Hey everyone I was wondering how to catpure the DC video signal on my PC in order to create a QuickTime, MPEG or similar. First of all - the most obvious one - recording the TV AV channel to a VHS and later capture this VHS means a loss of most of the graphic quality since colors are merging and floating around. Also I think that it's the same with a TV capturing card for the PC. Has someone an advice how to capture the best quality, maybe even directly from the DC video RAM?
I was thinking about this too. The way i thought about it is by having a VGA capture card in your PC, that way you would be able to record from a VGA cable. Though this is my unofficial way. Im interested in how people do it these days?
Just connect the Dreamcast to a good video capture card. Simple. Use s-video at least or better still VGA or Component. If you want to play the game and record at the same time then this may be a tricky because many capture cards have a second or two delay so playing isn't really possible via a capture card. in this case you can either use a TV that has a video out on it. This is what i use now. The image on the screen is out-putted via a S-Video output along with sound. So I watch the image on the TV which is in real time while the out feed goes direct in to the PC. This is how I capture all game videos on my site these days. If you're TV doesn't have a video out on it then you can do what i used to do. Buy a video/audio switch box and mod that (if it's not standard) to accept a video image and output it to two different monitors. If you do this you may need to use some sort of capacitor to boost the colours if the switch box is cheap. yakumo
Ive used quite a few capture cards, and lag has never been an issue if the PC being used is up to the job. Most good capture cards will have a pass through anyway, so you can record, plus view the feed live. The best way is to capture the VGA signal, or RGB signal at least, but past that , you could convert the signal to Component relatively cheaply and capture that. Of course, that involves more cash, but Id rather do things once and be happy with the quality for all time hah.
Hey, thanks for your swift replies! Unfortunately my TV doesn't have a s-video out, so that doesn't work for me. I'm also using a Mac, so the collection of capturing cards are very limited. I would love to capture the real VGA signal and would spend more money on it, however I don't know what card I should buy. Found this one, but only captures the s-video signal: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/elgato-intros-elgato-video-capture-for-mac/ What do you think?
I use a Blackmagic Intensity Pro, expensive but captures in 480i, 720p, and 1080i, over Component, Composite, HDMI (no HDCP), or Svideo with a breakout cable. Could convert the VGA to Component with little signal loss. Though Im guessing you need usb so :\
