I wanted to be able to capture gameplay and make comparative screen capture from my game console collection. So i bought a Diamond multimedia GC500, on paper it had all i wanted. It seemed perfect; Component, S-video, composite, Sound, Outputs for passthrough, not too expensive... But very dissatisfied so far. Im using the driver provided with the disc and DMcap 1.02.61.0339 ( also provided in the disc) Wont work with my Turbo Grafx 16 ( s-video ) Wont work with my PSone (S-video ) Works with Sega Genesis ( Composite) and SNES (S-video ) but image quality is pretty bad, colors are off and i get jailbar effect. Seems to be working better with the gamecube (s-video). Still the image quality is cerainly not stellar. I did not try Component input, i have nothing to output it yet. I tried all the display resolutions and video modes for all the consoles. I did not try it with any more consoles but its already a deal breaker, Im about to ask for a return. Maybe it works fine with latest consoles with Component, idk, but i dont care about that. Game capture devices all advertise HD and stuff that works with the latest consoles but what about retro consoles? I guess they think nobody cares anymore? So im back at Square A, i still need a good method to record my (retro) video game consoles. Im a bit short on expansion slots so USB would be ideal but i could do with a PCI device and MAYBE a PCI-e. Traditional capture cards with only an input and no output might be an option but i would have to record the Monitor out of my TV, which is composite only... I dont even know if the monitor output will work if my input is not composite.( I need to check that ) Anyway, what are you guys using? Any recommendation?
I can't say I've used that card but if it was cheap then you normally get what you pay for. If possible new drivers may fix some issues but it's most likely poor hardware. You really need to spend at least 7000 yen (www.xe.com to convert yen) if you want quality. Saying that. My Sky HD capture X card doesn't want to do HDMI at 1080p anymore. Just a black screen. It did work at one point. Even the latest drivers won't fix the issue. Stuck at 720p now
The GC500 cost me 70$ ( CAD) ( 5500-6000 yen ) And its the lowest price i could find on the internet. Its relatively cheap compared to some other HD capture devices that are in the 200$ range. Reviews of it were not so bad either but they only tried it with PS3 and Xbox360. But what if even the 200$ capture devices suck with retro consoles? Must be something about being picky with signal specs. I could probably email and ask a given company but somehow im not sure i would trust their answers, thats why i prefer asking to the actual users here. Does the Sky HD works well with older consoles? Does it have s-video?
The Sky HD Capture X works fantastic with EVERYTHING I've thrown at it. Through S-Video I've done Saturn, PlayStation, Mega Drive, Super Famicom and Dreamcast. For Composite I've tried a PC Engine and Master System. HDMI I've used my laptop and 360. Everything works fine. That is a bit expensive though and keep in mind that mine won't accept a 1080p signal anymore although it did at one point. The Sky HD will also capture your PC screen but it does so without sound and at a crazy 200 odd fps.
A lot of the HD devices don't do the lower resolutions that home consoles are outputting. Throw an upscaler on there with a clean picture (component or RGB converted), and they usually work fine. For most of the old consoles, if you just want to capture any quality video, the cheaper devices seem to do a better job (ie they work out of the box)
The HD500 "does" 320x200 and even lower resolutions. Or so it says in the settings. You need to set the resolution manually and the settings are there, only it does not work right if at all. Maybe ill go for a 10$ chinese usb AV input dongle, might just work better than the GC500 XD.
I have a card that you could buy. It's software is in Japanese however it can capture analogue signals very well. I used to use it on my XP machine but had to change when I moved to Windows 7 because this card had no drives for anything past Vista. If you have an XP machine I can sell you this card (Buffalo Magic TV series card) for the price of shipping. It will record up to 720x480 resolution.
I will say Haupage Hd Pvr is best capture device and it's got its own hardware and connects through your pc through usb but works flawlessly with hd support as well. Some manufactured don't support retro consoles well, but it turns out it's due to the analogue signal they use it has trouble reading. Only solution was to plug old consoles into dvd recorder and put the video outputting from the dvd recorder into the capture box. This can be done with a vcr as well. So this might solve your problem.
Thanks for the offer. I did not find information about this card so my guess is that maybe it was not sold outside asia? Im not too sure as I cant read Japanese and the shipping itself to Canada might be kind of prohibitive. Does it also have a passthrough/output to connect my TV ? The HD Pvr sure looks badass, but will it work properly with the wonky signals from old consoles? Anyway good idea with the VCR, unfortunately i cant try it as i had already packaged the GC500 to ship it back, its gone now, good riddance. Even then however my old VCR only has Composite and i really insist on S-video recording. Im currently looking at a cheap auction for an used ATI All in wonder card with In and out. That might be a good inexpensive solution. Problem is it does not come with breakout cables, and im still not garanteed its gonna work...
hey dude check this out, might be what you want, considering buying it myself http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PCI-TV-Vi...75150256?pt=AU_Components&hash=item3a5d673db0
Vista drivers work on Windows 7 95% of the time (and the other 5% is mostly installers that check your windows version, but if you extract the drivers and install manually from device manager - most work then too)
Micomsoft SC-500N1 is a great card (although no S-video or composite input but handles most other). There is a cheaper variant from Startech that is almost the same.. check this shmups forum thread: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37984
I'm using the BlackMagic Intensity Shuttle capture device and it works great for PAL or NTSC Composite, Component, and even HDMI. The catch: it needs a compatible USB 3.0 controller to work.
I ended up buying an old ATI ALL in wonder, but it is the pro model with Inputs and Outputs. Hopefully it will work decently... If it doesn't, welll i got it for REAL cheap.
OK, I received my card from ebay. Its an ATI ALL IN WONDER 128 PRO THEATER. Its 11 years old It was their deluxe version back then, there's not a metal part on it that is not covered in chrome I got it for 15$ shipped, as is. ( The shipping was higher than the card ) They still have drivers for the card on ATI/AMD website and I could get the card to work with a program called "beyond TV 4" The Image was actually pretty damn good with my SNES and PSone ( all i tried so far ) But the screen has some sort of vibration, its quite annoying but not a deal breaker, It already infinitely better than that abysmal Diamond GC500 I tried before. The other problem is that Beyond TV is the only program that could use it so far and its a bloated, clumsy piece of crap that i do not want to buy, and i only have a 20 days trial. Everything else i tried failed miserably, Winamp tv plugin and some other program i tried all did not work/crashed system. I guess thats what i get for using a no longer supported 11 year old piece of hardware that came without driver disk... :cool-new: Anyway, you guys know some magical TV-tuner program that is free, light and just works with anything? All i want is to record some S-video.
got and get a HD PVR from Hauppauge, this records everything, at least it does here, recorded PC Engine, SMS, NES, MD, NEOGEO, X360, Wii and PS3 no problems at all.
