Anybody ever use these products (video stuff)

[TJ_Tigger]

http://www.canopus.us/Index_US.asp

I ran across them today when my nephew sent me a link to some gamer videos. www.redvsblue.com I guess they use Canopus to make their videos which are quite funny, raw sometimes but funny none the less.

Just thought I would ask

[Intrigued]

SAMS CLUB, last time I visted one, had a screen saver (or background was it...) from that web site's offering.

[Michael]

Tigger,

Yes. I use the Canopus products and have been very pleased for the past 2 years.....but at the moment, I'm having some what of a problem. I have the DVStorm2 for Realtime Editing on the PC with both software and hardware codecs, comes (came) with Adobe Premiere 6.5, other software and is quite good at capturing, editing, and adding effects to video on the computer, converting to MPEG1 or MPEG2 or a selection of other formats. I also have Canopus' Procoder (pricy, but does an excellent job of converting to many different formats of video.....in league with CleanerXL) and Imaginate, a tool to animates still images...(think...Ken Burn's Civil War photos).

I've used Canopus and have been very pleased. Well, up until this point. Now, I'm waiting.....and waiting......

Here's the deal. With the move to Premiere Pro and all the new architecture there, Canopus has been very slow to create and ship drivers that support the RealTime so essential for editing. Without drivers that work, the Canopus equip. can really be replaced by a $39 PCI card for doing the same thing with Pro. Pro renders fairly fast anyway. In fact, Canopus users are angered by the lack of communication from Canopus Japan. Just see the forum: http://forum.canopus.com/

After spending $$ for Premiere Pro, the 7-set DVD training from Total Training and learning Pro, I was ready to go. (BTW, Premiere Pro is a fantastic editor...from one who is reluctant to jump to the new stuff quickly...check the NAB reviews) Canopus promised its hardware would work and now we're finding out it doesn't. Premiere is out, I think, with 1.5 and still no word from C. I've signed the petition, etc. So, now....we wait.

Sorry to go off on a tangent. But.....there's my take. If they recover, by sending out the working drivers for Pro soon, then I'll go back to recommending them. Otherwise, ebay....here we come.....

Regards,
Michael

[Brett]

On a similar note, I was thinking of buying the Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 for grabbing video from VCR and Camcorder to burn to DVD. Does anyone own this product? How does it perform? What do you like about it? What do you dislike? Does anyone else have any suggestions for similar devices in the $100-$200 range that are better?

[AGRO]

Brett, I bought Dazzle awhile ago (1999ish). It is an old one, only works on win98. When I used it it was nice. I had no problems with it at all. Of course the software for editing the video was something to say about, but third party video editing tools and your good to go. The only thing I did not like about it was it captured a compressed .mpg. I would think they have changed that by now.

I recently purchased a Formac and I like that better. It captures in .dv format. I was going to post a link to the actual one I bought but I dont see it there anymore. I bought a converter that works with Windows and Mac. It is really nice. It is a firewire with no external power supply needed. The computer views it as a camcorder so capturing video is nice and easy,and done with my choice of software. I can open Squeeze and go to town. It is also nice because my cable box has firewire ports in the back. That is really nice!

[Corey]

Brett. I'm no expert but I did try Dazzle a while back, I was just mentioning it to Colin the other day. My impression is that it wasn't really a pro app per se. Like AGRO said, seemed kind of old and basic. That's just an observation through.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[AGRO]

Yep Corey hit the nail on the head. A dazzle is very basic. A non pro piece of hardware. I think in the very least, and considering the fact that you mentioned buring to DVD, you are looking for something that will capture in DV format. I think Eric Darling would be a great source of info on this subject.

[eric_darling]

I think Eric Darling would be a great source of info on this subject.

I wish I was, AGRO. I just don't have any knowledge of these kinds of products. Brett had already contacted me privately about my thoughts and I came up pretty much empty. I just don't work with consumer/prosumer level gear - it would be a waste of time in my business. I would absolutely love to help, and I'm not trying to stay aloof. I'm just no good on information for this kind of stuff.

[Corey]

I always like to read those "shootout" type articles where a credible source reviews the top ten products within a category. I have purchased things from lists like that dozens of times in my life and have been pretty pleased with the results pratcically every single time. That's how I usually make big purchases actually. I tend to buy prosumer gear for the most part and I've been pretty lucky so far, there's some pretty excellent prosumer stuff on the markets nowadays especially in the A/V field...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Intrigued]

I have a recommendation...

http://www.hauppauge.com/ (main web site)

Here is a link to one of their more powerful offerings:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ...a_pvrusb2.html

or...

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_350.html

[Corey]

Interesting how experience differs regionally. I have a Win-TV card here. I've used it enough to reccomend very strongly to not buy one. This is one of the ten worst pieces of hardware I ever bought, plus I found that hauppage has terrible driver and product support although that also seems to be often the case with many of the manufacturers. Just my experience anyhow, I might have gotten a bum card or something though I guess. I bought mine at London Drugs, normally I have good luck with stuff from them... Or maybe their new cards are much better, mine's a year or so old...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Intrigued]

Do you have the '350'? Or are you running one of the less expensive units?

[Corey]

Defnitely "less expensive" it only cost a couple hundred bucks last year... Not the pro one. On the other hand one could suggest that "good" companies provide equally decent product and support over all their consumer lines. But anyhow I'm certainly no expert on Hauppage. Once I realized they didn't care about me I abandoned all thought of them as is my tendency. Same happened to me with Guillemot and a couple others... Anyhow my data on Hauppage is far from current or complete.

You know who "the man" is on this, and you can bet Brett has already heard from him, is Lorne. He knows more about video cards than anyone I know. Micronesian boatbuilding too.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[kpsmith]

Coming from the Home theater PC world these are the two capture cards of choice.

MyHD card & the fusion III card

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/hdtv-cards.html

Bit pricey but supposed to be good. The big advantage to these is you can capture HDTV quality video. There is also a QAM version of the fusion III that can capture US unencrypted cable signals

I personally don't own either of these but hope to pick one up soon.

[Intrigued]

Well, I recently installed the '350' card for a client. In less than a half hour we were up and running. DVD-R media was used to record and the quality was very nice.

I did call into their technical support department and was professional helped to a successful conclusion, by a polite technician.

Their software could use a 'face lift' in my opinion.

As far as driver issues, I did not run into such problems thankfully.

The whole deal worked out good for me. I received the DVD+R that came with the package the client bought, for helping with the installation and setup.