12-19-01 This
special series of Holiday
Buyer's Guides is dedicated to the holiday shoppers that
also happen to be terminal procrastinators. Every day through
the 21st, we will post a new guide covering gift ideas from
a variety of categories and price ranges.
Recent keynote presentations have been filled with buzz words
like "digital hub" and flashy presentations involving
exciting applications like iMovie and, iDVD. Those of us stuck
with analog video cameras have not been officially invited
to Apple's "digital lifestyle" party. Fortunately,
several companies have produced analog to DV converters that
let us crash the party and convert our old video footage to
DV for editing. Even better, the converters below work in
both directions, converting analog signals to digital and
digital signals back to analog. The latter option lets you
record your finished iMovie masterpiece to video tape.
Of the three converters mentioned below, only the Dazzle
and Formac offerings are widely available. Director's Cut
from PowerR is available through their web
site. We reviewed
Dazzle's DV-Bridge back in February and were mostly impressed.
We did discover a problem with the DV-Bridge incorrectly defaulting
to the European PAL video format instead of NTSC, the proper
format in the US. Dazzle quickly fessed up to the problem
and said that a new revision of the Bridge would have new
firmware that defaults to NTSC. I would assume that all of
the Dazzle converters currently on store shelves have the
new firmware. We have started a new discussion
thread covering analog to DV converters and welcome your
comments on the Dazzle converter and others.
Notable Quotes
Dazzle's Hollywood DV Bridge
MacAddict
— "Any
user who is looking for a good analog-to-DV converter would
do well to consider the DV-Bridge, especially at such a low
price. Its biggest selling point is device control: Once you've
run a video deck using iMovie's VCR-like interface, you'll
never again want to synchronize by simultaneously pressing
the deck's Play button and your software's Capture button.
This feature alone will save time, effort, and hard drive
space. If you have a LANC-compatible device, get this converter."
macHOME
— "The
Hollywood DV-Bridge is about the size and weight of a paperback
book. Its design is functional, not flashy. A vertical stand
is included, but the unit popped out of it during routine
cable fiddling."
MacUser
UK — "When
a completed movie is viewed on a TV, it becomes clear that
the Hollywood's digital/analog hardware does a pretty good
job. We found that VHS footage converted into DV footage and
then back to VHS was better quality than a second-generation
direct VHS to VHS copy done with two VCRs; the audio quality
was similarly preserved. "
Macworld
— A
comparative of all three converters in this guide plus the
DVMC-DA2 Media Converter from Sony. We opted not to include
the Sony converter due to their lack of PAL support and inclusion
of Macrovision support.
MacReviewZone
— Lengthy
and heated discussion thread in regarding performance and
Dazzle customer support.
MacReviewZone
— "The Holywood DV-Bridge has all the markings of
a great product. It is unfortunate that PAL is the default
(at least for us users in the U.S.) and that there is no way
to manually switch between PAL and NTSC. Dazzle has said that
the next revision of the DV-Bridge will default to NTSC, but,
unless Dazzle produces localized versions, this will simply
shift the problem to users in Europe. Once you get past its
quirks, however, you will be happy with its performance and
the doors it opens."
Formac's Studio
macHOME
—
"[Formac Studio's] ProTV software lets you watch up to
125 TV channels on your Mac or tune in to FM radio stations.
You can also capture and digitize from either source. But
ProTV isn't an editing suite, so save a step and use iMovie
to capture video to be edited. The Studio meshed smoothly
with both programs."
MacUser
UK —
"The Formac Studio can also accept analog input (composite
and S-Video) from standard VHS and Hi-8 VCRs and camcorders,
which it automatically converts to the DV format footage native
to iMovie, Final Cut Pro and Adobe's Premiere. So now you
don't need to buy a DV camcorder to join the iMovie revolution.
And you can combine archive footage with your DV camcorder
footage in a single movie."
PowerR's Director's Cut
MacAddict
— "The
pure simplicity of Director's Cut and its compatibility with
iMovie makes it perfect for someone who doesn't want to spend
even 30 seconds learning about a product. It's a great converter
for both pro users and newbies. If it had device control,
it would be the perfect analog-to-DV converter. Even without
this feature, its low price point and great design make it
an excellent product."
MacUser
UK — "We
tested Director's Cut by capturing video from a Hi8 camcorder
and a VCR directly into iMovie and found it remarkably easy
to use. There's a manual supplied, but anyone with a basic
knowledge of video and audio input and output won't need it."
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This
special series of 
