Dazzle?Aiw8500?or???

[Guest]

Whats the difference?
According to the product adds, the "Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge" uses "DV format" with a analog hub connecting per firewire port.
Dazzle Dig.Vid.Creator2 add bosts "mpeg1,2and 4" and connects the hub to PCI card.
The All-in-Wonder 8500, looks slick for the addition of a T.V tuner with Dvcr and so on, with a sticker price of 350 bucks is less than either Dazzle product combined with the purchase of a GF3ti200 card.
Wow, which one to get? Dazzle says the hollywood card converts video to "DV format". I thought DV format was mpeg2??? If it isn't, wouldn't I be better off buying the Dazzle DVC2 unit with multiple formats being available? Or skip both for the AIW 8500?
Does anyone have any experience with these Dazzle products? I was going to get the AIW 8500 but looks like alot of sour grapes are present on these pages. (ie. trouble connecing to an Audigy card, support, ...?)
I'm a casual gamer so I was thinking of either of these options, I would welcome any input from those of you with experience in video. THANK YOU
Options are.....
1. Aiw 8500 now for new system.
2. GF3ti200 now with Dazzle DVC2 + Dvd burner later.
(and use the old Haffpage t.v. card I have)
3. GF3ti200 now with Dazzle Hollywood + Dvd burner later.
(again, keep the old t.v. tuner card)
I've looked at alot of these posts and am even more confused than ever. I'm putting a new system together and want the capasity to (when DVD burner prices drop) convert my analog 8mm tapes to DVD, nothing more than that.
I await your input O' masters of time and space.

 

[Guest]

1. the Dazzle hollywood DV bridg or the canopus ABDV or somthing like this are both external devices that take analog signal at one side and convert it to DV on the other or vice versa. This enable you to capture from analog source using a DV capture device - from a simple fire wire card to a multy $K cards, and export back to analog if wanted.

The Radeon AIW is a display card integrated with Capture card and fire Wire DV card.
IMHO 1. the analog qulality is not very good.
2. Integrating stuff into the display card is not recomended.
3. It's known to create problems with video editing programs such as Adobe Premier. (Seen it on my own computer).
Personally I will not use such a card.

The Dazzle DVC II is a PCI editing card with only Analog inputs and outputs. It can capture into good quality Mpg1 or Mpg2. Personaly I will not try to capture directly into Mpg4/DviX as it will not give good quality.
Main two problems:
1. It uses property editing program. using a third party program might be Hell.
2. It's hard to install. If you have a VIA based chipset then forget about it.

What you can also get in the 300$ to 500$ price range is a Pinnacle DV500+, used to new depend on price.
This is a card with analog as well as DV connectors. It uses Adobe Premier for editing in high quality DV and have a hardware exceletared Mpg2 DVD export. It also come with Impression SE DVD authoring program.
If you want to see some more nice things then I just uploded a Pinnacle Pro-One Vs. Canopus DV Storm review to my site.

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