If you've ever wanted to add video to your web site or presentations, there are many
options available to you. Before you go out to purchase a video processing tool, you need
to consider the processing power of your CPU, the amount of storage required for editing
video, and whether you want a device which is integrated into your system board or an
external device (parallel port dongle or USB).
Over the years we have played with a few different products including Snappy and
Dazzle. While Snappy was one of the first products to market, its strength is in creating
stills from video. The latest version of Snappy does allow you to perform some rudimentary
video capture, but it's nothing to write home to Momma about.
Dazzle is a far more lucrative and powerful tool. While you will pay for this power,
you will also receive a much better end product. We originally purchased Dazzle in its
parallel port version two years ago. We were drawn to it by its ability to handle both
stills and full motion video, and the fact that it came bundled with a large amount of
software. In fact, if you added up the price of the bundled software, the software cost
more than the hardware! It was a bargain.
The problem, though, with this earlier version of Dazzle (and Snappy, too) is the fact
that the devices are monster dongles. They are big and bulky and cumbersome to fasten onto
the back of your computer's parallel port. I have never liked dongles because I feel they
can put a stress fracture into the system board and ruin your parallel port or your
computer. Invariably, you also need to play with your parallel port settings or add a
second port since pass-through printing on many of these devices is somewhat circumspect.
Additionally, if you are like me, I am cramped for space and like my PC to sit flush
against the back of the cabinet. In short, dongles are a pain.
Recently, though, Dazzle has released a new USB version of their older product and it
is called the Digital Video Creator (with Real Video). The USB device looks like a modem
and has video and audio ports in the front and rear for hooking up to your VCR or camera
and a TV. We were able to unbox everything and get it all hooked up within a few minutes.
For the purposes of this evaluation, we used a Gateway 450 Mhz with 128 MB RAM and a 20
GB drive. Our camcorder was a Sharp Hi-8 VL-H860 Viewcam. Using the cables which were
included with Dazzle, we were able to preview our video footage on screen; however, the
clarity was poor. After some experimenting, we elected to use the combo cable which came
with our camcorder instead. We immediately saw a huge difference, and the preview image
was crystal clear. We, therefore, recommend that should you experience similar problems
with the quality of your video despite changes to the software configuration, that you use
the original OEM cables which came with your VCR or camcorder.
Using the DazzleDVC interface, we were able to record and save video segments quickly
and easily. The software is intuitive and easy to use. You can adjust the quality of the
image quickly and easily. Based upon the overall quality of the original footage, you
should find the recording to be quite faithful to the original. We experienced some
warning messages during recording because the sound quality of our original tape was poor.
This sometimes confuses Dazzle as being a problem, but it still recorded just fine. While
there were some slight pops in the soundtrack, we were quite pleased with the results.
The DazzleDVC software has many nice and powerful features including the ability to
store a thumbnail gallery of your stills or video captures, the ability to view a
slideshow, the ability to convert your MPEG files to Real Video format, and the ability to
either email your files or publish them to a web site. Frankly, this is a very complete
system. I can't think of anything that these folks have missed.
Just as Dazzle had bundled some great software with their earlier products, DazzleDVC
also comes with Ulead PhotoExpress (perfect for altering stills for fun projects), Ulead
VideoStudio (a very powerful video editor with advanced special effects, transitions, and
titles for enhancing your edited video), Sonic
Desktop Software SmartSound for Multimedia (a music library and editor reviewed
elsewhere on this site), and a variety of other invaluable utilities.
We were very impressed with the quality and performance of the DazzleDVC USB product,
and recommend it highly to our readers. Click the button below to visit their site now.
Dazzle
