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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 74 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 61 found the following review helpful:
 Dazzle DVD Works Perfectly! Oct 10, 2007
By Bill Garrison
I had a problem. I have 30 hours of Hi8mm camcorder video that is a history of my family and kids. I have several old video tapes, some 20 yrs old, that I fear are going to turn to dust. I needed to get those tapes on to DVD. After a few quick searches on the Internet, I came across Dazzle DVD. I read all the Amazon reviews and looked in a few other places and decided this was the product for me. And it works great! No problems at all.
Reviews on Amazon seem to be very positive or extremely negative, and most of the negative come from not getting Dazzle to work properly. I was able to install mine and use it with ease. My laptop is only a few months old, so hardware wasn't an issue. I installed each of the 3 disks, then did the next important step. The product box says Vista compatible, but you MUST go to the Pinnacle website to download the Vista drivers. I did this, installed them, then plugged the product in.
The first night, I plugged in my camcorder and then my VCR. The menu allowed me to set it up in 3 easy steps. The tapes from the VCR play right on your screen and go straight to DVD. Dazzle DVD is very easy to install, but you must download the drivers, and if your computer is older, I don't know if that will be an issue.
You can only have one recording session at a time, so if you want footage from more than one old tape burned onto a DVD, you better be quick and changing the tapes in your VCR.
Studio Software also comes with the Dazzle DVD. I've only played with this a little bit, but I was able to capture video from a VCR onto a video editing system that looked like had tons of capabilities. I then changed the 7 minuted video that was 500mb into an AVI file that was 7mb and was able to upload it on You Tube. Pretty Cool! This product is cheap and can mean the salvation to all those old VHS tapes currently rotting in your video camera. Don't hesitate. Buy this product if you want to transfer videos to DVDs.
57 of 61 found the following review helpful:
Do Your Homework Jul 24, 2007
By E
I walked past this product several times at the at Staple where I work. I had long wanted to get a product to transfer all of my old VCR tapes over to DVD. I then finally decided to take the leap. I purchased the device; however, before opening the package, I did some reading and research. Since I am currently dual-booting XP and Vista I wanted to ensure I had the current drivers for both OSes. I went to Pinnical's web site and what do you know -- they had updated drivers. I downloaded them. I wanted to see if there was updated software. Well what do you know again? They had updated software that I again downloaded. Next I looked around to see what the ratings and customer reviews I could find on this product. I read every review I came acrossed (the good and the bad; paying particular attention to the fanbois and the ranting freaks on the fringes). The average rating (discounting the extemes at both ends) came out to be about be 2 out of 3 stars on the 3 star scales, 3.5 stars on the 5 star scales, 65% to 70% on the 0%-100% scales -- not the best ratings on a product, but definately not the worst and well within what I'd call acceptable for my needs. The harshest critizims came from users who expected more from the DVD authoring software or installation problems (that have mostly been addressed with the aforementioned updates).
I installed the updated drivers and PADDOW! It installed with no problem in both XP and in Vista. I installed the software and BUHBANG! It too installed with not a single hiccup. Then I plugged in the device and fired up my VCR then ran a test recording. It work without a hitch. From software install to making a recording all took about 5 minutes. The darn thing is foolproof.
I will say that the included software IS NOT the most robust you'll find on the consumer level. It is overly simplied and gives you little in the way of control or options. It is simple software for simple users. But I am not interested in the software in the least. I have other software for my DVD authoring. My only concern was to get my VCR tapes into digital format and the device does that with aplomb.
If you are looking for the "best" hardware and software combination and state-of-the-art technology, perhaps you should look elsewhere to spend your $15,000 to $25,000 for such equipment. However, if you are looking for a consumer-level product that performs adequately and as advertised for a good price, this is the device for you and WELL worth every penny.
59 of 64 found the following review helpful:
PERFECT - no tech skills needed - easy, goof-proof! Jul 10, 2006
By a student of History
Don't think about video capture cards, going into the operating system, or even opening the computer case - just turn on the power, plug Dazzle's USB plug into your usb port, and connect the colored cords on your vcr with the same colored plugs on Dazzle, install the software, and let this wonderful tool do all of the heavy lifting.
EXCELLENT quality, and they will lower the quality if you want a smaller file - like, say, if you want to back-up your vcr to a cd-r. The test for quality is time - tell it to record to 70 minutes, and your work is DONE.
I REALLY like the fact that the software is so stable, I recorded a SIX HOUR VCR tape using a 512 meg XP machine - not a moment's problem.
They also included software that makes editing these video files real easy, if you want. That is just icing on the cake.
Strong, solid, silent - the John Wayne of VCR to computer file translator tools.
As an aside, I have held onto some VCR tapes for years, one for more than a decade, hoping something like Dazzle would come along.
Prayers answered.
Just shut up and BUY it.
31 of 32 found the following review helpful:
GREAT BUY!! May 12, 2006
By M. Stebe
The Quality is EXCELLENT! Use it to go out of the Digital Cable Box Strait into the computer. Pinnacle Software is easy to use and edit with and if you have a DVD Burner, makes great menus. I have bought and returned Well Over 5 RCA Capture Devices and this is BY FAR the best. Especially for $50!!!!!! Cant BEAT It.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Works as advertised Oct 27, 2007
By R. Padilla
I purchased this product to copy to DVD programs I had saved on my Tivo. The product works very well. Teh installation can be a little tricky, I had to install the software twice to make it work. I do not have Vista, and thus did not encounter some of the problems other users have mentioned. The software included in the package is for XP, the Vista patch has to be downloaded (no big deal).
After installing I had to play a little with the preferences in order to pick up the incoming video signal. Apparently this has more to do with my low tech laptop (a cheap model). However, I imagine I am not the only one out there with a similar computer. My point is that you may need to be persistent (check the Pinnacle website)if it doesn't work at first...but when once works, it's quite nice.
The software included does more than the basics for editing your videos, though you can always upgrade if you want to get fancier. I consider the software included to be more than adequate.
See all 74 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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