Capturing video output from P1 comp

[twolazy]

Just a tip if anywhere in the process you want to pick up a cheap older PCI capture card from e-bay: many of them, although still working perfectly, do not have drivers for windows XP or above.
I got two nice Hauppage cards, and as I wanted to digitalise my VHS collection all at once, it was not a problem using a dedicated windows 98 system for it - but otherwise it would have been unpractical.

Is your tuner a wintv based model? If so every version has xp drivers here... . If its an older model, generic BT848x/BT878x drivers here should work.

Going back to my previous post, If you intend to do alot of demos, still recommend a firewire based camcorder instead of a tuner. Much cleaner motion, no messing with codecs, very little if any latency, and support in win98se to Win7/OsX/Linux etc. As for the video you have now, don't forget to remove the audio track, otherwise you will have the feedback shown in the video above. TMPGenc can easily do that in a matter of seconds if needed. Also, since you have windows, grab some templates for the windows movie maker. Then you can add your own custom intro/endings to your segments. I can help a little with this too if needed.

After watching you play monkey island, I want to do my demo now of the intro song, using different soundcards. Kinda like this one here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a324ykKV-7Y, but more a sequel using cards that were overlooked. I love to have others involved as well, but I'll save that for a different post lol. The methods i've mentioned using firewire will be what I will be using.

 

[Mau1wurf1977]

Looking forward to seeing these videos created with a camcorder. Not quite sure why it would look any different though, because the signal limitations are what come with the S-Video standard and have nothing to do with how it's captured. S-Video can only do so much and is interlaced as well. So not sure how a camcorder would help here. But can't wait for the results!

You mentioned you recorded from a dreamcast. I assume it runs at a higher resolution compared to the text and 320 x 200 resolution of a PC. Or did you use the component cables? Because that would indeed give you a better quality!

Monkey Island has been done to death :D It only supports a few sound cards (PC speaker, Adlib, CMS Game Blaster and Roland MT-32).

 

[twolazy]

You have how I had it connected somewhat right. Dreamcast has svideo/vga out if you use an external breakout box. I then used a vga to component cable attached to the camcorder. I also did some genesis demo's with svideo. Currently I own a few tv tuners I don't use anymore, I found my Panasonic camcorder does a much better job with a ton less cpu overhead, and a ton less latency. Try playing some auto racing or fast platform games using the pc as a tv, the latency is most noticeable then. I wouldn't say its 0 latency, but compared to my tuner cards its alot better.

 

[Mau1wurf1977]

vga to component cable

Well there you go!

Component has a much higher quality compared to S-Video. For example the current PS3 and XBox360 also have component cables.

But these cables won't work on a PC. RGB <> YPbPr. It's always in the detail.

Without going into further detail, consoles are built with TVs in mind, PCs aren't. At least not old PCs / old video modes. While HDMI makes it really easy for modern PCs / high resolutions.

and a ton less latency.

Now I get what you mean.

Well that's not the best setup to play / record a game in the first place. Ideally you have some kind of splitter or pass-through setup which allows you to game on your normal display. Just as if no capture device was attached and with no lag / delay whatsoever.

E.g. the Hauppauge Colossus has this feature. Component in from your Xbox, component out into your TV and you game just like without the colossus.

My VGA to S-Video box also has this feature! Works great in games, because you need to speed to play well...

 

[twolazy]

Playing off a real tv in real-time does have its advantages over pc tuners that's for sure! I invested in a small 4" lcd for playing games off of for my demoing. Like I said earlier, don't forget to invest some time in windows movie maker / adobe premiere etc for a simple opening theme. A small amount of work there goes a long way to having a professional feel.

For example, I'm starting a new msdos gaming channel, here's my basic opening...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYi87wAUl1w

I dunno just trying to think of things overlooked after all this tuner discussion! LOL.

 

[Raven]

I have a Hauppauge WinTV (8000? I don't recall) PCIe card, and it can do the real-time footage showing just fine. I use it to hook up old systems, including PCs, to my main PC to play in a window without requiring further conversion, while meanwhile enabling me to record footage if I want.