and when I added it to the video it was off by too much to use. I wouuuld like to try this again to make sure I did everything right before complaining more. I really think it’s a good device in spite of the issues. The idea of doing a 3 hour video to a thumb drive and just handing it over to the station is ideal. The remove is great. Although you have to be patient and not expect it to respond immediately. It takes a half second or so to repsond to the on button push. other then that moving through the menus is fairly easy. when you finish recording you press the stop button and then wait util th indicator stops flashing. then, press the playback button to go to the selection screen and pick “Film” to select the recording you want to view. moving with the arrow buttons to select the video you want and press playback will show a thumbnail video of the program recorded. if you want to watch it you have to press the buttom below the button marked playback to play it full screen. When watching it playback this way the volume is fine and doesn’t require any adjustment. So, I’m thinking I need to experiment a bit more. It’s a fine device for the price but, it’s not for someone who’s technically challenged. Unless you want to dive right in and try it. It’s not your replacement for DVD Desktop recorder or VHS recorder. There are a few differences that may throw you for a loop. But, it does everything it says.
2 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
M. Clipper – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Solution for Capturing Video Games without a Computer
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Edit 11/11/2020: I just realized that the video I attached to my review was degraded in resolution/bitrate after upload by Amazon. To see the actual quality of the videos captured from this device, head over to YouTube, and search for my son’s channel: Ready Up Riley.————————My 9-year-old son wanted to start his own YouTube gaming channel, and I searched quite a bit for video capture solutions before deciding on the HDML-Cloner Box Pro. Most other capture solutions require a computer to actually capture to, and I wasn’t about to buy another computer just to stick in my son’s room for capturing his video games. Since the HDML-Cloner Box Pro just requires a USB thumb drive, it was the perfect solution. The HDML-Cloner Box Pro simply stores video on the USB thumb drive in H.264 MP4 files, which you can view and edit on a separate computer with most video editing software. I was a bit skeptical since I had never heard of the brand before, but this little video capture box has really exceeded my expectations. Video quality (shown in the attached brief video) is excellent when set to the highest bitrate setting.The only minor issue that I’ve noticed is that the video quality on the HDMI pass-through is slightly degraded (but this doesn’t appear to affect the video captured to the USB thumb drive). For example, I noticed that some of the smaller text in a video game is a bit blurry when viewed on a 1080p HDTV using the video pass-through. I solved this by buying and using an inexpensive HDMI-splitter; so basically I split the video feed from the source so that one line goes to the TV and the other to the HDML-Cloner Box Pro. The only problem with this is that if you want to see the on-screen display from the HDML-Cloner Box Pro, you’ll need to connect it to a 2nd HDMI input on your TV and switch to that input.Aside from that very minor issue, the HDML-Cloner Box Pro is the perfect solution if you want to capture video from a video game system (Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch) without the need to have it all connected to a computer system.
One person found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Big J – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Instructions Unclear! I DO NOT ADVOCATE RECORDING US/INTERNATIONAL COPYWRITE LAW
As most people know, if you want to sell something in another country get someone from that country to write the reviews, instruction manuals etc. Chinglish does not convey the intentions or in this case instructions clearly. Not only that the instructions wind up leaving a lot of the finer details out that are necessary to intelligently use a product. The Cloner-Alliance Pro will allow the user to play c-tected vhs tape, dvd, hd streamed media through the pro product and do what most of us want to do with it. Archive, so we can play it over and over again at a later time for our own enjoyment. After all why did we buy the product to start with. Once archived of course it is in digital format (mp4) and requires no further work. One note when archiving media over 2gb in fat32 data format. It then requires the user to use some type of software (mp4 cloner software is available on the Cloner-Alliance website with a registration-user code) to then join the multible 204900kb files into a whole again. If you join it on your computer you can’t move it to a storage drive unless you first put it in ntfs whch packages it in 10gb file format. So expect some monkeying around.. Otherwise you will be happy with the end product. Our tv’s play crystal clear hdmi 1080 quality. 4K like with all media is a day late and dollar short at thier release date, but the product is still worth the investment. With the older vhs media in particular in also enhances it to near hdmi (720) quality depending on the condition of said media and as much as something that was recorded in 480I can be enhanced. Yes it comes with female RCA analog jack media which in turn plugs into the center HDMI MMI input in the rear of the unit. HDMI in is for gaming consoles, computer hdmi out and dvd/blueray outputs. Enjoy, however my guess is that this product will only be around as long as similiar products as ANY D_D were before the big boys buy up the technology. PS: Remote works but again Chinglish monkeyed up the intent.
One person found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
marshakar56 – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works great, but it was a little confusing to get it working.
I was able to get it working after a little research through the online instruction book. It seems to be working nicely, and it came with several types of connectors. I’m looking forward to seeing if I can transfer my old VHS movies to a USB drive!It arrived the next day!!!
3 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Ernesto Gonzalez – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works as advertised not
cloner Alliance box pro when it works as advertised let me know.i never had it going right.I tried many times it would stop recording an freeze.
