Customer Reviews

Dazzle Video Creator Plus [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

A powerful, albeit memory hog product - but it does a great job.
And cannot beat the price!!!
I think (as usual) I only know 25% of its capabilities and I'm learning as I go along. Keep working at it and use the BURN DVD after you've spent some time experimenting with your "Projects" (keep saving them!!).
Adding titles and "buttons" in the opening scene is easy, once you mastered the nuances of the program. Converted 1:40 of tape to 3 DVD's so I can keep them separate.
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Ten months and many DVD's later and in response to some of the Q's floating around this discussion:

Dazzle is not simple...the first time around, anyway.

There are three distinct stages: Capture (takes your analog video and converts it to an avi file...a huge one. Then you have the Editing, where you can cut stuff out, add titles, etc. AND THIRDLY you burn the final to a DVD. That the good way!
Now, if you want to transfer without any editing, there is a way (the lazy man's/woman's way) - follow the instructions.

Free advice: Capture no more than 10 minutes at a time, then edit it and save it (better have a big hard drive, mine is a 160Gb, so I got a 250Gb USB Passport from WD and that drive is only for captured videos (AVI's). So get your short 10 mins captured video (avi) and play with it until you master Dazzle. Then you'll be ready for bigger and better things. The 10 minute segments also helps to eliminate any sound sync problems.

It is not that complicated, but it takes some practice. Personally I use it ONLY to CAPTURE, I use Windows MovieMaker for editing the AVI and saving it to a WMV file and then I use Sonic to burn it on a DVD. Why?? Because I am very familiar with both of these programs and I feel comfy using them. The results are great - ask my five grand kids :-)

I'm not sure about the negative reviews, especially those that don't give any detail as to the problems with the product. Just make sure it works with your operating system. I have Windows XP, and the Dazzle and Pinnacle software work well. My PC only has 0.5GB memory, so the Pinnacle SW can run slow at times. I blame the slowness on my lack of memory. I'd really like to give this product a 5. The only reason I can't is that I did have to recapture a couple video clips as the first captures had some bits of choppiness where the video and audio kind-of skip. That could also be my slow PC. I'm not sure. As for what I like: The Dazzle and the Pinnacle SW are extremely user-friendly. The video editing is very intuitive. There's a beginning tutorial after you first load the SW that is worth watching. After that, you're off. It's really fun, and I was surprised at how much you could do. For less than $100, I was not expecting the editing SW to have as many features as it does. It's really a terrific deal.

I just got this device about an hour ago and Im already capturing great clips from videogames! Contrary to what a lot of people have said about this it works with Vista Home 32-bit right out of the box! Setup was simple and the software is surprisingly very good.

The device that came with mine was black, apparently there are also red and silver versions out there, so this review is for the black one.

I purchased this product after reading mostly favorable customer reviews. Every product is going to have one or two bad reviews and one or two nuts you need to ignore. So I figured this product would be okay. HOWEVER, using the capture device and accompanying software to capture analog video from a VCR produces NOTICEABLE AUDIO DRIFT with time. The audio starts out in perfect sync, but over the 30 minutes of a camcorder VHS-C tape, it can be out of sync by over a minute by the end of the tape. I first thought the problem was with another editing program, but no. Playing back the raw avi capture through several video players confirmed it was the Pinnacle capture software.

If you choose video preview while capturing it, you can verify that the audio and video are properly synched all the way to the end as being delivered by the Pinnacle USB capture device to the PC. Once in a while, a capture will work just fine, but it appears to be random. I had to capture each tape about 3 times to get one with proper synchronization. Don't know if other programs running in the background inadvertently affect sync, but they shouldn't. And yes - my PC specs are superior to the minimum stated requirements. FYI - I am runing Windows XP SP3.

If you search on the web for "pinnacle studio audio sync problem" you will see that this has been an ongoing problem for YEARS. Incidentally, I have not had any problems with lost frames as others have. So buyer beware. If you have purchased this product and are happy with it - congratulations. But if you haven't bought it yet, I would seriously advise finding another product, as I now have to. I hope this review halps those reading it. Thank you for reading this.

