OT: Dazzle hollywood dv-bridge drivers

Jim H wrote on 12/13/2008, 8:42 PM
I'm taking a shot in the dark here but has anyone got any experience with the Dazzle Hollywood dv-bridge device? It's a firewire device that shows up as a generic DV video device but I can't get any video to come up. My father bought it to digitize old videos and after sitting on it for 5 years he gave it to me. I didn't get any driver disc but didn't think I would need it. Pinnicale assumed Dazzle and they don't support the device and have no reference anywhere to drivers.

I also have a TVwonder that can accept composite video but most of my stuff is SVHS ro Hi8 and I think I'll get better quality of of the S-video inputs.

Anyone got any clue how to make this thing work?

Comments

farss wrote on 12/13/2008, 9:37 PM
"has anyone got any experience with the Dazzle Hollywood dv-bridge device?"

I sure do. The worst piece of gear ever made.


Get yourself something made by Canopus. The ADVC 300 is very good if you want to capture VHS or other analogue formats such as Hi8. The older Digital 8 cameras can also be used to capture /play Hi8, Video 8 and be used in conjunction with a SVHS VCR to capture that as well. Just make certain that the model does do "pass through". Both the old D8 cameras and the ADVC 300 have time base correction which gets rid of any 'flagging' of the video.

Bob.

Harold Brown wrote on 12/13/2008, 11:08 PM
I second the Canopus. I bought mine in 2004 and use it quite a bit. I am able to do a pass through on my Sony camera but the Canopus does a nicer job. Never a sync problem doing full VHS tape captures (regardless of recorded speed).
Jim H wrote on 12/14/2008, 1:30 AM
I agree their are better options. However, this device was given to me, I have it and I'm just guessing the capture quality would be better through its svideo input than my TVwonder's composite...that is if I could get it to work.

Would anyone happen to have the original drivers so I can try it?
AlanC wrote on 12/14/2008, 2:51 AM
Jim
I bought the analogue Pinnacle Studio 10 capture card about 10 years ago and I know with that you had to use the Pinnacle drivers and also could only capture with the Pinnacle software.

To import video into Vegas you need to render with the Pinnacle software first.

It may be different with their digital stuff.

farss wrote on 12/14/2008, 2:57 AM
You don't need drivers
Just connect it to the firewire port on your PC. Vegas should see it as is.
In Vidcap disable deck control.
On the Dazzle there's a button that switches the direction of the device i.e. between it doing A>D or D>A. From memory the RCA connectors on the front are the A/V inputs, the ones on the back the outputs.

It's not the quality that's the problem with the Dazzle, it's probably about as good as any other device that doesn't have a TBC. The problem was it'd loose the plot when there was a glitch in the vision, the audio ended up sounding like a darlek etc, etc. I wasted days with the thing. It'd capture fine for a while and then blamo.
Everyone that tried the thing wanted to smash it. That's why they're no longer made. It might have been OK coming from a rock solid vision source. Problem was of course the people who bought the cheap converters didn't have rock solid vision coming off their tapes. The Dazzle wasn't the only badly designed unit from back then but it sure was the worst of them

Bob.
Laurence wrote on 12/14/2008, 8:43 AM
I started out with a Dazzle device and thought quite highly of it for quite a while. Then one day, I saw a project I had done blown up to a large size on a projection system. I saw all sorts of vertical lines and other quality problems I hadn't noticed before. Then I went back to my computer and looked more closely at the footage. On bright sunny day footage the problems weren't noticable but on footage that was dark it was just horrible. After getting advice from people on this forum, I got a Canopus ADVC110. I compared the devices side by side and after that never used the Dazzle again. The Canopus had none of the vertical smear lines and uneven brightness and color of the Dazzle.
Grazie wrote on 12/14/2008, 9:23 AM
"Dazzle" - I'm wondering what Ad-Agency thought of that one? - I too had one (coming-out here!), and was ever resetting it. I thought that THAT was the way to do it?

Grazie
Chienworks wrote on 12/14/2008, 3:17 PM
OK, i'll preface this my explaining i was a bit desperate after having to suddenly replace a car, a wall, and a ceiling in the same weekend and that left me rather impoverished. Thing was, i also had a very strong desire to capture some TV i didn't want to miss on my secondary computer and didn't have the funds to get another Canopus-type unit. Since i only wanted to time shift and didn't care much about quality, i stopped in at OfficeMax to see what i could find. I came across one of those USB toys for converting VHS to DVDs made by HonesTech, whom i've never heard of before. But, for $49.95 i figured what the heck and picked it up.

I'm less than thrilled with the capturing options. The best codec i've been able to get it to use is DivX at 4800kbps which is semi-watchable. Uncompressed is a joke, looks like 8 bit color at 10fps. But, for the price it works. In fact, it makes the Dazzle look about as effective for capturing video as a tube of toothpaste would be.

Amazing that the Dazzle at over twice the price converting to DV through firewire would be so incredibly awful when this box can do as well as it does.
Jim H wrote on 12/14/2008, 9:07 PM
I'm starting to think my old TV Wonder ain't so bad?
Here's a sample of an old video I made with the Amiga captured with the TV Wonder from a Sony SLVR-5: FLEE!

Tell be the Dazzle won't touch this fine quality and I'll quit trying...heh heh. It's a little wavy but for an old video it's better than nothing.

Note of interest: I made the titles with the original Bluff Titler for the Amiga... or at least I think I did.