Anyone using Dazzle DVC II ??

[DeeKnow]

Hi

I have been looking around for some time for an analog video capture (+ hardware MPEG 1 encoding) solution so I can archive a bunch of home video (on 8mm analog tapes) to CDRs - both for backup, and ease of viewing.

I havent had much success with an ATI AIWPro (sure its ancient now;-) ... been leaning towards the Dazzle DVC II kind of solution

a) Is anyone getting good results with the Dazzle DVC II for capturing analog video ?
b) If anyone is into producing VideoCD's I'd like to get in touch, swap stories etc ...
c) If anyone is dealing with PAL format material, even nicer !! Get in touch please

Dee

 

[MrPhelps]

Excellent post topic. Anyone who has 8MM or vhs analog tapes will be researching this.
So far I looked at Pinnacle Studio, But its $300.00 for the analog to digital. I also need help with this.

 

[tjdavis1138]

Anybody have first hand experience on how the dazzle II would compare to an ATI AIW 8500dv in capture quality. I'm wanting to archive some vhs-c tapes and eventually get some laserdiscs over to dvd-r.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[queequeg99]

go to http://stop.at/dazzle2

this is the best discussion board for this product and if you cannot get a comprehensive answer there, the answer is not known to anyone.

 

[MyChemEGirl]

I owned the Dazzle Digital Video Creator I Parallel Port Version and would say it is good for capturing video from vhs tapes, camcorders, or dvds at resolutions of 320 by 240 which is the max capture resolution. Its subtitle texts are quite readable. You can record in various mpeg formats such as movie quality, tv quality, vcd quality. The higher the format, the better sound and image. But I have found that movie is only slightly better than tv quality which in turn is slightly better than vcd quality. You can usually cram about 60mins into a 650MB CD. Only problem with DVC I is that sometimes your system wont detect the device or doesnt detect video or audio in and you have to take out and replug everything until it works.

I recently upgraded to a Dazzle DVC II. This captures resolution up to 720 by 480. Wow is all I have to say. The DVD quality recording is superb. I don't have the detection problems like I did with the DVC I. But keep in mind that DVD quality capture takes a ton of space. I could only get around 30mins onto a CD. Again, it has various compression 22mb per min, 30mb per min, 60 mb per min etc. Quality is slightly better with each increase. Only problem with DVC II is that recording VHS using standard resolutions of 320 by 240 is less clear than it was in the DVC I for some reason. Trying to capture VHS in higher quality improves it a bit in my opinion. Still, quality is fairly good. Subtitle text a little blurry in mpeg one. Recording uses less space but you sacrafice quality for space.

I've tried the voodoo tv100 and all in wonder rage and tv wonder ve and had compatibility problems with them so I can't really comment. I can say that I have very happy with the DVC II and would recomment that.

 

[prontospyder]

thanks for the great info mychemegirl. By the way, welcome to the Anandtech Forums.

 

[Tominator]

I've got the Dazzle DVC USB version and it is a jewel to use....The II model with the PCI card has more features but can be a real nightmare to get setup, but as said above some have great success..

I've had the II btw and sold it. Bought the one I've got from a member in the For Sale Forum and it's downright easy to use...$70. I've seen them go for less since.

I'm in the process of putting a bunch of old Beta format tapes on VCD and it works well to capture 8MM from my old trusty Sony Camcorder....

 

[DeeKnow]

thanks for all the responses folks...
I'm going for a Creative Labs VideoBlaster moviemaker ... just paid for one here at AT and should have it next week.
If anyone is interested, I can post about my experience ...

good luck to you all

DeeKnow

 

[AnitaPeterson]

you and I need to talk...