i have the dazzle dvc 3.5(internet edition) and from what i have been reading on here, although it makes vcds a hell of a lot easier to make, i may have made the wrong choice for a capture device. My vcds dont come out that bad but are blocky at times. I have an HP running at 350mhz(amd-k6-2/350mhz). Can someone please tell me if its ture that bossting the MHZ in my pC will result in a better quality picture? Im shooting for 500mhz or above. thanks

-- Doug F (mazinz@aol.com), November 28, 1999

Answers

Dazzle is a 100% hardware capture device direct to MPEG-1. It has a mind of its own and all and whatever speed your system has will have very little, if any, impact on your captured .mpg file quality. Based on what I've observed from acquaintances who insist on using Dazzle/Snazzi to create VCDs from a PI200 to a PIII450 machine the results are always the same: blocky, splotchy, low color sat, horrid and messy .mpgs.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@hotmail.com), November 29, 1999.

I agree with the last guy. I bought a Dazzle because of all the great write-ups about it and was very dis-pleased with the blothcy picture. I luckily was able to return mine and get a full refund. I did more research and found the people giving the Dazzle so much praise also noted that the picture quality was fair.For the past 3 months I have been searching for a better capture/encoding device. I think I have it narrowed down to a Vitec RT-6 or a Data Translation Broadway. They are in the $700 to $800 price range

-- Al McCraw (amccraw@ix.netcom.com), December 28, 1999.

Al McCraw, Have you had luck contacting Data Translation? Their driver won't work in the latest Candidate Release of Windows 2000, and I have been trying very hard to get their support personnel to reply at all. Funny thing is in the problem reporting page (HTML) there is one selection that ask you what OS you use, including "Windows 2000" while they know they don't have a hardware driver for it. very funny.

A few years back there was this Jones in Data Translation who was very prompt to answer queries.

-- Rusman Priyana (priyana@eudoramail.com), December 29, 1999.

Listen, I hear everyone crying about how bad there VCD's look with the Dazzle USB------bottom line: in this price range there is nothing that is going to give you a better quality so save your time and energy in buying other cards. I have personally tested Pinnacle cards including the M10, The ATI card with VideoWave 3 and the Snazzy I went back to the Dazzle. The others have much better software packages but the VCD quality was unwatchable. I am not saying that this is the best card out at all---Dont misinterpret what I am saying! If you want a VCD with Dazzle use Adapted Cd Maker and be happy with the quality unless you are willing to put out $700 for a Broadway. i did not try the new ATI out yet with the 32mg chip. Has anyone used I Author with a Dazzle video to make menus yet? Let me know if it works

-- Thomas C (culpster@aol.com), March 20, 2000.

i no longer complain about the dazzle, your responding to a pretty old post. I have found out the best way to make vcds with the dazzle is capture at a higher rate (2900 or 3000 movie quality), THEN RE- ENCODE IT (I USE THE PANASONIC ENCODER), damn cap locks, anyway, i use this encoder (with a filter on) to either make a 2500 highrate vcd or to do a normal vcd. the quality looks a 100 times better when using the dazzle and this method.

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), March 20, 2000.

I do not know about shelling out $700 these days for a non DV card, there must be alternatives. One of the best analogue capture cards I have used was the Matrox Rainbow Runner with the AV_IO capture program and it took a change to a DV firewire ($100US outlay) source to get a better VCD than that old card provided, but with far more processing hassels. A friend still uses it with his TRV 900 mini DV camera. Guess its a G400 or something now, I think EMartinez has described this before.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), March 20, 2000.

I need some input from anyone out there that has a Sound Blaster Live card and is using Dazzle-----I have made great looking VCD's but the sound quality has a slight hissing in it and I have tries everything to clear this up. I have turned of all mic ports and am not plugging it into the digital in yellow jack. What setting am I missing because this is really starting to annoy me. Please HELP!!!! Thanks in advance.

-- Tman (culpster@aol.com), March 23, 2000.

Doug you seem to be the wizard with the Dazzle and I do not mean that in a sarcastic way. Here are my questions: What are the best settings to capture a 135 minute movie, I have heard that you capture at 2900000 movie quality and then encode it. But, my question is how many minutes of video play do you get onto 1 CD. I have many VCR tapes that I would like to havebackups, so I can watch on plane trips with my laptop.The other question that I have is where can someone get this Panasonic Encoder that I keep haering about besides ordering it from the web. Is any retailer caring it?------I have already tried to Mirc it and couldn't find it. O.K. so shoot me, I do enjoy the occasional freebie! Sorry for the long post but I really do want to see the differance in quality with the method that you are using and the time constraints per CD. Thanks in advance! ( I took some typing lessons since my last post.)

-- Tman (culpster@aol.com), March 28, 2000.

I have yet to try Doug's suggestion to capture at higher rate. Hope it works fine. My capture also produces out of sync mpegs. Anyways, the PANASONIC encoder you may find from this URL: http://www.networkserve.co.jp/mpeg/index_e.html enjoy!!!

-- Joemil (pugeh@hotmail.com), February 09, 2001.

I just tried to follow Doug' advise and captured the file on Movie Quality (2900 bps)with Dazzle and then tried to encode it using TMPGEnc (from www.tmpgenc.com). The problem was that this encoder was looking for a *.avi file which Dazzle does not create (I think so at least?I have a Dazzle USB ver.4100). Anyway, i just fed the mpg file which I had created in Movie Quality and got the program to reconvert to VCD format and it did! The only thing is the picture quality is still not great. I still get blocky, patchy, out of sync. audio clips..

-- Satish (lnpsatish@yahoo.com), March 26, 2001.

Wow you guys can really complain. No offense... but I agree with that guy who said. Compare prices first, then quality. I also agree with doug in that you have to capture at the highest bitrate setting and then re-encode to VCD format with at least 2 switches set (noise reduction and sharpening edges) this will increase your encoding time by at least 7 times (1 hour to 7 hours). BTW I am using 3 machines to perform these tasks.

1. A pentium I 200 (with the Snazzi)- for pure captures (perfect audio sync BTW)

2. A pentium III 500 ( for DV work with a firewire setup)- you need DV for better 2D & 3D composites

3. An AMD 1600 (for pure bone crunching TMPEG reencodes) the final master process or VCD or MPEG II production.

hope this helps... keep the faith the SNAZZI is VFM (value for money)

For ultimately better quality, on should check out the optibase systems (much... much moolah required)

later

Ibarbosa

-- i barbosa (ibarbosa3@yahoo.com), January 31, 2002.