Micomsoft SC-500N1 RGB Capture Card

[lettuce]

Anyone had any luck getting the Xbox One working with these device, cant seem to get a display, i think it might be due to the Xbox One having 24bit as its lowest colour depth??, Amarec only seems to list 16 bit colour depth??

[Thrill]

An interesting post on the Amarec blog: http://amalabo.blog35.fc2.com/

Soon to have 4:4:4 RGB capture?

[Smashbro29]

An interesting post on the Amarec blog: http://amalabo.blog35.fc2.com/

Soon to have 4:4:4 RGB capture?

I hope they roll this out for X-Capture 1 too.

[NightSprinter]

N64fan, can you post some pictures proving the Elgato Analogue Adapter actually works? I had ordered one, and I only get audio input with it. Selecting either "Composite" or "S-Video" just results in any capture program reading "NO SIGNAL".

[Thrill]

So things just got VERY interesting. All credit for the find goes to me!

I was sick and tired of Micomsoft not releasing a new driver so I decided to do some hunting at StarTech. I checked the driver date and it was from 2014. You are in for a surprise: http://i.imgur.com/gjj6FOF.png

So what's new?

1. They worked with the SC-512 and Composite/S-Video worked! Anyone with the PEXHDCAP might want to try it again.

2. RGB support in Amarec at both 24 and 32 bit.

YUY2 screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/VYf6yaq.jpg
RGB 32 screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/Rl9Iv78.jpg

Both of those captured via Lagarith in the respective modes. Notice that RGB is able to more properly capture the reds on the tree leaves.

3. Finally we can toggle between 0-255 and 16-235 (Do not ever tick Enhance... it looks just plain awful). I don't know much about this but I have my PS3 set to Limited. When I ran the game I noticed that having it set to 16-235 in the driver that the loading screens were more grey than anything. Setting it to 0-255 produced the proper black. So do all PS3 games run at 0-255 then? It's just I never noticed this problem until the driver update. Even that doesn't make sense. Since all budget HDMI capture cards are 16-235... why did I never notice this before?... I'll just stop before I confuse myself.

4. NV12 and YV12 selectable in Amarec (although why would you want this when Lagarith/x264vfw can do it).

5. Some new ticky boxes like "SOG" which I have no idea about.

6. Some other little stuff but I doubt it has any use.

[NightSprinter]

"SOG" just means "Sync On Green". It's a thing that Sony apparently did. I know that on the PS2 for 480P or higher, that it does indeed sends its sync signal over the green line. Something to keep in mind.

[Pasky]

Is there a cable you can buy to get S-video and Composite for the PEXHDCAP? I've got one, and would love to see the quality of the s-video capture.

[blizzz]

Thanks for posting that, Thrill. Better news than the Avermedia H727 becoming worse with the new revision ;D

Maybe this is pointing to a release of the SC-512 under the StarTech brand? That would be awesome.

[Thrill]

Thanks for posting that, Thrill. Better news than the Avermedia H727 becoming worse with the new revision ;D

Maybe this is pointing to a release of the SC-512 under the StarTech brand? That would be awesome.

Let's hope so. Actually while figuring this all out, I discovered something very strange with the SC-512 which points to StarTech. If you uninstall all drivers and then look at device manager, the identification for the card becomes ECHDCAP. This is what StarTech already has released for that identification: http://www.startech.com/AV/Converters/V ... 0p~ECHDCAP

I can't remember exactly but if you click Properties it even says the Provider (or Manufacturer) of the card is StarTech. Very weird.

Also about the driver, I couldn't get composite/S-Video to work at 240p at the normal 60 fps (the view still says 30 fps) which the Amarec blog stated was going to be in the next driver release from Micomsoft. I can only guess that Micomsoft is trying to implement more features before unveiling a new driver.

[Sixfortyfive]

Also about the driver, I couldn't get composite/S-Video to work at 240p at the normal 60 fps (the view still says 30 fps) which the Amarec blog stated was going to be in the next driver release from Micomsoft. I can only guess that Micomsoft is trying to implement more features before unveiling a new driver.