If you don't want to go for an expensive HD video capture equipment then the Dazzle is the answer. The software works really well when you get used to it. I used this to recored gameplays from my PS3 and to get the best quality out of this product, use S-Video. For the price the quality and the software were great. It allows you to record it through the regular composite or S-video. S-video is better as it looks clearer especially for those recording gameplays from consoles. I recommend this product for those recording old VHS, DVDs, and or gameplays from consoles.

It does what I want when I want. I use this item to capture video during video game play with my x-box 360 and it works perfectly. Very user friendly product. Vista 32 bit running system friendly. Had a hard time installing disk but my computer so secure with all the virus scanners and firewalls and what not so it's not the products fault, I called the pinnacle hotline and they walked me through disabling all that stuff to get it to work properly. I was up and running in under an hour. I love the product except the audio doesn't quite match the picture but I have a bootleg setup because I don't have video outputs on my tv. I also didn't like the fact that the phone support is only free for the first call after that it will cost you money (don't know how much) but online help is always free. If you don't have outputs on your tv and your using this for gaming- check you tube for directional videos you'll need more hardware (3 Y splitters, and standard AV cable) That's how I got mine to work for me. would have been 5 star review except the hot line thing kinda turned me off the 5th star.

This version finally worked as advertised!I had purchased the original and didnt. I Bought the upgrade for $64.00 Good Value! Plug and play!! I have a desk top running Vista(32) quad processor and 2.4 gigahertz. Used to transfer old home movies from VHS to DVD. Video quality is only as good as original source. The included software is very Good and has nice editing feature. All transfers are done in real time, so be ready wait. Also take lots of room on hard drive 2 hours of content required almost 5 GB of space. I have a 500 hard drive so its small in comparison. I would recommend this product.

I have had no problems at all with the Dazzle recorder and found the software intuitive and easy to use. I captured and got the hang of editing in a couple of nights. I read everything I could find before buying and so far feel like I made the right choice for the $. I bought it strictly to transfer old VHS recordings on to DVD.

My sys is pretty old but it runs the software and captures just fine
AMD Athlon XP 2600 (1.9ghz)
1.5GB RAM
ATI 9600XT Video
160GB Hard Drive
Windows XP Professional

Two things I wish I had been aware of. Hard drive space. You need at least 100GB to capture and burn an average VHS tape. I read a lot about how capturing requires a lot of space...(50-60GB for the first VHS tape I captured which was roughly 4-5 hours of video). No biggie, but be aware that its just like most burning software in that it copies your edited video to the hard drive for burning. So in essence it requires space for TWO copies of your tape. (a master and an edit) And thats just for one video, if you wanted to work on multiple captured videos at once...your gonna need a big hard drive. I'd recommend 500GB at least. I have an older machine and my 160GB hard drive is not enough to do even one unless I uninstall everything but windows...no fun. Not the manufacturers fault...but be aware. Lesson learned for me.

Also be aware that the included sofware (Pinnacle Studio 12 when I bought it) only allows creation of 5 chapters on a DVD...thats it. If you have more than 5 chapters in mind... like a chapter for each summer vacation or each school play or whatever.....you have to buy an upgrade of Pinnacle Studio. This was a major disappointment and I thought a ridiculous limitation just to get you for more $.

The Dazzle Video Creator Plus is everything I hoped it would be. Its easy to use and the Pinnacle Studio 12 software that came with the unit is a great program. It has an abundance of features that have enabled me to create professional looking results. The software alone is worth the price of the package. You won't go wrong purchasing this product!

The video transfers Im doing are good. The sound seems to be a lower volume and for some reason on some scene changes, it will be slow motion for 2 or 3 seconds, maybe there's a solution on the support site but thus far this has been my experience. The title and transition features work well.