Recording from consoles and PCBs

[Hagane]

Following Ghegs's suggestion in this thread, I intend to make a guide about recording games for scoring verification. I don't know the first thing about doing such a thing with consoles or arcade PCBs though, so here I ask for input from members who know about the best methods.

I know this topic probably belongs to the Hardware section, but I think it will get more exposure here.

Also, I'd like the idea of coming to a consensus over which version of MAME would be the best for competitive play. Or maybe even the more technically inclined members here could make a custom build for that purpose?

[Chaos Phoenixma]

For recording from console, you would need a capture card. And I don't happen to have one, and from what I've seen mentioned they can be a pain to actually use. Maybe someone else familiar with them could post. I guess you could record with a video camera too, but that would be even less quality of recording.

[Ed Oscuro]

If you are looking for the greatest level of verification, in-person is the way to do it.

The next best option (only from the standpoint of verification) is a high-resolution (HD or better quality) video showing the player's controller and hands (at least) as well as the screen, to forestall the possibility of a prerecorded or tweaked run being recorded later (this is probably well beyond the technical capability of most, possibly all, forum members, but it would be a possibility). If you use a video camera, check your exposure settings so that frames are crisp and devoid of motion blur (utilizing a fast shutter speed, or shutter angle in film terms). A good framerate (60fps is unfortunately the maximum found in most consumer-grade cameras) would be helpful, but probably not essential.

Of course, from the standpoint of sharing information, a video capture straight from the source material would clearly be best (for detail and file size). Perhaps the video suggested above might be useful to show a portion of a run, perhaps it could be kept by the run maker and a portion selected at random and uploaded later.

For recording from console, you would need a capture card.

Not strictly true; you can always point a video camera at a monitor. You could also record to some other medium which allows you to transmit to PC; for example, I could record on VHS and use a datavideo DAC-200 to transfer the VHS to my PC, and other people do much the same thing with a digital video recorder (DVR).

Capture cards for consoles aren't prohibitively expensive (for the usual ones, anyway), but RGB and especially VHS capture can get tricky and expensive.

[Ghegs]

I capture all my non-HD footage from consoles, CMVS and supergun (when the PCB's refresh rate works with my capture setup) via a DVD Recorder. I don't think it's particularly expensive but getting it all set up at first can be a bit tricky with all the cables and splitters and such. But after it's done all you need to do it hit Record and start playing. Until you have to make a video file that you can easily share online, anyway. My site covers the capture process briefly and has plenty of videos from which to check the quality.

I do have a video camera that I have pointed at my main gaming screen for the few PCBs I can't capture directly and I think the quality is good enough, but I haven't made any videos with it yet.

[Dave_K.]

Here are some of the largest threads of discussion on various capture solutions for console and PCBs.

Micomsoft SC-500N1 RGB Capture Card
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37984

XRGB-mini Framemeister (now available !)
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33450

XRGB-3 (118 pages of replies!)
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6987

HD Box Pro: cheap (and good) alternative to the XRGB-3
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20122

Superplay capture solutions (PCBs)
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7627

[Trevor spencer]

I use an EZcap via S-video , Not the best quality but is very cheap and does the job

Check my videos out here , just click on the videos tab , The cave games are the ones i recorded via 360/Ezcap

http://www.youtube.com/user/trev1976?feature=mhee

I actually think the dodgy sound is due to my dated laptop im using to record with

[Ghegs]

Totally forgot about it for some reason, but for HD consoles I use Hauppauge HD PVR which is fairly simple to use.

[VixyNyan]

Another cheap capture device is the Dazzle DVC101.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/DAZZLE-DVC-101- ... B003OKHTZW

This is what I'm using right now and have been using for the past 4 years or so.
It can capture at 29,97fps with the highest resolution at 640x480. It accepts Composite and S-Video signals.
Home consoles that has been tested (and working) with this are the following (all of then are NTSC-J):
Super Famicom, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360.

In the case of Super Famicom, it acts a bit strange with the TV signals, you have to manually change it with the software you are recording/streaming with, either to PAL60, SECAM or NTSC-M (with some different results for each), if you want color to show up, or else it will show games in monochrome.

It lands somewhere in the $50 or $70 US dollar price range, and with a couple of Y-splitters for your composite video and audio inputs, it's a very good device for both playing in front of your TV and recording at the same time. This was also one of the earliest devices used in the live streaming community somewhere in late 2007, early 2008, with huge interest growing mostly at the justin.tv community (which later turned into twitch.tv).

With the laptop I have right now, higher resolutions doesn't look that well, because there will be very tiny frame drops in the finished video recording (it will show a lot of frame skipping), so sadly I have to pick 320x240 and then upscale it, adding some sharpening settings with VirtualDubMod or other similar tools. I want to upgrade to a higher resolution device later, like Hauppauge like Ghegs mentioned, or maybe a PCI card. A capture card that accepts VGA input would be awesome too!

