Product ReviewsGraphics cards
Like two other peripherals recently reviewed by MacUser - PowerR's Director's Cut (23 February 2001, p23) and Formac's Studio (4 May 2001, p24) - Dazzle's Hollywood DV-Bridge converts analog video into DV format for editing in DV-only applications. The Hollywood's pleasingly rounded design is clearly intended to complement your iMac, and its compact footprint makes it the smallest product of this kind that we've seen. However, the Hollywood's flimsy and lightweight plastic base means the device is prone to falling over. The front of the device has three clearly labelled RCA-style composite video input ports, an S-Video input, and a six-pin FireWire connector. At the top are three mode indicator lights, which let you know what the Hollywood is doing. Situated at the back of the device are identical composite and S-Video outputs, another FireWire connector, a mode selector switch, and an AC power adaptor socket. However, unlike Studio and Director's Cut, the Hollywood unfortunately can't draw power directly from the Mac via a FireWire connection. The Hollywood can't work as a TV or radio tuner as Formac's Studio does. But, given the Studio's mediocre performance as a TV receiver and its buggy TV software, this isn't a big issue. As is the case with Director's Cut, the Mac version of the Hollywood doesn't come bundled with any software. It's designed to connect automatically just like a DV camcorder when used in video applications such as Apple's iMovie and Final Cut Pro, and Adobe's Premiere 6.0. A bridge too far Connecting a VCR or VHS (or Hi-8) camcorder to the Hollywood's inputs and then linking the device to your Mac via a FireWire cable means footage appears in iMovie as if it were DV footage from a DV camcorder. Overall, however, the process is less seamless. For example, iMovie lets you directly control a real FireWire-equipped DV camcorder on screen, so you can start, stop, rewind and record footage remotely with a click of a mouse. But as the Hollywood DV-Bridge's name points out, the box is only a bridge translating footage from a non-FireWire analog camera/VCR, not a camera controller. This means you have to manually stop and start your VHS/8mm camera or VCR. Also, as the short and easy-to-read manual points out, the Play button in software such as iMovie doesn't make the camera play: it's merely an on/off video feed switch. Video combination Once translated to digital DV format, previously incompatible video footage can be combined with any recently shot DV video in iMovie, or whatever QuickTime-based
When connected to the Mac, the Hollywood automatically senses which way it should be converting footage. The red mode indicator lights turn green when the device is processing information. When a completed movie is viewed on a TV, it becomes clear that the Hollywood's digital/analog hardware does a pretty good job. We found that VHS footage converted into DV footage and then back to VHS was better quality than a second-generation direct VHS to VHS copy done with two VCRs; the audio quality was similarly preserved. The Hollywood's digital-to-analog conversion was at least as good as Formac's Studio on better-quality video. When used to convert a rickety, 14-year-old VHS video to DV, the Hollywood device seemed more prone than the studio to producing dropped frames, sound glitches and artefacts. The quality isn't professional broadcast standard, but it's easily good enough for consumer VHS and Hi-8 camcorder and iMovie users. The manual illustrates how easy it is to hook up the Hollywood so it can copy and translate footage both ways between DV camcorders and VHS camcorders/VCRs without any connection to your Mac. In this arrangement, you simply instruct the Hollywood by clicking on the mode selector switch and it works pretty well. Video footage displayed on, for example, an iMac monitor usually bears scant resemblance to how it will appear on a TV screen: colours look darker, fields are dropped and artefacts are displayed, although the real quality of digital footage remains unaltered. So the Hollywood has an important role in providing a more accurate view of your footage on a TV monitor while you're editing on the Mac. The Hollywood can also be wired so a TV monitor will display footage from a VHS VCR while it's being imported into iMovie. No show Hollywood has one exasperating flaw: it refused to display footage imported from a DV camcorder into iMovie on a TV screen. As the Hollywood has two FireWire ports, we tried to connect a DV camcorder into one with the other FireWire connection going to the Mac. The video-out connectors went out to a TV. Nothing worked. Connecting the DV camcorder directly to one of the iMac's FireWire connectors with the Hollywood attached to the other FireWire port resulted in a battle for control with iMovie's automatic camera-sensing. Despite switching the mode selector to the right setting, after one second of video feed from the camera the Hollywood kept switching itself to the wrong setting and blocking the video. This is in marked contrast to Formac's Studio, which is generally able to provide TV monitoring of DV video being input into iMovie, even if it's sometimes unpredictable when choosing its settings. This strange irritation, and the need for a mains power converter, stops Dazzle's compact and generally well-designed box from establishing a lead over the competition. NEEDS: Mac OS 9.0.4, FireWire-equipped 300MHz G3/G4 Mac running iMovie or other video editing program By Paul Nesbitt |
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