If it's like the XCAPTURE, then it interprets 240p60 over composite/s-video as 480i30, and you have to deinterlace in post to get the proper framerate and resolution (which can be done with no information loss, iirc).

240p60 through RGB should still come in as 240p60.

[Thrill]

Just tried this 16-235 and 0-255 levels with the Wii at 480p and I'm seeing very similar results to the PS3 (aka I'm beyond confused).

From what I know the YPbPr output from the Wii can only ever be 16-235, right?

Here's the 0-255 capture: http://i.imgur.com/u4ffbPK.png
and 16-235: http://i.imgur.com/2n8Q8Qm.png

Luckily I have the same screenshot from before the RGB driver was introduced (I use this same scene for all my testing... lol): http://i.imgur.com/RVZwh0c.png

As you can see the pre RGB driver and the 0-255 screenshot are like 100% identical but the 16-235 is just way too bright. If you want reference here is the emulator screenshot which I got from Dolphin: http://i.imgur.com/GeFa5HQ.png

So was the capture card always capturing 0-255 before the levels were able to be toggled? I don't think it can be that because I remember like last year both me and blizzz were both convinced that it was doing 16-235 capture.

[Sixfortyfive]

I'm guessing that the 16-235 setting is meant to account for the display it's outputting to, not the source it's capturing, so it would look wrong on any 0-255 display like a computer monitor.

[Stefan_L]

I tried those new Startech drivers with my SC-500n1 and it was not better than the drivers i already used (wich is the older startech drivers).
Now i only tested 288p but the green colour become extremly saturated with the new drivers, and i never could fix it using the configurations available.
So the new drivers was useless for me... but maybe it improves stuff for more highres capturing?

[NightSprinter]

I tried those new Startech drivers with my SC-500n1 and it was not better than the drivers i already used (wich is the older startech drivers).
Now i only tested 288p but the green colour become extremly saturated with the new drivers, and i never could fix it using the configurations available.
So the new drivers was useless for me... but maybe it improves stuff for more highres capturing?

What system and cables are you using? If PS2/3 and component cables, your Chroma-red cable may have gone bad (happened to me).

[Stefan_L]

I captured from Atari ST using RGB cable

Here is a pic using the new drivers, notice the very green dinos at the top:



And here is with the old drivers, much better colours imho:

[Thrill]

Yeah that old driver is definitely better (at least for RGB). It's not just the colour accuracy but if you check around the girl there is some obvious bleeding.

The only things I can suggest before reverting is using Type-R/Type-C and then comparing YUY2 and RGB display modes in AmaRec.

[Stefan_L]

I already reverted to the old drivers a long time ago.. i only tried to get better colours for about 1 hour before giving up, maybe i missed an option but it is very unlikely
The new Startech driver has the same problem as the older Micomsoft driver had wich made me switch to Startech drivers in teh first place and that is the better 288p PAL support startech had, and this has Startech now removed from their new drivers and they are now optimized for 240p NTSC only i guess.

Type-R/Type-C only works when capturing in 240p NTSC other wise it would have fixed the "bleeding"... or what it is called... you can see it very clear when there is red colour like on the top of the screen in the first screenshot i posted (new Startech driver) wich show a green pixel to the right of the red colours

I guess i will be stuck with the old Startech drivers wich support 288p PAL properly.

[blizzz]

I captured from Atari ST using RGB cable

Here is a pic using the new drivers, notice the very green dinos at the top:



And here is with the old drivers, much better colours imho:

Did you set the RGB range to limited (16-235) in the driver? By default it is set to full range (0-255).

Full


Limited


This is with the latest driver. I think limited range gives the same result as before. The image is maybe a bit too bright though, but that's an easy fix.

If I try to set the source to 720x240 RGB24 or RGB32 it just gives me an error. So YUY2 and limited seems to be the correct setting.

[BuckoA51]

So the only problem with the latest driver (from Startech is this?) is that the 288p capture doesn't work right? I can live with that since I can just capture directly from the mini or whatever.

