Thank you for providing this comparison of these popular capture devices. I've gone through your video a number of times to determine which device is the overall "winner". I assume you left the proc-amp settings at their default. Regarding the VHS-C capture, the DVCPTENAM is a bit washed out compared to the other three. This is particularly noticeable in the Japanese market scenes. Regarding the shaky capture, the VC500 is the worse while the DVCPTENAM is the most stable. Watch the venetian blinds, the white strip between the door and blinds and the white door window. Unfortunately the DVCPTENAM is still a bit washed out compared to the others. Perhaps a slight adjustment to the proc-amps may improve this. The DVC 100 is better than the GV-USB2. If you stop the video, you can compare the straightness of the venetian blinds, white strip and the door window. On the GV-USB2, the lines curve to the left near the top of the frame while the DVC 100 they are reasonably straight. But the DVCPTENAM still beats out the DVC 100 in terms of straight lines when you pause the video and the amount of shake when the video is playing. As for the Hollywood video, the DVCPTENAM is clearly the worse with the video tearing at the top and the washed out look. On the other hand I found the VC 500 a bit too colour saturated; particularly the skin tones (a bit too orange). Comparing the DVC 100 to the GV-USB2 was more difficult. The DVC 100 is slightly lighter but neither is more sharper than the other. Compare the clock on the wall and Pepsi cola sign and the close up of Michael J. Fox. They are both pretty close with maybe the edge going to the DV 100 when you zoom to the window frames of the DV 100 - they are slightly straighter. Out the the four capture devices, which one would I buy? Probably the GV-USB2 for the following reasons. It is still being produced, gets good reviews and you can purchase it on Amazon. The Diamond 500 was very poor for shaky video unless you owned a TBC. The DVCPTENAM was too washed out and failed to capture the Hollywood movie. The DVC 100, while a good device, is no longer produced and depending on your region, difficult to find on eBay etc. As for the bonus material with the Sony camcorder with TBC, this is the clear winner! In my opinion the video was perfect. Purists would argue against it because the capture codec is DV AVI which is lossy but visually it was the best out of all of them. These camcorders can still be purchased on eBay while dedicated TBC's are hard to find and usually very expensive so not really an option for your typical consumer.
Hi, I appreciate the detailed analisys! Yes, I kept all procamp settings default. I agree with all of your points. Regarding the DVC 100 vs the GV-USB2 in the Hollywood video, if you watch at the still shots, then at 14:35 you can see that the GV-USB2 curves at the top of the frame, but stripes on the shirt look reasonably straight and smooth. On the other hand, at 19:53 there is some curving for the DVC100 too, but stripes on the shirt are more cerrated. I would prefer the GV-USB2. I think this agrees with the shaky capture, where the GV-USB2 also shows more curving at the top, but a more stable frame overall. Color and levels can be adjusted. I agree with your final assessment, the GV-USB2 would also be my choice. The VC500 has a nasty issue, it changes video levels abruptly, for example, 7:10, 7:25, 7:42, 8:01. These adjustments are not always noticeable, but you can see the waveform rising in the middle of a scene. Thanks again for the comprehensive response!
Thank you for this excellent comparison. I've been fascinated with these composite/S-video capture devices for a long time. I mainly use Windows 10 because it still receives updates, but some of those updates break the functionality of video capture devices. The Dazzles are especially succeptible in my experience. I've also had issues of a similar nature with my VC500 albeit less frequent. I'm tempted to finally buy the GV-USB2 because I think its drivers tend to withstand the many changes pushed out by Microsoft for Windows. It's actually used very heavily in the retro video game speedrunning community, and they usually livestream with little to no issues while using OBS in conjunction with AmaRecTV. So I take that as a good sign
Amazing video as always! I appreciated the detailed testing without conclusions, so we all can make up our own mind. Perhaps you could still make a separate video about your opinion on the performance of each, so as people like me could understand the benefits of each device, and not go like "uuu pretty colors, im getting the vs500". I am surprised how the IO DATA is really looking overall quite good, especially when one cant get their hands on the dvc100. Cheers for the good work!
I have the GV-USB 2 device and recently got a Sony S-Video VCR. When I see the VHS on the preview window on OBS or any other capture software I see jagged edges on the actors at times. Is not a interlace issue but it looks like old 3D games. I put my old cheap USB device and it doesn’t do it. Any idea what is causing it? Because it doesn’t do it with my Laserdisc or when I plug the VCR to my OLED.
I do not use OBS, as it deinterlaces internally and does not pass interlaced video through, unless I missed something. GV-USB2 has various deinterlacing settings, you need to use "weave". You say 3D effect, do you mean different colors split in a rainbow effect? Really hard to say without a sample.
