Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

So I had a choice of re-shooting the whole thing or doing a post-video voice over. I remembered buying this VGA scaler ages ago. It's a VGA-in > VGA-out box and takes any VGA signal and outputs it in a specific resolution. So I tried that and it worked really well. No more resizing, no more having to splice together 20 little video files. It's still missing parts of the image, no idea why considering it has auto-sync just like a monitor, but it allowed me to shoot the entire video in one file, with the commentary in a MP3 file 😀

So instead of focusing on capture devices, maybe looking at VGA scaler is the way to go? I think I got this one from eBay, but I can't remember. It wasn't super cheap, but cheap enough for me to take a punt. Happy I finally have a use for it.

How much does this VGA scaler degrade picture quality? Also, you know that VLC can capture in one continous file with VGA capture (even with resolution changes in the middle)?
Do you have a Matrox Mystique card btw?

vetz wrote:

How much does this VGA scaler degrade picture quality? Also, you know that VLC can capture in one continous file with VGA capture (even with resolution changes in the middle)?
Do you have a Matrox Mystique card btw?

The video is uploading! I'll post it here.

Not as clear as DVI of course. But much better than S-Video.

Continuous recording doesn't solve the "artifacts" at the bottom that you get at various screen modes, such as 320 x 200 games. I had to do zero cropping, resizing or scaling. It saves time, which is very important for me. For high quality capture of individual bits, going directly into the AVerMedia is still best of course.

The card is a Millennium G200A with pass-through cable into the Diamond Monster 3D.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

The video is uploading! I'll post it here. […]
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vetz wrote:

How much does this VGA scaler degrade picture quality? Also, you know that VLC can capture in one continous file with VGA capture (even with resolution changes in the middle)?
Do you have a Matrox Mystique card btw?

The video is uploading! I'll post it here.

Not as clear as DVI of course. But much better than S-Video.

Continuous recording doesn't solve the "artifacts" at the bottom that you get at various screen modes, such as 320 x 200 games.

The card is a Millennium G200A with pass-through cable into the Diamond Monster 3D.

No, it doesn't remove the required streching needed on 320x200, but that can be solved in editing programs like Sony Vegas in post processing (like you've done before).
I was wondering incase you had a Matrox Mystique if you could test MSI mode on Screamer 2/Screamer Rally with your VGA scaler. I can't capture it with my Avermedia.

What is MSI mode?

Here is the link of the video. But it's still uploading and processing. I guess it should work in 20 or 30 minutes.

Now the signal went through a few boxes 😀 Firstly through the Voodoo, then through a VGA splitter (so I can work on the main monitor and see what I'm doing) and then through the VGA scaler. Still I think the image is pretty good. And no single resize / scaling necessary in the video editing software.

In the video I explain what happened and the way I did it before I had to deal with 20 or so individual video files.

Do you have a picture and a brand and model of that VGA scaler? 😀

I am very curious on this sort of device.

ReeseRiverson wrote:

Do you have a picture and a brand and model of that VGA scaler? 😀

I am very curious on this sort of device.

It's similar to this one:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4-Way-HDTV-Compone … 930067e3&_uhb=1

I will take a photo tomorrow. But the OSD display menu of mine looks exactly like the one on this eBay page.

Personally if I was willing to take another punt, I would look at VGA to HDMI scalers because it gives you a lot more options with the capture card. Thing is would happily spends some decent money IF I could test these units beforehand. But it's really just luck. Nobody tests the things we are looking for 😀

I would love to see if this one works:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Atlona-AT-HD510VGA … 1a030104&_uhb=1

Has a VGA splitter built-in and would allow me to get rid of a lot of other cables and gear.

I'm also curious to how that second one will work compared to this, apparently Lazygamereview uses this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-VGA-YPbPr-to-HDMI … =item5d3c8647b0

Apparently? Shouldn't be too hard to confirm 😀

Looks a bit cheap and although I'm sure it works under Windows, will it work with the BIOS screen and under VGA / DOS?

That Matrox card also has the image shifted to the right. I feel like all the old cards do this. The newer ones, like FX5200 are more centred and AVerMedia captures it nicer. So far nothing, not even VGA to S-Video, was able to capture the entire image on these cards 😢

I wonder if the image position can be adjusted through utilities and / or BIOS?

Did any 3DFX cards ever come with DVI?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Apparently? Shouldn't be too hard to confirm 😀

Looks a bit cheap and although I'm sure it works under Windows, will it work with the BIOS screen and under VGA / DOS?

Ah, sorry, I worded my post wrong. He told me that it's what he uses for his DOS recordings, here in this tweet:

https://twitter.com/lazygamereviews/status/42 … 651380796981249

I have my doubts. The videos look like typical DOSBox recordings if you ask me.

You can just ask him if he used this scaler in any of his videos. Does it cut-out when changing resolutions?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

What is MSI mode?

