I was looking into the Dazzle DVC 2 (the one that does MPEG-2 capture). Now can anyone provide me with their personal comments on this product's features and video quality based on personal use? Is it good for both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2?

Thank you

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), October 12, 2000

Answers

I went to my local computer store to look into getting one and the first 3 in the row had been returned. Made me think twice about getting the newer one, DVC II. I have the first dazzle. It works good if you aren't looking to make vcd's with it. I did find a good message board about the new dazzle. Check it out! http://pub21.ezboard.com/fdazzle2discusiongeneral?page=2

-- Billy, boy, boy, boy (kilingspam@aol.com), October 12, 2000.

i saw this and was curious as well. I currently have the 1st one and am quite happy with it, as i know how to make the damn thing give good quality results. i am almost 100% positive that if i picked up this new one i would still have to do what i do now (encode at 2900 and then run it into an encoder and make a vcd or highrate)

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), October 13, 2000.

Hi Doug,

Here is my thanks to you.

I had emailed you once and asked about your Dazzle 1 when I was looking for a real time mpeg capture card and wasn't impress with the DVC since you have to reencode with panasonic to make a good mpeg.

The DVC II is a little better then the DVC in that matter.

You can capture and burn to VCD with much better quality then any encoder i've tried (panasonic, LSX, TMPGEnc, CC...)

You can capture MPEG1 (600Kb/s - 5Mb/s)& MPEG2 (2Mb/s - 10Mb/s) with a lot of fram size available. ( even 480 X 480)

No need to reencode anymore. Now this is a real time capture card

But since you owne a dazzle, you should know how they are, I mean there software and support is like shit. This did not change.

The software that comes with the Dazzle DVC II is MovieStar 4.1, then patch and now 4.2

Here is what work and what doesn't:

MovieStar 4.1 + Patch: VCD capture OK VCD edited in MovieStar OK SVCD CBR capture OK SVCD VBR capture, just hang after some time and you loose everything SVCD edited in MovieStar not compliant

MovieStar 4.2 better installation for WIN2K same for VCD and SVCD (SVCD VBR capture OK) Bug in capturing MPEG, meanning you can not capture anymore in MPEG1

Both version hang from time to time ..

So I would recommand this card for those looking for quality and can live with all those bugs. They will have them fix eventlualy ( in a year or two)

I just capture in XVCD 352X240 2400Mb/s Video, 192 Kb/s Audio and use My Flix to edit then burn to CD, for this I am very happy with the quality and all.

BTW here is a good discution group for the Dazzle http://stop.at/dazzle2

you can also find some samples made with the DVC II

Tuan

-- Tuan (anh.tuan.tran@videotron.ca), October 13, 2000.

Tuan, thanks for the info

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

Can the Dazzle DVC II do offline encoding? Meaning can I take an existing AVI and convert it to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 ? Also, how is the MPEG- 2 quality? How does MPEG-1 quality of this board compare to Optibase?

By the way I do not do XVCD or VBR MPEG-1/MPEG-2.....I am only interested in VCD 2.0 compliance and CBR SVCD

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

No the DVC II does not encode AVI to MPEG (for now), the chip would be able to but the MovieStar software does not, it's on our whish list but it's probably not there priority.

VCD quality is very good, and compliant

SVCD 480 X 480 CBR still has block but non compliant SVCD 352X480 CBR is very good. You can get 36min of this quality on a CD.

Go to the site I mention above, there is some VCD clips there

Tuan

-- Tuan (anh.tuan.tran@videotron.ca), October 15, 2000.

Install and vcd capture, no problem. Svcd and other options were a "hit and miss". Causing windows 98, 98SE & ME, to crash. Eveytime you start the computer it was something different. I tried all operating systems and no difference. Did the exchange routine with dazzle, and no difference. The computer I was using was built strictly for video capture. Pentium III 600 & 866, 256K PC133 ram, two scsi U160 drives, Plextor 12/4/32 burner, Nero 5.0, Then I tried combinations of these: four types of motherboards, three video cards, two sound cards, ide drives, Tech support jumped me through the hoops but I had the feeling by this point that I new more then they did about there own product. I liked the first dazzle usb, but no luck in dazzle II.I now have the RADEON card and in process in giving it that the proper "shakedown".

-- - (-@aol.com), October 15, 2000.

