Originally Posted by Steve Troughton

I recently bought Pinnacle's "Dazzle DVD Recorder". It's the USB 2 version, which will record straight to DVD, with reasonable quality. However, when I use it in conjunction with Pinnacle Studio (10.5) for editing, the image quality is REALLY bad, after writing to DVD.

I'm using an HP Pavilion dv8000 laptop. AMD Turion 64 (1.8GHz) with 1GB RAM. Graphics: ATI Radeon Express 200M

I'm trying to transfer an old hour long analogue (VHS) video of a school panto production. I've burnt several DVDs, using different approaches:

1) Recorded the video straight to the hard disk, using Dazzle's "DVD Recorder" software. I then burnt the disc using Nero. Quality was comparible to the VHS source.

2) Recorded the video straight to Pinnacle's "Studio 10.5" software, using AVI format. Some minor edits made, just to crop a few seconds from beginning and end, and to add chapters and menu. Burnt the disc using "Studio".
Quality was terrible. Not only was the video image very poor, but the video "jumped" every few seconds.

3) Recorded the video straight to the hard disk, using Dazzle's "DVD Recorder" software. I then converted the .VOB files to mpeg 2 (using MOVAVI). I imported this video into "Studio", and performed the same edits and menu creation as attempt 2 above. Finally I burnt the disc, again using "Studio".
Quality was still very poor. The "jumping" had gone, but the image was really bad, especially during clips with quick motion.

I just don't know whether to scrap my Dazzle and/or the "Studio" software, and start again. I will be purchasing a new desktop PC soon which will have a SATA hard drive and Intel Core2 Duo processor E4600 & 2 GB RAM.

Any advice would be welcome.