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  1. So, basically, I'm gonna capture some old Hi8 and Video8 tapes onto my computer and my Dazzle works fine, usually (sometimes audio desides not to work) but I was wondering whether or not I should go get something that perhaps could leave me with a better result?

    If so, do you guys have any suggestions for a good USB capture device? I've seen people talking good about the Diamond VC500 and ATI USB 600 but I can't either here in Europe, neiher in second hand.
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    Originally Posted by Kocayine View Post
    So, basically, I'm gonna capture some old Hi8 and Video8 tapes onto my computer and my Dazzle works fine, usually (sometimes audio desides not to work) but I was wondering whether or not I should go get something that perhaps could leave me with a better result?

    If so, do you guys have any suggestions for a good USB capture device? I've seen people talking good about the Diamond VC500 and ATI USB 600 but I can't either here in Europe, neiher in second hand.
    Some people here also like the Hauppauge USB Live 2, which is available in the EU.

    The Dazzle devices are not the best-liked capture products among the membership here, but please describe what you mean by "a better result". Other than more reliable audio capture, what else would like to be improved?
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  3. Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by Kocayine View Post
    So, basically, I'm gonna capture some old Hi8 and Video8 tapes onto my computer and my Dazzle works fine, usually (sometimes audio desides not to work) but I was wondering whether or not I should go get something that perhaps could leave me with a better result?

    If so, do you guys have any suggestions for a good USB capture device? I've seen people talking good about the Diamond VC500 and ATI USB 600 but I can't either here in Europe, neiher in second hand.
    Some people here also like the Hauppauge USB Live 2, which is available in the EU.

    The Dazzle devices are not the best-liked capture products among the membership here, but please describe what you mean by "a better result". Other than more reliable audio capture, what else would like to be improved?
    I don't really know. I mean, it's all just SD quality anyway. I haven't used any other than the Dazzle so I don't really know if the quality of a Video8 or Hi8 tape is gonna look better thru another capture device.

    The USB Live 2 is something I've considered. Does anyone here have it? I'd like to know whether or not it crops off the edges (overscan?) like the Hauppauge TV tuner I once had did (Which is something I don't want)
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    Originally Posted by Kocayine View Post
    The USB Live 2 is something I've considered. Does anyone here have it? I'd like to know whether or not it crops off the edges (overscan?) like the Hauppauge TV tuner I once had did (Which is something I don't want)
    hech54 has one. He is very active here, so it is possible he will see this thread and answer your question. If he doesn't, I can tell you that he seems very satisfied with its overall performance.
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  5. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Kocayine
    The USB Live 2 is something I've considered. Does anyone here have it?
    Have one, and believe it to be a good product.
    Originally Posted by Kocayine
    I'd like to know whether or not it crops off the edges (overscan?) like the Hauppauge TV tuner I once had did (Which is something I don't want)
    No, not if using VirtualDub (unless you want to crop in the settings). However, not sure how it behaves with other software.

    Originally Posted by Kocayine
    I don't really know. I mean, it's all just SD quality anyway. I haven't used any other than the Dazzle so I don't really know if the quality of a Video8 or Hi8 tape is gonna look better thru another capture device.
    There will be a difference, even in S/D, not only in quality, but in reliability too. Other good USB SD ones, as well as the Hauppauge USB-Live2, are: ezcap.tv (the REAL one, from that site of the same name), StarTech SVID2USB2 and the ATI USB 600 if you're willing to be adventurous on modern machines.

    Originally Posted by usually_quiet
    The Dazzle devices are not the best-liked capture products among the membership here...
    Worth repeating a saying of mine again. Dazzle devices are so bad, you can blame a divorce on them.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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    What about a firewire option? I added Firewire to my laptop and am using my D8 camcorder to put my old Hi8 videos on the computer.
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    I've used 2 Hauppauge capture cards now and in the past and neither one did overscan. This was especially apparent on VHS captures but sometimes obvious on TV captures. So my best guess is that the Live 2 doesn't do overscan either. The TV tuner probably did because I assume it wasn't a capture device and they didn't want to hear people gripe about the garbage at the outer boundaries if they were able to see it.

