I bought the Dazzle Platinum and got it to record on my Dell laptop (Inspiron 1720).
As mentioned in this thread, I got all the stuff in the video I posted for justintiime.
I'm going to bust out a few things before I get to my overall review of it: cost and some stuff the technically-challenged will find helpful (I'm one of 'em, so I'm saving you some time here).
Cost
Dazzle Platinum: $95.00 (I could've ordered it off the computer for cheaper).
RadioShack Distribution Amplifier: $50.00
Xbox 360 S-video AV Cable: $30.00
S video cable: $12.00
Total cost: $187.00
On a side note, I did find
THIS VIDEO that talks about the HAVA, which sounds like a better deal for the price. I already had the RadioShack distribution amplifier and the cables, so I just bought the Dazzle Platinum because it was cheaper for me.
YOU DON'T NEED the Radioshack Distribution Amplifier or the Xbox 360 S-video cable; you can just get three
Y-adapters instead for about $4.00 a piece and hook them up to your audio (white & red) and visual (yellow) cables on your Xbox 360 component cable in the back of your tv - but you'll have to switch your 360 component cable from HDTV to TV, but trust me - it is worth it to get the extra stuff if you're gonna go this route because the video quality will be improved big time. The Xbox 360 S video cable, which I finally found at GameStop, wasn't easy to find either - so if you go this route, be aware...
Technical
After I downloaded the software that came with the Dazzle Platinum, I had to go to the
Pinnacle Systems site and go through tons of crap to find what I needed to make it work with Windows Vista. First off, you have to know if your Vista is 32- or 64-bit, and you can find this out in your PC's
control panel. Mine is 32-bit.
You'll need to
download the Studio & Dazzle Hardware Drivers for Vista (Video Creator Platinium (DVC170) is what you'll be looking for), as well as the Instant DVD Recorder 2.0 Release Patch (Vista) and the Studio 10.8.0 Patch (I'm not 100% sure you need the DVD Recorder 2.0 patch, but I did anyway). Once that's done, follow the directions on the
video I posted in the other thread.
Review
The settings are pretty confusing at first, but not at all impossible to figure out (if I can do it, anyone can). Just be sure you have the dazzle plugged in to your computer (don't laugh), and you're using the Studio Launcher and not the instant DVD recorder.
I tried to record both with and without the distribution amplifier, and the difference in video quality is as obvious as night and day. There are three steps involved: 'capture, edit, and make movie,' and it's all pretty self-explanatory. Infact, without even checking out the tutorial and just messing around, I was able to fiddle with titles, effects, and a storyboard, then get a video up in under 2 minutes - literally... It's that simple. I know there's higher-quality video sharing sites that are better than youtube - maybe someone else can recommend some. I've downloaded a video I made in literally under two minutes, and once it's finished processing, I'll post it to give you an example of what it looks like.
All in all, it can be a pain to set up IF you don't know what you're looking for; once it's properly set up and you have the downloads, it's super easy (we're talking basic skills here) to use, and I like the fact that you can take any music on your computer and just throw it in. As for the price, I think if you're not in a rush you can find everything cheaper, but knowing I can also use it to tranfer all my old video tape movies onto my computer & later onto a disc makes it worth it to me.
Also, once it's done, you can use the Windows Media Center to view them fairly easily. If anyone gets this and has troubles, I'll try to help out the best I can.
