Rating: 
Summary: Not ready for prime time
Review: After hours of frustration, I finally found this paragraph I am pasting directly from dazzle's web site...Currently DVD Complete cannot capture Audio and Video using the DCS 200, DVC 100, DVC 150,or DVC 80. We are aware of this issue and are working towards and update for DVD Complete that will allow capture directly into the DVD Complete software. ...At least the card reader part still works, albeit a very expensive card reader!
Rating: 
Summary: It works as I have expected
Review: After looking at all the reviews given here and on other sites, I still decided to give this system a try. I have no problem installing the hardware. For the software, I only installed MovieStar 5 and downloaded the patch from Dazzle. They all worked great on my Windows ME and Windows XP systems. May be I am lucky, it doesn't have the problems people mentioned using this system. The video captured is good without lost frames and the audio is acceptable although the volume is a bit low. I used a third party software to edit my movies (that means I only use Dazzle's included software to capture and output to valid format) and I used Nero to burn VCDs out of the movies.
Rating:
Summary: really bad softwares
Review: all of the softwares needed fixeds/upgrades.
even after all the downloads/upgraded,
softwares still not totally fixed.
Rating:
Summary: Software problems
Review: Even after installing the last version (2.1.5.0 November 2002) of Movie Star 5 the software that comes with Station 200 I had a major struggle to make a home movie of 5 minutes duration. Retrieving a saved project with "centered" titles and an intact time line was impossible.
Rating:
Summary: USB Video capture sucks
Review: Even if you manage to get the software run,..., usb just can't keep up, I always get the video with lots of drop frames and audio glitches, a PCI capture board is a much better choice.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this or anything from Dazzle.
Review: I purchased this product about three weeks ago and instantly
ran into a problem with installing on Windows XP. Once you
install the USB drivers my system would wedge upon doing the
mandatory reboot. I had to go into safe mode and remove the
drivers to get my system back. "No problem!", I thought as
I headed off to Dazzle's website. I first went to their
"interactive" support site which is anything but. I posted my
problem, received an automated add to the "question" which basically said "use these resources to fix it yourself", and
then nothing outside of *my* debugging efforts to solve the
problem. Next, I tried their online forums where to my dismay I found
four other customers with the same problem. Again, nobody from
Dazzle responded in any way. I recommend that anyone who considers buying Dazzle should go
to their website, follow the link to the forums, and note the
number of unhappy customers who finally give up and just return
their product as I did today. One other note, the CD they ship with their product has a label
with "beta" in it and the release notes included with it talk
about someone named "Dirk" and what he needs to do before they
can release this product. Needless to say, they obviously chose
to just go "as is".
Rating:
Summary: Absolute garbage. Should be considered a virus.
Review: I will preface with, "I am a software developer." First of all, this product's hazardous installer required me to reinstall my OS (Windows2K) twice. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice ... Anyway, here are the *real* caveats I want to tell you about.
1. You cannot uninstall this software completely when in safe mode (as tech support will try and have you do in the event of a serious problem). Whoever wrote the installer *required* that your graphics resolution can NOT be low-res. Ignorant.
2. Level 1 tech support, of course, knows nothing that they cannot read from a prompter.
3. Level 2 tech support (which you must get elevated) will send you an EMAIL within 48 hours. You have time, don't you?
4. In the response I got from level 2, they recommended that I uninstall the software ... duh, did they NOT read the note included from the level 1 tech RIGHT IN THE EMAIL stating that I could not UNINSTALL?!? As I did not have an additional 48 hours of downtime on my computer, I reinstalled my OS (again, as the second time even the Emergency Repair Disk for W2K and a Restore disk of my System Files could not save me from this "virus"). ... Save yourself the trouble ... keep shopping.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent hardware. Poor documentation and buggy software.
Review: Pros:
+ good build quality and video quality
+ USB-based (portable)
+ DVD-quality video capture (using the on-board MPEG2 encoder)
+ video/audio out to analog devices (such as VCR)
+ tech support (1-2 min wait)
+ MovieStar easy to use and allows editing of MPEGs directly without converting to DV/AVI/QT format Cons:
- included software doesn't work (DVD Complete 2.0.2 and MovieStar 5.0.15). requires calls to tech support for software updates, which fixed the MovieStar bugs.
- DVD Complete 2.0.2 cannot capture video from DCS200 (software bug), must use MovieStar
- MovieStar 5.0.15 cannot edit the video (5.0.19 fixed this)
- little documentation on how to capture, edit, and burn to VCD/DVD. Users have to figure this out by themselves.
- rendering takes a long time even for video captured in the proper output format (e.g. captured VCD to rendered VCD). 1.5X for VCD -> VCD and 3X for SVCD->SVCD on Celeron 1GB (i.e. it takes 3hrs to render 1hr of SVCD) I wanted to digitize some video on VHS, 8mm, TiVO, and DV so 1) they would last longer and 2) to make it easier to distribute them to family and friends (on CDs or over the web). Most video capturing solutions require a PCI card. I wanted USB based solutions so it's easily portable between different PCs and possibly laptops. There are several low-cost, low-end capturing devices designed for low-resolution (320x240) capturing for the web, such as the Pinnacle Linx. I wanted to be able to capture VCD, SVCD, and DVD-quality video, so I narrowed down the choices to 1) Dazzle DVD Creation Station 200 and 2) Pinnacle Bungee DVD. Both are USB-based MPEG2 hardware devices. Although Bungee has a TV tuner and is slightly cheaper, I read several reviews saying that the software is not well integrated and the TV tuner is poor. The DCS200 package as shipped is a 1-star product. There is little documentation to get you started and the software had bugs that only allowed capturing and burning to discs. Editing is only possible after calling tech support and getting updated software. They should also include a Getting Started guide that shows the 4 steps needed to create VCD/SVCD/DVDs.
1) capture video in MovieStar
2) edit
3) render to the proper output format
4) burn to disc using MovieStar or DVD Complete (and create DVD menus) Editing in MovieStar is easy, but it doesn't allow the use of 3rd-party encoders such as TMPEGEnc. Although it supports burning to discs, I still use Nero because it verifies encoding format and lets me create VCD menus. I don't have a DVD writer so I have not used the DVD-specific features. I would rate it a 4- to 5-star if Dazzle improves the documentation and ships working software.
Rating:
Summary: DCS 200 Crashed Windows Me
Review: The software provided with the DCS 200 totally crashed my computer. Windows Me would not restart. A voice was available at the other end of the Dazzle phone number, but was of no help. Had to use my recover disk and completely reload Windows. Returned the DCS 200 to the store of purchase (circuit city) for a complete refund. Nice guys at circuit city took the unit back with no issue. I have no idea how the DCS 200 hardware performs - - could never get the software to load. Make yourself a recovery disk before trying to install this software.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time and money!
Review: This product is without a doubt the worst piece of garbage on the market. The software does not work. Technical support is terrible. First I had to download "updated software". Even with broadband this took 2 1/2 hours. The new software did not work. I run XP Home Edition. Another call to technical support and another brainless idiot tells me that the software does not capture video yet! They are working on it! Also, no toll free number. You pay for the call. You will wait at least 1/2 hour before talking to a tech. The hardware also does not work with other video software. I tried VideoWave III and Microsoft Movie Maker. The hardware is not recognized. The media readers do not work because Dazzle did not ship drivers! No drivers available on the web site. This product is pure garbage and the company stinks as does their so called tech support.
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