Rated 4 out of 5
technosavy – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does what it should do- 720 or 1080P – recording and playback produce excellent results. Remote control is intuitive and buttons are …
I am a serious A/V hobbyist and Audiophile. This is my 2nd purchase over a two year period and this product and works well. Let me summarize:Pros: Does what it should do- 720 or 1080P – recording and playback produce excellent results.Remote control is intuitive and buttons are well placed. Only criticism is that there is no “stop” button and instead, a workaround is to press the reverse arrow or “return” equivalent, to step back the operation until you get to the desired screen.Cons:1- I still needed to upgrade the firmware (to v1.35) via a PC which worked, but not as intuitive as a normal firmware upgrade operation, due to bugs in it’s initial operation out of the box.2- My biggest gripe hence (4) stars, is that even after the upgrade, the unit will not allow playback of recorded files when using a (NTFS formatted) hard drive of 500 gb or larger, as the main USB storage device. It will recognize the drives and allow files to be stored but will freeze when accessing the files via the playback button when you get to the playback screen.NOTE: I checked the playback by disconnecting the drive and connecting it to a laptop and playing the files with VLC, and the files played back fine in 1080P, so the Cloner recognizes and stores the mp4 files correctly, but has playback issues. The only way out for normal operation from the “ frozen state” was to recycle power. I did not try to format the drives with FAT32 due to the 2 gig file size limit which I dislike.The good news is that the unit works fine for all operations, storing and playback, for drives (thumb drives, SATA SSD’s, or mechanical drives) with capacities of 250 gb. and lower.3- The unit responds very slowly between commands (record, playback.. etc..) from 2-10 sec. delays (due to slower hardware used) but this is excusable considering the price.Overall a satisfactory experience as long as you can live with the limitations.
One person found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
StuInCalif – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Product, EXCELLENT Customer Service!!
I originally bought this product in 2017 and it worked nearly flawlessly up until a couple of weeks ago. During the year and a half I used it, it was a little finicky with the type of USB flash drives I would use with it – some would work, others would not. The drives need to be formatted as NTSF (not FAT 32) in order to work properly with the device. About two weeks ago, the unit starting powering down after about 10 minutes of use, losing everything it was capturing up until that point. I contacted Customer Support via e-mail and Julia got back to me almost immediately. I told her that I didn’t expect to have lifetime support for a product I bought nearly two years prior, but because I really only used it about 30 times, I didn’t expect it to stop working properly either. She was incredibly sympathetic and offered to exchange the unit in which I originally paid $129 for at a cost of $50 (mainly for shipping a brand new, complete package from China, where the product is manufactured). That to me was a TERRIFIC offer since she was under no obligation to replace it at all since its one year warranty had expired six months previously. She explained to me that they actually had both a firmware and hardware upgrade since I bought the first unit, and that upgrade had addressed some of the issues I was having with the previous unit. I promptly shipped my old unit and remote to a US address (on their dime) and once they had a tracking record of my old unit, they didn’t even wait for it to be delivered – they went right ahead and sent me a new Cloner Pro from their plant in China. Julia said it might take 20 days to arrive but, it actually came in about 10! Needless to say, this new unit is SPECTACULAR. I used it for several hours over the last few days and not one problem, not one finicky USB flash drive…everything is A-1 perfect. This is a FANTASTIC product, and I highly recommend it for converting pretty much any video source to an mp4 720p or 1080p video file in either 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio. Without a doubt, the quality on the new, improved model is incredible and the customer service cannot be beaten anywhere else. Purchase with confidence!
Rated 3 out of 5
Ray Stivala – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
It’s a good recorder but it has a few issues that can be fix if the company wants to fix them.
This recorder works well but right off the bat, I found a few issues. There are no vents on top so as the recorder is running it will heat up with no place for the heat to go. I could have cut vents on the top but did not want to void my warranty so I have it sit on top of a pc fan (The fan has rubber feet top an bottom for air flow). This keeps the recorder cool no matter how long I run the recorder. Next, the interface is something from a 90’s DVD player. It’s functional but it could be so much better. Finally, there is an audio sync issue when playing back videos I had done several tests and every time there was an audio sync delay. I decided to test the videos on my computer and I did not have the audio sync issue so it seems to be the HDML-Cloner Box Pro has the issue. I don’t use this device to watch videos (which it claims you can) but for me, I load all videos on a video server and watch them with a different device. So for me, this was not a deal breaker but for others, this may be a problem.A feature that I wish they would add is the option, to not record the on-screen text (E.g. if you press record the word “Recording” will be recorded with your video. They offer the option to reduce the time that the on-screen text appears (lowest setting is 5 seconds) a simple solution would be to have the minimum setting as zero seconds. I purchased this to record my Hi8 mm tapes, this is a major problem when recording analog because if the tape as an issue or you want to rewind or fast-forward the on-screen display appears and when your tape recovers the on-screen text gets recorded which makes editing this video impossible. ClonerAlliance – Just don’t record the on-screen text!When trying to view videos on the devices (Audio sync issue aside) you navigate the 90’s interface to the video section. None of the videos have icons and when you arrow over them it tries to play a bit of the video which takes FOREVER!!! because it trying to load the full video (Another reason why I don’t use this device to play videos). It would be great if you just had icons and not try to play the video also let me rename the video.I record all my videos in the highest quality and they look good. Even medium quality looks good but I rather have the highest quality available.
