thinking about getting the dazzle but....

[jtoras]

I have the Dazzle 150 and it is simply unusable. It came with a special edition of Pinnacle Studio 8 I think, and the software crashes every second time I use it. But that is not the worst problem. What really is bad is the quality. I use the best settings and the picture quality is really bad. Sometimes you get a good quality capture, depending on what it is. But most of the time, whites will be completely washed out and this is really almost impossible to control. If you do get it, do a simple test: try capturing a cartoon from your TV. Doesn't matter what it is. You will immediately see what I am talking about. Even if you are not about to capture this kind of material, it will show you the terrible quality you get with this device. Oh, and so far I was not able to find any other capture software that can control Dazzle -- it seems that the only choice you have is to use the bundled Studio. The program is not the worst I have ever seen and it has some nice features. However, the controls you will desperately need to use, for example, brightness, contrast, etc only have clumsy sliders and do not show any numerical values. If you finally find a setting that will give you some small detail in whites, you don't even know what those settings are exactly.

[spiderman2k1]

"presto" Dazzle 2 is PCI card there not make them any more you can get them on ebay. This is a good website www.dazzlegeek.com

Ever thing i said is true Video Soap has nothing to do about hue, saturation, brightness and contrast. It's noise reduction. It's good for remasting old tape's that are in bad shape.

With a Panasonic DVD recorder they capture better then any PC capture card also the sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. PC capture card's use MP2 sound same as in a VCD.

Some tape's might have problem with Dazzle. I can only say about Dazzle 2. ATI AIW might have some problem's with some tape''s with the picture not displaying right. I have found send the video in the Panasonic then send it to the ATI AIW the TBC fix's the picture.

It's your going to remaster VHS tape's. Get a good JVC VCR and a Panasonic DVD recorder and LG burner 4081 record to DVD-RAM then bring it to the PC to edit.

Panasonic DVD recorder you will not have any problem's frame drop's. Or sound problem's.

[presto]

Ever thing i said is true Video Soap has nothing to do about hue, saturation, brightness and contrast. It's noise reduction. It's good for remasting old tape's that are in bad shape.

Everything you say may be true but not in regard to the DAZZLE 150. I know exactly what video soap is. I have two ATI AIW Radeon cards and love them. Still I never need soap to capture VHS tapes the hue, saturation,contrast are all I need to correct the slight color shift I often see.

[presto]

I have the Dazzle 150 and it is simply unusable. It came with a special edition of Pinnacle Studio 8 I think, and the software crashes every second time I use it. But that is not the worst problem. What really is bad is the quality. I use the best settings and the picture quality is really bad.

If the Studio 8 Quickstart crashes on you then you need to troubleshoot that. It doesn't crash for me. I installed Studio 8 Quickstart on two computers and then upgraded to the full version on one of them. I helped a friend work through some crashes that he was having (It turned out he was trying to capture macrovision protected tapes and didn't know he had to have something to remove macrovision. I'm not suggesting this is your problem).

I do wish the sliders had numbers and that you could save those settings. Still It is no problem to get the results I want.

When you say the picture quality is bad what do you mean? Are you watching it on the computer or are you creating a DVD and watching it on a set top DVD player? Some people have been a bit sensative to me asking them to clarify these things. I'm not challenging your statement I just think it is important to be clear. The video quality is excellent on the finished DVD's I make.

[spiderman2k1]

Everything you say may be true but not in regard to the DAZZLE 150. I know exactly what video soap is. I have two ATI AIW Radeon cards and love them. Still I never need soap to capture VHS tapes the hue, saturation,contrast are all I need to correct the slight color shift I often see.

Video soap has nothing to do about the color it's noise reduction. Take really bad VHS tape and Video soap. It clean's up the picture and hide's alot of the problem's on the tape.

[lordsmurf]

You might want to get a Panasonic DVD recorder. Alot easier.

For making wedding videos with nice menus? (first post in this thread)

Absolutely. I like to use my APEX DVD recorder for wedding videos that are under 2 hours. Those LSI chips do a great job. I save my PC for hard work. Use the DVD recorder as a capture device. When done, edit and author final disc on a PC.

@ presto and spiderman2k1
I don't know where the confusion is for color correction and Video Soap but this is how it goes: ATI MMC 7.x and 8.x has color controls. ATI MMC 8.x also has VideoSoap which is noise reduction and picture focus control. But I'd be sure both of you already knew that. It probably just came out wrong.

@ all
Get a good VCR with a built-in TBC, and most of the troubles mentioned won't exist. I'd rather pay more now and never worry about petty capturing problems ever again. Cutting corners is what gets you in trouble. This hobby is expensive, just learn to live with it. Or pick something else like lint collecting. I suggest ATI AIW cards and Hauppauge cards. Dazzle is not one of my choices. Canopus is just a DV device, many limitations, it's not a magic box and it won't replace a TBC.

[presto]

I don't know where the confusion is for color correction and Video Soap but this is how it goes: ATI MMC 7.x and 8.x has color controls. ATI MMC 8.x also has VideoSoap which is noise reduction and picture focus control. But I'd be sure both of you already knew that. It probably just came out wrong.

I'm glad you could see that. I thought I was quite clear. I know what video soap is but never need it for capturing old vhs tapes. I do however adjust the hue, saturation etc.

Get a good VCR with a built-in TBC, and most of the troubles mentioned won't exist.

The troubles mentioned don't exist for me with the Dazzle 150.


Good VCR with built in TBC - around $450.00
Video Card - around $150 - $250
Very approximate total - $600.00-$700.00


This one device for about $150 will do everything the original poster wants and do it well. Yes there are other ways to do it.

