Editorial Review:

Item Description:
Dazzle DVD Recorder provides a simple, affordable way to make high-quality home video. Let your friends and family enjoy movies on professional-looking DVDs, complete with menus and chapters. This plug-and-play USB 2.0 device captures video to DVD, directly from VCRs, camcorders or other video equipment. Add your own menu and chapter functions for simple navigation. Burn your video to a DVD without first copying files to the PC hard drive, saving valuable time and space. Combined with the unique wizard-based, friendly interface of the Dazzle Instant DVD Recorder software, the powerful Dazzle video capture device allows you to quickly and affordably back up personal video collections.

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Rating: - * Strong enough for a Pro but made for a Consumer. ...
Now you can transfer your vintage tapes to DVD. With time and imagination you can digitize VHS tapes, add a menu, maybe some background music and voilá, you can burn DVDs of all your treasured home movies. The included software is a good start but I recommend that you upgrade to the full suite package.

The Studio - Premium or Ultimate sute has more controls, transitions and above all is more stable. You will be surprised that the easy to use interface gives plenty of options for video editing.

Install the software and reboot your computer before connecting this device. The only 2 reasons, in my opinion, to purchase a more expensive device is that 1. You want to output to tape. 2. You want to digitize HD video. But then again the purpose of this device it to digitize Standard VHS video.

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Rating: - * Its very difficult to rate this product.... ...
...Because you are actually rating two separate components: the video capturing function (from a VCR or camcorder), and the DVD creation function. One works well, the other one is TERRIBLE.
First though, I'd like to make a note for Vista users. Right on the Dazzle package it says its compatible with Windows Vista, you can download the patch at Pinnacle's website. The problem is, when you go there, there are MANY patches, and its very hard to figure out which one or ones you need to download. The patches should say something like 'patch for Vista'; instead they say things like "Studio release patch". Studio Plus is the software that comes with the Dazzle recorder, but Pinnacle has other software called Studio (like Studio Ultimate). Which Studio program is the patch for? Is it for Vista? Do I need to download other patches first? Who knows? It took me an hour to figure out all the patches I needed to download to get the software to work. If you are missing one patch, it doesn't work at all. Oh, and don't look to the manual for help. There is NO paper manual with the Dazzle, only a VERY POOR and undescriptive online manual, and it doesn't help at all.
Once I finally got it installed, I tested the video capturing from my VCR. It worked great, and was easy to use. Intuitive design, you won't have a problem figuring it out. So, with my video ready to be transferred to DVD, I launched into the DVD creation software, Studio Plus.... WHAT A NIGHTMARE! This is the absolute WORST software for DVD creation. its is EXTREMELY buggy, almost to the point of being useless. It crashes often. Here are some of the problems I encountered:
- THE MENUS: When editing one of the pre-made menus (such as "Corporate Function" or "Our Wedding"), the software will tell you you can't edit it because you can only have one menu per project. Nevermind that its the ONLY menu you chose for the project. You have to just keep hitting cancel, go back in to "edit", and keep trying until it finally allows you to edit. Sometimes, the menu background will simply disappear for no reason. When this happens, you have to delete the menu and start all over. Also, its SUPPOSED to allow you to choose a thumbnail picture to be displayed for each chapter on the menu. There is even a "set thumbnail" button. The fact that IT DOESN'T EVER WORK makes you wonder why the button is there. Simple: its there to INFURIATE you. So you eventually end up with menus with black boxes for each chapter instead of thumbnails. If you are thinking of creating a menu from scratch, forget it- there is no such function included. Ok, so you FINALLY got the poor-man's menu ready to go. Time to burn the DVD!
-BURNING: The fact that only about 40% of my attempts to burn a DVD have succeeded should give you pause. 60% of the time the program crashes. Now, if you are burning at say 4X speed, an hour DVD takes about 60 minutes to burn. It usally crashes right towards the end, so now you have a useless DVD and you wasted an hour. While the video captures are still in the system, your menu you struggled to create IS NOT, so you have to recreate it all over again, then try burning it again (with the same 40% chance of success). Sounds like fun, huh???
The Dazzle does give you the option to simply burn straight to DVD from the source video (in other words, the DVD will be a straight transfer from the VHS tape- no menu, and no chapters). I tried this, and it worked perfectly, but really, who wants a DVD with no menu or chapter stops? If the video is more than 10 minutes long, you are going to want to be able to fast forward by using chapters.
Overall, the Dazzle does a great job at capturing video from a VCR or a camcorder. The software that comes with it is CRAP, and deserves a negative star rating. If not for the software, Dazzle would have gotten 5 stars from me. As it is, the 2 star rating is only because the video capturing works so great. The bottom line is- USE A DIFFERENT PROGRAM to create your DVDs. Avoid Studio Plus like the plague!!!! Shame on Pinnacle for releasing such buggy JUNK software with an otherwise great product.

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Rating: - * Could not get it to work with Vista. ...
This is the first time I have written a review or returned something to Amazon. I wasted way too much time on trying to get this product to work with my Vista PC. I downloaded the Vista drivers and software but the best I could do was capture about 20 minutes of a 60 minute VCR tape and then the software froze. Vista then went to blue screen but luckily came back after a reboot. I tried to contact support via email 3 times with no reply. Part of my job includes installing software and drivers, so this should have been a simple operation for me. I am now going to try the DIAMOND One Touch Video Capture VC500. Wish me luck!!!

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Rating: - * Use at your own risk ...
This product is supposedly compatible with Windows Vista, however my experiences has been to the contrary. The product will cause your computer to crash, showing the blue screen of death. Another big problem is that it freezes up too easily, meaning that you will need to restart your computer, then restart whatever it was that you were watching. This gets to be rather expensive if you choose the direct to dvd option since you will also be wasting a blank dvd.
User beware!

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Rating: - * Maybe plug and work for you, but not me... ...
Somewhat finicky in setting up the Dazzle. Just getting software upgrades installed was not straight forward. Getting USB port recognition correct before seeing video was a challenge.

After 8-10 hours of work, still have yet to produce a DVD.

So, maybe with a higher performance system (>1.99 GHz AMD CPU, with > 2 GB memory, ? video board) you may have better luck than I.

2 stars, since it does work and is not a complete waste of money.