[tonbo0422]

I've been watching the market on the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge for at least 6 months and it doesn't seem to have gone down in price at all! Even on EBay, people are snapping this thing up for more than you have to pay at the store! (I'm in the market for one at $200 or less, BTW.)

Question is, is there something out there that does the same job for $200 or less for a Mac G4? I guess what I'm talking about is something that'll accept input from my Hi-Fi VHS VCR or camcorder and be able to output it to my computer. I heard of a Sony something but last time I checked they were in the $300-$400 range.

Whatever happened to Moore's Law?

[nonhuman]

Originally posted by tonbo0422:
<STRONG>I've been watching the market on the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge for at least 6 months and it doesn't seem to have gone down in price at all! Even on EBay, people are snapping this thing up for more than you have to pay at the store! (I'm in the market for one at $200 or less, BTW.)

Question is, is there something out there that does the same job for $200 or less for a Mac G4? I guess what I'm talking about is something that'll accept input from my Hi-Fi VHS VCR or camcorder and be able to output it to my computer. I heard of a Sony something but last time I checked they were in the $300-$400 range.

Whatever happened to Moore's Law? </STRONG>

The July issue of MacAddict has a side by side comparison of three such DV input devices, including the Dazzle. Of the three, the cheapest is the PoweR Director's Cut at $289. You can read the reviews of all three at their website: Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge, Formac Studio, and PoweR Director's Cut

Hope you find this helpfull.

[ 06-20-2001: Message edited by: nonhuman ]

[tonbo0422]

Wow! That's even scarier than I originally thought. Funnily enough, about half an hour after I posted that, I won a DV-Bridge on EBay for $228.50.

I just gave up on the lower-than-$200 mark--I don't think that's going to happen for another 6 months or so.

But by all means, let me know if you think I was ripped off, and take that price as a benchmark on how much you should be paying as of 6/20/01.

That's until they hit me with shipping!

[mitchell_pgh]

I tried to copy a DVD to my Digital 8 camcorder, but it wouldn't let me (something in the video feed - DANM SONY). I wonder if these devices would eliminate that pesky little issue?

[tonbo0422]

Mitchell,

It seems to me that there's copy protection on the DVD that will prevent your coying it to anything.

When I first bought my set-top DVD player and just *ran it through* my VCR, the picture came out in bands of color--just the _signal_, never mind that I was trying to copy it or not.

So, I went out and bought one of these "color correctors" (a euphemism for copy-protection defeaters)--a Sima, if you want to know the name. Worked fine. That might solve your DVD-to-Camcorder problem. I'm able to tape flawless copies of DVDs with it (for my own personal use, of course

However, as for the converter (Dazzle or Sony) doing this job, I highly doubt it. Still, it wouldn't be advertised as doing that, because as we all know, that's illegal. :

By your post, though, I'm not sure what you'd mainly want to be doing. There are rippers for the Macintosh with which you can turn DVDs into Quicktime movies and then make VCDs out of, but until you have a SuperDrive you won't, of course, be making your own DVDs.

--Nick

[nonhuman]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
<STRONG>I tried to copy a DVD to my Digital 8 camcorder, but it wouldn't let me (something in the video feed - DANM SONY). I wonder if these devices would eliminate that pesky little issue?</STRONG>

This doens't particularly help with your specific issue, but if you use an older, pre-copy protection, VCR you won't have a problem copying DVDs. Also, I believe that if you use a professional VCR or Digital 8 deck or whatever, you won't have the copy protection problem. Apparently professionals are the only one's entitled to fair use...

[mitchell_pgh]

I think that most DVD rippers suck so bad that they make me ill. I would rather go DVD--&gt;Ditital 8--&gt;iMovie--&gt;Toast5---&gt;VCD

On a side note, does anyone know how large a 30 min. video would be using 3ivx???[/list]

Originally posted by tonbo0422:
<STRONG>I've been watching the market on the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge for at least 6 months and it doesn't seem to have gone down in price at all! Even on EBay, people are snapping this thing up for more than you have to pay at the store! (I'm in the market for one at $200 or less, BTW.)

Question is, is there something out there that does the same job for $200 or less for a Mac G4? I guess what I'm talking about is something that'll accept input from my Hi-Fi VHS VCR or camcorder and be able to output it to my computer. I heard of a Sony something but last time I checked they were in the $300-$400 range.

Whatever happened to Moore's Law? </STRONG>

Check out www.miglia.com for the latest..

Originally posted by nonhuman:
<STRONG>

This doens't particularly help with your specific issue, but if you use an older, pre-copy protection, VCR you won't have a problem copying DVDs. Also, I believe that if you use a professional VCR or Digital 8 deck or whatever, you won't have the copy protection problem. Apparently professionals are the only one's entitled to fair use...</STRONG>

This one will do the job for you, it was on MacNN a week or so back froman outfit called Miglia, seems to be a version of the PowerR box!!

[tonbo0422]

Hmmm, but starts at $415 and looks like it's only available right now from Europe. Hardly a competitor for the Dazzle--I was thinking more along the lines of a device that did all those things but at around $100.

Correct me if I'm wrong.