Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 Video Capture Device and Movie Maker (210100325)

You will most likely see nothing but bad reviews for this product, no matter what forums you read.

Dazzle is out of business and so Pinnacle bought it all up. Product support is no longer offered to previous owners who purchased when Dazzle was still around, and the technical support website has broken links everywhere and provides no meaningful information. Pinnacle will not support you via the phone or email for old versions of this product.

The product will not function with any video capture program other than the bundled Dazzle MovieStar 5 software. Even with the software update (which is very difficult to find now), the program frequently crashes during rendering or editing of the movie.

If you are able to capture MPG vid from this device, it usually can only be read again by the MovieStar software, and sometimes Windows Media player. Attempting to load these MPG files into other software such as Movie Maker, or Virtual Dub usually crashes the program.

From a physical perspective, the device footprint is small, and attractive (black and silver which we all like for computer things), and you have analog and svid inputs. It plugs into your computer via USB. Do not attempt to use USB 1.0, or you will get little to no performance or quality. You must use USB 2.0 to get any type of product.

Burning to a VCD is choppy and messy, and the program (though advertised this way) can not write to real media with any consistency.

I have seen very few positive reviews about this product on numerous forums, and regret purchasing it myself. Unfortunately, I can not return it to the store. Most purchasers recommend that this product be recalled due to the quality issues, however, since the company no longer exists, that is unlikely.

Choose a different product that will allow more flexibility. Unfortunately, in the world of video capture, cheaper is not better.

After just a little while the program started malfunctioning. The website support information was useless and I could not find a telephone support number anywhere. I am returning this tomorrow and I will never buy anything from Pinnacle again. BEWARE.

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This product has caused no end of problems. The software installed easy enough, but the initial resolution it sets up with is very low, which you may not realize. The MovieStar editor is incredibly limited and prone to locking up on XP. I had troubles importing some MP3's and getting them to work. Thankfully you can import mpg's into another editor and work with them there.

Getting the finished product to render is not a simple task. It requires about 3 steps. I was also unable to render anything into RealMedia or WMV as advertised. In order to get it in WMV I had to import the MPG file into Windows Movie Maker (XP only) and render it from there.

If you just want to capture video to your computer this does an adequate job. If you want to work with he video I suggest a separate editor such as Ulead's Visual Studio or Sony's Movie Studio both at about $100. I only kept it because there is nothing else out there that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It got 2 stars because it can actually capture.

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This product turns poor quality and service into an art form. Buggy and difficult to install software, which after hours of work by expert techs renders only poor quality video. The only thing worse than the quality of the product is the quality of the service.

If this is the future of the industry, be afraid. . . be very afraid.

Doug

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This has got to be the worst product on the market. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER buy anything from Pinnacle or Dazzle--all you will get is dazzling crap. The review shows one-star; actually, it's a minus five-star product. The best way to enjoy this product is slamming it against a brick wall, and video taping it for posterity.

1) The product didn't come with a manuel--you have to figure it out.

2) On-line support, was non-responsive.

3) Telephone support, was useless, one free call and they blamed the problem on my new computer.

4) The web site didn't want to except the key-code that came with the package.

5) Takes hours for rendering, more hours for burning, then in the final stage says burning complete--there was nothing on the DVD.

6) The software Pinnacle Studio 9, froze often.

7) Pinnacle Studio Plus could not even open.

8) Most programs options were minimal, if you wanted anything more you had to go on-line, log-in, then was directed to the purchasing of a bundle package for an insane cost.

9) Pinnacle sent me a customer fill-out form via e-mail on my thoughts of they're product. I told them all the problems, I gave them a chance to redeem themselves--even asked them to please respond. They never did--they were just out glory hunting for "ninnys" who thought they had a great product.

10) Pinnacle played me for a fool, they have my cash and I have trash.

These are ten reasons to seriously consider if you plan to even spend a penny on Pinnacle or Dazzle crap! You have an honest and informed report--choose wisely.

Anyone saying they love this product, or it's working great for them, must be working for or with Pinnacle or Dazzle.