Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge !Help!

osu1994 wrote on 10/26/2005, 10:01 PM
New to video editing but am diving right in. Based on various reviews I just purchased Vegas 6.0, ADS Pyro 1394, and Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge. I'm connecting an Olympus Hi8 to the Dazzle and then Dazzle into the Pyro. No matter the order that I start (camcorder then capture, etc), the Dazzle is not detected by Vegas Capture. Under the Video menu it only lists "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR".

System:
Windows XP SP2 (recognizes the Dazzle as an AVC Compliant DV Tape Recorder Player)
Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton)
1GB RAM
ATI 9800 Pro

Is there something else I need to do? In hindsight I've now read all of the negative Dazzle posts in this forum and wish I would've spent a few extra bucks on the Canopus 100. But, it is now a sunk cost and I have read posts of people that have the Hollywood Bridge and it works fine for them.

Please help!

Comments

Grazie wrote on 10/26/2005, 10:41 PM
I too had a DAZZLE HolBridge .. oh yes . .. I now have a Panasonic deck - Hurrah!Vegas doesn't list this either. But this is NOT a problem.

Your set up - Hi8 > Dazzle > Pyro - will not allow for device control. This means Vegas Cap will not be able to control the device - the combination of the Dazzle+Hi8. Try unchecking "Device Control". This will "release" VidCap from attempting to control something that is .. well, uncontrollable! The Dazzle Bridge is purely for converting Analogue (AV) to Digital (DV). At this point Vegas will only "see" the Hi8 as just another VHS (analogue) VCR. The Dazzle is being "seen" as a plain vanilla MS DV Camera and VCR. Because it is saying "VCR" this had confused me. All it is saying - as I understand it - is that VidCap has a "device" which appears as a "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR" .. and we all know that a DAZZLE aint either! All it is is a convertor. So, the job in hand is to actually capture footage from the Hi8 - this is what you want to do.

As I say if you do have Device control, try going to : Options > Preferences > General > and uncheck the "Enable DV control" PLUS Options > Preferences > Capture and uncheck "Enable DV Scene detection". This will allow VidCap to deal with your DAZZLE+Hi8 as a non DV device - yes I know the DAZZLE has DV coming out of it . . but VidCap cannot reach thru' the DAZZLE to control or scene detect your Hi8 - well not that I know of!

EDIT!!!! PLUS: You will need to manually start your camera, see footage appear in the Vidcap window and then hit Capture Video.

So, don't worry about the what the DAZZLE+Hi8 is being called - it wouldn't have the ability to know anyway - I guess you are wanting it to say "Dazzle Hollywood Bridge and Hi8" - I can see that! But VidCap wont. What can I say?


Oh, I didn't ask you? Are you, in fact, capturing successfully?

Best regards,

Grazie


osu1994 wrote on 10/26/2005, 11:04 PM
My eyes are blurring over as I've read hundreds of posts tonight trying to figure this out! I saw that you seemed to have the most success with Dazzle and was hoping you'd reply, thanks!

I did turn off the Enable DV Control, but not the Enable DV Scene Detection. I will try turning that off tomorrow night, it's late and I have to be at work in 5 hours so I've got to pack it in tonight. I also read a post that said to power up the Dazzle before turning on your computer? I've compiled a doc full of tips from the forum that I'm going to tinker with as well.

Unfortunately I could never get anything captured. Under the Video menu in Capture it sees the device, but I didn't get any preview at all.

Thanks very much for the feedback, I'll post tomorrow on the results.

Scott
Grazie wrote on 10/26/2005, 11:23 PM

ok - There is another reset trick with the DAZZLE.

You should have a tiny push-in switch at the top on the back-side of the Dz. Depress this as you plug in the low voltage. Wait till the lights light and then release the switch. This "forces" the correct setup - well it did for me. Yeah, I know it IS funky, but it seemed to work for me. You should see all the lights light up and then you need to select, by going thru' the rotation, the correct DV<>AV setup. Ugghh . . it is kinda coming back to me. "Just when I thought I was out . . . . .they drag me back in!"

Grazie

Stonefield wrote on 10/27/2005, 12:41 AM
With mine, ( a very generous donation by one of our own Vegas users here ) sometimes it doesn't want to see my camera as well. How I fix it is a very non-technical approach of unplugging and then plugging back in one of or both of the power and the firewire plug in the device.

