Hey guys So I wanna play Dreamcast games on my laptop instead of a TV (that's dumb I know so don't ask why would I need that lol). Anyway, what's more, I wanna be able to play all games: the ones that support 480p, the 480i-only ones and also the games from different regions. At first, I was thinking about Akura->Elgato HD60S setup because the Elgato's 'Instant Gameview' feature gives you almost zero input lag in the preview window. But apparently, this capture card doesn't support Akura's 640x480 resolution, only 720x480! I guess using generic VGA to HDMI scalers would give me a stretched 1080p image in the preview window which is not cool. So my question is, what are the other options? If there's no way to convert 640x480 signal from Akura/Toro to 720x480, maybe there are other ways to achieve my goal? Maybe OSSC or Framemeister could scale the image to something acceptable by Elgato? Maybe there are some other external capture cards with close to zero lag? I know that AVerMedia cards definitely have a huge lag... Not sure what's the lag for Hauppauge and Magewell cards, anyone had any experience with them? I don't even need to record the gameplay, just want to play the games with the lowest lag and the best image quality possible so... if there is some crazy stuff like VGA or HDMI to USB adapter and a lag-free capture software that would work, let me know as well. Also, is it possible to use Code Breaker codes (to force 480i games use the 480p mode when it's possible) AND GameShark/Action Replay CDX (to play games of other regions) at the same time? Or maybe Code Breaker itself has that region-free hack? Thanks in advance for any help!
The X-Capture 1 and its clones are what you want. Can do RGB and VGA input (RGB might need a sync stripper). Perfectly playable, I use the startech clone at work.
Yeah thought about that thing but it's kinda expensive so I wanna be 100% sure. What capture software it uses? What about the lag? Will games with forced 480p mode work?
You choose the capture software. I use OBS a lot. . Nothing is lag free, and a certain amount depends on your computer, but it is perfectly playable. 480p is 480p, I don't see why it wouldn't work. You can buy a cheap card and cheap adapters, or invest in something decent. All those cheap devices add lag on top of lag, at least this will take straight VGA, no conversion. The clones aren't that much more expensive.
But the picture you're getting is kinda stretched isn't it? Is it possible to adjust that for the preview window?
