It works. It's simple. But keep it simple

We bought this to convert all of our VHS tapes over to digital format. We moved about 45 movies over to a 1TB hard-drive connected to a Windows MCE computer.

Good: It's very very simple. Hook up the VCR to the Dazzle. Hook the Dazzle up to the computer using the USB connection. Some may complain that it should use a Firewire connection, but it won't speed things up - you're dependent on the VCR and that's the slow part.

The video quality is no better than your VHS tapes. What many folks don't realize is that VHS begins to degrade over time. If your video capture is bad - it's probably the tape, not the Dazzle. To record a video takes just as long as it does to play it. Bottom line: You're really dependent on your VCR. Do yourself a favour and run a good head cleaner over the VCR heads first.

The Pinnacle Software that comes with it is pretty good. I suppose if you had Adobe Premiere you could use that to capture the video feed if you wanted. But Pinnacle is much easier to learn.

It says it works with 512 MB RAM. Yes. But 1GB is better. If you have 512MB, close EVERYTHING except Pinnacle.

This comes with 3 discs, the third is option. The third takes about a half-hour to install and it's just special effects. Be real - if you're that in love with special effects and professional-grade videos, you aren't using Pinnacle. You're using Premiere.

But it does, in fact, work exactly as it should.