Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge Converter

Question

Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge Converter

I posted this question back in December (and tried the suggestions with no success), but since I haven't been able to resolve it, I thought I'd give it another try. I have been trying to import analog from the VCR into iMovie 6 using my Dazzle converter. It's worked for me in the past with iMovie 4, but isn't working for me now. I keep getting 3 messages that are displayed one after the other - "camera connected" then "no device control" and then "camera disconnected or off" and then the 3 messages continue to repeat. I've replaced the firewire cable so I don't think that's the problem. I feel like the green light indicating the mode on the converter should stay on "A to D," but even when I try to select the mode, it keeps changing from green to red & cycling through the modes. Is there a preferred order to turning on iMovie, the converter & the VCR player? Any suggestions?

PowerPC G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 104 GB available

Posted on Mar 30, 2010 2:12 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Ziatron

Level 5

4,186 points

Mar 30, 2010 3:13 PM in response to James Broughton1

Forget the Dazzle, it is a low end USB analog to digital video converter.

All good analog to digital video converters use Firewire. Firewire converters give much higher quality and better results. Look at the Grassvalley ADVC300. Audio and Video go in, FireWire comes out.

Firewire WILL work.

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 30, 2010 11:38 PM in response to Ziatron

Dazzle makes Firewire converters, too. At least they did a few years ago.

James, try the Garageband trick: Reset the audio circuits by opening Garageband, play a few notes and quit. Then try iMovie again.

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 31, 2010 6:32 AM in response to Lennart Thelander

You are right - this is a firewire converter. I tried the Garageband trick, but still get the same cycle of 3 messages. Any other thoughts? Thanks!

Reply

Answer 4

Mar 31, 2010 6:44 AM in response to James Broughton1

Quit iMovie and all other applications. Run "Cache Out X" (or similar) to clean the system caches. Then restart the Mac. Make sure you get the version that suits your Mac OS X version. http://www.versiontracker.com/

Reply

Answer 5

Apr 8, 2010 5:05 PM in response to James Broughton1

Hi James,
I received my Dazzle DV bridge today from ebay and have spent hours trying to get it to capture.
I may have just found a solution!
I have just tried idive from aquafadas and managed to get some footage in.
When using it I tried my camcorder set to camera then I had no issues but as soon as I set it to player and played a tape It just would not work.
After starting the tape playing I then used the on-screen controls and clicked stop and then play and my footage appeared. Then just clicked record and managed to grab 20 mins perfectly.
Still got some experimenting to do but thought you might want to check it out.
Going to try it on my older mac tomorrow with imovie as the newer macs have been suggested as being the problem. Also going to try using it without a computer and see if I can convert 8mm tape directly to my DV camcorder.

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 9, 2010 1:42 AM in response to redmoorphil

Another quick update!
After much fiddling I managed to capture from Quicktime Pro.
I found a post mentioning BTV Pro so I gave that a try too and did the following:
Connected and switched on the Dazzle and my camcorder.
Opened QTP and selected the dazzle as the recording input.
Opened BTV Pro.
Set my camcorder playing.
No signal appeared on screen yet.
Using the on-screen controls on BTV Pro I pressed stop then play.
Footage then appeared in the quicktime window and I was able to record.

It looks as though the dazzle needs a 'kick-start' from within any software you use by pressing stop and then play on the softwares camcorder controls.
I will continue to fiddle and then let you know if I make any more progress.

Reply