Talk me out of buying the Snazzi III

[kitty]

I have alot of analog video I'd like to capture to SVCD (now) and DVD (very soon). I really like all the capabilities of the snazzi III (www.snazzi.com) MPEG2 seems to be the ticket and it comes with a MPEG2 editor so I can edit the MPEG directly.

I can probably swing the $350+$70 shipping from Singapore.

Am I crazy to sink so many bucks into this unproven board or can I get another board/box that will do MPEG2 hardware encoding without the problems of the Dazzle II (audio sync)?

Thanks! Da Kitty

[Anonymous65]

Go for it!

[mambaheart]

Try a Dazzle Hollywood Bridge.
Use a FW card and everything coming in will seem to be digital.
One set of editing SW for old analog and new digital sources.
Works for me...

[kitty]

I'm still inclined to buy it unless it's a lemon - anyone?

[loudanddeep]

I posted a thread about the Snazzi III a few weeks ago.

Go check that out.
Also go look at some of the dazzle boards, then go do a google search for snazzi iii, read those reviews...

I did all that and, for now, not enough detail.
It sounds really good, doing both audio and video in hardware.

I do not know if it uses the SM chip for real a/v multiplexing, but it might.

On the DV bridge, as I understand it, you still have to convert to make vcd formats.

dp

[Valnar]

Take a look at the thread with the ADS USB Instant DVD. It looks like the product to get.

Robert

[dood]

<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 2001-12-31 17:42:55, mambaheart wrote:
Try a Dazzle Hollywood Bridge.
Use a FW card and everything coming in will seem to be digital.
One set of editing SW for old analog and new digital sources.
Works for me...
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I think the point is to do "on-the-fly" real-time mpeg2 compression. Capturing analog-to-DV will STILL require software encoding to mpeg2 at the slow pace of 6:1 or so.

And either way (analog-->DV or analog-->mpg2) you are starting with an analog file.

Why not "cut out the middle step (DV)" and go straight to mpeg2 via the hardware encoder and save 12 hours of encoding time for a 2 hour capture???

[GenePool_]

I think the bottom line is this.
I own a Snazzi III AV.DV PCI card.
Can't say that I'm really happy with it.
Sure, you can capture analog and encode real-time to mpeg2.
However, don't bother trying to edit the mpeg files.
You'll either need to re-encode (using ulead video studio or dvd workshop)
or you'll have sync issues with TMPGenc.

If I don't edit and just author, everyting is fine. No re-encoding.

However, I don't know about you but I usually want to trim some of the beginning and end.

Sooooo, frustrated as I can get real-time mpeg but editing is a nightmare.

Would appreiciate it if anyone has had any success with the Snazzi card to post their setup. thx...

[The village idiot]

It does come from the minds at Razzle after all.

Does it come with tech. support or not?

If you buy it, good luck with it. (you may need it)

[Anonymous65]

Try to get a copy of the Nanocosmos editor. It will make cuts to an mpeg file without re-encoding it. Sure, you will have to cut on an I-frame. Ulead videostudio 6 will cut on any frame, and only render the frames to the nearest I-frame (when Smartrender is turned on).

But, the general rule is to not do any editing of already encoded mpeg files. If you need to edit (cut, trim or anyhting else), do it in AVI before the file is encoded.

So, yes, all the hardware mpeg encoder cards are for real-time capturing and burning directly to disk.

[GenePool_]

I'm not sure why someone said that the Snazzi product is from Dazzle.
It's a completely different company and has nothing to do with Dazzle.

I must say the mpeg quality is good. If you want do a lot of editing then go with the ADVC-100 or ADVC1394. This will capture realtime DV.
Quality is great.

I actually have and ADVC-100 that I use when I want to edit a lot of the capture and I use the Snazzi AV.DV when I just want to burn what I capture. I agree with the statement that you can't really edit mpeg "easily".

[The village idiot]

I'm not sure why someone said that the Snazzi product is from Dazzle.
It's a completely different company and has nothing to do with Dazzle.

Check out the pictures in this link! http://www.snazzi.com/snazzisite/html/dvc.html

That would be MovieStar 4.xx on the display. Is isn't just a random happening that the products look the same. Maybe tech support for the Snazzi products is better... but I doubt it. And it is also possible that they have split away too. In the begining, they were the same products.

[rhegedus]

Kitty, I was looking for similar hardware to back up my VHS tapes to DVD. I trawled through the capture cards section and was put off from buying a hardware mpeg2 encoder (such as Snazzi/Dazzle and Hauppauge PVR) because of the problems that people were experiencing, and because stuff like the Canopus ADVC-100 had such glowing reports.

I know that DV->mpeg is an extra step, but with a fast system like yours you can get all the encoding done overnight if you batch encode with TMPGEnc.

I bought the Canopus before Christmas and haven't looked back.

Regards,

Rob

p.s. I notice in your profile that you already have a Hauppauge PVR-250. What's up - won't this do the job for you?

[Nolonemo]

For just a few $$ more you can get a DV camera with analog pass-through to capture with. You don't want to mess with editing MPEG video. Also I keep hearing negative things about Dazzle products.

[kitty]

rhegedus - I posted the question a year ago if you look sat the dates.

I bought the PVR 250 - price was good, quality is good.

[rhegedus]

Yeah - realised afterwards

Got confused by the flurry of recent activity.....

Regards,

Rob