3 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Fred – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Having Problems?, update the firmware – problem solved
I really like this recorder. It is allowing me to record from ALL of my HDMI devices. And I am not using a splitter.I have not tested the VGA, RCA or composite inputs. HDMI wise I am very happy. So why only 4 stars? Well I wanted this review to standout rather than blend with the 5 star reviews.The other reason is I had a few hurtles to jump to get it to work. It didn’t come with a installation disk, but it did come with a blank USB drive. I tried to record with it “out of the box” and was unable to get sound. I followed the advice given in the replies that were left to the one star reviewers. (Some of the one star reviews have also been experiencing a lack of sound in the recorded videos.)And after updating the firmware everything works perfectly.It turned out better than I expected.I have not tested the software yet, I downloaded it, ran the setup but that’s all the further I got.So I do not have any opinion on how it works with the computer yet.The quality of the unit good. The main unit feels very sturdy. The plugs / cables fit into their sockets snuggly. The remote has a comfortable feel. Buttons are responsive, if you know how to use it. The first few times I was getting frustrated because I thought it didn’t work right. Once you learn how to navigate the menu it really is a nice simple piece of equipment.I have not tested any USB drive other than the one that came with it.I have not tested the timer function for scheduling yet.That’s all I have to report
Rated 5 out of 5
DM – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty great
An update on 6/1/17: Nothing has changed with my 5-star product review, but I had to mention how impressed I am by manufacturer’s customer support. A recent software update added a cool new streaming capability. I had trouble getting this to work in a specific environment so sent a message to support. Honestly, since everything worked in a different environment it may not have been a Cloner Box Pro issue at all but an issue with software at the other end of the streaming chain.. Nonetheless, over the next few days Cloner Alliance worked diligently with me, ultimately providing a new version of their software that resolved my issue completely. Communication along the way was excellent; I cannot imagine a better support experience.My original product review:For me the HDML-Cloner Box Pro works exactly as advertised, and to day I could hardly be more pleased.It’s small but heftier than you would expect, and the buttons and ports are marked well. It comes with all of the cables you’ll need.and a very reasonable remote control. The manual is basic but very clear.If you’ve read up on the box you know it captures video to a USB drive. It will also work with a computer using theincluded software.Check the various Amazon reviews to discover capabilities. I’ve had no problems with any input source.Customer service has emailed me regularly since I placed my order, most recently to ask whether there were any features that I’d like to see added to the menu. The only one I could conjure up was 5.1 surround sound; currently the box only captures in stereo. Customer service replied quickly and said they were passing on my suggestion to the software team.Since I’ve had no problems I haven’t needed to invoke customer service, but they promise a 24-hour response. No reason to doubt this–very nice.I’ve just had the box running for several hours, and all of the captured video is flawless: no dropouts or other errors.So far I’ve only played with a limited number of functions and features, and I haven’t spent much time with the included software. However, everything works as far as I can tell.If they ever get surround sound installed the box will replace all of my other capture devices. Already it’s perfect for 90% of my needs. This is an impressive product at an attractive price.
Rated 4 out of 5
Stingo – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good device with some limitations
Have been using this device for several months. I find it very effective. Great quality videos and easy to use. There are some negatives. Although you can set a recording schedule, I am not aware of any way to set it to record a specific period of time from pressing record. For example, record 1.5 hours from now. The box also gets hung up sometimes when it does not recognize the USB stick and requires a restart. Otherwise the best I have found until something better comes along.
One person found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Zach S. – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
great device, but no 5.1 support yet
Been playing around with this device, and really like it for the most part. But there’s 2 major things that are keeping it from getting a 5/5 stars on my review. Hopefully future firmware updates correct these issues, so we’ll just have to wait and see if they are. First, the product I got I was able to record files larger then 2GB so Aamzon’s product page should be updated for that. I’ve been able to capture stuff off my DVR through HDMI, so that works great. I love that it records in .mp4 format and you can set it to 1080p or 720p resolutions. But so far, it only records in stereo and have confirmed that so far there is no 5.1 surround sound support. That’s a pretty big omission in my opinion and hopefully they’ll fix that ASAP. There’s a lot of things I’d like to record at full 5.1 surround sound, and it simply can’t do it yet. The 2nd is for some reason they put a “recording” time stamp on the beginning of each recording, and at the end when you “stop” it. So for stuff I want to export and save for later, I’ll have to start the recording about 5 seconds before to allow timing so I can cut that part out later. Not a major deal, but something to consider. I will say that their customer service rep (I mainly conversed with Julia), was always in communication with me when I had questions. She said that she’ll update me if they do add 5.1 support, so hopefully that’ll be sooner then later. I’ll be keeping my product to do a project for since I don’t need 5.1 surround sound on that. If they update those 2 things, I’ll definitely update my review to a 5/5 stars. I’ll be keeping my product to do a project for since I don’t need 5.1 surround sound on that.
