Question for Dazzle DVC II owners....

[Rommel_8]

I am thinking about buying one of these cards, but have a question. Can you rip a dvd onto your computer and then have the card encode it as I would like at a later time. In other words, can the card encode video that is already on your system, and not have to go through the analog video bridge? Thanks in advance!

[monster]

Rommel_8, if I understand your question correctly, you want to rip a DVD onto your PC's hard drive using a software program (like smartripper for example). Then later use the Dazzle DVC II to encode it to a different format later. If that is your question then I'd say no(but maybe not impossible, I'll explain later). Secondly, I'd have to say why? If you already have the DVD ripped, I'd recommend just converting it to what you want using a software program (like FlaskMPEG). The Dazzle DVC II only encodes a source coming in on the bridge. Now, to follow up on my No answer. It maybe possible to set your PC up to play your ripped source through the s-video or video-out of your video card (if you video card has an output) to the Dazzle DVC II's video input. This might allow you encode live, using Movie Maker ofcourse. The other variation of this method would to just play the DVD live on your PC, output it to the DVC II bridge and encode your file (mpg) in real time. I wanted to actually do this, but I don't have a video card that has the output I need to try this. I even tried to add a second video card that had the s-video out to TV feature but it wouldn't work. I currently have an Intel 815 chipset with onboard video (Asus CUSL2 motherboard) and when I put my ASUS 770 GTS Geforce 2 (no tv out) video card in my AGP slot it automatically disables the onboard video. Then when I added my second video card with tv out (technically my 3rd if you count the disabled onboard video card) the only card that works is the Geforce 2. I emailed Asus about this, but have never heard back from them. The 3rd possiblity, and I have actually done this, is to just simply hook-up a standalone DVD player, output it to the Dazzle DVC II bridge and encode in real time That works well. Hope that helps...

Thanks,
Monster (Dazzle DVC II owner)

[Rommel_8]

Thanks Monster. The reason I want to do this is because I dont have a stand alone DVD player near my computer and dont want to take it away from my roommates when I rip a movie. I do have a hollywood plus decoder on my computer I could try and connect to the input on the bridge and have my computer play, decode and encode the movie....Hmmm. Oh, and since I found someone with a DVC II, how good is the mpeg1 encoding? Have you found a way to make it as good as a software encoder? Thanks again!

[monster]

Honestly, MPEG1 as good as software, no. When I record sources such as TV programs, I record at a high quality MPEG1 setting using my dazzle, then I re-encode with TMPGEnc. Don't get me wrong, I think the quality is good, but you can get even better doing it that way.