Switch box for 8+ consoles to Component In

edwinbradford · Post by **edwinbradford** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:38 pm

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking in this forum for the last month gleaning bits of information and I've reached a point where I need advice. I've made a diagram of what I'm attempting to achieve:

I work in the games industry and my main objective is to set up a workflow at home where I can connect multiple Consoles to a Video Capture Card in my PC so I can record games footage. I've chosen and ordered my PC capture card, a PV3 Video capture card from Japan http://earthsoft.jp/release/PV3.html, it has two Japanese standard "D terminal" inputs, these are just component inputs with a different connector, its easy to get Component to D Terminal leads with zero quality loss.

So in the diagram above I need to connect all the outputs from the consoles to Component connectors (D Terminal) on the Computer. The consoles with solid black backgrounds are no problem as they all support Component Out. From then on it gets harder, if I purchase the X-Select D4 http://nfggames.com/games/xselectd4/ as shown in my diagram above, I can connect the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast via RGB Scart cables to the Japanese RGB Scart In on the X-Select D4 with some minor Scart cable rewiring.

I can then take the D Terminal output of the X-Select D4 straight to the D Terminal of the PV3 video capture card. Where I'm stuck is what do I do with the Nintendo 64? The best I can get out of that is S-Video (unless I get sucked into modding it to support RGB Scart) which would be fine but how do I feed that to the Component on the PV3 capture card? Can the X-Select D4 Jap. RGB Scart In be utilised to support S-Video? Got a better idea?

Alternatively there's the XRGB-3 which takes everything I can throw at it (including S-video) but doesn't output Component, I'd have to convert the VGA back to Component, I don't know how lossy that is in quality and the idea of another conversion doesn't sound like a good idea, plus it has limited Component Inputs and there'd be a heap more manual cable swapping.

When I'm not capturing to video the output from the Switch box (X-Select or which ever) can just go straight to the Component In on my standard definition TV. At a later date I may get a HD TV if anyone wants to factor that into their advice but that's not my priority for now.

Great forum by the way, hope someone can help or let me know if I've made some major miscalculation before I go ahead and buy anything.

Cheers.

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:50 pm

I wouldn't worry about the transcoding so much. If you're hooking up your Saturn via RGB to the X-Select D4 it will transcode the signal to 480i component/YUV.

If you're using a XRGB3 you can take the S-Video, have it output via RGBHV and have the RGBHV trancoded by the X-Select D4 to 480p component.

So you have a transcoding in both scenarios.

How did you manage to order a PV3 ? Did you succed in getting one directly or did you buy it from Yahoo / any aftermarket sales ?

You know that the PC specs for capturing with the PV3 are extremely high ? If money isn't really THIS much an issue an iScan VP20 which takes all your sources, tranforms them to HDMI YCbCr 4:2:2 and hands them to an BlackMagic Intensity would be much more convenient I think.

Fudoh

PS: do you have any links to first-hand experience with a PV3. I would like to know if you can use it for live overlay / processing or just for capturing. ?

edwinbradford · Post by **edwinbradford** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 10:29 pm

Thanks Fudoh,

You're right and well informed, I ordered the PV3 through Yahoo auctions and paid a lot more than the market rate of course, many sellers sell with the guarantee intact. There are clearly some opportunists buying them up in droves and then selling them on for a profit. Why Earthsoft don't limit sales to one per person I don't know.

Thanks for the advice, I had checked the specs and as I only built my machine 6 months back it's pretty state of art and should have no problem. I had a quick look at the iScan you mentioned which I hadn't heard of although I knew about the BlackMagic cards, Blackmagic told me their product was not capable of supporting my requirments -- it couldn't cope with 480p -- whereas the PV3 can and I've seen examples from the latter online that are impressive so went with that.

The iScan looks interesting but the googling I did said around 1,700 euros, several times the price of the PV3, anyway, we'll see when I get it. I have a few PV3 links but they're all in Japanese, if you do a google for wiki and pv3 and limit results to Japanese pages you'll come across some stuff. I've been learning Japanese for 3 years so it doesn't put me off too much.

