I need to know what provides better video quality when captured at VCD 2.0 specification, a Dazzle Parralel Port, Dazzle USB, or Snazzi PCI?

Thank you

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), March 13, 2000

Answers

I bought the Dazzle USB and returned it within a week and bought a Broadway 4.0. I thought the Dazzle's quality was unwatchable but what can you expect for $250

-- Al McCraw (amccraw@ix.netcom.com), March 13, 2000.

I wonder if you are the same poster (going by mrvcd) who posted this in July 1999.

"Snazzi's picture quality is bad. The encoding is bad. The software for making VCD's from it is bad.

It's major problem is that vcd's created with snazzi are not compatible with standalone VCD players.

Get a broadway pro or if you cant afford that, get a videonics python

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@tsoft.com), July 25, 1999. " http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0011H4

If you are, why are you asking for opinions on Dazzle and Snazzi.

-- (doubtful@you.com), March 13, 2000.

I am asking because my cousin needs an MPEG capture device and I want to reccomend something for him since he can't afford an MPEGator, Broadway, RT6 or any of the other prosumer capture devices.

Personally, I have a Darim MPEGator and Darim M-Filter so I don't need a Snazzi/Dazzle.

I just wish someone could be of help rather than offer unconstructive critisism.

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), March 14, 2000.

You want to recommend some shitty equipment to your own cousin.

Shame on you.

-- (doubtful@you.com), March 14, 2000.

How could you really start to even recommend something to your cousin that you yourself know is bad?? You are in this forum regularly and from that it's fair to say that in whatever incarnation Dazzle/Snazzi comes it produces atrocious quality at the 1150 setting required for VCD. Even Dazzle themselves admit that capture at less than 3000kb/s is shitty. But is all of this a mystery?? Dazzle is the crap you get for paying only $250 and thinking you can get away on that amount with high-quality real-time MPEG capture.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@yahoo.com), March 14, 2000.

Its almost equivalent to people using false emails - Mr Doubtfull!

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), March 14, 2000.

EVERYTHING SUCKS!!! hows that? Seriously if your cousin doesnt want to have all these steps and such and is going straight for simplicity and not so much as quality at a straight vcd rate with no encoding, then the dazzle is the way to go. keep in mind this is probably Dazzles biggest supporter saying this.--enjoy

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), March 14, 2000.

This is amazing stuff to read!

1)Here we have Doug saying that if you capture at 2900 with the dazzle and then re-encode in the Panasonic the end product is as good as your going to get - equivalent to the source I think he said. You Mr VCD and others should have noted all the tweeks and combinations he uses to get this quality output, hell he is one of the few on this site that actually say what they find in order to help others make a decision or improve the quality of the end product. Some listen, most do not!

2)Dazzle seems to admit you have to do something like that so whats the big deal and I would have thought experienced words would count for something. Well.......!

3) Others think its crap what ever you do with it. They seem to sell a hell of a lot for something thats crap!

4) When I first came onto this site (over 12 months ago) to get involved in VCD's and some help it was recommended by "Lone Ranger" that I buy a Dazzle. Well, I do not know what to believe here anymore and if I had bought one I would have had to wait for Doug to appear here to get help in improving the quality of the so called "crap" that I may have ended up with. Gezzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), March 15, 2000.

Ok, going back to my original question, how does the Dazzle (parralel or USB) compare (in terms of video quality) to the Snazzi PCI card when captured at VCD settings?

Please, I am just looking for a straight answer, i am not trying to start an argument. The reason I want this question answered is because my cousin needs an MPEG capture device (he can't afford a higher end solution). He has Panasonic encoder, so he will capture to VCD settings, then re-encode to mpeg with Panasonic encoder's filteration settings (I have done high bitrate mpg, then encoded to VCD mpg, and it seems like that aproach doesnt yield any better quality than capturing at VCD resolution then re-encoding with Panasonic)

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), March 15, 2000.

since your cousin is going to be re-encoding with panasonic, why not get a cheap *.avi capture card and use the price difference between the card and the dazzle/snazzi to increase his hard drive space if need be?

-- ndumu (ndumu@hotmail.com), March 15, 2000.

I had a Dazzle and it is a piece of crap. Sure you can get great results if you capture at a higher rate and use another encoder to do the hard work but why pay $350 for a capture card. Any capture card will do as good a job or better than Dazzle. Buy a good capture card and get the Panasonic encoder. Dazzle is a waste of money.

-- Al McCraw (amccraw@ix.netcom.com), March 15, 2000.