5 people found this helpful
Rated 3 out of 5
PrivacyWrites – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
Gamers, yes; Movies, Streams… not so much.
My ClonerAlliance Evolve died a sudden death after 5 years consistent use recording streaming video, all political debates, hearings, etc. Loved it, so of course it’s now irreplaceable. Got the more costly one, step up, and had to return it two days later…couldn’t get a non-jerky, no frame loss recording no matter how configured. Very difficult setup and “pass through” wouldn’t until defaults reset to lower res. Maybe gamers’ systems do better, but for straight HD TV/ etc., epic fail in comparison to Evolve Model.
Rated 4 out of 5
George – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Serves my needs.
I rate this unit 4 stars for price, features, and prompt customer support. 3 stars for convenience.I got this unit to make an infrequent recording from my Comcast cable tv and to play it back later. It does that.Recording:Just press the REC/STOP button on the box or the Rec button on the remote. After recording press the same button on the box or STOP button on remote.You can also schedule ONE recording session.(The box has to be properly connected and synched before doing anything)PLAY BACK & file deleting.This is more complicated. There is no shortcut.Press Playback on remote.Menu is shown. You have to indicate what is on the disk.In my case it is always FILM. Then another menu appears: I click on what looks like a disk.Then a list of files is shown. You have to navigate through list and click ok to indicate which files to play.(Selected files will have tick marks.)To play press the play/pause button.To delete press the delete button.SETUP:For my purposes I disconnect the comcast hdmi cable from the tv and connect it to the input hdmi port on the box.Then I connect a hdmi cable between the output hdmi port to the input port of the tv set.Power up tv. Then power up box.Then press and hold the SOURCE button on box till box resets. ( This last step is important)I also set the sound volume to max using the remote.This setup works, but you must leave the box powered up or you will not get a signal to the tv.(I tried using splitter to get around this, but did not get enough signal.)Sorry about the long review.
Rated 4 out of 5
Pete H. Indiana – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
This unit is great or good depending on what you want to do
This unit is great or good depending on what you want to do. Right out of the box with the included thumb drive the unit worked great. Easy installation. Everything worked first try. I did order and use the ViewHD 2 Port 1×2 Powered HDMI Mini Splitter for 1080P & 3D splitter (also from Amazon) because I was recording from a cable box.The issue I have is I wanted to record sporting programs that are not available on line after the fact, in this case collage baseball games and the Collage World Series. Each game is 3 hours of recording. Recording at 1080 it takes about 6 mb per hour. The included thumb drive is 16 mb. I tried using a “Western Drives Passport” but the cloner would not recognize it. After a week of e- mailing Julia at customer service and trying several options/formats I bought a 1 tb solid state drive. After formatting the drive it worked fine.If you plan on recording a large amount of data, plan on buying a solid state drive, in my case over $400. Had I know it was going to cost this much in the beginning I would not have gone this route.Programing is very rudimentary. Pre cell phone days type of programs. Plan on corrupting several recordings until you get it correct. Recording with the scheduled start stop times works but don’t manually (stop recording button) stop the recording or the file will be corrupt. Be sure to post start the recording at least 5 minutes from the current time for the unit to accept the request.All in all this is a good unit for short recording but more challenging for large data recordings.Customer service is very quick to respond but does not use the most understandable English.
One person found this helpful
Rated 3 out of 5
VLaslow – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
A useful device that does what it says it will do with a few caveats.
Where to begin? Let’s just start with does this product do what it’s supposed to do. The answer is as emphatic YES. And, the seller has a very good customer service response. They WILL help you all the way.Being fair and having said the above, I took a week to relax, calm down, and point out these issues:I’m a retired computer professional. I’ve installed many pieces of computer equipment, software, and systems. I have NEVER done an installation, big or small, that was this complex and filled with issues; many, but not all due to the product and it’s “documentation.”1. Upon installing the unit on my Mac Mini, the video on the monitor went very large. Not a heavy Mac user, it took a while to find out I could use the display “scaling” command to fix it. Joint fault.2. My sound disappeared. My sound is connected via headphone jack to external speakers. The video carries the sound with HDMI. I changed the sound setting to HDMI and retrieved the sound. My fault.3. The unit runs very hot. I measured 114 degrees F. I need to turn it off to keep it cool, but, of course, I lose my video unless I want to set up yet another piece of equipment to switch it. Their issue.4. The system time keeps changing. If you try to record something automatically, you’d better check the system time first. Their issue.5. When creating a file on a usb thumbdrive, the file creation date is 16 hours earlier than the time it was created. Their issue.6. The Cloner Helper software does not run on an OSX device without running it under Oracle’s Virtual Machine software. This is only my opinion, having tried to work with it for other projects. Save your time, if you need the Cloner Helper, put it on a Windows device. Their fault as they should have a native OSX application. I would bet there are plenty of people with a Mac Mini who use this device.There was some more, but I won’t bore you. Just remember, if you need to do what this product does, it WILL do the job. Just take your time, check off every step, and enjoy it when complete.
One person found this helpful
Rated 3 out of 5
TEM – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, bad and clunky