    Dazzle devices may be bad now, but a decade ago they made an old SD capture card that was very highly thought of, the DVC II. So they weren't always garbage.
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  8. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Taney2 View Post
    What about a firewire option? I added Firewire to my laptop and am using my D8 camcorder to put my old Hi8 videos on the computer.
    All you will need in this case is a software app like WinDV (free) and you're good to go. You will only benefit with DV though, not lossless. However DV is less than half the size and almost the quality. BTW, the USB devices I mentioned also do DV.

    Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    I've used 2 Hauppauge capture cards now and in the past and neither one did overscan. This was especially apparent on VHS captures but sometimes obvious on TV captures. So my best guess is that the Live 2 doesn't do overscan either. The TV tuner probably did because I assume it wasn't a capture device and they didn't want to hear people gripe about the garbage at the outer boundaries if they were able to see it.
    Originally Posted by Kocayine View Post
    I'd like to know whether or not it crops off the edges (overscan?) like the Hauppauge TV tuner I once had did (Which is something I don't want)
    Yes indeed. Hauppauge devices come in several flavors. For example, I also have the 950Q, which at first sight looks and feels almost exactly like the USB-Live2 - but the two are very different. The 950Q does not support many features of analog capture (such as HuffYUV YUY2) and is optimized for TV tuning only. Too lazy to test the 950Q for overscan, but if the 950Q does have overscan, and the USB-Live2 - which is indeed optimized for analog capture - doesn't, then I take it as no surprise.

    Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    Dazzle devices may be bad now, but a decade ago they made an old SD capture card that was very highly thought of, the DVC II. So they weren't always garbage.
    Ironically about Dazzle was that they were well ahead of the curve for the longest time in consumer video capture - even back in 1999 capturing through the parallel port to MPEG-1 was revolutionary. Up until 2004-2005-ish, till they were bought out by Pinnacle, they were virtually the only game in town in this field.

    But you may as well not be. There is no value in being the only one when your devices are terrible. I don't know if it was weaker tech then, or slower computers, or whatever, but it's not lonesome me that has had all kinds of issues with these products. Never tried the II, but after being burned for two devices up to that point (1999 and 2004) I had no appetite for Dazzle any longer, especially when the next thing I tried worked well.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  9. Well a thing I hate about the Dazzle really is its size. It's so clunky.

    So on your USB-Live2, the things you've digitized, the edges are not cut off?:


    If I'm understanding correct
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  10. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    I have done some tests of my own the last few days and I have yet to see any overscan with the Hauppauge USB-Live2. I've done tests with VirtualDub, and even SageTV. Nothing.

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    Honestly, I do have it!

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    I can show many captures, but honestly, I have no overscan in any of them. Any specific test you'd like me to do?
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  11. Originally Posted by jman98 View Post

    Dazzle devices may be bad now, but a decade ago they made an old SD capture card that was very highly thought of, the DVC II. So they weren't always garbage.
    This. Not to hijack the thread but at one point (though with some highly outdated info) I had a guide up here on the site about making captures with the dvc2. If memory serves correct the DVC2 had two versions. The latter being more desirable- a normal usb and a much better PCI-card version (the same clunky style device hooked into the pci card with a sort of parallel type jack). It was the PCI card version that most wanted (and the one I had). The captures it made were not really terrible at all and when viewing some old transfers made with it today, they still hold up. It was popular enough that some people made custom (better) sotware to work with it, as well as a mild header patcher so the captures could be used in DVD maestero without it giving an issues about header bytes being out of order (which occured sometimes). Also positive I did use that version with other software and I think capture did work with virutualdub. (because I recall using it) Again this was way before Pinnacle bought them over and I cannot attest to the lesser dvc2 USB version.

    however a better mpeg2 card of the time would have been what was made from Canopus, but the price tag was very hefty

    That was all I wanted to say.
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  12. @PuzZLeR thanks alot mate that certainly cleared it up. It's clear the USB2-Live shows the video the way I want it to, thanks!
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  13. Originally Posted by PuzZLeR View Post
    I can show many captures, but honestly, I have no overscan in any of them. Any specific test you'd like me to do?
    Another little thing, does it support 30 FPS on 720x576? I realize that PAL is 25FPS (yes?) but looking at the LCD screen of my handycam while playing back a tape it looks MUCH smoother than on the video captured thru the dazzle.
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    Originally Posted by Kocayine View Post
    Originally Posted by PuzZLeR View Post
    I can show many captures, but honestly, I have no overscan in any of them. Any specific test you'd like me to do?
    Another little thing, does it support 30 FPS on 720x576? I realize that PAL is 25FPS (yes?) but looking at the LCD screen of my handycam while playing back a tape it looks MUCH smoother than on the video captured thru the dazzle.
    I wish I had some PAL content to try this on, so can't give you an answer.

