Good Capture device for Win 7 64x

[ameisenmann]

I wanted to record some gameplay of the Saturn and still looking for a good device for capturing on Win 7 64bit.
I tried the cheap Easy Cap Video Grabber but could not make it work because of driver issues on Win 7. No driver worked so I will return it.

Can you recommend a good / not too expensive capturing device that works with Win 7 64bit?

[buckoa51]

Depends what you mean by "not too expensive". BlackMagic's Intensity capture cards are good www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/ What signal are you feeding in from the Saturn?

[numberedeyes]

www.ezcap.tv/index.html

the original models don't work with windows 7 but if you get the later models they work just fine i have an EZcap and it detects my ps1, psp, gamecube and ps3 as long as it uses an av or svideo cord it should be fine.

the company changed there name to ezcap after a flood of hong kong/china bootlegs hit the market all made from poor quality parts.

if your looking for something simple and cheap id suggest looking at the official website and ordering directly from them to avoid bootleg product.

[ameisenmann]

I really think that I have a hong kong fake because no driver for win7 64x works.
Today I will try it on my old computer that has Windows XP.

By "not too expensive" I meant up to 100$ but the Intensity Shuttle looks interesting because it has HDMI. I have a USB 3.0 port on my new Notebook but I don't know if it is X58-Plattform. My CPU is core-i5 but I think core-i7 is supported by the board, too. DxDiag shows that is a "Compal PBL21".
Do you think it is good enough for intensity shuttle?

I use a RGB-cable for Saturn. I have an adapter where I can plug RGB cable in and get out composite video signal.



So my plan was to plug saturn rgb cable into this adapter and yellow composite to the ezcap video grabber. But for testing I used the composite cable of my N64

[retro]

Capture cards don't do RGB generally. I would recommend investing in an s-video cable for good quality captures.

One of the best capture devices on the market that I'd consider to be... well, not cheap but affordable is the Hauppauge HD PVR. It'll do H.264 at 720P (or 1080i), supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM, and accepts S-Video, composite, component and even has optical audio connectors.

Of course, you could use a SCART to component connector and shove it into that, but I've never tried it so I can't say how it'd come out.

Now for the bad news - they're $200 in the US. You might possibly be able to find an ex-demo / used one, though. Looking at eBay, it seems possible to pick them up in the $120-150 region.

They're great for Xbox and PS3.

This person's converted S-video to component (why?!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXzKlFQTbKc

Here's one that says it uses a composite adapter (wonder if they mean component):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=98za8c-IpwU

And just so you can see how good it is, Crysis 2 in 720p:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpkyyMWRwms

[ameisenmann]

Looks like a very good device but the shuttle intensity has HDMI for the same price.

When I say "composite" I mean an RCA cable. But this seems to be the worst quality. S-Video is better than composite (because it separated chrominance and luminance) but not as good as RGB.
With my posted adapter I can at least get the composite/RCA signal from the RGB cable because all 10 pins are connected. I could also get the s-video signal. There is no need to buy a new saturn-specific cable for s-video. Maybe I find an s-video cable from my old GPU somewhere.

So RGB and component is pretty much the same because red, green and blue are transmitted separately?


In the first video I don't understand it neither why he converted s-video to component. Maybe that is useful when optimizing colors.

In the 2nd video maybe he did something what I want to to. Using an adapter to get the composite signal out of the rgb cable.

[zyrobs]

Aug 12, 2011 20:09:55 GMT ameisenmann said:

With my posted adapter I can at least get the composite/RCA signal from the RGB cable because all 10 pins are connected. I could also get the s-video signal. There is no need to buy a new saturn-specific cable for s-video.

iirc in scart, s-video shares pins with composite, so you couldn't get both in the same cable... but, maybe the TV can just grab the luma info from a composite signal if it's hooked up into a s-video cable. I dunno.

So RGB and component is pretty much the same because red, green and blue are transmitted separately?

No. RGB is red colors, green color, blue colors. You also need a sync signal, in Scart cables this is taken from the composite signal, but you can feed that pin pure composite sync as well and it works the same.

Component (YPbPr) is luma+sync, luma/blue difference, and luma/red difference.

In the first video I don't understand it neither why he converted s-video to component. Maybe that is useful when optimizing colors.

He converted the signal because he didn't knew that it was completely redundant, or because he used an upscaler, I dunno. But it's totally pointless to do so if you hook up your Saturn directly to the capture card.

[retro]

There are a few problems with S-video through SCART. One is that you need a television that'll accept S-video on SCART, and not all over them did. Another is that the SCART connector isn't the best connector for AV signals, so technically the S-video + phono route with a decent cable is going to be better. I guess a lot of people wouldn't notice it, though.

As for having S-video and composhite (sync) on the same lead, it is possible... but not at the same time. By the way, it affects the red pin, too.

Aug 12, 2011 20:09:55 GMT ameisenmann said:

With my posted adapter I can at least get the composite/RCA signal from the RGB cable because all 10 pins are connected. I could also get the s-video signal. There is no need to buy a new saturn-specific cable for s-video. Maybe I find an s-video cable from my old GPU somewhere.

Why would you want composite from an RGB cable? It makes no sense - you KNOW that composite = composhite and S-video is better, but you choose the worst.

If you mean COMPONENT, then no, you won't get it out of a stock Saturn without a converter.

You can get the S-video signal on SCART, yes... but what are you going to do with it? Your capture device will have an S-video socket, not a SCART socket. And an S-video cable from a GPU will be S-video to S-video - that's no good, either!

Sure, you could hack your cable about to have an S-video socket coming out of it, but that's ugly and will not give you as nice a signal as a proper S-video cable. If you want to spend $100 on a capture device, it makes no sense to skimp on the cable.

[mick_aka]

This is why I purchased second hand DVD recorder for £15 that records from RGB SCART, you can also set it to an SHQ setting that fits around 45 mins on a DVD in slightly higher quality.

Once you have your DVD full of footage, drag the VOB files onto your desktop, simply change the file extension to MPG and you can import them directly into premiere.

Cheap + great quality captures at the expense of ever so slightly more time.

[buckoa51]

Also if you're not using an upscaler, check that the capture device you are buying supports 240p directly, I'm not sure that the Blackmagic actually does, not a problem for me in my setup but obviously if you're only feeding a composite signal into it directly...

[retro]

Yeah, a DVD recorder isn't a bad way to go, although I find the cheaper ones give a slightly odd look, can't really explain it.

Of course, you'd need to try and make your videos "live" - if you have copious amounts of editing to do, it's rather frustrating to have to rip the DVD first! That's why I prefer a "proper" solution.. but for general purpose, a DVD recorder is a fine way to go!

[mick_aka]

I don't know weather its the same case in windows, but in OSX you literally drag and drop the .vob files off the DVD and change the file extension to MPG, that allows premiere or final cut to import them ready for editing.

No ripping required

[metalhead]

Aug 13, 2011 17:17:05 GMT mick_aka said:

I don't know weather its the same case in windows, but in OSX you literally drag and drop the .vob files off the DVD and change the file extension to MPG, that allows premiere or final cut to import them ready for editing.

No ripping required

Yes it is the same process in Windows. Ripping is only required if the disc is CSS protected. Discs burned with DVD Recorders do not have any content protection.

[retro]

Ah, nice! Well, it's certainly a fairly cheap and painless way of doing it nowadays, then!

[Yart]

The downside of DVDs is that once it burns, that's it. If you get a recording you don't like, that's a wasted DVD.

I heard the Dazzle is a pretty good capture device. Supposedly the Vista drivers work for Windows 7 too.