My very first foray into the world of video conversion was the Dazzle VideoCD Maker. This cost me about £100 (aprox. 2002) and would only work with Windows 98. The software that came with it would crash more times than a test dummy and editing was a very hit and miss affair.
The dazzle would convert directly to (VCD compliant) MPEG1, but the bitrates could be specifically selected through manual means or templates. The problem was that I hadn't yet grasped the concept of compression and bitrates. Hand in hand with this was the poor editing features of the Dazzle's software. So, searching on the internet to find a better editing program, I stumbled accross TMPGEnc (see the Video Software page).
Unfortuneately I used the encoding settings as an editing program; not realising that while it was lopping off the head and tail of the video it was also compressing it further. This was making the picture more and more smeary. Ironically, I was later to discover that TMPGEnc did have a hidden MPEG1 editing feature! Bad, smeary, picture or not there was an initial novelty value in seeing a VCD, that I had made, being played back on a television.
The Dazzle is also mentioned in my Television Archive History page.
The screen grab below is from the very FIRST piece of video that I captured: this is from a VHS off-air capture of Waking the Dead; this episode from 2001.
...and my first full VHS conversion; the much-mentioned Shoestring commercial VHS that started me on this road in the first place:
At the time, I thought the Dazzle was wonderful but, seeing the pictures now, the flaws and general quality are quite poor but this could be down to the original source VHS/VCR or simply that the Dazzle wasn't up to the job. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I have moved on to much better equipment, but the Dazzle will always be fondly remembered as my first attempts at VHS conversion.