@@ConsumerDV No 3D effects, what I meant by that is jagged edges like those old 3D games, all horizontal. I'll double check the setting to make sure is on weave. Thanks for the suggestion and btw, amazing video.
@@IronClawNinja With "weave" the dongle sends fields as they are, and it is up to you to treat video as interlaced and deinterlace, or to treat is as progressive and not deinterlace. I don't use OBS, but I think it should be set up to capture 60p, using a "double frame rate" deinterlacer. Any other setting in the GV-USB2 uses its built-in deinterlacer, and it is not very good.
With just the Dazzle DVC 100 unit itself, is there a difference between the Dazzle Dvd Recorder HD and the Dazzle DVD Recorder Plus? Both are in red packages but is one unit different than the other... HD or Plus?
No difference in hardware. The hardware and firmware is reflected by model number. The 100/101/103/107 have the same hardware. The current Dazzle "DVCPTENAM" seems to have different hardware but broadly the same functionality as the 100. The driver is different and incompatible with the 100. The 130/170 are different from the above and similar to each other. The 130 has MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoder, the 170 also has MPEG-4/DivX encoder enabled. As I understand it: Video DVD Recorder comes with Pinnacle Instant DVD Recorder. Video DVD Recorder Plus comes with Pinnacle Studio. Video Creator Plus comes with Pinnacle Instant DVD Recorder and Pinnacle Studio. Video Creator Plus HD comes with Pinnacle Studio HD. Not sure what DVD Recorder HD bundle included. Was there Pinnacle DVD Recorder HD version? It would not make any sense, as DVDs are SD. Anyway, the difference is in software only.
Thank you for your reply. I have the DVC 170 that was gifted to me many many years ago. It came with Pinnacle Studio 10. For the time it made very good MPEG 2 captures that people were looking for however in the long scheme of things, it was a lot of frustrating trouble. It still works with an old XP laptop I have but that's about it. It is not recognized by any capture software other than Studio 10 and when I tried to install Studio 10 on my windows 10 PC, the Dazzle DVC 170 does not work and the Studio 10 software disables my DVD burner even after I uninstall the software. I have to go into my register to get my burner back. Too much trouble. Someone is sending me a Dazzle DVD Recorder Plus and I'm hoping I have much better luck with it because I've loved the Dazzle design but their switching round and round is confusing and a little unfair to the consumer. Sometime you don't know what you're going to get.
I just got the DVC 170, wanted to make a video about it. I could not install drivers on Win7 64-bit, OK, I get that. But I also could not make it work on Win7 32-bit, which it should! I downloaded Win7/Vista driver from Pinnacle's website, the installer did run successfully, yet the device shows error in the Device Manager. Oh, well.
UPDATE: I just received the Dazzle DVD Plus in the mail. The contents on the side of the box says it contains the software, (Pinnacle a Studio 12) and the Dazzle DVC 101 but the label on the bottom of the Dazzle unit says Dazzle DVC 100. I'm guessing the "101" means the bundled package but who knows?
@ i use amarec and obs but i tried virtual dub and the audio doesnt show up when i used the software included with the dvd it show up as cortel audio or soemthing while obs and amarec dont see it
Also, I'd be interested in seeing video game capture! NTSC SNES and NES have very out of spec sync and 60.1 Hz framerates. SNES and later gen consoles output both Composite and S-Video. GV-USB2 is the most popular in the gaming scene. Doesn't botch the 240p flavor of 480i that was extremely common before Dreamcast and PS2.
i agree that the i-o data gv-usb2 is the winner i own it and it takes good quality vhs and video game captures with no contrast issues. the only thing i dont like is that it drops frames very easily whenever the signal is unstable but i looks far better than the elgato (pretty much the same as the diamond but more pricey and works on mac) and the dazzle dvd recorder hd (contrast issues and has the distorted line at the top if the signal is slightly unstable EDIT: it has popping noises in the audio if there is low levels or no audio)
@@ConsumerDV тогда можно было бы поделиться своим мнением о победителе в самом видео . Хорошая большая проделанная работа . По вашему коротко вывод кто победил ?
Thank you for providing this comparison of these popular capture devices. I've gone through your video a number of times to determine which device is the overall "winner". I assume you left the proc-amp settings at their default. Regarding the VHS-C capture, the DVCPTENAM is a bit washed out compared to the other three. This is particularly noticeable in the Japanese market scenes.
