Dazzle Multimedia DM-5400 Digital Video Creator 80

Digital Video Creator 80 from Dazzle Multimedia is the ultimate video connector for camcorders, featuring built-in audio/video ports and easy-to-use video-editing software. Capture video from a camcorder, TV, or VCR. Dazzle MovieStar 5 lets you capture and edit your video, cut unwanted scenes, and add 3D transitions, titles, background audio, voice-over narration, and Hollywood-style special effects.

MovieStar 5 also lets you share your video on video CD, S-VCD, DVD, video e-mail, or by Webcasting it across the Internet. Dazzle DVD Complete software allows you to take your edited videos and add interactive menus, burn directly to a DVD disc, and even design your own DVD disc labels and jewel case inserts. Dazzle OnDVD gives users the ability to create a photo slideshows that can be burned to CD for playback on a DVD Player.

DVC 80 hardware offers composite-video, S-video, and stereo analog (left/right) RCA inputs with a USB output for your PC. Connect your camcorder, VCR, or TV to the Dazzle Digital Video Creator 80 to capture video to your PC.

Digital Video Creator software suite:

Dazzle MovieStar 5: Easy but Powerful Video Editing
Dazzle MovieStar 5 makes capturing, editing, and sharing your video easy, but it doesn't leave out the powerful features you want. MovieStar 5's drag-and-drop interface lets you do almost any video editing task in three mouse clicks or less. With MovieStar 5 you can choose the straightforward Storyboard view to organize your project or you can use the precise Timeline view. Cut out unwanted parts of your video with a few mouse clicks. Add scrolling titles and credits into your video. Add 3D transitions to give your video Hollywood-style cuts between scenes. Choose from a wide range of special effects to spice up your video. MovieStar 5 supports Background Rendering, Fast Rendering and Smart Rendering to make processing your video fast. And with MovieStar 5's customized video codecs, you can be assured you will get the best video quality possible. MovieStar 5 has a built-in CD burning feature to allow you to record video CDs and S-video CDs of all your video footage. MovieStar 5 also allows you to make Real Media or Windows Media Internet-ready streaming videos. Then upload them for free to the Dazzle Webcasting site to share streaming video across the Internet.

Dazzle DVD Complete (Standard Edition): Author your own DVDs
With DVD Complete it's easy to make DVDs which look like they were designed by a team of professionals in a Hollywood movie studio. DVD Complete takes the complexity out of technology without taking the features out of the technology. With DVD Complete's project wizard, you are guided through the five simple steps to go from camcorder to DVD disc. Capture video and have it automatically converted to crystal-clear, DVD-quality MPEG-2 video. Add interactive menus with multiple scenes, background audio, and scrolling credits. Choose one theme and have the backgrounds, selection buttons, jewel-case inserts, and labels for the DVD disc all automatically updated with the same graphical look and feel. Then just record to a DVD recorder.

Don't have a DVD-recorder yet? With DVD Complete you can also record your movie to a CD using a CD-Recorder. Want to get your hands dirty and change any aspect of your creation? You can design things from scratch or make minor changes to what's there. With DVD Complete, you are the Hollywood director and DVD Complete is your team of videographers, graphic artists, and computer programmers. All you need to know is what you like and DVD Complete will do the rest.

Dazzle OnDVD: Create Digital Photo Albums for Your DVD Player
Take your digital pictures and turn them into photo albums that can be played on your home DVD player! Digital cameras allow you to take an unlimited number of photographs that quickly pile up on your computer and become difficult to manage. Where can you keep them all, and how do you keep from losing them? You can save the plain old files on a CD, but then you can just view them on your computer. With OnDVD, you can take your digital pictures, add background audio and make photo albums for your DVD player! Simply select and arrange your photos on the timeline, touch up your photos with the integrated photo-editing software, add background audio, and burn a CD. OnDVD makes it simple to turn your digital pictures into digital photo albums.

And what if you want reprints? Just like saving the original negatives of your photographic prints, OnDVD keeps a copy of each original, high-quality digital photograph on the CD itself. Favorite photos can easily be turned into photographic prints ready to be framed for years of display. You can even share your photo albums over the Internet through the Dazzle Webcast Theater. OnDVD makes it simple to turn your thousands of digital pictures into digital photo albums that can be enjoyed and shared for a lifetime!

System requirements and specifications:

CPU: 500 MHz or higher Pentium II
Operating System: Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, XP
RAM: 128 MB
Video: 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, 24-bit color
Sound: PC must have sound card
Interface: USB 1.1 or higher
CD burner: for VCD, S-VCD, cDVD creation
DVD burner (all formats): for DVD creation
Video resolution: NTSC: 352 x 240; PAL: 352 x 288
Capture formats: AVI
Convert video to: MPEG-2, DVD, S-VCD, MPEG-1, VCD, AVI, DV, Real Media, Windows Media

Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
I am writing this to hopefully save others some of the trial-and-error that I went through. This is a great product for the money and I would buy it again! Like others have said, the VideoWave software packaged with the device is not the best for capturing video. But, better software can be had for FREE. For capturing video, I used VirtualDub to capture files as AVIs. I used TMPGEnc to convert the AVIs to VCD compliant MPGs. The Nero software that came with my CD burner was producing horrible results when it had to perform the conversions. I have dubbed DVDs and VHS with very good results. Following the methodology I have listed below, I can produce VCDs with a quality that can be compared to video tape.... 1) Capture the video as an AVI file using VirtualDub with 29.97 frame rate, MPEG4 codec V1 video compression, CD quality audio compression. - Don't use the audio inputs on the Dazzle unit. Instead, directly wire it into the Mic input of the PC with a Y-patch cord. - Use S-Video cable over RCA cable where possible.2) Convert the AVI file to an MPG using TMPGEnc with Video CD NTSC setting and motion search precision set to 'highest quality(very slow)' - TMPGEnc allows you to pull sections out of the source AVI to divide files longer than 70 minutes into two or more MPGs. - Expect the conversion to take three to four times the time length of the file3) Burn the CD with Nero in VCD mode using the MPGs from step 2. PS - the VideoWave software that comes with Dazzle is great for editing home video that has already been captured. When producing the final file to burn on VCD, do not use its VCD settings. Produce it as an uncompressed AVI and follow steps 2 and 3 above.