[drunkninja24]

Here's the method I use for capturing video from PCBs:

First I have this board that pulls RGBS signals straight off the lines from the board:
http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/en/el ... apter.html

Then I solder on a line level converter to the sound pins on the board (I just cut off the unused audio plug and cords for it myself since it's all mono) to get an RCA output:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RCA-CAR-LINE-CO ... 43aee72fd8

Connect the RGB into this board to convert it to VGA:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arcade-game-RGB ... 3a6a64819e

Then plug VGA into this to convert it to S-Video/Composite (luckily it comes with a USB 5V adapter, so an additional power brick isn't necessary):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CJ ... 01_s00_i00

Then of course plug the S-Video/Composite signal into my capture device, and make all the necessary video adjustments in Amarec. Maybe a bit convoluted, but it works well, used it at a shmupmeet a while back to stream some SDOJ here:

http://www.twitch.tv/drunkninja/b/329086513

[Naut]

Any cheap method to capturing from an HDMI cable? That is, not YCrCb or YPrPb.

[Fudoh]

Any cheap method to capturing from an HDMI cable? That is, not YCrCb or YPrPb.

YCbCr is digital component, so it's HDMI. Cheapest and (WAY) best HDMI capture device out there is the Startech (Micomsoft) capture card. Around $110-120 in the US. Check the thread in the hardware section for details.

[Friendly]

Totally forgot about it for some reason, but for HD consoles I use Hauppauge HD PVR which is fairly simple to use.

Does this device accept YUV? On the website, only YPrPb is listed.
I'm asking because I happen to have an RGB-scart to YUV transcoder; on its outputs it says "Y B-Y R-Y".

EDIT: Or maybe that's the same thing in this case; Wikipedia says "Often written YPbPr and also referred to as Y/PB/PR, YPRPB, PRPBY, PBPRY, Y/Pb/Pr, YPrPb, PrPbY, PbPrY, Y/R-Y/B-Y, Y(R-Y)(B-Y), Y, R-Y, B-Y."

[Fudoh]

The Startech card accepts everything. Component in all resolutions, VGA, even Scart RGB with a little adapter.

EDIT: Oh, you were refering to the Hauppauge box: yes, it does accept component video, SD, ED and HD, but not 240p, so RGB Scart to Component won't work.

[Friendly]

The Startech card accepts everything. Component in all resolutions, VGA, even Scart RGB with a little adapter.

EDIT: Oh, you were refering to the Hauppauge box: yes, it does accept component video, SD, ED and HD, but not 240p, so RGB Scart to Component won't work.

But it says 480i60, 480p60 and 576p50, 576i50, 480p50, 480i50, so non-240p RGB video (NTSC/PAL) transcoded with my RGB-scart to YUV box would work?
Yes, I realize that it would be no good for most old consoles, but at least it would work for Dreamcast and everything that came since (as long as 240p isn't used), and also for capturing old VHS videos.

[Fudoh]

right, but for quality reasons I would prefer VGA from a DC (VGA transcoded to 480p component). With raw 480i recordings you run into interlacing problems, so you can't upload the recorded stream to Youtube without applying some kind of deinterlacing first.

[Friendly]

You are right, it's unfortunate that Hauppauge HD PVR doesn't do any internal de-interlacing. Damn, I thought I had found the perfect device for capturing old VHS tapes
Hardware H.246 encoding is neat...

[Fudoh]

best capture device for VHS because it includes fantastic hardware deinterlacing and a great comb filter as well:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Immersive-Holo3 ... 130wt_1112

[Friendly]

Lol, it was sold 1 minute after you pasted the link
(My current PC doesn't have PCI anyway; PCI is pretty last century, or should I say, last millenium)

EDIT: I think I'll give this a try: http://easycapexpertti.mybisi.com/produ ... av-grabber
Very low price and pretty good quality- look at the sample videos. That's got to be the cheapest component capture device out there. Doesn't matter to me that it doesn't output HD. USB 2.0 is convenient, too.

[shmuppyLove]

That one's pretty cheap. I think I found one that was a tiny bit less from DealExtreme, they're probably the same one.

[Friendly]

That one's pretty cheap. I think I found one that was a tiny bit less from DealExtreme, they're probably the same one.

I had a look, I don't see the same model at dx.com. However, this ebay seller has it for $10 USD less than the one I linked to above: http://www.ebay.com/itm/200800488601

[shmuppyLove]

$20.50 shipped

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-video- ... 103?item=4

[Friendly]

Yeah, I saw it, but it's not the same. I think I'll rather take the other one, given that there are reviews, drivers and software for it.