Regarding the shaky capture, the VC500 is the worse while the DVCPTENAM is the most stable. Watch the venetian blinds, the white strip between the door and blinds and the white door window. Unfortunately the DVCPTENAM is still a bit washed out compared to the others. Perhaps a slight adjustment to the proc-amps may improve this. The DVC 100 is better than the GV-USB2. If you stop the video, you can compare the straightness of the venetian blinds, white strip and the door window. On the GV-USB2, the lines curve to the left near the top of the frame while the DVC 100 they are reasonably straight. But the DVCPTENAM still beats out the DVC 100 in terms of straight lines when you pause the video and the amount of shake when the video is playing.
As for the Hollywood video, the DVCPTENAM is clearly the worse with the video tearing at the top and the washed out look. On the other hand I found the VC 500 a bit too colour saturated; particularly the skin tones (a bit too orange). Comparing the DVC 100 to the GV-USB2 was more difficult. The DVC 100 is slightly lighter but neither is more sharper than the other. Compare the clock on the wall and Pepsi cola sign and the close up of Michael J. Fox. They are both pretty close with maybe the edge going to the DV 100 when you zoom to the window frames of the DV 100 - they are slightly straighter.
Out the the four capture devices, which one would I buy? Probably the GV-USB2 for the following reasons. It is still being produced, gets good reviews and you can purchase it on Amazon. The Diamond 500 was very poor for shaky video unless you owned a TBC. The DVCPTENAM was too washed out and failed to capture the Hollywood movie. The DVC 100, while a good device, is no longer produced and depending on your region, difficult to find on eBay etc.
As for the bonus material with the Sony camcorder with TBC, this is the clear winner! In my opinion the video was perfect. Purists would argue against it because the capture codec is DV AVI which is lossy but visually it was the best out of all of them. These camcorders can still be purchased on eBay while dedicated TBC's are hard to find and usually very expensive so not really an option for your typical consumer.
Hi, I appreciate the detailed analisys! Yes, I kept all procamp settings default.
I agree with all of your points.
Regarding the DVC 100 vs the GV-USB2 in the Hollywood video, if you watch at the still shots, then at 14:35 you can see that the GV-USB2 curves at the top of the frame, but stripes on the shirt look reasonably straight and smooth. On the other hand, at 19:53 there is some curving for the DVC100 too, but stripes on the shirt are more cerrated. I would prefer the GV-USB2. I think this agrees with the shaky capture, where the GV-USB2 also shows more curving at the top, but a more stable frame overall. Color and levels can be adjusted.
I agree with your final assessment, the GV-USB2 would also be my choice.
The VC500 has a nasty issue, it changes video levels abruptly, for example, 7:10, 7:25, 7:42, 8:01. These adjustments are not always noticeable, but you can see the waveform rising in the middle of a scene.
Thanks again for the comprehensive response!
the dvd recorder hd has much more tearing with bad signals such as vhs generation loss
Thank you for this excellent comparison. I've been fascinated with these composite/S-video capture devices for a long time. I mainly use Windows 10 because it still receives updates, but some of those updates break the functionality of video capture devices. The Dazzles are especially succeptible in my experience. I've also had issues of a similar nature with my VC500 albeit less frequent. I'm tempted to finally buy the GV-USB2 because I think its drivers tend to withstand the many changes pushed out by Microsoft for Windows. It's actually used very heavily in the retro video game speedrunning community, and they usually livestream with little to no issues while using OBS in conjunction with AmaRecTV. So I take that as a good sign
Amazing video as always! I appreciated the detailed testing without conclusions, so we all can make up our own mind.
Perhaps you could still make a separate video about your opinion on the performance of each, so as people like me could understand the benefits of each device, and not go like "uuu pretty colors, im getting the vs500".
I am surprised how the IO DATA is really looking overall quite good, especially when one cant get their hands on the dvc100.
Cheers for the good work!
I liked the IO-Data a lot! I think it was the best overall.
I have the GV-USB 2 device and recently got a Sony S-Video VCR. When I see the VHS on the preview window on OBS or any other capture software I see jagged edges on the actors at times. Is not a interlace issue but it looks like old 3D games. I put my old cheap USB device and it doesn’t do it. Any idea what is causing it? Because it doesn’t do it with my Laserdisc or when I plug the VCR to my OLED.
I do not use OBS, as it deinterlaces internally and does not pass interlaced video through, unless I missed something. GV-USB2 has various deinterlacing settings, you need to use "weave". You say 3D effect, do you mean different colors split in a rainbow effect? Really hard to say without a sample.
@@ConsumerDV No 3D effects, what I meant by that is jagged edges like those old 3D games, all horizontal. I'll double check the setting to make sure is on weave. Thanks for the suggestion and btw, amazing video.
@@IronClawNinja With "weave" the dongle sends fields as they are, and it is up to you to treat video as interlaced and deinterlace, or to treat is as progressive and not deinterlace. I don't use OBS, but I think it should be set up to capture 60p, using a "double frame rate" deinterlacer.
