Micomsoft XCAPTURE-1 USB 3.0 Capture Unit

[Fudoh]

I thought whatever you set your PS3 to that the PS3 console would just upscale to 1080p.

no, that's how it works on the 360. On the PS3 the output was always limited to the game's supported resolution. If your PS3 is set to 1080p, the dash's showing in 1080p, but once a game starts, it will switch to 720p.

[Thrill]

Yeah that must be where I was getting confused.

Glad the issue was a minor one lettuce!

[Fudoh]

In 2006/2007 this was pissing off a lot of people. Many of the higher-end CRTs and/or RPTVs did support 1080i, but not 720p and the PS3 is unable to render a 720p game in 1080i, so it defaulted back to 480p....

[lettuce]

Yeah ill need to see if i have a 1080p game in my collection and see if it still has tearing or not, my guess is it wont but you never know.

[Fudoh]

Ridge Racer 7.

[lettuce]

Ridge Racer 7.

Sadly i dont have that, have tried Super Stardust HD which is 1080p and cant see any tearing issues with that which is good news.

What im not sure of is, how i was able to get a display with the xcapture set to 1080p and why i was getting tear as the refresh rates are the same for both 720p and 1080p?

[pantra]

Got my XCAPTURE-1 a few days ago and after doing some testing with both AmaRec and VirtualVCR I'm a litte puzzled about how the device handles 15khz video. It seems to always automatically apply deinterlacing or linedoubling while keeping the input framerate. For example, if I feed it a 480i game through D-Terminal/Component, both Amarec and VirtualVcr record progressive Frames with no visible interlacing left. This would be great, if along the way the fieldrate would become the new framerate, but it doesn't, the framerate stays at 29.97. So half the temporal resolution is lost. As soon as I switch to a 480p game, I can happily record at 59.94 FPS.

I now wonder if there's any way to just record 480i completely unprocessed, still interlaced. That's how I used to capture with other devices. I would then either linedouble or deinterlace the footage myself after recording. Is there maybe a driver available that lets me do that with the XCAPTURE-1? I used the one that came on the CD with the device. Or do the PCI-E-cards from Micomsoft handle 15khz video differently than the XCAPTURE-1?

[Smashbro29]

How does it stack up to http://www.solarisjapan.com/sc-512n1-l- ... ure-board/ ?

[Fudoh]

I think it's identical to the 512N1, but the 500N1 handled 240p/480i differently.

[Smashbro29]

I think it's identical to the 512N1, but the 500N1 handled 240p/480i differently.

Fudoh to the rescue, also heard reports that it more or less ignores HDCP but the guy who told me wasn't sure.

[Thrill]

Got my XCAPTURE-1 a few days ago and after doing some testing with both AmaRec and VirtualVCR I'm a litte puzzled about how the device handles 15khz video. It seems to always automatically apply deinterlacing or linedoubling while keeping the input framerate. For example, if I feed it a 480i game through D-Terminal/Component, both Amarec and VirtualVcr record progressive Frames with no visible interlacing left. This would be great, if along the way the fieldrate would become the new framerate, but it doesn't, the framerate stays at 29.97. So half the temporal resolution is lost. As soon as I switch to a 480p game, I can happily record at 59.94 FPS.

I now wonder if there's any way to just record 480i completely unprocessed, still interlaced. That's how I used to capture with other devices. I would then either linedouble or deinterlace the footage myself after recording. Is there maybe a driver available that lets me do that with the XCAPTURE-1? I used the one that came on the CD with device. Or do the PCI-E-cards from Micomsoft handle 15khz video differently than the XCAPTURE-1?

I'm still trying to work out the driver options on my SC-512 but since it looks identical to the XCAPTURE-1 I can give some input.

One of these options (if the XCAPTURE-1 has it in the driver) should help you: http://i.imgur.com/jVPpXDD.jpg

I know for a fact the only way I can actually get a clean picture with 240p SCART RGB is to tick "Auto resolution scaling" or I get a garbled mess.