Matrox Simple Interface, ie. the native 3D API for the Mystique.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

What is MSI mode?

Matrox Simple Interface. Their proprietary API for the Mystique cards. The Screamer games along with some other MSI supported games will not sync with the Avermedia. These games along with the 3DBlaster VLB are currently the only games that won't sync at all.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

The videos look like typical DOSBox recordings if you ask me.

I agree. He uses DOSBox for DOS footage. Windows games are though captured with the Avermedia. I've mentioned the trick to sync DOS 320x200 to him before, but never got any reply.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Did any 3DFX cards ever come with DVI?

Yes, the Mac version of the Voodoo5 comes with DVI output. It can be flashed to work with PC's. Be warned. It is crazy expensive! Just get a Voodoo3 card for Glide capturing and your capture problems are gone for Glide games.

That Matrox card also has the image shifted to the right. I feel like all the old cards do this. The newer ones, like FX5200 are more centred and AVerMedia captures it nicer. So far nothing, not even VGA to S-Video, was able to capture the entire image on these cards

That is the reality I'm afraid. That is also the reason why I've recommended certain cards above others in the past 😀

Personally if I was willing to take another punt, I would look at VGA to HDMI scalers because it gives you a lot more options with the capture card. Thing is would happily spends some decent money IF I could test these units beforehand. But it's really just luck. Nobody tests the things we are looking for 😀

I bought a VGA to HDMI scaler, but the scaler was even more picky on low resolutions than the Avermedia, so that was a big fail. You are buying scalers made for entirely different purposes. It is hit and miss if it works. Also quality is lost in the conversion.

ReeseRiverson: Have you read this topic? Capturing below 640x480 resolutions and CGA/EGA on the Avermedia Gamebroadcaster HD
Try a S3 card if possible. Might be some problems with your ATI card.
Mau1wurf1977: You should read the tip about getting an S3 card with TV-out for DOS VGA capture.

I've also found that my FIC PT-2003 motherboard is the most Avermedia friendly Socket 7 board I've come across. It has a bootup image at 320x240, which auto syncs as 640x480, thus DOS capture is ready to rock and roll from the second I push the power button!

vetz wrote:

ReeseRiverson: Have you read this topic? Capturing below 640x480 resolutions and CGA/EGA on the Avermedia Gamebroadcaster HD
Try a S3 card if possible. Might be some problems with your ATI card.

I have read that topic to try VLC player and VirtualDub, but both of those had the same issue I had in AverMedia's software.

Though it was more related to how DOS screens were being messed up that bugged me.

-Edit-

Hmm, I am not sure if the TV out on my one odd-S3 card would work but I can try...

ReeseRiverson wrote:

Hmm, I am not sure if the TV out on my one odd-S3 card would work but I can try...

You don't need to use the signal from it, just activate it in the drivers. That changes the VGA signal to sync everything in Windows and DOS until you shutdown (by internally scaling to 640x480). Atleast that is how it works with my GX2. Never seen that happen on other cards with TV-out.

Well for DOS on my Super Socket 7 machine, nothing beats DVI out 😀

GF4 and FX Series are the best as they clone the image on DVI and VGA. So you can play on VGA and capture on DVI without any splitters.

If I need to use VGA I think the scaler option is by far the easiest. Just got to pick a better card. I think I also found S3 to be the best in terms of an image in the centre.

The Matrox and Voodoo seem to be on the extreme side of things however.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Well for DOS on my Super Socket 7 machine, nothing beats DVI out 😀

GF4 and FX Series are the best as they clone the image on DVI and VGA. So you can play on VGA and capture on DVI without any splitters.

True that 😀

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

The Matrox and Voodoo seem to be on the extreme side of things however.

You are going down a very dark path if you are going to start with proprietary 3D API capturing.. I've spent many hours and money to get it right, and still there are games & cards that are not cooperating (Problematic MSI games in Windows I managed to trick to sync with PowerStrip, but such a powerful tool is not available in DOS...)

Hmm maybe for these old games it's best to just use a camcorder 😀

But you are doing really well. There isn't really any footage on these 3D cards like on your channel. A great reference for the future that's for sure. It answers the good old "But did it really look like this back in the day?"

It's funny how basic 640 x 480 looks these days. Of course a CRT does a better job as well. Well we all know what my next project will be 🤣 Some nice Voodoo2 SLI action. Done to death, but I've never had the pleasure.

I use an ATEN VGA-DVI converter. works pretty good for my 386 (orchid kelvin), 486 (riva128) and the voodoo from the K6

schlang wrote:

I use an ATEN VGA-DVI converter. works pretty good for my 386 (orchid kelvin), 486 (riva128) and the voodoo from the K6

Cool!

Did you use this product in any of your videos?

Actually for all of them.
The converter case has buttons for shifting the image top/left/down/right which is just perfect