[blizzz]

So the only problem with the latest driver (from Startech is this?) is that the 288p capture doesn't work right?

Yes, this is the Startech driver. There might also be other differences. I remember that the component quality was slightly different between the Micomsoft and Startech driver in the past.

[Stefan_L]

Did you set the RGB range to limited (16-235) in the driver? By default it is set to full range (0-255).

Yes i tried that, it become better but still not as good as the old driver

[narunetto]

How do you guys input composite into the 500N1/PEXHD?

[blizzz]

From all I know, the SC-500N1 doesn't support composite and S-Video.

[NightSprinter]

From all I know, the SC-500N1 doesn't support composite and S-Video.

I can confirm that it supports neither composite or s-video input. Ordered the adapter from Elgato, no dice. Can also state that VideoKeeper 2 does not work with the card.

[Thrill]

I forgot that Advantech existed. Here is March 2014 drivers (site says April but the actual driver is March): http://support.advantech.com.tw/Support ... e=Download

The drivers don't seem to have any new options though.

[NightSprinter]

I have not tested myself, but does anyone know if the new drivers from either company fix the CPU load issue? I remember with a lot of PEXHDCAP/SC500/SC512 users, there were severe issues of CPU usage going to 100% and staying there.

[eightbitminiboss]

I have not tested myself, but does anyone know if the new drivers from either company fix the CPU load issue? I remember with a lot of PEXHDCAP/SC500/SC512 users, there were severe issues of CPU usage going to 100% and staying there.

No real fix other than resetting your power settings when it happens.

[SuperDeadite]

So just installed my new SC-512N1-L/DVI today. Since this topic is huge, could someone give me some basic getting started tips? I'm attempting to run AmarecTV, but I dont understand the aspect ratio. I use the recommended 720x240 setting (Megadrive RGB) and then if I select 4:3 AmarecTV's live window is in the correct 4:3 ratio. However if I record a video, every video player keeps the 720x240 resolution meaning I get super wide screen..... How do I correct this so I get proper 4:3 videos?

A list of recommended settings for a n00b like me would be great.

Also after installing the card, my computer seems to take longer to boot. I have an SSD, and before I installed the card, Windows would boot before the Win 7 splash screen logo finished forming itself. Now the Windows logo on the splash screen finishes and it takes an extra second or two after that. Not a big deal really, but is this normal?

[blizzz]

I use the recommended 720x240 setting (Megadrive RGB) and then if I select 4:3 AmarecTV's live window is in the correct 4:3 ratio. However if I record a video, every video player keeps the 720x240 resolution meaning I get super wide screen..... How do I correct this so I get proper 4:3 videos?

720x240 is the correct recording resolution. You can use VirtualDub to do a nearest neighbor scaling to resize it to 720x480 or 720x720. After that you can use Lanczos or whatever you prefer to resize it to a 4:3 resolution (320x240, 640x480, 960x720). I suggest that you use Lagarith for recording. You can also use x264 but that will make it a bit harder to edit the files.

Also after installing the card, my computer seems to take longer to boot. I have an SSD, and before I installed the card, Windows would boot before the Win 7 splash screen logo finished forming itself. Now the Windows logo on the splash screen finishes and it takes an extra second or two after that. Not a big deal really, but is this normal?

I haven't noticed anything like that on my machines. Are you launching an application that uses webcams (for example Skype) with Windows? Capture cards can also work as webcams, so maybe Skype initializes the card when it starts.

[SuperDeadite]

Ah ok that makes sense.

No idea on the longer boot up time. I dont have skype installed on this machine. My SSD is very full now though. Less then 2 gbs free (I record videos to a storage HDD), wonder if I dont have enough free space? I was planning to upgrade it soon anyway. The CPU bug doesnt appear to effect my machine at least, when I close Amarec, the CPU Frequency instantly drops from 99% down to 23% or so then goes even lower. (I'm using the current drivers on Micomsofts page).