Dazzle DV NOW AV

Over the last few years, Dazzle Multimedia has emerged as one of the leaders in developing easy to use and inexpensive video editing tools. You may have one of their Digital Video Creator boxes that enable you to convert analog video from your camcorder or VCR to MPEG video, suitable for computer editing, playback or even distribution over the Internet. All in real time. You may have, or at least read about, their new Hollywood DV Bridge which can convert any analog video signal to a digital video signal or, vice versa, convert any digital video to an analog video stream.

 Several years ago, Dazzle acquired the Personal Video Division of FAST Multimedia AG, one of the original multimedia video editing companies. Based in Europe, FAST was one of the true pioneers in developing and introducing affordable computer based nonlinear editing (NLE) systems for professionals and semi-professionals. As part of the acquisition, Dazzle also got the DV NOW product line which provides a very affordable video capture and editing solution for families, video hobbyists and prosumers, the Fast DV NOW. Dazzle has added analog video in and out, as well as a raft of other capabilities, and has now christened the product DV NOW AV. You can get the DV-only version of $399 or the analog enhanced version for $599. Now that might sound like a lot of money but check out what you get.

Both DV NOW and DV NOW AV come with a full version of Adobe Premiere 6.0, the leading computer based video editing system for Windows based computers. If you bought Adobe Premiere all by itself it would cost you $549. I don’t know how Dazzle can manage to bundle the full version of Premiere 6.0 with their systems and still make any money, but as the saying goes, maybe they make it up on volume.

The Premiere version you get with DV NOW also includes some other great software like Ligos LSX-MPEG plug-in that enables you to convert your finished video productions to MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 for web and CD distribution, Sonic Solutions DVDit LE for creating DVDs. However, the coolest software in the bundle is FAST.forward, FAST’s powerful capture, editing and playback software. 

By using FAST.Forward, the editors can quickly select and capture DV and analog (VHS and S-Video) video clips to the hard drive, trim them and arrange them in various orders for playback. This raw edit can then be transferred to Premiere for more sophisticated fine tuning and adding of special effects, titles, transitions, music, audio, etc. Fast.Forward really impressed me. When you are down editing, this presentation can be output back to Fast.Forward for final copying to tape.  This is a very cool and very powerful capture application.

Not only can you capture your digital footage directly from your camcorder, Fast.Forward can also control your DV camcorder. DV NOW AV comes with pre-set control codes for DV camcorders from Sony, JVC, Panasonic and Canon. This is for true DV camcorders only and will not control S-VHS, VHS, Hi-8 or 8mm camcorders. Unfortunately since Digital8 camcorders do not use time code, this won’t control them either. You can transfer footage, but you won’t be able to control the camcorders.

In addition to starting, fast forwarding, rewinding and stopping your camcorder via the DV cable, this application includes a variety of features like pre-roll, time code and batch captures. On some DV camcorders, you can even do variable fast forward and rewind while monitoring.  Fast.Forward also includes a Tape Scan feature that will automatically transfer your selected DV tape to the hard drive and at the same time, cut it into separate clips every time there is a noticeable scene change.

Fast.Forward enables you to monitor the analog and video transfer of analog footage. You can control color, hue, contrast, as well as the volume control. Fast.Forward also make sit easy to grab still frames of your video, either playing from the source or from the hard drive.

A primary reason to use Fast.Forward is to do rough trims of your captured clips as well as change their order.  You can trim them directly after capture or you can trim them during the cut and paste process. Similar to most other basic editing programs, you cut and paste your clips into the order you want. I found it easy to duplicate the clips and then paste them back together with a cutaway in the middle.

Fast.Forward provides a timeline for scrubbing your video across to get a good idea of how your finished production will look prior to hitting play.  On the negative side, this scrub process does not provide audio monitoring. Aside from that minor irritant, I found Fast.Forward to be an easy and quick way to assemble a rough edit of the videos. By the way, as there are no effects and no transitions, there is no rendering required.

When you have your basic project or scene ready to go, you can automatically transfer it from Fast.Forward to Adobe Premiere and then do more sophisticated editing. As you probably know, Premiere is one of the most powerful editing packages available for the desktop. It enables the user to do professional looking transitions, titling, image layering, audio mixing, etc., everything a professional video editor would need. However, it is not easy to master.

By using Fast.Forward to do the initial capture, clip management and raw editing, you can save a lot of time. When you hit the start Adobe Premiere button within Fast.Forward, all of your clips, pre-trimmed and in the correct order, are automatically transferred to Premiere and placed in the correct location on Premiere’s editing timeline.