Also if you tick that same option you can actually record 240p from S-Video/Composite but it will be 30fps. With all those options in the screenshot unticked I have been able to capture 720x480i at 29.97 (you can see the interlacing in Amarec) and being able to deinterlace to the proper 59.94 fps. So if you have those options ticked, try recording with all unticked and if they are already ticked, then untick and try (or even a combination of ticked and unticked).

And as for the 512N1 ignoring HDCP, it does not.

[pantra]

One of these options (if the XCAPTURE-1 has it in the driver) should help you: http://i.imgur.com/jVPpXDD.jpg

Thanks for the advice! Sadly those are exactly the options that are missing with the current driver, except for "auto phase". I've looked for a driver update on Micomsofts website. A link from the XCAPTURE-1 product page to the downloads leads to this section, which did look promising at first. There's a more recent driver version 1.1.0.122, while the one that came with the XCAPTURE-1 is 1.1.0.119. But if google translate isn't mistaken, there's a note at the very top of the page which tells you that this driver isn't suitable for the XCAPTURE-1 and that you're advised to use the one on the CD instead. So I suppose all I can do for now is wait.

EDIT: Or get the Startech PEXHDCAP from Fudoh's sales bin, which I did.

[lettuce]

I think it's identical to the 512N1, but the 500N1 handled 240p/480i differently.

Fudoh to the rescue, also heard reports that it more or less ignores HDCP but the guy who told me wasn't sure.

Really? ill have try plugging my PS3 straight into it and see what happens?

[alamone]

http://amalabo.blog35.fc2.com/blog-entry-238.html

This review seems to make the same points. He summarizes it in the good/bad points at the end:

1. For NTSC, it is always deinterlaced to 30FPS. (this is a big problem.)
2. Cant capture at "fake 240P" with S-video or composite (this seems minor to me - use RGB to capture.)
3. Because of the integrated scaler it is easy to pick the wrong capture format that does not match the source. (fair enough)
4. Does not work on USB 2.0, and limited compatibility with USB 3.0 hosts. (it's a USB 3.0 device, I would not expect it to.)

I'm guessing that the SC512N1 has the same problems with 15KHz?

[Fudoh]

1. For NTSC, it is always deinterlaced to 30FPS. (this is a big problem.)
2. Cant capture at "fake 240P" with S-video or composite (this seems minor to me - use RGB to capture.)

so, 480i is deinterlaced on all inputs (even HDMI and D-Terminal ?), while 240p true RGB is recognized as a progressive feed ? Hard to image that the hardware can make this determination.

[Smashbro29]

I think it's identical to the 512N1, but the 500N1 handled 240p/480i differently.

Fudoh to the rescue, also heard reports that it more or less ignores HDCP but the guy who told me wasn't sure.

Really? ill have try plugging my PS3 straight into it and see what happens?

Please do this immediately, thank you.

[lettuce]

Really? ill have try plugging my PS3 straight into it and see what happens?

Please do this immediately, thank you.

Nah, that claim appear to be false, dont get a display at all when plugging the ps3 straight into the xcapture

[Smashbro29]

Poop.

[lettuce]

When i usually capture gameplay i have a USB Creatives XF-i headset and mic combo that i have the audio from the capture coming through the headset and can commentate via the mic. But have noticed that the audio is out of sync ever so slightly when i have my volume on the TV up...its a bit hard to work out if its the headset or the TV thats behind but im guessing its the headset. Is there any options within Amarec that i can sync the audio correctly?

For information, i have a HDMI switcher so form the console it does to the switcher and then 1 hdmi to the TV and the other to the capture device

[Fudoh]

Your TV likely delays audio with the video signal, so there's nothing you can do but mute the TV and get audio directly from the console instead.

[lettuce]

Your TV likely delays audio with the video signal, so there's nothing you can do but mute the TV and get audio directly from the console instead.

