Review : Dazzle DVC150 USB2.0 Video Creator

Dazzle has been around for a while with their products for video processing. In fact they were on of the first to produce an MPEG video capture product for the PC. They released the DVC150 already a couple of months ago.

The DVC150 is different from Dazzle's other products since it is the firs to sport a USB2.0 interface for the data transport. We have reviewed USB 1.1 devices to capture video in the past, but always ended up with mixed feelings, due to the barely sufficient throughput of USB 1.1.

So it's time to have a look at what sets this thing apart form the rest.

The DVC150 comes shipped with everything you will need to hook it up. a power supply , USB cable , S-Video and audio cables, the cd with driver and software, and some literature.

A base for the unit is also supplied This allows you to put the device upright on the desk. Installation is a snap. Plug in the power and USB cables and you're done. You might want to install the driver and other software before plugging it into the computer for the first time. Windows is know to keep nagging you about unknown devices.

All audio and video connectors are fitted on the back of the DVC150 and are clearly labeled with text. The front has 3 led's. ONe to tell the device is powered , a second one to tell it is enabled and the third one lights when it is actually recording video. The difference between powered and enabled is simply this:

Power on means that the unit as power. Enabled means that the MPEG encoder has received its firmware and is operational. Dazzle has opted not to hard-code the MPEG encoding chip's firmware. On power one the program that runs on the MPEG encoding chip is sent trough the USB port. This allows for updates to this program should it be necessary.

The DVC150 has a couple of common features with other dazzle products, but is at the same time different.

THe first big difference is the presence of an Audio Codec. This allows the audio to be digitized in sync with the video. so audio synchronization problems are a feat of the past with the DVC150.

The Video Codec consists of 2 chips commonly found in this kind of products. Both chips can deal with PAL and NTSC video standards ,and the DVC150 allows you full control over these features as well. The CODECs have beside composite in and output also S-Video in and output. If you have S-Video sources you can use these to increase the quality of the image.

The MPEG encoder chip is the DVexcel form LSI-Logic (C-cube actually designed this chip but during last year LSI-logic bought C-Cube) Inside chip is an actual microprocessor : A Sun Sparc processor. The chip also has motion estimators and other dedicated logic on board to facilitate the main task of this device: MPEG encoding and Decoding. A plenty large memory is used both for internal code execution as well as frame buffering. The Chip has a CCIR625 port, a common interface in digital video electronics, and communicates with the Video AD-DA chips. a second CCIR625 port offloads data to the USB processor, and alto takes incoming data back trough this port.

The USB microprocessor has a native USB2.0 interface and can use the full USB2.0 bandwidth. The board itself is stuffed pretty dense with components, but about a third seems to empty. Investigation learns that this area can hold a TV tuner and accompanying electronics .Apparently this design originally supported a built in TV tuner as well, but never made it to the market in this form.

As said before, Installation is a matter of hooking up power and USB , install the drivers and application programs and you're done.

The DVC150 comes with 3 programs:

• Moviestar to record and edit video
• DVD complete standard edition to create DVD's
• and finally OnDVD to make photo slide shows.

Moviestar is reviewed below. For a review of DVD complete check out the dedicated review we did on that program

Cabling up the device is pretty easy enough. the back of the DVC150 has clearly marked plugs to wire up what goes where

From left to right : Power, USB, S-video, composite video, Right audio and Left audio .

The top connectors are the inputs for the Dazzle DVC150 , and the bottom plugs are the outputs. If you want to digitize a piece of video just apply the signals to the top plugs ( labeled IN ) . you can hook up a tv set or VCR to the bottom plugs to record the edited video. That's right the DVC150 is not only a capturing but also a playback device.

The DVC150 comes with MovieStar 5.0. Installation is straightforward, simply pop in the cd and follow the install trough. On some computers and OS version you might get an error during install. Download the update from the Dazzle web site and immediately install that one ( even if you don't get the error message)

Moviestar launches with a control panel where you select the kind of project you want to create. Moviestar has the unique ability to edit all kinds of raw material. Of course MPEG2 is supported since the DVC150 is an MPEG encoder , but DV and MPEG-1 are supported as well, and the list goes on. Almost any media file readable on windows can be used.

The Project settings include DV, DVD (MPEG2), SVCD(MPEG2), VCD (MPEG1) and multimedia ( MPEG1)

The main user interface has all the elements found in about every video editing tool available, but adds a few features not found in other tools. If you have read any other review before ( and is suggest you do :-) ) you will immediately recognize the timeline , preview monitor and element browser sections.