Of course, if you are already a Premiere expert, you can do all your capture, editing and playback directly from the Premiere module and ignore Fast.Forward.

When you are all done with your finished production, you can use Adobe Premiere to play your video back to tape or you can transfer it back to Fast.Forward and use that program to transfer your final production back to analog or DV videotape.

DV NOW AV includes inputs and outputs for both analog and DV video and audio. This makes it much easier to combine video from a variety of sources into a single production. You don’t have to worry about reconfiguring parameters on your cards, launching various different capture programs, retrieving saved files from a variety of folders, or even connecting and reconnecting cords and wires. DV NOW AV comes with a single breakout box that provides two separate DV (Firewire/1394) ports, VHS Video in and out (RCA plugs), S-Video in and out, and stereo audio in and out (RCA plugs).

This means you can plug in almost any type of video, (assuming it is NTSC for the US – there are PAL versions available for Europe), and intercut both analog video and digital video. Even better, once you are done with your project, you can export it to either a digital or analog camcorder or VCR. Of course, you can convert it to MPEG and then upload it to the web or burn it onto a CD or DVD for distribution.

The breakout box includes an attached 1394/Firewire cable. That might be nice as these kinds of cables are a bit expensive. However, the Dazzle cable that is permanently connected to the breakout box is a six-pin cable, perfect for plugging into your computer, but not the four-pin cable required to connect to most DV camcorders. I haven’t yet figured what exactly you do with this cable.

The PCI board that makes up the guts of the DV NOW AV product includes two six pin slots of its own. For capturing DV from a camcorder, or transferring your edited DV projects back to DV, this is what you should be using, not the 1394 slots on the breakout box.

What Do You Need?

The Dazzle DV Now AV requires at least a 400 Mhz Pentium II with a minimum of 64 Mb but 128 is recommended. As usual with all computer video gear, the more processing power and RAM memory you can throw at it the better. As the DV NOW AV is basically a capture board, your computer and its hardware do most of your rendering. Adobe Premiere itself requires only a 300 Mhz PII with 64 MB. I loaded Premiere 6.0 onto my older Windows 98SE 333 Pentium II with 64 Mb and it worked, but it limped along. It was not fun.

You also need a fast hard drive that can capture data at least at 5 Mbps. Most new hard drives can handle that. And of course, you need lots of empty hard rive space as video files can get very large. If you are using the system professionally, it would make sense to install tow hard drive son your computer. One for the programs, operating systems, and other applications you use your computer for and then reserve another hard drive for video data only. Some people even use a third drive, reserving one for applications and programs, one for video, and one for audio.

I loaded the Dazzle software and Premiere onto my new 1.4 GHz P4 with 128 MB of RAM, running Windows ME, with a 32 Mb nVidea graphics card.  As expected, the DV NOW AV card and Premiere ran like champs. If you are on a budget, almost any PIII with 128 MB or RAM is satisfactory for this product.

Installation

As mentioned earlier, the Dazzle DV Now uses a full size PCI bus board. As this a full-size PCI board, you might have to do some jiggling and adjusting of cables and other boards to get this board in and fitting snug.

Installing and configuring video editing software with particular capture boards and hardware can be challenging. Dazzle has essentially pre-tweaked Premiere to make it easier. Make sure you read the instructions. Unlike, most installs where I blindly installed the hardware and software, I was careful to install the pieces in the specific order as required. One small problem was that the Service Pack patch CD I had received was blank. I had been notified in advance that there might be a problem with that and already had the Service Pack downloaded and sitting on my hard drive ready to go. You may want to download the Service Pack from the Dazzle web site before starting the install. It’s a small file, just a hair over 1.2 Kb in size.

Follow the instructions carefully and do not let Windows auto install the product or you may run into problems. I tried to use the recommended test and verification process but it did not apply to my Windows ME system. However, after connecting my DV camcorder and booting up the program, it worked just fine.

  Is DV NOW AV for you?

  This is a rock solid solution for those who want to edit video from a variety of sources. Unfortunately, for just few bucks more, you can get similar cards with that actually accelerate the rendering process. Even with my P4, I spent a lot of time waiting for dissolves to render, waiting for my files to transcode to MPEG. For under $1000, there are an assortment of cards that provide real-time effects and transitions.

However, if you need more than an editing program, if you do need to add 1394/Fireware connections to your PC for use with scanners, printers and other peripherals, the DV NOW AV will do this for you. Not only will you get the fast input/output connections you need, you will also get the full blown Premiere editing suite as well as the Fast.Forward video capture and editing application.

Click here if you are looking for a good price on a used DV.Now AV system.