Spend the $700 or so bucks and get the Broadway 5.0 It works best when you capture to avi do your editing and then encode in real time. It also now does mpeg-2 dvd compliant files. As soon as the dvd r/w's come down in price you will be ready for creating dvd and can get away from the "not as goos as you would like" quality that is inevitable by trying to create vcd's from vhs tapes.

-- Al (amccraw@ix.netcom.com), October 16, 2000.

I spended 900$ and got an Pinacle DV500 this card capture in DV then you can rencode to MPEG2(no MPEG1), the rencoding is not fast enough to be real time to me.

Since the Pinacle DV500, Matrox RT200 (1000$) and Dazzle DVC II use the same CCube chip I decided to return the DV500 and bough a DVC II (matrox wasn't available yet).

So I can say that it's not nescesairely true that you have to spend a lot of money to get the best quality.

If your main goal is to transfert tape/TV/Sat with not to much editing to VCD/SVCD/DVD this is a good card with a very buggy software that will be correct someday, for now VCD is ok, SVCD need to be remux with TMPEnc for NERO or MUX from i_author for EZCD Creator.

And when the time comes when we can offord a DVD burner, you can still use this card to capture MPEG2 720X480 @10Mb/s (which is way over the quality of most DVD you can by from the store now)

Note that I still maintain that the software that comes with this card is very shitty, but if you are a little technical and can find other applications to do what you need and just use MoviStar for capture, the quality is great.

Tuan

-- Tuan (anh.tuan.tran@videotron.ca), October 16, 2000.

hey guys, i was glad to find this message board. I recently bought a dazzle dvc 2. So far everything seems to be going fine. I would be happy to answer any questions thrown at me. One thing i agree on is the lack of software for this product it could do so much more with the right sotware. Just a quick question: when i try and capture video that is jumpy becasue of the tape being old the dazzle dvc2 interprets it as missing frames and it looks like its jerking any ideas how to fix this. Thanks guys

-- chad (chad@thesimpsons.com.au), May 22, 2001.

I just bought mine, haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I haven't been able to see any sample clips either. I notice that most everyone that buys it wants to use it for playing VCDs/SVCDs on DVD players - the reason I bought it is because my computer plays all my video (32" VGA monitor and can't hook my VCR up to it) and I want to convert over all my old VHS tapes before they expire. I'm wondering, has anyone on here used VirtualDub to convert MPEG2 to MPEG4/DivX? DivX is my preferred format simply because there's nothing better available (not to my knowledge anyway) and DivX is fast becoming a standard so I feel it'll be around for a while. I'm a little nervous about converting between formats because you always seem to lose some quality when you do that...but DivX lets you put about 1:30 of VERY high quality video on one CD. MPEG1 doesn't go HQ enough for me, MPEG2 is too bulky. Anyone have any luck playing with VirtualDub and the DVCII?

-- Russ Melanson (russolini.spamno@please_no_spam.mediaone.net), June 08, 2001.

i need it (4.1 to 4.2)

-- jygdn (jygdn@163.net), July 10, 2001.

YIKES! Better open the box at the store and find a serial number for the DVDit software!! We went through heck and back. No response from Dazzle or Sonic help because you can't get through to them. We left messages to have them call us back to no end. We went back to Fry's and opened ALL the boxes on the shelf and none had the serial number to install the software. What a lot of unhappy customers with my wife and I included. OK, we can pull out the DVC II and take it back. Bet there is another product that would do for the $300?

-- jefro (jeffregal@netzero.net), November 30, 2001.

I own a Dazzle DVC II and I say it sucks. You can only record videos in MPEG 1, 2 format. No other format is supported. Only the software that is supplied with it works for capturing. No external plugin can be installed!!!!! It does not have a RF-IN connection too. It is a big crap. In my opinion I would recommend you to get a Card that supports DivX

-- Saket Iyer (zamsak@hotmail.com), September 06, 2003.

Saket Iyer I think you should read the labelling on the box before you post and do a little bit of research. Dazzle is a card aimed only and soley as an MPEG1 or MPEG 2 capturing card.

Also you can use Bugsy for recording which, works much, much better with the DVCII than with any of the Dazzle recording apps you can find. Oh! And if you use Spawns DVCII drivers you will get much better performance, compatability and most of the major bugs have been fixed.

DVC II card is awesome for what it does. It works flawlessy when you use some decent drivers and Bugsy - forget the packaged software it comes with.

After capturing your file you can always convert it to MPEG 4 after.

Ted.

-- Ted (blahblah@nalh.blah), December 10, 2003.