Capturing with Dazzle Video Creator II

[bskousen]

I have been capturing Directv programs onto my computer using Dazzle which includes a PCI mpeg decoder/encoder card. I usually capture as an mpeg2 using VBR 5000K and then convert it to a standard SVCD with the highest quality settings of TMPGenc. The conversion takes 4-6 hours on my Dell 1.9 P4.
Would I get just as good of an SVCD if I captured in a standard SVCD format with Dazzle (using 2600k VBR) and then burning with NERO? Or perhaps I could capture with Dazzle using a modified SCVD (say vbr 5000k) and then using the highest settings in TMPGenc? Which way would give me the highest quality with the least amount of macroblocks?
Obviously using Dazzle to capture at SVCD is appealing because there is then no need to render in TMPGenc.

Thanks
Bruce

[Frisco]

Hi,

I also use the Dazzle Video Creator II and I use the following settings and steps for my SVCD's:

Capture using a modified SVCD template, replacing the 2400 VBR with 3400 VBR. I found that increasing this does impact the quality - especially in high movement scenes.

When I capture from my digital dish, I edit out the commercials using Moviestar and then produce the program, ensuring that I do so using the same settings as I recorded in - that means specifically choosing SVCD again and changing the VBR to 3400 again when you produce. This ensures that Nero is happy with the file.

Then I burn with Nero and I'm done. No encoding process required and the output is quite good - I can get close to an hour on one 80 min CD - for sure there is no problem in getting a one hour program without commercials on one CD.

I didn't like the long encoding process either - this is much quicker.
I don't go higher than 3400 VBR because I want to be able to fit a one hour program on a CD - maybe I could go higher than 3400, but I haven't had the need to. I watch the SVCD's on a 55" TV and there is very little loss in quality from the original broadcast. I would assume a smaller TV would show even less difference.

[frostyRRR]

I was wondering what video card you use and or dose it matter to dazzle? I am thinking about getting dazzle via the usb port and am wondering if my video card will be ok I have a older card it is 1998 AIW pro (only 8mb) thanks frosty

[bskousen]

The USB version might need the video card, however, the PCI version can capture at much higher rates and doesn't depend as much on the cpu or video card.

[bprothero]

The Dazzle DVC captures within the USB unit using hardware MPEG1 compression and transfers to the PC via the USB port. All of the encoding is done through the Dazzle; so it doesn't matter what kind of video card or sound card you own.

The VCD template results in satisfactory results (better than some cards I've tested such as the ATI All-In-Wonder 128... which uses Ligos software compression) but for better results you may wish to capture at the highest bitrate and then recompress to VCD spec using TMPEnc. You will have far less compression artifacts and shimmering... especially if you use the noise reduction filter in TMPEnc.

[Protecyon]

I was wondering does this card only allow you to capture video, or does it also allow you to hook up your pc to your tv so you can watch movies from your hard drive on your tv set.

[noname]

This is a semi-related post. I was wondering for those of you who have the Dazzle DVC II, is it a good package? I've read consumer reports that its not worth what they paid for. Is this true, or is it a good card/external box thing? Thanks for help.

[romana]

I was wondering for those of you who have the Dazzle DVC II, is it a good package?

I've had my Dazzle DVC-II card for about a year now, and have used it practically every single day (though I still have much to learn about digital video). I love mine. I have had virtually no problems with it, it was easy to install and I was creating digital videos the same day I got it.

That's not to say the card is without flaws--the VCD template that comes with the card is awful, and I found I got much better results when I captured MPEG2 and used TMPGEnc to convert it to VCD. Also, the program is slow. It captures fine, but when I edit video using the MovieStar software that came with the card, it's slow. I'll split the video or delete something, and then have to wait a bit before I can continue working on it. I don't know if that's an inherent flaw in the MovieStar software, or something I'm doing wrong, but it is a bit of a drag. However, the VCDs, SVCDs, and DVDs I've done so far have looked pretty good, so that's a minor complaint.

Anyway, hope this helps.

--sah

[spiderman2k1]

the trick with the dazzle 2 good mother board and windows 2000 or XP I use MPEG2VCR I can edit a one hour show in two minutes and put it back together in one minute the movestar software is very slow I never use it i also use TMPG from time to time as a back up