|  by
Don Engstrom
2-15-01
I bought my first video camera when my daughter was
born, just over two years ago. At the time, I didn't
have a Mac with FireWire and digital cameras were
outrageously expensive so I opted for a non digital
camera. Two years later, with a pile of analog video
footage under my belt and a FireWire equipped Mac,
I am beginning to regret my lack of foresight. Fortunately,
Dazzle has recognized
that there are a number of people in the same boat
as I and have come out with a product that will help
us analog folk to jump on the digital video train.
The Hollywood DV-Bridge connects to your Mac via
FireWire and allows you to convert your analog video
footage to digital format. The DV-Bridge works with
popular video editing programs like iMovie, Final
cut Pro & VideoShop. Once you have edited your
movie, the DV-Bridge can convert the DV back into
analog, allowing you to save your finished product
to tape for distribution or easy viewing. How well
does the DV-Bridge do its job? Read on...
Installation/Setup: The DV-Bridge comes with
an installer CD that Mac users can completely ignore
as it only contains video editing software for the
PC. No drivers are needed other than those required
by your video editing package. The DV-Bridge can be
oriented horizontally or vertically if snapped into
a plastic base. I recommend against the latter if
you can spare the desk space as the Bridge popped
out of the base a few times while I was messing around
with cables. All the ports you would expect on such
a device are present includingt he following in and
out ports: composite RCA video, composite L/R audio
and S-video. The DV-Bridge also has two FireWire ports
as well. Hooking the Bridge up to your Mac and video
source shouldn't present a problem to anyone who has
hooked up a home stereo system. The front of the unit
has three mode indicators that cover its three functions,
analog to digital conversion, digital to analog conversion,
or pass through mode. The lights are green when the
Bridge detects a source signal and red when it does
not. When connected to your Mac, the DV-Bridge should
automatically select the appropriate mode. The back
of the Bridge also has a button for manually selecting
the mode if needed.
Performance & Support: I used a brand
new Power Mac G4/533 and iMovie 2 for my tests. I
quickly ran into a problem with iMovie auto-detecting
the DV-Bridge signal as PAL, rather than NTSC. PAL
is the format common in Europe. Unfortunately, the
two formats are not compatible and, consequently,
iMovie couldn't find the DV stream from the Bridge
for capturing. Quitting and restarting iMovie didn't
help, nor did unplugging and reconnecting the FireWire
cable. The manual that comes with the DV-Bridge didn't
have a troubleshooting section, instead pointing the
user to a (toll) phone number or the Dazzle site.
I recommend against calling as wait times are long
and you get shunted to voice mail after 10 minutes.
The first message I left went unreturned although
I did manage to speak to a support person when I called
the next day. Dazzle's online troubleshooting
area does not yet list the DV-Bridge, but their
discussion
board was hopping with Mac users experiencing
the same problem as well as a smattering of other
issues.
After speaking with tech support, I discovered that
the DV-Bridge defaults to PAL, not NTSC as would make
sense in the U.S. As a work around, Dazzle recommends
booting your machine with the DV-Bridge hooked up,
turned on and with the video source running. This
is hardly convenient, but it did the trick. According
to Dazzle the next generation will default to NTSC.
[Update] We received the following information today
from Dirk Peters, Dazzle's Director of Retail Marketing
regarding NTSC/PAL switching. Apparently, Dazzle has
updated the DV-Bridge firmware to address the issues
we noted in this review.
"With the new firmware, Hollywood will default
to NTSC when it is powered on. As soon as you connect
a camcorder which is powered on, Hollywood will
check to see if it is NTSC or PAL and then switch
modes if it is in the incorrect mode. This should
all be 100% transparent to the user. There is no
hardware switch firmware command to switch modes."
"The only thing I am not 100% positive of
is if iMovie is smart enough to switch between modes
when changed. iMovie may need to be closed and restarted."
Dirk also stated that Dazzle is replacing early units
that had the NTSC/PAL bug. If you bought a DV-Bridge
recently, we would like to hear about your experiences.
Post your comments on our discussion board below.
| Tape format |
Maximum Lines of
[Horizontal] Resolution |
| VHS, VHS-C |
240 |
| 8 mm |
280 |
| Live TV broadcast |
300 |
| S-VHS, Hi-8 |
400 |
| Digital satellite broadcast |
400 |
| Mini-DV |
500 |
After this initial stumbling block, the DV-Bridge performed
like a champ converting input from the video camera
and a DVD player to DV for iMovie to import. With the
DVD player as a source I tested both composite RCA and
S-video connections on the Bridge. The latter produced
a slightly better image. I quickly began to whittle
away at the Power Mac's 40GB hard drive with a variety
of clips. I was able to send an edited movie from iMovie
back to my VCR without any snags. Whether importing
or exporting, the DV-Bridge automatically selected the
correct mode ("A to D" and "D to A"
respectively) on the fly. As you would expect, the DVD
via S-video provided the best image quality and my home
video camera the worst. This is not a reflection on
the DV-Bridge, but rather the inherent limitations of
analog video as a source. To give you an idea of the
image quality difference between analog video cameras
and digital check out the table on the right from David
Pogue's excellent "iMovie, the Missing Manual"
book.
This information should not deter you from converting
your analog footage to digital, it is simply intended
as a reality check. Converting your footage to digital
will not improve its quality. What it will do, is
prevent quality from deteriorating as you copy and
edit it. Anyone who has dubbed video to video will
tell you that this is invaluable. Even first generation
copies show a significant loss in image quality and
anything past first generation quickly becomes unusable.
Conclusions: 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.
| Product: Hollywood DV-Bridge |
| Company: Dazzle |
| MSRP: $299...... 2/15/01 Lowest
Price: $247....Current
Lowest Price |
| Hits: Once you figure out its quirks it
works great, compact form factor, preserves image
quality during transfers. |
| Misses: Weak support, no troubleshooting
section in manual, defaults to PAL, PC software
only. |
Rating:  
(5 possible) |
| Discussion Thread: Join
in! |
|
