Customer Reviews

Dazzle Multimedia DM-7000 Digital Video Creator II

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I would give the unit 5 stars for it's video/audio quality using MPEG 2 capture. It's a great unit for the price. However, it has some flaws that make it a pain to use. The most notorious problem is the message "A device attached to the system is not functioning". From the Dazzle website you find that when this happens you need to uninstall the software and remove some files, then reinstall. This happens frequently on my Compaq 2.0 GHz XP system. It works fine until you reboot. You can sometimes reboot 3 or 4 times and have it still work. I tend to batch up my video capture jobs to avoid having to restinstall the software so often. Sometimes then I have to reinstall 2 or 3 times to get it to go. Other problems are intermittent too: audio sometimes does not capture, format is sometimes not SVCD compliant, or an edited session loses the audio track. These work properly at least 85% of the time but fail often enough so that I need to check audio tracks before burning on CD. I capture about 15 hours of video per week so these problems are quite annoying. Unfortunately, I have not found any unit in this price range that works with both MPEG and MPEG2. The editing software is simple to use but lacks advanced features needed for video compositions. It's works OK for removing commercials from broadcast video before creating a video CD, but is rather sluggish as it seems to copy entire video clips while the operator waits several seconds to split or adjust the length of a video segment. Other software editors do this function instantaneously.

One of the few hardware mpeg2 digitizer cards that works well on low-end systems (starting with AMD K6-II 400 mhz or higher).

everything is done on the chip on board, so this is 100% hardware mpeg2 encoding, it does not hog your system's CPU.

Warning: has several compatibility issues, specially on systems already full with pci cards, because this card needs to have one IRQ asigned to it exclusivelly, and will have issues if there is no free IRQ left for it to use.

Conclusion: install it on a system devoted entirelly to video digitizing. Do not install for use in your everyday PC.

If you have a Compaq forget it. The card does not like to share IRQ addresses. The "boy" that works the support line has no clue. Only answer is "this happens with Compaqs".

If you like self torture get one of these. I play musical PCI slots to get it to work sometimes. It is easy to use when it works. There is nooooo customer support, they've never answered any of my emails. Is there a lemon law for computer hardware? The people at Dazzle should be sued for malpractice and mental torture!

This was the 2nd and last Dazzle product I'll ever buy. The first was the "Snazzi" capture card which ceased to work under Win 2K, then this product ceased to work under Windows XP. Dazzle must be playing tricks with interrupts and other low level hardware to make these things incompatible.

Buh bye Dazzle, see you in Chapter 11.

After a few months of operation, my DVC II started giving the message "A device attached to the system is not functioning", and would no longer capture video or audio while still under warranty.

I tried all the tips in the online tech assist as well as email support with no positive results. I then tried the phone support (toll call) at least 5 times and never got through to a person. But did leave a message with my phone number. They never called me.

I then wrote a letter which resulted in another round of email tech support advising me to try all the things I had already tried. Eventually I was given another phone number (toll call) which no one ever answers. I have not had any resolution after three months of trying to get their assistance.

SAVE YOUR MONEY. Invest in a good digital camera instead.

I have never before encountered a product which would
completely ruin my operating system.
I have had file system corruption on 2 separate Win/2000
systems as a direct result of using this product.

Dazzle seems to work well enough...at first.
But after capturing various sized clips for a few days,
suddenly things start to malfunction first within Dazzle,
next the O/S starts taking twice as long to boot up...then
the CD-R burner starts to malfunction, and eventually the
entire file system seems to show signs of pervasive corruption.

Thinking this some sort of horrifying coincidence, I try again
with an entirely different machine and a fresh Win/2000 install.
INCREDIBLY, the exact same symptoms reoccur. ...avoid this product at all costs.

I would recommend that you quickly repackage this product if you purchased it and return it before the warrantee expires. I made the mistake of purchasing this product last year and have never been able to make it work correctly. I tried to install it on a 450 Mhz Dell and a 1.6 Mhz Dell w/ Windows XP. I couldn't even get it to start up or install correctly on the windows XP. On the 450 Mhz machine I was able to install it and actually load some video into the program using the interface. However, I was never able to get it to successfully edit the imported video. The downloads for Dazzle says it all. It never has worked well if at all with Windows XP. ... Try Pinnacle or anything else.

The only good thing about this product is the software (Studio 8). I bought a DVC 150. I spent two days trying to get Tech support, and 45 minutes on long distance toll calls to their version of tech support (they do not offer toll free service). Their tech suggested that I use a 1394 setup for better quality and ease of use. They never did answer the email I sent for assistance 4 days ago.
I paid $150.00 for this piece of junk desk orniment. A firewire card and cable is only $75.00 at Best Buy. And I have been able to down load my grandson's birthday from my Sharp Digital Viewcam just like I wanted to with out unnecessary grief and agrivation.

I've had installation difficulties similar to other users: "A device attached to the system is not functioning." I tried to solve the problem to no avail, searching the website and contacting technical support.

I'm using WinXP Pro, and whoever certified this as "Designed for Windows XP" made a cruel joke.

*UPDATE*

This device conflicts 760 chipsets which is just, plain sloppy engineering on the part of Dazzle. The 760 chipset is used in most AMD Athlon motherboards. THERE IS NO HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE FIX TO THIS PROBLEM OTHER THAN TO INSTALL THIS DEVICE ON AN INTEL MACHINE! If Dazzle is this sloppy in engineering, I've got to wonder what other poor quality products they produce. Personally, I'm never buying Dazzle again. I suggest you do likewise.

Hence, I've downgraded my review to one star.