If I understand correctly, your solution to my S-Video query is based on my buying both the XRGB3 and the XSelect D4? Or did I misunderstand? I was hoping a simpler solution might exist and certainly a cheaper one? After all, I think everything works with the XSelect D4 apart from the N64 on S-Video and it seems crazy to buy an XRGB3 just to capture from that.

Thanks again.

icepick · Post by **icepick** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 11:24 pm

I find this topic fascinating; I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the items that you are discussing, which in part makes it very interesting.

If I may offer my opinion, I think that adding RGB output to the N64 (or having someone/someplace do it for you) would be the most logical option. It seems that you have everything sorted out except for that, and I agree that purchasing an expensive item simply for one console would be convenient albeit impractical.

(However, that said, I was going to mention that the DC could be placed into the "component" column via a VGA-to-Component transcoder, which would seem to be worthwhile only if progressive component was desired.)

I'll be following this topic; Good luck with everything!

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:19 am

I have to second icepick on the N64 issue: adding RGB would be the easiest solution, especially now that quality-mods for the formerly unmoddable "later" N64 units are available.

For the Dreamcast neither the original Scart wiring nor icepick's idea with the external transcoder are ideal. The X-Select D4 has a VGA input which is transcoded to YUVp anyway, so this would be the best solution to hook up the DC. Downside is that a few games like Bangaioh won't run this way, but you can still switch to RGB/Scart for these.

Would be great to get some first hand experience reports once you get your PV3 !

edwinbradford · Post by **edwinbradford** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:27 pm

Agreed, it's looking like the best solution. I woke up this morning and realised that RGB Scart wouldn't support Progressive on the Dreamcast, nice to see you corrected that

. Your VGA input suggestion is a great solution, cheers. My PV3 should be being shipped, I need to order a X Select D4 and some cables but I'll post back here once I've had a chance to test it all. I should be able to upload some sample captures.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

icepick · Post by **icepick** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:04 pm

Fudoh wrote:The X-Select D4 has a VGA input which is transcoded to YUVp anyway, so this would be the best solution to hook up the DC.

Ah, I wasn't aware of that, and I agree! This sounds like an impressive video selector.

edwinbradford wrote:I'll post back here once I've had a chance to test it all. I should be able to upload some sample captures.

Excellent; I'm looking forward to it.

I'm glad that I could be ever-so-slightly involved in the solution-finding process.

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:12 am

Just got a NAB newsletter from BlackMagic Design: they have a Intensity Pro card now for $349 which features HD component in/out besides HDMI in/out.

Probably quite an alternative for people who think about HD capturing and cannot get ahold of a japanese PV3.

Tobias

edwinbradford · Post by **edwinbradford** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:25 pm

Yes I just got that newsletter although I didn't read it thoroughly. There's a good thread referring to a BlackMagic setup on the Doom9 forums here http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=120785. I don't know if it's now outdated.

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:17 am

I know the thread, the YPrPb mode of the HDMI input can indeed be a problem. That's why I suggested an iScan VP20/VP30 to go with it. With the new card with Component input you won't have any problems anymore.

It probably doesn't matter if you get the PV3 or the Intensity Pro, it's just that the later one should be much easier to buy...

edwinbradford · Post by **edwinbradford** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 1:24 pm

Very interesting. Thanks for the update, am I right in saying that the Intensity Pro still won't natively do 480p or does it now support it? I would have gone with BlackMagic otherwise, as you say it's easier to buy, they're highly regarded and our internal Video Specialist at work recommended it but it was the 480p that stopped me. Even so, I'm looking forward to the PV3 even if the documentation will be a bit of a language challenge at first

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:46 pm

Absolutely missed this one, sorry ! You are probably right about the 480p compatibility.

On the other hand you have to consider the format of your final AVI or MPEG2 movies. You cannot bring 480p onto a DVD for example. So you might end up with a 720x480px60 stream after your PV3 capture, but you have to downsample to 720x480px30 for AVIs or 720x480ix60 for DVD anyway.

So - for capturing purposes 480i, 720p, 1080i should be enough. For live overlay applications (scaling maybe) the 480p incompatibility might be an issue.

I had a sweetspot card for capturing YUV 480i so far and I will probably upgrade to the Intensity Pro sometime.