Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge vs. Matrox G450e TV

[Brenda]

Hello

I would like to know which would be able to give me the highest quality analog to Mpeg-2 capture?

Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge vs. Matrox G450e TV

I will use a XI 1.4GHZ computer AMD

I thankyou in adavance for any help
Brenda

[torton]

I have been using the Matrox G450eTV for about a month now. My main purpose in getting into this is to convert VHS tapes to DVD or VCD. The PCVCR software (MPEG2 capture) that comes with the Matrox card creates non DVD compliant video files (limited to 704 X 480 resolution). I have been disappointed with the quality of the captures (both AVI and MPEG2). Playback on the PC is fine when displayed in a small window, but the larger you make the window (or full screen), the quailty suffers. Playback on TV is not good either. I have been using Ulead VideoStudio 5.0 to author DVD's (Pioneer DVR-A03). Unfortunately, the quailty problem with capturing passes right into the resulting DVD. Having the same quality problems capturing from cable TV. I just received a new Dazzle DV II this morning. I will be trying it out this evening. Hopefully, it will do a much better job with quailty MPEG2 captures. I am using a Pentium 4 1.7Ghz with Windows 2000 Professional. The Matrox G450eTV does a really nice job as a TV tuner, but no more.

Tom

[holistic]

Some reviews ..........
http://www.insanely-great.com/reviews/dazzle.html
http://www.tweak3d.net/reviews/matrox/g450etv/
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/maxtroxg450etv/6.html

Brenda.
They are both great choices, BUT if i may guess here ... if you have a 1.4Ghz machine you most likely have a decent video card, THEREFORE the Dazzle DV would be your best choice. Dazzle also offers future DV camera potential in 2 firewire ports.
If however you wish to reoutput your captures through the computer and not through a standalone DVD player the the Matrox G450eTV may suit your needs better.
I currently have an asus7700deluxe and don't like it. Have decided to get the Pinnacle Studio DC10+ instead. Have a look at it here :
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage.asp?Product_ID=2

To summarize : both products with proberly give you similar results.
Quality = (trade off between COMPRESSION and SIZE)
I have tried 'PICvideo' MJPEG at highest quality and found it to be acceptable (about 6:1 from memory ?!)
http://www.vcdhelp.com/mjpeg.htm

holistic

[MAKA]

brenda I have heard good things about the matrox.. I am thinking of buying it to make a movie server where I download movies from the net (divx) and then play them on my big screen tv .. has anyone played divx movies with the maxtor is the quality good??

Brenda do you speak spanish by any chance???

[nachomur]

maka,
me parece que brenda no habla en castellano !
te cuento mi experiencia: yo estoy averiguando para comprarme una placa de captura hace cerca de dos meses. una vez que me decidi por la dazzle dvc II, aproveche que un conocido viajaba para usa, y se la encargue, con tanta mala suerte que le afanaron la connection box en ezeiza !!!
tengo la placa, tengo los manuales, tengo el soft... pero no puedo usar mi dazzle dvcII
saludos,

[MAKA]

saludos amigo,

Creo que ella habla espanol pues he visto un subnet similar en su ip's en otros forums.
virtual dub sirve con la dvcII??
bueno por lo que he escuchado la Matrox tiene el mejor tv out y por eso yo estoy interesado; para hacer un movie server en donde puedo bajarlas del net y verlas en my tv grande

[nachomur]

Saludos, MAKA !
lamentablemente no puedo ayudarte ! soy absolutamente nuevo en esto, y estoy tratando de aprender. el problema es que compre mi dvcII pero no puedo usarla porque me robaron la connection box.
estuve mucho tiempo averiguando cual era la mejor placa para captura y edicion de video, y me recomendaron mucho la dazzle. de matrox no obtuve muchas respuestas. a mi me gustaba mucho la marvel g400-tv y la g450-etv, porque tenian muchas mas aplicaciones que la dazzle, pero al ser similares en costo, me parecio que al ser la dazzle mas especifica, deberia ser mejor. aqui en argentina decimos que 'el que mucho abarca poco aprieta'...

[MAKA]

te robaron la connection box????
que es la connection box?? te robaron una parte de la dazzle?

[nachomur]

la connection box es la caja externa que se conecta a la placa dazzle dvc II, y donde conectas entradas/salidas de audio y video. efectivamente, eso es lo que me robaron ! sucede que ahora deberia haber alguien que tiene una caja negra (creo que es negra, solo la vo en fotografias) que NO sabe que es, no sabe para que sirve, ni siquiera sabe que es lo que le falta para poder utilizarla. ya envie a dazzle en usa y en europa varios mails preguntando si podia comprar la caja por separado, pero no obtuve ninguna respuesta...

[Deathwish]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-08-22 04:54:32, Brenda wrote:
loveo

I would like to know which would be able to give me the highest quality analog to Mpeg-2 capture?

Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge vs. Matrox G450e TV

I will use a XI 1.4GHZ computer AMD

I thankyou in adavance for any help
Brenda
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY the Dazzle DV bridge! It's been along time since I wasted $300 on such a piece of junk. The quality just stinks because wierd things happen like the top of your screen appearing on the bottom (like on the older TVs from the 80s). There is no apparent solution to this problem. Also, if the videotape is old, even though the VCR can read it, the Dazzle just inserts blocks of different colors into your capture stream. I couldn't possibly list all of the problems I have had with this piece of hardware.
If you really want an Analog to Digital(firewire) converter (which is why I purchased it), don't believe ZDnet's review that says this product is fairly unique. You can get the Sony DVMC-DA2 Analog to Digital(firewire) convertor for J&R computer world for $349.99 (1800-221-8180,
item # SON DVMCDA2). I think I will probably end up purchsing the Sony also & just call the ~$300 I spent on the Dazzle a total loss.