Is dazzle digital video creator usb good for making vcds

[tazzila]

I have a movie blaster capture card and it makes vcds that don't play in dvd players is the dazzle digital video creator a good choice or should is spend a little more and get a dvc2 instead? let me know i am tired of wasting my time with creative JUNK

[jwms]

I have Dazzle dvc, and I think it should be used as a boat anchor, 'cept it aint heavy enough.

I have had nothing but problems with it. My problem could be my computer, though. I have win98se, amd k6-2 (500), 128 mb ram. I am currently searching for other options. I get REAL confused as to which capture card to use, and what editing software to buy. I will lose both of those if I return the Dazzle.

Sorry for the negative reply, but maybe someone else will have better input than me.

[siaododo]

Whatever you do, don't get the Dazzle device. It sucks big time. The video quality ain't so good. Something wrong with its software also, the VCD setting is not VCD Compliant.

[sracer]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I highly recommend the Dazzle DVC (USB version). I have had mine for nearly 2 years and am extremely delighted with the results. Check out a sample clip from my homepage: http://pages.prodigy.net/tcperconti/

Although I have no financial interest in the Dazzle, I've worked with a lot of people to get their DVC's working. Some people had problems with accidentally modifying the supplied VCD template, others had hardware conflicts, software conflicts (like older or newer versions of Directx), and others still had unrealistic expectations of VideoCDs. One person's complaints were caused by the notoriously poor playback quality of Apex DVD players.

Don't take my word for it ...nor those who say DON'T buy it. Why not buy it and try it out for yourself!? If you buy it from a store with a good return policy, like those Office Supply Superstores, you should be able to easily return it if you don't like it.

siaododo, your problems with the non-compliant VCD MPEGs captured using the VCD template were caused by a bug in the MovieStar software. The latest version 4.23 fixes that.

[twocuties]

i would have to say BUY the dazzle, it a real good device if you haven't got a screwed up pc of something like that.
but don't capture at the vcd standard in dazzle because i guess only sracer had good results with that untill now.
my results are great when i capture from dvd and i always capture at 2000 kb/s and then cut it with tmpgenc with the vcd template so nero recognizes it as a vcd.
i can fit about 50 minutes on an 80 minute cd and the quality is mostly better then vhs movies!
so, buy it and cut the hours and hours of encoding crap!

[mpack]

I have the Dazzle DVC USB, which I'm currently using as a doorstop.

First, it can only capture MPEG1, so you can make VCDs with it, but not SVCD.

Second, although it can produce good results from a perfect source (eg. DVD), quality is pretty bad - ie. blocky - when capturing from a noisy source like VHS.

On a quality high-bandwidth capture device you could deal with the noise by capping at high bandwidth (ideally, use a lossless codec), then filter out the noise with VDub or something before encoding to mpeg1 or 2 with TMPGEnc - this is not possible with the Dazzle because USB doesn't have the bandwidth for a lossless capture.

The Dazzle can't do full frame captures of interlaced sources either: you can cap one field only, so if you intend to transcode to SVCD you've already irretrievably lost half your video information.

Personally, I think USB is a rotten platform for video capture. It has to be internal or firewire, both of which have enough bandwidth for full frame lossless capture.

[EricB]

I've owned a Dazzle DVC1 for over four years and would rate it as fair - good, certainly not great. You really need a super quality input for it to look good, and if that is DVD, you might as well rip and encode.

The only way to buy any Dazzle product is at a place that will give a full refund. Some people have good luck with them, lots of people have problems.

[yoshi1668]

I've bought the DVC USB and returned it. I was trying to capture video from a Camcorder and like someone else said, the result is not good (even with the 2000kbs thing). Also the station becomes very hot and the recording freeze after about two minutes. I think I'll try the DVC2(PCI) later.