Dazzle vs. G400 Marvel-TV

[rad1701]

Anyone have any working knowledge of the differences between the external Dazzle capture box and the G400 Marvel - TV? I just got the G400 Marvel-TV, but am wondering if the Dazzle unit does a better job. Would I be better off with the Dazzle and the G400 Max (32mb) card?? Anybody got any real comparisons. Mostly interested in getting the best possible mpeg files to make into video cd's. Got a pretty "hot" pc, so that shouldn't be a problem. THANKS!

[frankie]

the dazzle and the marvel g400 are capture at totally different formats.

the marvel captures mjpeg. in order to make vcd's with the marvel you need to use an mpeg encoder and convert the avi files to mpeg to make a vcd. this is a pretty lengthy process as it can take from a few hours to over 20 hours to encode depending on your hardware and/or software.

the dazzle capture's directly to mpegs that are vcd compliant. it saves time but the quality isn't great. typically the parallel port mpeg capture devices dont' produce good quality. you get better quality using a software encoder.

if money is no concern, you can get the broadway pci card. it is an mpeg capture card that produces excellent quality mpegs for vcds. it also doubles as an encoder so it can be paired up with your marvel. that will run about $800.

frankie

[rad1701]

Thanks for the info. I knew most of what you stated already. I was really looking for a final quality comparison between the two cards. I know the G400 Marvel takes longer to process, due to the format change (the new marvel card includes an encoder to go to .mpeg). So, anyone know if the .mpeg final files are any better with either setup?? Also, Dazzle's latest card comes in USB, which should be better than parallel.

[Walrus]

rad1701: I haven't dealt with the Dazzle, but I have dealt with the Adaptec Videoh! (parallel port mpeg capture). The videoh! did a great job... but only when the video source was VERY clean. (eg: Laserdisc or DVD sources) Capturing off of cable or VHS feeds gave mediocre quality. Because you can apply noise filtering with software solutions, you can end up with MUCH better quality MPEGs. (Software encoders also can do better motion compensation) Another plus for software solutions is you can capture full frame (eg: 704x480 or 352x480) and deinterlace the image to smooth the movement a bit. Generally, if you put a little bit of effort into it, you will end up with much better quality MPEGs by using your Marvel G400 (make sure to capture at low compression levels to get the max available quality), and be sure to only use LSX or Panasonic MPEG encoder for max quality.
As for Parallel vs USB: There is no quality difference. It's just an issue of bandwidth of the capture device (though parallel ports are PLENTY fast for VCD compliant MPEG streams), having a free parallel port, and not having to use 100% of the CPU to poll the parallel port.

[rad1701]

Thanks for the info. I just got a Marvel G400 card and am looking forward to giving it a workout - doing some video captures, etc.
Just gotta get that monster hard drive to hold it all!