Rating: 
Summary: Indifference to Windows 2000
Review: I'd second the opinion experessed already by Steve Britton regarding his experience on Windows 2000. I also bought this first and got it to work with W98 but then on Windows 2000, it was very problematic. Customer service promised that they will have drivers ready by the end of 2000. It never happened, I put it on the shelf and then suddenly needed again these days. I went to their website and there is nothing new, no mention of drivers for Windows 2000. I emailed their customer support and it seems that it had fallen on deaf ears. I have finally given up as I am writing this review and will consider a new product (certainly not from Dazzle). I am actively recommending against the use of Dazzle products to anyone I know; simply because of their indifference.
Rating: 
Summary: You get what you pay for...
Review: If you want a small, low resolution image that has unsynchronized audio (or you have forever to wait on the audio sync), this one is for you! Oh, yea, don't expect to be able to videoconference with your camcorder. If you want to capture home videos with no or low loss of quality and want it done at a reasonable speed, you probably don't want this one (or any other USB or similarly slow external connection).
Rating:
Summary: It works but prepare to spend time troubleshooting
Review: If you want to convert your VHS video tapes into digital format and don't want to purchase an expensive video capture card, this is an alternative. I've been able to convert VHS tapes into decent MPG, Real, and Microsoft Windows Media files in size 320 x 240, but not without some hassle. As an earlier reviewer pointed out, the software that comes with this product is very buggy and be prepared to spend some time troubleshooting to get it working. Here's my first experience. I use Windows 2000 on a PIII 550Mhz, with 256 RAM and 20 Gig EIDE harddrive. When Dazzle arrived, I followed the directions and installed the software and put the plug in the USB port and then discovered that this software only works with Windows 98. I visited the Dazzle web site and found out that you have to purchase a program called Movie Star is you want to use it with Windows 2000. I wound up ordering the software for [more $] plus shipping. Once, I received the new disk, I installed it, and once again, it did not detect the unit when I plugged it into the USB port. And again, I visited the Dazzle web site. I discovered that they have posted a patch for the Movie Star software that fixes "some minor problems." I downloaded and installed the patch and after rebooting the machine, I was able to get it to detect the unit. The next step was to get Dazzle to work with my cheap... Mitsubishi VHS player. I was able to get it to work with the S-Video port from my Panasonic DV camcorder, but I couldn't get it to detect the output plugs from the VHS player. Finally after rebooting the machine twice, I got it to work. Next getting the software to work was another challange. despite having a fast machine with a lot of RAM, I found the Movie Star program to be very unstable. I was able to capture up to 60 minutes of video and save it to the MPEG format, but everytime I tried to edit or export the video as Windows Media or Real, it crashed the machine. I downloaded a copy of Ulead's Video Studio, but couldn't figure out how to import MPEG files. I finally bit the bullet and wound up downloading a free 30-day trial of Adobe Premier. I found Premier to be a very stable and easy to use program. I just wish it didn't cost [so much!] For my trouble, I found the output from Dazzle to be satisfactory. You would get better results if you spent big money for video capture card that would let you plug an S-Video cable into the back of your PC. Another better alternative would be to use Firewire. (I always use Firewire with my Panasonic DV camcorder and it works great.) After my experience, I cannot recommend this unit to others. I don't think it's fair that this company charges Windows 2000 users extra $.. for buggy software. And I think they could improve the USB connect so it isn't so difficult to use. I am giving this Unit two stars because it does the job, but only after spending a lot of time and some additional money to make it work.
Rating: 
Summary: If you think AOL is GREAT, don't buy a Dazzle.
Review: Ignore all the unfavorable reviews of the Dazzle DM4100, unless you like AOL or would recommend AOL to a friend. I tend to be a tough critic when it comes to inferior technology, but the Dazzle TRULY IMPRESSED ME!!! 15 minutes to install on an AMD K6-450 notebook, default settings, smooth 30fps better-than-VHS capture, and a reasonable price. Yes, the video out works well too, naysayers! OK, I had to figure out a couple of software issues as I experimented with options, but if you can't deal with software quirks, you shouldn't own a PC !! ....but if you do, you probably think "AOL is #1" means AOL is the best. No, it just means an unrelenting high-budget sales campaign can easily brainwash the cranially-challenged. The rest of us just ignore the ads, and enjoy using quality products like the Dazzle 4100, without opening the manual, or whining to/about tech support.
Rating:
Summary: If you think AOL is GREAT, don't buy a Dazzle.
Review: Ignore all the unfavorable reviews of the Dazzle DM4100, unless you like AOL or would recommend AOL to a friend. I tend to be a tough critic when it comes to inferior technology, but the Dazzle TRULY IMPRESSED ME!!! 15 minutes to install on an AMD K6-450 notebook, default settings, smooth 30fps better-than-VHS capture, and a reasonable price. Yes, the video out works well too, naysayers! OK, I had to figure out a couple of software issues as I experimented with options, but if you can't deal with software quirks, you shouldn't own a PC !! ....but if you do, you probably think "AOL is #1" means AOL is the best. No, it just means an unrelenting high-budget sales campaign can easily brainwash the cranially-challenged. The rest of us just ignore the ads, and enjoy using quality products like the Dazzle 4100, without opening the manual, or whining to/about tech support.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless If You Want to Send Video back to a VCR/TV/8MM,etc
Review: It's a great tool if you want to import your video clips into the computer. However, if you want to send them back out, the best you can get is 320x240 Resolution. Which is half of what you originally recorded it at. Or, in other words, bad quality. No thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Great for the computer, not for VHS
Review: Like many of the other reviews, I agree that the Dazzle product created nice MPEG videos. I had no problems with audio sync but I did have to disable the preview mode because my computer (a 455MHz) didn't have enough processing power to keep up. My main gripe is when I tried to transfer the MPEG files back to VHS. in 50% of the cases, the Dazzle product froze up. In the other cases, I saw major decoding defects. Despite all of the troubleshooting and changes to my Windows 98 setup, it never worked very well. I guess you get what you pay for. Do yourself a favor and check out Dazzle's website bulletin page and troubleshooting to get an idea of other problems (most of which I also encountered).
Rating:
Summary: Works Good Once you Get it set up right
Review: My School recently purchased a Dazzle DVC parallel port package and assigned me with the task of setting it up. Running it on a P3 450, it functioned very nicely after we got a PCI sound card (ISA really messed up the audio when outputting to VHS). Although the final resoulution is limited to 352x240 when put on vhs it looks fine. I've experienced no sync problems. The only problem still unresolved is that the video is captured as MPEG and in order to be put to VHS must be rendered as MPEG after editting, because of this double compression some quality is lost.
Rating:
Summary: does not deliver on its promises
Review: Ok, so it DOES bring in at 352x240 with stereo sound, but it can only bring in with MPG1 format, not the best to begin with. If you plan to edit video on your computer then output it to VHS or back to the Camcorder, forget it. THIS SYSTEM CANNOT OUTPUT FROM YOUR COMPUTER. I ended buying the ADS Technologies TV Elite XGA to do the output with. I will eventually look for a system that can input at a higher resolution (preferably uncompressed full screen AVI). Until then, I will continue to use the DAZZLE system, but do not recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: bad software bundle
Review: Plugged this in and had the typical issues getting it recognized. After that was solved, I realized the software was so buggy, a 30 minute video with clips merged and transitions took on average 9 attempts to build. Each attempt ended with "unable to build movie" for an "unknown reason". The software had to be closed and entered again to make it go... on an average of 9 times per clip. Horrible software, I strongly do not recommend, especially considering the price.
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