But the capture device and the TV are using the same HDMI cable (thought the switcher), would this still cause the same issue, i was just wonder if it was a delay because the headset is a USB headset?

Its not a massive delay however, you just get that sort of echo effect when you listen to both the TV and Headset audio

[Smashbro29]

So choosing between X-Capture 1 and http://www.solarisjapan.com/sc-512n1-l- ... ure-board/

What do I pick? I already have a Framemeister taking care of everything 240p-480p so I don't need all the extra inputs but if they both capture up to 1080p at 60fps in exactly the same way it wouldn't hurt to have them.

[Smashbro29]

Not to double up here but if this ends up cheaper: http://gamerzone.avermedia.com/game_cap ... remecap_u3 I'm talking about 1-200$ range it may make the X-Capture 1 and it's PCI equivalent only useful for 240p via RGB.

[Thrill]

it may make the X-Capture 1 and it's PCI equivalent only useful for 240p via RGB.

Not really. They are relying on USB3 bandwidth to have a 0 delay preview but that depends on your PC monitor.

I don't know how that is going to work if you are a streamer/speedrunner. If you have a 1080p source you obviously want to play in 1:1 mapping so there goes 1920x1080 of your screen real estate. Add in a WSplit timer and of course the actual chat window on Twitch. Would 2560x1600 monitor even be enough to fit that all in?

[Smashbro29]

it may make the X-Capture 1 and it's PCI equivalent only useful for 240p via RGB.

Not really. They are relying on USB3 bandwidth to have a 0 delay preview but that depends on your PC monitor.

I don't know how that is going to work if you are a streamer/speedrunner. If you have a 1080p source you obviously want to play in 1:1 mapping so there goes 1920x1080 of your screen real estate. Add in a WSplit timer and of course the actual chat window on Twitch. Would 2560x1600 monitor even be enough to fit that all in?

Wait a sec, people are actually using the HDMI out on these things? I've just been splitting the signal beforehand. Seems way easier.

Device - splitter - TV
"" - "" - Capture

If I understand correctly there's a splitter that breaks HDCP so if you're using a PS3 you kinda have to use that.

[lettuce]

Well my setup is:

(OUTPUT)<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<(INPUT)
XCAPTURE<<<<<<<<<<<HDMI Splitter (2x4)<<<<<<<<<<CONSOLE/DEVICES
LCD TV<<<<<<<<<<<<<HDMI Splitter (2x4)<<<<<<<<<<CONSOLE/DEVICES


So basically my LCD TV and Capture device are plugged into the 2 output ports and my consoles/devices are plugged into the 4 input ports on the HDMI splitter (l also have a HDMI Switch between the PS3 to the splitter to strip the HDCP signal)

This way i can game as usual on my LCD TV whilst capturing, so im not effect by any latency!....or though i can easily enough play from the capture window on AmaRec on the PC if i wanted to as there isnt much latency really

[Smashbro29]

If you wanna get technical my setup is:

Devices - Switch 1x5 - switch 2x4 - TV

Devices - Switch 1x5 - switch 2x4 - HDMI splitter (for HDCP) - capture/second monitor (just because I can.)

[lettuce]

Why to you have 2 switch boxes in series?

[Sixfortyfive]

Since there aren't many impressions for this device for English-speaking users out there at the moment, I decided to post a review. Give it a look and let me know if there's anything I need to correct or something else you feel I should go over.

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/streaming/xcapture1.html

If you want to download the AVIs, please save them so that you don't have to download them more than once. Depending on how much this gets around, I might have to take the videos down for bandwidth usage.

[Fudoh]

nice and extensive review - thanks !

The resolutions you mentioned as unsupported via HDMI (16:10 ones) should work through VGA though.

One point I missed in the review: as you mentioned composite and s-video 240p is seen as 480i instead with forced deinterlacing to 30fps, while RGB works with 240p/60fps. What about 480i ? Any way of recording this in true interlaced - maybe via component, RGB or HDMI ?