Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge by Michael Flaminio 6.20.01 The Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge is a device for converting analog video and audio to DV. The product is ideal for connecting analog video sources to a Mac via FireWire for video editing. It's coming up on two years since I wrote a review of the Sony DVMC-DA1 Media Converter. Not a day goes by that I don't receive some kind of email related to that review. Interestingly, more people read that review per month now, than when it was first published. Video editing is a hot topic, and not just for Mac users. For these reason, I was very interested in testing the new Dazzle DV converter. Many have been waiting for me to get around to writing this review and for nearly four months I've been busy testing. The Dazzle product basically does what the Sony DV Converter does, but offers a few interesting features and perhaps more importantly, a lower price tag. Available for around $250 to $300, versus Sony's $350 to $400 price, the Dazzle product makes analog conversions a little more practical. The Formats DV is a relatively new form of video and audio compression. I always like to point out that DV does not necessarily stand for digital video. It is digital video, but specifically it is a video compression format. DV takes a full-sized audio/video signal and compresses it down to a manageable size. Generally uncompressed video digitized runs around 27 MB/sec. Even with today's computers and hard drives, this is still a sizable chunk of data. The popular MPEG-2 codec used for DVD, by contrast only uses (for the sake of an example) roughly 400 KB/sec. MPEG uses high-powered encoding and decoding technology especially designed to allow compression and decompression to work in real-time. In contrast to these two, DV is about 3.7 MB/sec. Considerably more than MPEG-2, but drastically less than uncompressed video. DV allows computer users to significantly compress video without requiring major horsepower for compression and decompression. DV is not as good as MPEG-2 for data size or quality, but generally DV is adequate for most uses. All digital camcorders on the market use DV. Each camera has some form of DV codec hardware, which takes the image captured by the camera and encoded onto videotape. This is essentially the same equipment used in the Sony and Dazzle DV converters, except instead of recording to tape, the DV signal is passed through to a computer or other device. DV devices use FireWire to transfer data. The current version of FireWire can handle up to 50 MB/sec and is clearly capable of facilitating the constant 3.7 MB/sec DV stream. There are two types of FireWire connectors, a six and four-pin connector. The six-pin is connector found on all Apple and most other. The four-pin connector is smaller and is typically used on DV cameras and other small FireWire devices. The Sony Media Converter uses a four-pin, while the Dazzle DV Bridge uses a six-pin. Cables are available for six-to-six and four-to-six-pin options. A single FireWire cable can measure up to 14.9 feet. Other interesting notes about FireWire include the ability to power small devices in addition to daisy chaining multiple devices together, such as a hard drive and camcorder. The Conversion In a nutshell, the Dazzle DV Bridge allows you to connect any analog video/audio device and transport it to your Mac via FireWire. The analog source can be a VCR, camcorder, or even just a sound device. For video, you will need a specific program for capturing the media. Good programs include iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Premiere and the shareware BTV. These programs allow you to import and playback video to your Mac. You'll also need a video-editing package such as iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Premiere or even QuickTime Pro to assemble your work. When dealing with converters, there's always a question of cost. DV cameras are becoming more affordable, so buying an add-on can seem like a waste of money. These converter devices are particularly good options for those with expensive analog equipment or a substantial amount of analog material. In some cases, however, it may make more sense to upgrade a new camera, especially something like the Sony Digital8, which are affordable and can handle both its own digital and analog hi-8 tapes. In short, it comes down to the amount of work you have now, the amount of money you want to spend and how much video you plan to shoot in the future. The other area worth noting are system requirements. Most recent Macs can handle DV, but plenty of CPU power and drive space can make a job easier. Most people I've talked to have no problems using the various FireWire upgrades in their older Macs. The bare minimum equipments for DV editing is a FireWire port, PowerPC processor and a hard drive system capable of sustained 4 MB/sec read/write. Anything above that will make your life easier. In particular, high-end ATA hard drives have become quite fast and affordable. Keep in mind that you'll need about 222 MB for each minute of video. Also keep in mind that you'll need additional drive space for scratch, rendering and any finished video you wish to save. Finally, there's something to be said about faster G4 processors. I've tested Final Cut Pro 2 on a PowerMac G4 with dual processors and I have to say this is probably the way to go. The new version of Final Cut Pro is optimized greatly for both the G4's AltiVec technology and multiple CPUs. Dazzle DV Bridge On to the actual product. One area that makes the Dazzle product unique is that it has two FireWire ports. I really never found a use for the two ports, but if desired users can connect the device to both your computer and camera at the same time. This seems to just be matter of convenience to allow users access to analog devices, camcorder and computer without switching wires. The device's features a mode selector, which includes analog to digital, digital to analog and pass-through options. The Sony Media Converter has a similar but single button option for digital in and digital out. The DV Bridge attempts to auto-detect the correct pathway for signals to help manage the device. I found this system to be more trouble than it's worth, as things seem to inadvertently switch on me when a device powers off or a cable is disconnected. I also never used the pass-through option, and for the purpose of video capture/playback, I don't see why anyone would. I did come across a major problem with the device. I reported it to Dazzle in early May and it was apparently the first time they've heard of it. According to Dazzle, the converter encounters a problem when a video source comes from a bad tape or is of a poor image quality. They also said this only occurs with Apple computers. What happens is when video is sent to the computer, the Dazzle device will improperly display the video image as if the horizontal hold is off center. The video problem is followed by audio distortions. Usually what sets this off is if the video is fast-forwarded or rewound while playing, or a pause-cut is present in the source video. This misaligns the signal from the DV converter and makes the DV stream unusable. I found this problem to occur whenever I used RCA/composite video connectors. While using S-Video, things went fine. Personally, their contention of poor video quality didn't really hold with me, as the same video that worked under a S-Video connection didn't under a RCA connection. I fully realize that video quality is lost when using composite over component video, but not to this degree. In May Dazzle told me a new version of the DV Bridge would start shipping to address this problem. As a short-term remedy to the problem, the DV Bridge seemed to resync itself if I cycled the selector options. I found a practical way to work around the problem by starting the video capture early, then cycle the source selector just before the desired material started playing. If there was a hard cut during a clip, almost always the device would get out of sync. Once the video signal is synchronized correctly, the DV Bridge works well. Conclusions The Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge is a mixed bag. When it works, it works well and has a good price point. I was really hoping for the best in this product, but the issue with the video synchronization was extremely frustrating. Adding to the frustration, I had used the Sony DA1 Media Converter for over a year with no problems at all. Dazzle is expecting to start shipping an updated product to fix the synchronization problem in July. The best bet may be to hold off until a revision starts shipping, if you think this problem will impact you. They offered to send me a new version of the converter, and if I get one, I'll post an update.