[amongthedead]

sorry to dissapoint presto but i had to go with the ADVC-100. I think the dazzle would have worked fine, but id rather not chance it. its only an extra 100 anyways.

[presto]

I'm not at all dissapointed. I don't know anything about the ADVC-100. I know it sounds like I'm pushing the Dazzle 150 but I'm really not. I just bought it and it does everything I want.

[DaveS]

I wouldn't build a business on top of studio 8 or 9...in fact the only thing I'd build on top of them is a campfire. That's just my opinion. It just might be a risk that you would have to change out your software in the middle of a project if it starts crashing on you, corrupting your project files, not burning right, etc. (this is from experience - painful for me, free for you). Best of luck in your new venture.

[jtoras]

... When you say the picture quality is bad what do you mean? Are you watching it on the computer or are you creating a DVD and watching it on a set top DVD player? ...

Presto, the biggest problem is the lack of detail in highlights. You will not see this in a regular scene that is mostly mid-tones. But when there is for example a white wedding dress, or someone is moving in hallway painted white, all detail will go away. That is one of the reasons I recommend testing on cartoons. You have lots of action there and there is lots of white or light color with black outlines/detail. Try it please and let me know what kind of quality you get.

I know there can be differences when you compare playback on PC versus DVD player. However, a friend of mine made a recording for me on a standalone recorder that also included cartoons and the playback was perfect no matter where I tried it. The detail was beautiful, nothing washed out. That is basically when I completely gave up on Dazzle. If I didn't see the difference, I would probably continue using Dazzle thinking that what I am seeing is limitation of MPEG. My next purchase will definitely be standalone recorder. There really is BIG difference in quality. And since I want to archive my video tapes I want to get the best quality I can.

[lordsmurf]

PC cards pick up more detail than a DVD recorder. I've tested that many times. It just tends to grab more noise too, as it's normally not full of the pre-processing hardware like a recorder.

If you want sharp, I suggest an ATI AIW card. If you just want DV that is sharp, go for the Canopus ADVC. I really hate the 4:1:1 limitation of that format, however. Or if you have real money, buy a higher end NLE card.

This all said, most of my wedding videos are SP VHS, so your details were lost long ago anyway. Unless you've got S-VHS or Betacam tapes to capture, don't waste time worrying about detail from VHS. It's overthinking.

[qlizard]

Not sure if my experience will be helpful to you because the details are a little different. I have the Dazzle 150, but I bought it before the Pinnacle days. You had to really work around with it to get anything out of it. You couldn't use the software that came with it then (moviestar). It was worthless. I've heard mixed things about how it works with Studio (also in this thread) but it appears to be better. Ultimately, I was able to get decent output from it. I think the chipset is pretty good, as far as mpeg hardware encoders go. I also learned the nuances (difficulties) of working with mpeg material.

A couple of months ago I bought a DV camcorder with pass-through. This would be roughly equivalent to using the ADVC-100. After a couple of times capturing, editing the DV material, and encoding, I found the resulting product to be superior going the DV-AVI route. I used double-pass VBR in procoder and I literally said "wow". Plus, the whole process is less frustrating, and more flexible (you can add filters, resize, etc). I still have both setups, but I find myself almost never using the Dazzle. I sometimes use it for capping TV straight to mpeg, but only for convenience sake if the camcorder isn't sitting right there (I could use the camcorder to cap straight to mpeg if I chose).

I like using premiere and just discovered that the new Mainconcept Mpeg-pro plugin has drivers enabling capture with the Dazzle. I tested it and it works, but I can't remember if the color sliders had numbers on them. I don't think so (incidentally, the old software I use with my Dazzle, called dvxcel, has numbers on the sliders). Obviously, the dazzle drivers are not enough reason to purchase the mainconcept mpeg-pro plugin, but it has other nice features, such as mpeg smart rendering, and allows you to use premiere for editing. Given this, I may relook at how I use my Dazzle.

I also second was lordsmurf said about the VCR. With his help on a thread last year, I picked up a VCR with built in TBC. It made a big difference. Even better would be a good VCR and a standalone TBC. Yes, all more money. But seriously, I think if you are going to do this for pay, and to do it right, you're going to have to invest a lot more than $150.

[lordsmurf]

Looking back at the original post, wanted to share something else...

I do conversion and restoration work as time allows, but within the next 12 months I really want to do more editing.

When that day comes, this stuff I have now won't work. I have a lot of good stuff here, and can probably do a decent job. But it won't be top quality for editing, and that's what a business should provide.

My wish list is either a Matrox RT2500 or Matrox RTX100 ... though I'm still milling over some of disturbed1's suggestions with Canopus products (high end stuff, not those ADVC toys).

If you're going to take in pay, and try to make this a real business, you're probably going to need business-quality equipment, not $150 of stuff from Best Buy using the free software in the box. A budget of $5000 would be good, including card, video hardware, software and good PC.

[indolikaa]

My wish list is either a Matrox RT2500 or Matrox RTX100 ... though I'm still milling over some of disturbed1's suggestions with Canopus products (high end stuff, not those ADVC toys).

DVStorm2?

[lordsmurf]

My wish list is either a Matrox RT2500 or Matrox RTX100 ... though I'm still milling over some of disturbed1's suggestions with Canopus products (high end stuff, not those ADVC toys).

DVStorm2?

Among others.

[tjborwn101]

You may want to check out the products from ADS Tech http://www.adstech.com

I purchase a ADS DVDeXpress and it has performed well. Good MPEG capture... supports USB for up to 10-12k bitrates (if you'd ever want to go that high) Express is good for Video In (if you planning DVD out)

If you want Vid out that make other boxes....

have a look at their site and other comments here.

https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCard=ads&Submit=Search&searchconnecti...&Search=Search