    My stuff is all NTSC, and Hauppauge shows a green bar at the bottom where the extra pixels would be for the difference between 480 and 576, so not sure if it supports it or is giving me some flag of error with the source. However, there is no distortion in the picture, and all runs fine, just that it has a green bar for the missing pixels.

    PAL video is 720x576 at 25 fps. VirtualDub and the USB-Live2 captured just "fine" at 576i with 29.97, 25 and 30 fps. However, the word "fine" is in quotes because there were obvious motion errors at 25 fps since my content is not PAL. This, I believe, is not the USB-Live2's fault, but my source, so hopefully that's the problem, otherwise I'd assume it would work just fine (without quotes) for real PAL source.

    I can't provide a better answer than that without PAL source to test this on.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  15. Formerly 'vaporeon800' Brad's Avatar
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    You can't capture PAL content at 30 fps, nor would you want to.

    Your camcorder's screen is showing your video at 50Hz. View your capture with a bob deinterlacer, or convert it to a format like DVD that you can send to your TV and you should see the same smoothness.
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  16. Sorry for the late replies.

    Thanks for your posts, guys. I've bought the Hauppauge.

    Do you use VirtualDub for digitizing? It's a program I'm perfectly familiar with and have used alot but I dislike how I gotta set it up from the beginning each time I wanna do a videocapture (right?)... I've used this program called Debut Video Capture for a good while now, because I like how simple it is and how I can choose what kind of compression method I wanna use and it remembers everything when I start it next time..

    But if I wanna do bob deinterlacing I gotta use something else?
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  17. I'm having mixed results with this.

    I'm trying it out with my VHS-C camera and without enabling TBC on the camcorder, there's so much distortion and tearing. I know it's not really a problem since my camera has this function - not so sure about my Hi8 camera tho - but how come my Dazzle never did this? Any work around?

    The issue is much similar to:
    https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/365818-Happauge-capture-device-issue-%28hi8-tearing-image%29

    This one happens even with TBC enabled?:


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  18. Formerly 'vaporeon800' Brad's Avatar
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    This is with every tape, or..?

    Originally Posted by Kocayine View Post
    how come my Dazzle never did this?
    Capture devices vary in their ability to decode unstable input. But were you capturing the same tapes using the same playback camcorder in the same condition?
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  19. Originally Posted by vaporeon800 View Post
    This is with every tape, or..?

    Originally Posted by Kocayine View Post
    how come my Dazzle never did this?
    Capture devices vary in their ability to decode unstable input. But were you capturing the same tapes using the same playback camcorder in the same condition?
    Happens with both my VHS and Hi8 camera. TBC is needed for avoid it.
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  20. Originally Posted by PuzZLeR View Post
    Worth repeating a saying of mine again. Dazzle devices are so bad, you can blame a divorce on them.
    Nah, I would not say so. Attached is a excerpt from Goldeneye. No Avisynth, only VirtualDub filters.
    • IVTS (TFF, reduce frame rate)
    • Flaxen VHS (shift chroma 3 left, 2 up)
    • Camcorder color denoise (level -30)
    • Temporal smoother (4)
    • Levels (3, 255) -> (0, 255)
    You can see occasional IVTC errors, but overall it is not bad.

    A huge benefit of the Dazzle for those who digitizes movies is that it does not block Macrovision.

    On a separate note, something happened to my setup, so audio is now shifted compared to video. I thought it was the Avermedia card, but now I am getting it with DVC 100 as well. It used to be in sync. I wonder what did I break in my setup.

    In another news, I got myself an SVHS-ET VCR, for no reason. I did not intend to capture VHS tapes, at most I thought of capturing [S]VHS-C home videos. But it is hard to stop

    P.S. Yes, I know that it is an old thread, but so what.
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