It can be picky sometimes as to when it wants to work. But with a couple of unplugs and plug-back-ins, I can seem to kick it into working. Once I get it goin, it works fine.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/27/2005, 6:31 AM
> Based on various reviews I just purchased Vegas 6.0, ADS Pyro 1394, and Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge.

Scott, I’m not sure what review recommended the Dazzle product but if you can still bring it back to the store and get an ADS Pyro A/V Link you’ll have much less problems. The A/V Link works perfect with Vegas (I use it all the time to capture VHS tapes) and if your Hi8 has S-Video outputs you can capture really good quality with the A/V Link.

~jr
Jsnkc wrote on 10/27/2005, 10:59 AM
I agree...run back to the sotre as fast as you can and return that spawn of satan :) I'd go with a Canopus box myself but I have heard good things about ADS as well....very rarely hear anything good relating to Dazzle products.
osu1994 wrote on 10/27/2005, 4:58 PM
I googled the Dazzle and found reviews on sites such as Digital Video Mag, etc. Had I to do it over I probably would've went for the ADS Pyro AV capture. I wish you could buy the AV box separately! Since Pinnacle discontinued this model, I bought it off Ebay so returning is not an option!

Strangely enough, which after reading posts doesn't sound so strange, I booted up, turned off the additional setting Grazie mentioned, and the camera was detected and I was able to capture video... BUT, in 2 minutes I dropped over 200 frames and the sound was horrible.

I did have this site open, so I'm going to close it and try again. Would something as simple as a web browser open have a huge impact on capture?
farss wrote on 10/27/2005, 5:09 PM
Shouldn't.
The worst thing I think we ever did was flog off our Dazzle for $20 to some sucker. I feel for the guy, it's not even heavy enough to use as a boat anchor although the plug pack that comes with it's quite nice :)
I must have lost a whole day trying to use one of these disasters. Had to capture a 4 hour VHS tape, things started off OK but there was breaks in the tape, first break the audio went into Darth Vader mode, next break it was Darth Vader as a Dalek and things went even further downhill from there. If the result was predicable it might have made a good FX unit, no way can I replicate that FX!
Seriously, if you need to capture analogue video unless it's coming off a locked source like BetaSP get the ADVC 300 or else a cheapo D8 camera from eBay. What you really need is Time Base Correction.
What the ADVC 300 gives you is the ability to handle both NSTC and PAL (yes just had to transfer NTSC VHS), on the fly image and audio correction (yes, next dodgy VHS needs both LOTS of noise reduction and audio gain).
If time isn't money then you might get by with the ADVC 100.
Bob.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/27/2005, 8:02 PM
> I bought it off Ebay so returning is not an option!

Yea, but selling it on eBay is! That’s your best option at this point. I don’t know what your time is worth to you but you’re gonna spend a lot of it trying to get that to work and in the end, it may never work reliably.

I say cut your losses while you’re ahead. Sell it!

~jr
musicvid10 wrote on 10/27/2005, 8:26 PM
If you need a dedicated capture device with the extra features go ahead and get it -- but my happiest purchase has been a cheapy Canon MiniDV, besides making awesome captures from Video 8 and VHS, it can also shoot movies too! Imagine that.
osu1994 wrote on 10/27/2005, 8:37 PM
After 2 nights of misery, I'm starting to buy into the "moving on" suggestions. I plan on buying a MiniDV camcorder by the end of the year, but was just wanting something in the mean time to convert some old Hi8 and VCR tapes. So you are saying I can pass the Hi8 or VCR through a MiniDV player and use it to convert to DV?

Sorry if my questions seem kind of dumb, as I said, I'm very new to this. And what a discouraging start to something I'm so psyched to learn more about!
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/27/2005, 8:46 PM
> So you are saying I can pass the Hi8 or VCR through a MiniDV player and use it to convert to DV?

Yes, as long as you buy a miniDV camera that has passthru capability. Most do but some don’t. If you want this feature, you better make it one of your shopping criteria when you buy.

~jr
PeterWright wrote on 10/27/2005, 9:07 PM
Another choice would be to get a Digital 8 camera, which will accept Hi 8 tapes and convert analogue to digital through its own firewire connection.