This item does work, but don’t expect an trouble free experience. This device has a very clunky user interface from the outset. The menu system pops on and off seemingly at will. i have owned the device for several weeks and still have not been able to get it to execute scheduled recordings – even after entering the meticulous info required (in military time) to schedule events. nonetheless, recording via the ‘(start) rec’ and ‘stop’ button do work as expected – but u have to monitor the recording time. One unusual feature of the device is that with most input devices you will have to press and hold the ‘source’ button’ on the cloner-pro for 5-6 seconds for the signal to get to the device from the input. Another concern for some will be the size of files produced: in the highest quality recording – the device will produce a file of about 6gb per hour recorded. A 2 hour movie will be 12gb in this format. And, if your usb device is formatted ad NTFS this will be one file. Whereas if your usb device is formatted as FAT32 – this will be split into multiple 2gb files (or smaller depending on time recorded). Further, if you plan to ‘upgrade/update’ the firmware – your usb device will need to be formatted as FAT32. However, my update did not yield any improved functionality. Nor, did it cure the scheduling issue. i enjoy gadgets. but i cannot recommend this item – especially to someone who does not understand how to format usb devices using different file systems. the hardware of the device appears well made from quality components (relatively speaking). But, the onboard software is frustrating and somewhat unpredictable. The resulting recordings are good quality. But, on more than one occasion the device did not close the files out properly and all files on the device were lost. it is my hope that a serious firmware/software update will cure most of these issues at some point in the future. Support via email was good and quickly responded to my concerns (this is a real plus in my experience). All things considered – a good device that delivers quality recordings, good support via email – but, medium to low quality software onboard.
5 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
PorchDog – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worked ok but it now Will not power up after 4 years of use
Clover promos ok. I had to add a splitter to the input side of the hdmi ports to get around piracy issues when connected to my TV. Also wouldAlmost always only record up to a certain length and then start another file. A bit annoying when recording full length movies. I also noticedThat the sound is low volume on recordings. Maybe I did not have it set right? All said I’ve liked it. Bad news is it won’t power on any more. Power plug wart is ok. I checkedThat with a volt meter and it’s at 5.1VDC. It just won’t power on. We lost power here a coupleTimes This week With ice storms and I think that killed something inside. I’m debating on getting another. In 2017 when I bought it, it cost $129. Now it’s $167. That’s a big jump for the same device. Maybe I’ll take the sucker apart to see if it’s a simple Fix on why it’s not powering.Better yet – is there an equivalent one that might be better? I’d likeTo hear some suggestions. Thanks – Porch
Rated 4 out of 5
Sergio – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Es bueno pero reduce el brillo y claridad del video y es poco intuitivo
Cumplió su fin
Rated 5 out of 5
z – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great to digitize VHS and Hi-8 without a computer
I had 100 VHS and 40 Hi-8 (analogue) tapes to digitize; this Cloner Alliance Pro box did exactly what I wanted. It has an excellent onscreen user interface, runs without a computer, and was a nearly zero-frustration joy to use. The only glitch I experienced was if a VHS tape had a dead or very noisy spot the Cloner would occasionally switch from NTSC to PAL and no longer decode and digitize the signal until it was re-started. I have also converted VHS using a DVD recorder, but this only works if the length of the source is known and matched to the quality (recorded length) of the DVD. As the Cloner uses a memory stick the length is unimportant; I chose to allow the Cloner to break the recording into 4GB files, but the transition between segments was never a serious problem. Now that the main goal of digitizing all the tapes is complete the box can have further use to record composite video or HDMI, although the published limitation to recording only stereo audio is unfortunate.
Rated 4 out of 5
nahhee – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect Capture of Film Noir Flicks at 720P from DVR
This box does exactly what I want, capture film noir movies from a DVR to 720P 60 fps, but has a couple of problems for which workarounds exist. As others say, capturing to NTFS drives to avoid 2GB file splits from FAT32 drives flat out does not work correctly and the files self destruct. For that reason and others there is NO reason to ever hook this to a PC, instead just capture to FAT32 drives directly. The resulting split files can be easily joined with the free MP4 Cloner program which I don’t believe transcodes the files at all since it is pretty quick. Another issue is that the captured files cannot be opened in Sony Vegas for non-linear editing. The combined file that is the output of the MP4 Cloner program can however. My routine is just start the capture to a USB drive prior to the start of the flick to be able to later trim off both the 15 sec gray bar this puts on and the 15 sec on screen menu the dvr itself puts out, and I end the recording after the movie finishes to be able to trim that end as well. Next step take the USB stick out, copy files onto video workstation I have (beast CPU/RAM & max nVidia CUDA card Vegas 13 supports), use the MP4 Cloner program to join all the clips which results in a pretty big file, around 8GB for a typical movie. Next step open the file in Vegas, trim and transcode to around 2GB file size. Only extra step is to have to join the files in MP4 cloner, would be nice to just capture on NTFS drive, but the workaround is OK. The end product is pretty great, no loss of sync, joins are fine etc. Note that the MP4 Cloner can trim files OK and it does join them OK so you don’t HAVE to use Vegas or another editor, but the resulting files will be 4 times larger in my case, and the volume on the files is low which I boost in Vegas. Will definitely buy another one of these when they support USB 3.0 drives and capture to NTFS with no file split or potential issues. As others have said, need to update firmware on this box first. Directions are kind of sketchy, I found that you DO NOT want to have the box connected to a PC and watching the output on the Cloner Pro Helper app while doing that, just connect to TV instead, and also use a small USB 2.0 drive formatted FAT32 to load the firmware from. Also don’t use any sort of HDMI splitter (like the View HD) or HDCP device, that setup stripped audio from the signal to the box, just do what others say and push the source button if you have any display issues.
