Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 Video Capture Device and Movie Maker (210100325)

by Pinnacle Systems

Product Details

• Item Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000C4DVM
• Item model number: 210100325
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #70 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > Video Capture Cards
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 29, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer The Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 is a high-quality external USB video-capture device for anyone, with any type of camcorder, who wants to get started editing digital video on their PC. The Dazzle DVC 150 also includes Pinnacle's Studio QuickStart software for fun and easy moviemaking. Capture your footage, make your movie, and burn it to CD or DVD.

Capture DVD-quality video from any camcorder, TV, or VCR with the Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 (DVC150). The DVC150 has a high-speed USB 2.0 interface for connecting to your computer, which gives you better video quality than you’d get with comparable USB 1.1 products. High-Speed USB 2.0 Interface for Best Video Quality This interface is about 40 times as fast as a USB 1.1 interface, meaning that if your computer supports USB 2.0, you can get higher-quality captured video. Don't have a USB 2.0 port on your computer yet? Don't worry--the DVC150 will work with your USB 1.1 port and you'll be ready for the future if you decide to upgrade your computer to USB 2.0. Capture DVD-Quality Video Connect your camcorder, VCR, or TV to the DVC150 to capture DVD-quality video on your PC. The DVC150 captures in full 720 x 576 DVD resolution.

Comes with Pinnacle's Studio QuickStart
The Dazzle DVC150 comes with Pinnacle's Studio QuickStart moviemaking software, whose intuitive interface makes it the ideal application with which to create movies on your PC or laptop.

The included Studio QuickStart software allows you to cut, edit, restore, and re-create new videos from your existing home movies.

Enhance and Restore Your Old Videotapes Studio QuickStart lets you strenghten washed-out colors, restore old analog tapes, or stabilize shaky movies. Create Movies in Seconds Simply choose both a video and a music track, pick a preset movie style, and let Studio QuickStart instantly create an amazing movie that matches the beat of your favorite song. Preserve and Share Your Movies on CD and DVD With Studio QuickStart you can easily compile your best moments in one unique project which can be burnt to CD or DVD, complete with custom menus and chapters for convenient and fast on-screen navigation. Discs burnt with Studio QuickStart can be watched on your PC or on TV on almost any home DVD-player. Send Your Videos over the Internet Create short video clips that you can attach to your e-mails.

Product Description

PINNACLE's DAZZLE DVC-150 is the straightest path to creating Hollywood style movies from your home videos. DVD Encoder Chip automatically converts real time video into 1/4 size DVD quality (720 x 480) video Package includes A/V cables, USB cable, complete user's guides Requirements - Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP; 128MB RAM, 500MHz+ Pentium II class processor, CD or DVD burner for disc creation

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A useless video capture device..., January 16, 2004

By 

Heath L. Buckmaster "_heath_" (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 Video Capture Device and Movie Maker (210100325) (Personal Computers)

You will most likely see nothing but bad reviews for this product, no matter what forums you read.

Dazzle is out of business and so Pinnacle bought it all up. Product support is no longer offered to previous owners who purchased when Dazzle was still around, and the technical support website has broken links everywhere and provides no meaningful information. Pinnacle will not support you via the phone or email for old versions of this product.

The product will not function with any video capture program other than the bundled Dazzle MovieStar 5 software. Even with the software update (which is very difficult to find now), the program frequently crashes during rendering or editing of the movie.

If you are able to capture MPG vid from this device, it usually can only be read again by the MovieStar software, and sometimes Windows Media player. Attempting to load these MPG files into other software such as Movie Maker, or Virtual Dub usually crashes the program.

From a physical perspective, the device footprint is small, and attractive (black and silver which we all like for computer things), and you have analog and svid inputs. It plugs into your computer via USB. Do not attempt to use USB 1.0, or you will get little to no performance or quality. You must use USB 2.0 to get any type of product.

Burning to a VCD is choppy and messy, and the program (though advertised this way) can not write to real media with any consistency.

I have seen very few positive reviews about this product on numerous forums, and regret purchasing it myself. Unfortunately, I can not return it to the store. Most purchasers recommend that this product be recalled due to the quality issues, however, since the company no longer exists, that is unlikely.

Choose a different product that will allow more flexibility. Unfortunately, in the world of video capture, cheaper is not better.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Totally horrible, March 29, 2004

By 

Ben T. (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 Video Capture Device and Movie Maker (210100325) (Personal Computers)

After just a little while the program started malfunctioning. The website support information was useless and I could not find a telephone support number anywhere. I am returning this tomorrow and I will never buy anything from Pinnacle again. BEWARE.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You can do better, November 2, 2003

By 

Jean Gray (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 Video Capture Device and Movie Maker (210100325) (Personal Computers)

This product has caused no end of problems. The software installed easy enough, but the initial resolution it sets up with is very low, which you may not realize. The MovieStar editor is incredibly limited and prone to locking up on XP. I had troubles importing some MP3's and getting them to work. Thankfully you can import mpg's into another editor and work with them there.

Getting the finished product to render is not a simple task. It requires about 3 steps. I was also unable to render anything into RealMedia or WMV as advertised. In order to get it in WMV I had to import the MPG file into Windows Movie Maker (XP only) and render it from there.

If you just want to capture video to your computer this does an adequate job. If you want to work with he video I suggest a separate editor such as Ulead's Visual Studio or Sony's Movie Studio both at about $100. I only kept it because there is nothing else out there that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It got 2 stars because it can actually capture.