MR.VCD do nottake this the wrong way and i know you do not want to start an arguement, BUT this comment (unless im reading it wrong)

"(I have done high bitrate mpg, then encoded to VCD mpg, and it seems like that aproach doesnt yield any better quality than capturing at VCD resolution then re-encoding with Panasonic) ""

is the most outlandish thing i have ever heard!!!! No offense but you must really be blind!!! i have done severe testing with all of this and capturing at a vcd rate, then re-encoding with panasonic(and its filters) to a vcd still looks BAD. i just cannot beleive you who does have a lot of good information, has said such a wrong thing. Getting to your main question. if i had a snazzi i would tell you. From what i gather i think the dazzle might roughly bet the same results as the snazzi. i can also understand doing an mpeg capture when you do not want to deal with 20min files. NO im not knocking avi at all, im just stating for convience, avi sometimes(for the casual user) are not that convient.

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), March 15, 2000.

I stand corrected

From now on, i will just view posts, rather than post myself

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), March 15, 2000.

No, their have actually been some attempts on this post to answer your question AS WELL AS address some other things said/or stated by other posters on this particular post. i tried to answer your question to some extent, WHILE giving critiscm to one of the things that you have said. I do know the dazzle usb will get a better pickup then the dazzel parallel, but im still not sure about the snazzi. All i know about the snazzi is it allows a higher capture rate then the dazzle(dazzle=3000, snazzi gets up to 4000). thanks

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), March 15, 2000.

One of the points about Dazzle, perhaps the only point worth considering about it, is WE CAN and SHOULD ALL START AUTHORING our VCD as soon as capture is over. That's it. We could all use the time waiting for Panasonic to finish encoding for something else, that's why WE SHOULD BE ATTRACTED to Dazzle. VERY UNFORTUNATELY, unless one captures at 3000kb/s with the thing, the results are pure, unadulterated CRAP. THEN we end up encoding with Panasonic anyway to save the day. IF THIS IS THE CASE and we HAVE TO RE-ENCODE with Panasonic ANYWAY, why not start capturing with something which will produce better results anyway?? Why not start with capturing with a dedicated AVI vidcap device if we are going to end up encoding with a s/w encoder such as Panasonc anyway??? Why go to the lengths with Dazzle?? IT IS NOT EVEN THAT INEXPENSIVE. It is $250, in league with Marvel G400 which is about $280. Throw in Panasonic at $80 which you will need either way, then so there. I, and other people in this forum in the same track, WILL PAY ATTENTION TO Dazzle WHEN THE DAY COMES IT IS ABLE TO CAPTURE STRAIGHT TO A VCD White Book-compliant FILE with which we can author our VCD right away WITHOUT HAVING TO RE- ENCODE, OTHERWISE WE ALL LOSE THE POINT I MADE AT THE START OF THIS RESPONSE!

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@yahoo.com), March 17, 2000.

i agree with your point, but unless your willing to spend a couple thousand on a capture board for those kind of results, 250 is still more affordable for me then 280. even then you can get the dazzle a lot cheaper then that. So why pay 280 when i can only have a 20min file, when i can roughly do the same thing and get a 40min and up file

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), March 17, 2000.

Answer for you MrVCD, The quality of your video (when you capture it) depends on how fast your computer can read/rec. all the video information. In this case, 'cause snazzi is the internal card, it must be faster than Dazzle. --Have you got your answer ?

-- Aries (matian@iname.com), March 19, 2000.

I have been using a Snazzi PCI for over a year now. With Sony cdq74cn discs, win on cd 3.0 and a phillips writer. I have never had a problem. The transfer from svga out on dvd to video cd is very good. It rivals pressed vcds that I own. The transfer from vhs is not as sharp as I would like it to be, but it provides a digital copy that can be played in dvd players.

-- Joe Panzarella (panzarel@ptdprolog.net), April 04, 2000.

Dear all, I use the external Dazzle USB device, and Adaptec...I burn the MPEG-1 files to CD-R right away...I took a disk to a store to check it out on a versatile player, and it looked and sounded fine to me...sure, it's not DVD quality, and it only captures at 206 KB per second or something like that...but what the hell? From a distance of about ten feet, it looks very clear...sharper than video. I think the quality has a lot to do with the original video source...I find that if I capture from a shop bought VHS tape, the picture quality and pixelation stuff is far superior in quality to dubbed tapes...also, I think it has a lot to do with the player...when I play back my home made VCDs (on Kodak Gold CD-R) on the computer DVD Rom drive, they look far different than when played on a stand top player...which, let's face it, is specifically designed for reading these damned disks...umm, finally, I'm no expert on this at all, but this is what I've noticed. DVDs don't even play back well on the computer...the computer just can't handle the data I reckon!

Richard.

-- Richard Landon (ramj@pacificcoast.net), July 13, 2001.

for mpeg1/vcd 1. mpegator1 + m-filter 2. broadway

for mpeg2/svcd/dvd (please check for audio sync) 1. snazzi 3 2. snazzi 2/dazzle 2

-- aicha sahara (aicha_id@yahoo.com), December 23, 2001.