Dazzle Multimedia DM4100 Digital Video Creator

Other products by Dazzle Multimedia

Product Details

Product Manual [453kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 4 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000JF4M
• Item model number: DM4100
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank

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  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Internal Desktop Components > Video Capture Cards

• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 1, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
If The Blair Witch Project taught us anything, it's that anyone with a clever idea and a video recorder can make a movie. The DM4100 Digital Video Creator from Dazzle Multimedia makes it possible to put together your creation on your PC.

Basically an input-output device for composite or S-video multimedia, the Dazzle ships with an excellent suite of video editing software that makes it simple for anyone with a moderately powerful PC to make and edit their own movies. The Dazzle claims to run on a Pentium 133 or higher with only 16 MB of RAM, but we recommend at least a Pentium II and 64 MB of RAM for any serious video handling.

This USB version we tested was a cinch to set up--we installed the software, plugged the Dazzle into a free USB port, and we were ready for prime time. A lot of multimedia graphics cards offer hardware input-output similar to the Dazzle, but one of the things we liked best about using this device was not having to dig around behind our machine every time we wanted to plug in a different multimedia source.

We were able to capture smooth video--up to 352 x 240 resolution at 30 frames per second--on our Celeron 300 (with 64 MB of RAM). We could then easily output the video to a VCR or even to CD with our CD-RW drive (although a third party program is required to create video-CD format discs.)

In addition to the Dazzle software, this package includes the powerful Ulead Video Studio and Ulead Photo Express. (The Dazzle can create still images with resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels.) An Internet version is also available, offering an easy way to create streaming audio and video.

At its current price, the Dazzle is expensive for hobbyists, but for those users interested in professional digital video, it's a steal.

Pros:

• Easy to set up and use
• Excellent software bundle

Cons:

• USB version won't work with Windows 95
• Connecting cable could be longer

Product Description
With Digital Video Creator, you can easily capture TV-quality MPEG digital video on a Windows 95/98 PC. The new Dazzle Digital Video Creator provides everything you need to record, edit, manage, publish, and share your video. Just connect your camcorder or VCR and record TV quality MPEG Digital video on your PC. Easily combine your favorite scenes into an exciting new video. Even record to video tape or CD! Add TV quality MPEG Digital video to your web site, or send a high-quality video e-mail. Digital Video Creator is valuable to your business as well. Add video to PowerPoint presentations. Add video to your web site to show off your products. Send video e-mails to clients for sophisticated communication. Create video sales CDs with products and demos. Digital Video Creator also has it's place in your home. Edit home video tapes into fun highlight videos. Record your edited videos back to video tape, CD, or any other removable media. Send your latest videos & snapshots via e-mail to family and friends anywhere in the world. Show your favorite videos and snapshots on your personal web site. The MPEG digital compression lets you edit, store, and distribute CD-quality Audio/Video material, with compression as high as 3000: 1. MPEG digital guarantees your ability to share your video with the world. Several CD-ROM disks are included with the new Dazzle Digital Video Creator. They contain all the software you'll need. Only Dazzle's software controller is required to use Dazzle, but you'll probably want to install all the other great packages on your hard drive.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best if used for it's intended purpose, August 2, 2000

By	Slayer (atlanta , ga) - See all my reviews

I have the parallel version of this device and have not had the benefit of encountering any usb related problems. however, most of the reviews here are misplaced. most of these other reviews sound as if these people bought the wrong product. the Dazzle DVC is a mpeg encoder, which means it is best suited for computer files. low-resolution for e-mails to high-resolution for presentation. a cd-rw drive is a must once you have this item. i have backed up several hours of family movies and made many copies on cd-r. you can put 1 hour of good quality video on a cd-r that costs less than $.75 . perfect to pass many copies to family and friends. with the right software you can even make a video cd (vcd) which can be played on about one-third of dvd players. If you're looking to make vhs tapes out of your editing process you'd be better served with a video capture card. for the most part the Dazzle DVC is mostly about mpeg files. the video capture cards that have to be installed into a computer do not offer the range of features that the Dazzle does.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It works but prepare to spend time troubleshooting, April 21, 2001

By	Stephen Britton "www.sbritton.com" (Larchmont, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you want to convert your VHS video tapes into digital format and don't want to purchase an expensive video capture card, this is an alternative.

I've been able to convert VHS tapes into decent MPG, Real, and Microsoft Windows Media files in size 320 x 240, but not without some hassle. As an earlier reviewer pointed out, the software that comes with this product is very buggy and be prepared to spend some time troubleshooting to get it working.

Here's my first experience. I use Windows 2000 on a PIII 550Mhz, with 256 RAM and 20 Gig EIDE harddrive. When Dazzle arrived, I followed the directions and installed the software and put the plug in the USB port and then discovered that this software only works with Windows 98. I visited the Dazzle web site and found out that you have to purchase a program called Movie Star is you want to use it with Windows 2000. I wound up ordering the software for [more $] plus shipping. Once, I received the new disk, I installed it, and once again, it did not detect the unit when I plugged it into the USB port. And again, I visited the Dazzle web site. I discovered that they have posted a patch for the Movie Star software that fixes "some minor problems." I downloaded and installed the patch and after rebooting the machine, I was able to get it to detect the unit.

The next step was to get Dazzle to work with my cheap... Mitsubishi VHS player. I was able to get it to work with the S-Video port from my Panasonic DV camcorder, but I couldn't get it to detect the output plugs from the VHS player. Finally after rebooting the machine twice, I got it to work.

Next getting the software to work was another challange. despite having a fast machine with a lot of RAM, I found the Movie Star program to be very unstable. I was able to capture up to 60 minutes of video and save it to the MPEG format, but everytime I tried to edit or export the video as Windows Media or Real, it crashed the machine. I downloaded a copy of Ulead's Video Studio, but couldn't figure out how to import MPEG files. I finally bit the bullet and wound up downloading a free 30-day trial of Adobe Premier. I found Premier to be a very stable and easy to use program. I just wish it didn't cost [so much!]

For my trouble, I found the output from Dazzle to be satisfactory. You would get better results if you spent big money for video capture card that would let you plug an S-Video cable into the back of your PC. Another better alternative would be to use Firewire. (I always use Firewire with my Panasonic DV camcorder and it works great.)

After my experience, I cannot recommend this unit to others. I don't think it's fair that this company charges Windows 2000 users extra $.. for buggy software. And I think they could improve the USB connect so it isn't so difficult to use. I am giving this Unit two stars because it does the job, but only after spending a lot of time and some additional money to make it work.

67 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You get what you pay for..., December 15, 1999

By	Thomas Lunsford "Computer Engineer" (Pensacola, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you want a small, low resolution image that has unsynchronized audio (or you have forever to wait on the audio sync), this one is for you! Oh, yea, don't expect to be able to videoconference with your camcorder.

If you want to capture home videos with no or low loss of quality and want it done at a reasonable speed, you probably don't want this one (or any other USB or similarly slow external connection).