Pinnacle DAZZLE VIDEO CREATOR PLUS
Review By- Stuart Feibusch
Editor @ PC NEWS
Available at www.Pinnaclesys.com -$89.99
I am very Impressed with this product.. If you are looking for a solution to put your VHS on DVD. Then for less than $90.00 you will find this to be everything you need.
I'm not a pro, but I do know enough about computer graphics to realize this product is pefect for a novice or a pro.
I can't tell you how easy I made this work on my PC with Windows Vista.(You will be prompted to install a free patch to make it bug free).
First you install the 1 of 3 cd's. The first CD is DVD creator, which allows you to copy your VHS tapes direct to DVD. I haven't used it yet because you can't edit the video this way.
The next CD is Pinnacle Studio 10. It allows you to easily cut scenes and join them together, it has a ton of effects, like slow moton and fades and text. You can even add narration with a microphone.
The last CD is a full of add ons,such as music, pictures, moving DVD menus, etc.
Once all that is installed, you get a video and L,R RCA cables.. attach it to your VCR or Camcorder... pick "import", choose a video quailty, I reccomend the 3 star (dot) button, it uses the most space like 4GB per 2 hours of tape, but it's worth it.
Then choose start capture... and press play on your old VHS player and like magic it starts recording. Of course you have to wait 2 hours for a two hour tape, but it can be set to stop recording after x amount of minutes, if you do it at night.
So you press stop cature at the end of the tape, and now you can begin to edit it. The captured file gets saved as an .Mpg file on your pc. Thumbnails are automatically generated, and that where you begin your editing... just drag and drop onto the story board.
The quality is excellect... remember your old VHS tape is grainy so this can't really make it better. Though the program does have settings for brightness contrast, hue, etc.
The audio is fed through the USB cable with the video, so timing is perfect.
I am overwhelmed at how good this is, expecting to buy more add-ons, I don't need too. This package has it all!
Stuart Feibusch
VIDEO CREATOR PLUS
Specifications
Minimum System Requirements
* Windows® XP (SP2 or higher) or Windows Vista (32 bit only)
* Intel® Pentium® or AMD® Athlon® 1.8 GHz or higher (2.4 GHz or higher recommended)
* Intel® Pentium® HT or AMD® Athlon® 2.4 GHz or or 1.6 GHz Dual core required for Windows Vista
* 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended, 1 GB required for Vista)
* DirectX® 9 or higher compatible graphics card with 64 MB (128 MB recommended)
* DirectX® 9 or higher compatible sound card
* 1 GB of disk space to install software
* 1 USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed) port
Hardware Specifications
* Video inputs: Composite video (RCA), S-Video (mini-DIN)
* Audio inputs: Stereo audio (RCA x2)
* PC connection: Hi-Speed USB 2.0
Software Specifications
* Capture from any video source with composite (RCA) or S-Video output
Output Formats:
* DVD or DVD-image