2003, January 3

The Snazzi DV Premiere Cut AV.DV edition is an excellent value for those who need the capability to transfer video from a DV or analog video device into the computer for editing or archiving. The fact that the card supports both IEEE 1394, S-Video, and Composite video in a single PCI solution AND ships with a whole host of software, (from the entry level on up to professional tools such as Adobe Premiere 6.5) makes it a great value. The installation of this card was very straightforward thanks to the supplied instruction poster that came with the card.

This solution offers quite a bit of functionality, high quality video output, as well as choice in the software bundle that ships with it. Keep in mind that there are several DVD authoring applications that ship with the Snazzi; DVDit which is included with Premiere 6.5; Ulead SYstems DVD Workshop; and InterVideo's WinProducer 3, a $149 DVD authoring tool that also offers support for MPEG-4 encoding via Microsoft's WMV/ASF file format. The inclusion of the full version of Adobe Premiere 6.5 is gravy considering the price of the application is close to the price of the entire bundle. If the proverbial Swiss Army of video capture add-on solutions exists, the Snazzi DV Premiere Cut AV.DV edition is it.