3 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Lisa – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Product. Great Price. I’d buy from ClonerAlliance in the future.
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What an amazing product. I’d give it 6 stars if i could. A child could operate this device and the video and audio quality achieved are very good.I purchased this game to record classic video games videos for Youtube. I have recorded 25 half hour Let’s Play videos and streamed classic game-play videos using the available software.Even when you’re recording classic systems (I have attached a sample of a recording from a Super Nintendo Game played on a reproduction system to illustrate) you get a very respectable video quality. The audio isn’t awful either (even when you use a cheap $13 microphone like I am).I have also used this to convert VHS to a digital format so my kids can enjoy some old videos I had around since I was a kid.A few notes:1) This tool DOES NOT REQUIRE a PC to record. You can record to a Thumb Drive/Jump Drive. Files get large so make sure you select a good size. I went with a 32GB but you could probably get away with smaller.2) When attached to a PC you still need a TV to play the game on. You can record directly to the PC but the lag is noticeable and off putting. To achieve this, you can use the HDMI out to connect to a TV while you use the supplied USB connection to connect to the computer.3) The software they provide is worth it’s pretty much mandatory if you want to record to PC. This is ok because the software works. I know that sounds silly but look at other capture cards… They provide software that doesn’t work or is total garbage.4) The price is amazing for what you get. The Mixed Media input (allowing for attachment of multiple classic media hookups) solves the problem of having a multitude of different adapters. This alone is a huge selling point vs. a comparable Elgato capture device.5) You don’t need a crazy microphone. I purchased a $13 condenser microphone off Amazon and I feel like the quality is adequate and the box does a good job. Pro-tip however, you can adjust the microphone volume independent from what the box is recording. Make sure you keep this in mind if you find your voice is getting overpowered or if your feel you can’t hear your voice.6) If you are switching between a Mixed Media Input and HDMI make sure you have the right input type selected. This seems minor but many times I’ve made this mistake.7) *** When you press record wait 5 to 10 seconds *** You can always crop your video down, but it can take time for recording to stop. Better to have to trim a video than to miss moments of a recording. ******All in all I’m tremendously happy with my purchase and will likely purchase other products from Cloner Alliance in the future
One person found this helpful
Rated 3 out of 5
James – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Nice Product, But With Caveats
I recently purchased this product because of what appeared to be its full features, as well as its competitive pricing. I must say at the outset that I am not a gamer; rather, I wished to use the device to capture cable/satellite and Amazon Fire Stick feed for my own use.The product came nicely packaged and with the bonus 16GB USB Flash Drive as advertised. I ran my Fire Stick through it to my TV and was able to capture the feed nicely on the inserted flash drive. I then transferred the captured files from the flash drive to my Windows 10 computer. I was delighted to see that they played back nicely on the computer with Windows Media Player and other player software. The one immediate issue I noted, however, is that the audio volume of the captured video was very low — I believe another reviewer mentioned this as well. It was therefore apparent to me that I would have to boost the audio in my final edited video.But that’s when the real trouble started. When I loaded the captured video into an editing program, I invariably ran into a major issue — the audio and video would lose sync at some point. And it happened on all the editing programs I tried. The most stable at first seemed to be CyberLink’s PowerDirector, but when I burned a DVD of the footage, the audio and video would go out of sync! I wasted a ton of time and left a bunch of coasters in my wake.I communicated with Customer Support about this. They are responsive (though the response comes at night, suggesting they are overseas), but not helpful on this matter. The only suggestion was that I use their HDML Cloner software to trim the video. However, as I tried to explain to them, that software does not seem to allow you to pull up and edit a file that has been transferred to the computer. In other words, that software is worthless for me.After many hours, I did find a work-around that works. I used a freeware video conversion program (Pazera MP4 to AVI) to convert the files to AVI format. I was then able to import the converted files into an editing program and maintain audio and video syncing. It is a pain and it should not be necessary, but it worked.If the Cloner Alliance people are reading this (as they should), I would strongly suggest that they replicate and fix this issue (as well as the sound volume problem) in future firmware releases. I don’t know whether it is just a Fire Stick capture issue, but there is no reason why this issue should occur.UPDATE:Because this device will not pass through video signals when it is turned off, I disconnected my Fire Stick. When I tried to reconnect to do more recording, the device would no longer recognize the Fire Stick no matter how many times I tried (this time, pressing and holding the Source button on the device did no good.) I therefore had no choice but to return the device. I did so with regret because the product has nice features and their support rep seems anxious to please. But there were just too many bugs for me. Perhaps I was just ill-fated.
3 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
JR – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
The device will successfully convert analog 8mm tapes to digital format MP4 files on a USB drive
This device plugs into a HDMI port on the graphics card of your computer. I was able to convert analog 8mm tapes from a Sony DRV-TRV330 camcorder to MP4 files on a USB drive. You plug the YRW cable from the camcorder into a HDMI “MMI in” port using a cable that came with the device, and then from an HDMI ‘out” port on the backside of the device to your computer. The device does get warm once plugged in and operating. I gave the picture quality a “4” since analog files from camcorders of the 1990’s really cannot compare in image resolution compared to modern digital cameras. Of course if you have the full Adobe suite, you can refine the end product considerably.One 2-hour 8mm tape is equivalent in file size to a 4 gig usb drive.