Any other setting in the GV-USB2 uses its built-in deinterlacer, and it is not very good.
With just the Dazzle DVC 100 unit itself, is there a difference between the Dazzle Dvd Recorder HD and the Dazzle DVD Recorder Plus? Both are in red packages but is one unit different than the other... HD or Plus?
No difference in hardware. The hardware and firmware is reflected by model number. The 100/101/103/107 have the same hardware.
The current Dazzle "DVCPTENAM" seems to have different hardware but broadly the same functionality as the 100. The driver is different and incompatible with the 100.
The 130/170 are different from the above and similar to each other. The 130 has MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoder, the 170 also has MPEG-4/DivX encoder enabled.
As I understand it:
Video DVD Recorder comes with Pinnacle Instant DVD Recorder.
Video DVD Recorder Plus comes with Pinnacle Studio.
Video Creator Plus comes with Pinnacle Instant DVD Recorder and Pinnacle Studio.
Video Creator Plus HD comes with Pinnacle Studio HD.
Not sure what DVD Recorder HD bundle included. Was there Pinnacle DVD Recorder HD version? It would not make any sense, as DVDs are SD. Anyway, the difference is in software only.
Thank you for your reply. I have the DVC 170 that was gifted to me many many years ago. It came with Pinnacle Studio 10. For the time it made very good MPEG 2 captures that people were looking for however in the long scheme of things, it was a lot of frustrating trouble. It still works with an old XP laptop I have but that's about it. It is not recognized by any capture software other than Studio 10 and when I tried to install Studio 10 on my windows 10 PC, the Dazzle DVC 170 does not work and the Studio 10 software disables my DVD burner even after I uninstall the software. I have to go into my register to get my burner back. Too much trouble. Someone is sending me a Dazzle DVD Recorder Plus and I'm hoping I have much better luck with it because I've loved the Dazzle design but their switching round and round is confusing and a little unfair to the consumer. Sometime you don't know what you're going to get.
I just got the DVC 170, wanted to make a video about it. I could not install drivers on Win7 64-bit, OK, I get that. But I also could not make it work on Win7 32-bit, which it should! I downloaded Win7/Vista driver from Pinnacle's website, the installer did run successfully, yet the device shows error in the Device Manager. Oh, well.
UPDATE: I just received the Dazzle DVD Plus in the mail. The contents on the side of the box says it contains the software, (Pinnacle a Studio 12) and the Dazzle DVC 101 but the label on the bottom of the Dazzle unit says Dazzle DVC 100. I'm guessing the "101" means the bundled package but who knows?
Does it say just Dazzle DVC 100, or DVC 100 ver. 1.1 ? Some say that ver. 1.1 is the same as 101. Pinnacle did not make it easy :)
i dont have audio with the dazzler dvd recorder hd any fixes?
What software do you use? In VirtualDub you need to explicitly enable audio capture from menu.
@ i use amarec and obs but i tried virtual dub and the audio doesnt show up when i used the software included with the dvd it show up as cortel audio or soemthing while obs and amarec dont see it
@@ConsumerDV well it works now so i guess it works when it wants to, just like my elgato video capture
I am happy you made it work!
i know its not the best capture card but it is nice for some unstable signals
Also, I'd be interested in seeing video game capture! NTSC SNES and NES have very out of spec sync and 60.1 Hz framerates. SNES and later gen consoles output both Composite and S-Video. GV-USB2 is the most popular in the gaming scene. Doesn't botch the 240p flavor of 480i that was extremely common before Dreamcast and PS2.
I don't own game consoles, so cannot help with that.
i agree that the i-o data gv-usb2 is the winner i own it and it takes good quality vhs and video game captures with no contrast issues. the only thing i dont like is that it drops frames very easily whenever the signal is unstable but i looks far better than the elgato (pretty much the same as the diamond but more pricey and works on mac) and the dazzle dvd recorder hd (contrast issues and has the distorted line at the top if the signal is slightly unstable EDIT: it has popping noises in the audio if there is low levels or no audio)
Nice video❤❤❤❤
J’aime vos vidéos mais je ne comprend pas l anglais pourriez vous activer le sous titrage en français ce serait super merci
La traduction automatique ne marche pas pour vous ? Ça marche pour moi.
Можно не смотреть и сразу сказать что pinnacle победитель )) или взять старый dvd рекордер
You can say that, but it won't be true.
@@ConsumerDV тогда можно было бы поделиться своим мнением о победителе в самом видео .
Хорошая большая проделанная работа .
По вашему коротко вывод кто победил ?
IO Data GV-USB2 is the overall winner. See a comprehensive analysis in the comments section by a viewer, and my reply.
poor kid