Thanks - I've taken a look at that as well. As long as they are reliable...

I suggest using an external analog to DV converter in conjunction with a firewire card. At least two choices would be the Sony DVMC-DA2 or the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge. (I personally use the DV-Bridge but I've heard others complain about it.) I'm sure there are other A-to-DV converters but I'm not familiar with them.

I like dealing with straight DV captures instead of the MPEG files that some other solutions resort to. But I'm sure there are good and bad points to each method.

The ADS box works great, except that it does encode directly to MPEG2, which will slow Vegas down substantially as it has to transcode everything for preview. A firewire card @ 65.00 and a converter are the best way to go. www.powerr.com is a place to get a good converter, the Dazzle system will work well on quality motherboards, but if you have an Abit, Soyo, Kia, or other very low end motherboard, the drivers usually don't work very well. motherboards using the VIA chipset also have issues.
http://www.synthetic-ap.com/tips/firewireconverters.html is a great place to find most converters reviewed/priced in one location.

SPOT,
The Dazzle solution that I suggested (Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge) does not have any problems with any motherboard or chipset that I am aware of. It is a completely independent box that will function as an analog-to-DV converter (and visa versa) without even being connected to a PC. I'm currently using it with an Abit KG7-RAID MB, using VV3, with zero problems.

Since Dazzle makes several products maybe you are talking about something else. Or maybe there are issues with the DV-Bridge that I'm unaware of and have not been plagued with. Could you please elaborate on which specific Dazzle products exhibit the problems you refer to?

Thanks,
David_DSS

The Dazzle product with mobo conflicts is the DVC II. I have one and they are very flaky but when they work they work great. The DVC II capture directly into VCD, SVCD or DVD. I also have the Dazzle DV Bridge and I am very happy with it. The only problems/limitations that I have found is I can not batch capture (this could be due to my camera), and when previewing to a monitor it sometimes flashes black and white and color. The flash never occours during print to tape.
David-DSS have you found any user forums for the DV Bridge. I have had no luck and would like to compare notes to see if any one else has the problems I mentioned.

Thanks for the info.

The closest I've found to a forum for the DV-Bridge is the newsgroup "rec.video.desktop." Obviously it is not dedicated to the DV-Bridge but I have posted questions and received answers there.

As far as the problems you describe I have not tried the advanced batch capture thru the DV-Bridge so I can't address that issue. I can say that I don't remember any black & white or color flashes like you mentioned.

The only minor glitch I've noticed is when capturing from a VHS-VCR I end up with a very thin black border on the left of the video. And an even smaller line along the bottom of the screen that appears to be a single line of video that should have been at the top of the screen. Both of these items show up if I look closely at the captured video on my computer. But neither is visible when the file has been output back to VHS or miniDV tape and viewed on a TV. Considering the low cost and tremendous versitility of the DV-Bridge I'm willing to live with this minor bug.

One thing I have read is that the early bridges had hardware problems. The later, corrected ones should have a serial number or part number that starts something like this "HW1X1- " or "HW1X2- ." The important part is the "X." That's supposed to indicate you have the new revised version.

Hope this helps.
David_DSS

Thanks. I do have an X in my number so I guess I am ok.

Th DVII and the DV bridge have several conflicts with low-end motherboards, with some of the VIA drivers, and with some video cards. They also work sometimes too. However, when a DV Bridge captures, it interleaves the full picture resolution of 640x480 into the DV stream, leaving fringe at the bottom and sides of the image. This results in problems with creating web oriented video, DVD oriented video, and other computer-viewed formats, if the fringing isn't removed. For the same 299.00 cost, you can get an OHCI card and an inexpensive converter such as the PowerR, and others mentioned in my previous post that work more accurately.
the Dazzle isn't a *bad* product IMO, it's just not well suited for many systems. It does work for some people.

SPOT,
Thanks for the explanation. Now I know why my DV-Bridge has some minor fringing when captures are viewed from a PC. I was wondering about that.

I appreciate your input and wish I had found this forum before I bought my hardware. I just did some minor research about the PowerR that you mention and wish I had known about it ahead of time. I would probably have gone that route if I had. As it is, I'll make the best of my investment in the Dazzle DV-Bridge, and be glad that at least I have replaced the MainActor software with Vegas Video 3.

Also thank's for the tutorial about velocity envelopes that you recently made available. As a newbie I'm not ready to try that yet but I saved a copy of your tutorial to my hard drive so I will have it when I'm ready.

David_DSS