One person found this helpful
Rated 3 out of 5
straightinsf – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
good as far as it goes
Not bad for the price, but not good either. Pros — It does what it claims. Cons — There are real problems with data dropsOkay, this will give you a nice video, BUT if you are going to do any editing of the raw video produced, you are probably looking at a lot of work unless you have some expensive editing software. This is my main gripe after using this a couple of days. Yes, other reviewers are correct, the unit can get hot, but this is easily addressed by just making a little carriage for the unit so that you can stand it on end (or you could just lean it against something. It is a thin unit, so when standing on end you effectively double the surface area exposed for heat dissipation. The heat problem is easily resolved and I don’t know why the manufacturer doesn’t supply a small stand to operate the unit on end. Ok, now for the complaints.Video quality produced is good, but the unit drops data whether you use the supplied USB cable and a fast computer, or a SATA III flash drive. The processor in the unit simply can’t handle the heavy data streams of HD video without the occasional buffer overrun. In the raw video produced, these just seem like an occasional pause or hiccup but if you are editing they are a nightmare. The reason they are such a problem is because the overworked processor doesn’t insert any key frames into the video! The result is that every data drop isn’t just a momentary glitch but puts the audio and video streams out of synch for the remainder of the clip when recoded on editing! So when you edit, you have to go through the entire video, identify each data drop and patch it. It is simple, but VERY tedious and the main reason for the three stars.A second problem is that new televisions don’t like the signal from this cloner when connected to a cable box. There are two possible solutions: The first (suggested by the TV manufacturer) is to used the supplied component cable rather than HDMI to feed the cloner box. Yea, converting digital to analog to digital is just peachy! not to mention an even bigger strain on an already overworked processor. So I tried a different approach, which is to use a powered HDMI splitter. This actually works really well, and you don’t have to use a split signal, but can cable the TV directly to the cloner when the cloner is receiving the signal through the spitter rather than directly from the cloner box.So yea, it is better than a Hauppage card for quality, but you can probably get a pci-e card that is just a little more expensive than this box that will not suffer from the data loss issues (if you have a decent computer). So this is good, but it could be better and needs some updating. I feel like I am in a time warp editing in 1999 when I am using this thing,
5 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
John M – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to work
I use to carry about 100 dvds in my travel trailer while camping, but now I just use this bad boy. It saves me a lot of space and now I have almost all of my favorite movies on a flash drive. I would by again if needed.
One person found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
K. Harper – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two Flaws
Works great on recording. The two problems I see with it. When you schedule to to record an event it has to be in military time. Second problem with it which is a big one. Let’s say you record a 3 hour movie. You watch later. If you stop it halfway and come back later you can’t pick up where you left of. You have to start over from the beginning and you can’t skip through to where you left off. You have to fast forward through it and that is a very slow process.
5 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
K. J. SearcyK. J. Searcy – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Picture, Solid Product
A bit of a struggle to get up and running, but worth the effort, delivers a very nice picture.I had to uninstall & reinstall the software several times. The mp4 cloner software included is verycrude but works, not good for accurate editing & offers no enhancement features.I was hoping ot would deliver a video file that could be dropped into a good editing programand trimmed, cropped and enhanced, At first I was unable to drop it into anotherprogram (Ver 11 Sony Vegas Movie Studio) at all. Turned out to be the version ofcloner I was using, they specify that you use Ver 2.10 Build 105, it can be downloadedfrom their web site, nothing on their site is actual labeled that way, it’s there & can bedownloaded but it is not labeled Vet 2.10 Build 105. Once I got the software installedit gave me a file (mp4) that could be played on some players but not others, it stillcouldn’t be dropped into the Sony Software. Recorded to flash drive or on computerhard drive made no difference. The workaround I settled on is to take the originalfile and convert it using any of the free converters available 0n the internet, any seem to work,you can even take the original mp4 and convert it to a mp4 & the new file can bedropped into the editor with no problem, there is no visible degradation of the videothat I can notice.I can’t speak to the schedule feature as I have not tried it.I would like to see as an addition to the scheduling, a count down timer, you would beable to start a recording then specify a stop point, 30min. 1h 1.5h 2h, 2.5hours & soon. In other words you would be able to start the recording, set a length of time andwalk away. The cloner would record the specified length of time & stop.Their support (Julia) was very helpful and willing to go the extra mile to ensuresatisfaction, quite possibly the best online support I’ve dealt with.The unit is built well and feels like it’s a solid piece of equipment, It waspackaged well. I’ve tried numerous of these type units including Hauppauge,TV2PC, Honestech and this is the only one I’ve kept. For some reason all ofthese different companies make almost descent hardware and then crippleit with lousy software.Another thing Cloner Alliance could do to make it handy for the customerand would cost almost nothing, would be to include batteries for the remote.
54 people found this helpful

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ClonerAlliance Box Pro, 1080p@60fps Video Recorder, DVR with HDMI Capture, Playback on TV. RCA/YPbPr/VGA to Digital Converter. Schedule Recording. No PC Required. Electronics

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Your next Must-Have next to your TV

Connect and it’s done! Just sit on the couch and do the rest with the remote.

Digitize Your Precious Memories to Modern Devices

Smooth 1080p@60fps recording in various scenarios

Easy to Use. Everyone Can Be a Pro

Learn More about ClonerAlliance Box Pro

Do more with your PC

Schedule recording

One press to snapshot

Widely compatibility

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Supports exFAT, NTFS, FAT/FAT32, MBR,GPT

Simple setup with 3 steps

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60 reviews for ClonerAlliance Box Pro, 1080p@60fps Video Recorder, DVR with HDMI Capture, Playback on TV. RCA/YPbPr/VGA to Digital Converter. Schedule Recording. No PC Required. Electronics

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ClonerAlliance Box Pro, 1080p@60fps Video Recorder, DVR with HDMI Capture, Playback on TV. RCA/YPbPr/VGA to Digital Converter. Schedule Recording. No PC Required. Electronics

Description

Your next Must-Have next to your TV

Connect and it’s done! Just sit on the couch and do the rest with the remote.

Digitize Your Precious Memories to Modern Devices

Smooth 1080p@60fps recording in various scenarios

Easy to Use. Everyone Can Be a Pro

Learn More about ClonerAlliance Box Pro

Do more with your PC

Schedule recording

One press to snapshot

Widely compatibility

More Reasons to Have ClonerAlliance Box Pro

Supports exFAT, NTFS, FAT/FAT32, MBR,GPT

Simple setup with 3 steps

Trusted by folks

Long-term Service

Technical Specifications

Additional information

60 reviews for ClonerAlliance Box Pro, 1080p@60fps Video Recorder, DVR with HDMI Capture, Playback on TV. RCA/YPbPr/VGA to Digital Converter. Schedule Recording. No PC Required. Electronics

Fast Shipping

Free Returns

Save on Taxes

Customer Support

Fully Landed Price

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