Great! Let me know what you think.

OpenRift wrote on 2025-08-27, 19:30:

Hey, I'm in the market for a good MS-DOS VGA capture solution that isn't too expensive. I haven't read all 75 pages of this thread (I don't even know what I should be looking for at this point), but I've gathered some bits and pieces. The Sewell Manta and Startech VGA2HDMIPRO seem to be really solid options, but neither seem to be available for purchase anymore, new nor used. I wish the RetroTink 4K CE was something I could get, but even being the reduced cost model, $475 is still pretty steep for something I don't even know if I'll use enough.

Are there any other solid solutions that I've glossed over?

I use a Datapath VisionAV HD PCIe capture card on Windows 11 with the final windows release of VCS and have no complaints. I haven't found a video signal yet that it couldn't handle; DOS is no problem, Sync-on-Green at a weird resolution from the S24 card in the SPARCstation 5 was fine, the weird VGA output from the RS/6000 that no IP-KVM or LCD monitor I've tried can handle did need a little tweaking to get the picture on screen properly but once that was done its been fine. I've not tried EGA/CGA but I've heard that it should work with a few extra bits to deal with signal levels.

The cards are still available for purchase new but cost a fortune. I got mine second-hand on ebay for US$70.

Dusko wrote on 2025-08-29, 06:12:

Great! Let me know what you think.

Just got it in the mail today and it works great!! The auto-adjust feature puts a lot of my worries about the scaling and image fitting to rest. I will say, my one complaint is that the color isn't all that great, with the whites and blacks not being as bright/dark as they are on my CRT. Is there a way to fix that? It's not a huge dealbreaker or anything, but if I can fix it with some kind of LUT or something, it would be much appreciated.

Interesting. I’ve never had any color issues with mine. Here’s a screenshot of Norton Commander captured with an EZCap GameDock Ultra. It’s not the best capture card out there, but it works just fine for my needs.

Update: I managed to get it looking acceptable using some color correction in Streamlabs OBS, and I'm happy with the results.

I have an OSSC Pro which I use for all my upscaling needs, and it's just okay. It's fine, but nothing special. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably go with the Retrotink 4k CE. The OSSC Pro works but is lacking a little polish. For example, mine doesn't keep its settings when powered off for long enough. Sometimes it has trouble figuring out the video input, and I have to wiggle the cables or unplug and plug back in. It has a TON of settings, but 99% are already set at the optimal value. Depending on the input and the settings, you can get really clean insanely beautiful output, or something less good. It's very uneven. Sometimes it's gorgeous, other times its mediocre.

Overall, it's kindof a mixed bag which is why I say its just okay. But the whole user experience feels very unpolished and uneven. I will say that it's good enough that I feel no reason to upgrade, but it's not so good that I would recommend it. It will work for your upscaling needs, but I would nudge anyone towards the Retrotink instead.

The one thing I will say that I think the OSSC Pro does well is color reproduction. It does have a crazy degree of customization, but weirdly I don't find it to be all that useful. Maybe if I was using really bizarre input sources...

My focus when capturing is mostly VGA and DVI sources. For this purpose, I too give the Datapath VisionRGB E1s/E2s a strong recommendation. It’s the only device you need for capturing those two specific video sources, unless you’re dealing with completely untamed video cards and/or drivers.

On the software side I use a combination of Vision (bundled software with the Datapath drivers), VCS (VisionRGB Capture Scaler) and OBS Studio. The trick is to tweak the signal in Vision to your liking (only really necessary for VGA sources, DVI is straightforward) by setting the horizontal size and positioning (etc.), then do a window capture of VCS’ window in OBS Studio, not DirectShow capturing. Worth noting that I’m almost completely copying Nerdly Pleasure’s capturing setup from their post on Datapath VisionRGB capturing.

This software setup has a lot of advantages. In case the Vision drivers are somehow reporting a resolution that’s slightly off from the source’s resolution, VCS let’s you force the resolution to anything you want. If a source ISA/PCI VGA video card’s vertical size can’t be set quite the way you want on the capture card (it refuses to go further up or down than you would have liked and it shows a few rows/columns of black pixels outside of the framebuffer area) this can potentially be solved by either using a different refresh rate or installing a utility/control panel for that specific card and tweaking the image on a driver level. When used in combination with a scaler for capturing consoles or interlaced RGB computer sources, the VisionRGB is also quite useful and with OBS Studio you can perform final cropping of the input to eliminate pillar-boxing (black bars) in games that display a 4:3 aspect ratio image. Since VCS is also a scaler application, you can use the mouse wheel on the window to scale up the VGA/DVI source’s resolution (for larger pixels) and capture this directly instead of resizing in post, if you have the processing power and storage to do so!

I have been using this capture chain with a Core i7-2600K system (using 2011 components) for a while now as this setup uses very little CPU resources! A secondary monitor is also not needed as the PCI-E bandwidth translates to almost instant response time in both the VCS and OBS preview, which makes for a very compact capture hardware setup. For a more accurate preview I recommend using the VCS window, since OBS weirdly alternates in few-second intervals between a 60fps and 30fps preview on my system.

Before delving into VGA capture, I decided to check how things were going with DVI capture (it's much cheaper way). And to my regret, it's useless for pixel-perfect capture...

I noticed that my AGP cards (Radeon 9250, FX5200) are upscaling native BIOS/DOS resolution to 1280x1024 via DVI output. I guess it's for compatibility with modern LCD monitors, but I don't like the blurry picture.

Is there any way to get native BIOS/DOS resolution via DVI (VBIOS mod or something)?

VGA output
BIOS: 640x480@60Hz
DOS: 720x400@60Hz

DVI output
BIOS: 1280x1024@60Hz
DOS: 1280x1024@60Hz

ott wrote on 2025-10-03, 13:20:

Before delving into VGA capture, I decided to check how things were going with DVI capture (it's much cheaper way). And to my re […]
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Before delving into VGA capture, I decided to check how things were going with DVI capture (it's much cheaper way). And to my regret, it's useless for pixel-perfect capture...

I noticed that my AGP cards (Radeon 9250, FX5200) are upscaling native BIOS/DOS resolution to 1280x1024 via DVI output. I guess it's for compatibility with modern LCD monitors, but I don't like the blurry picture.

Is there any way to get native BIOS/DOS resolution via DVI (VBIOS mod or something)?

VGA output
BIOS: 640x480@60Hz
DOS: 720x400@60Hz

DVI output
BIOS: 1280x1024@60Hz
DOS: 1280x1024@60Hz

DVI is perfect for everything "normal" in windows. Everything concerning DOS (including BIOS) will be scaled to the connected DVI device (e.g. for the retrotink4k it just goes to 1080p). Afaik this is called "EDID".
So In theory you could potentially "fake" a connected Monitor with your designed target resolution. But this would be a total hassle to change each time. Also keep in mind that dos actually using 320x200 in games in a 720x400 container. Same goes for 640x400. I am not sure how this would actually look like on a hypothetical 720x400 screen, but potentially they would still be broken.

Kordanor wrote on 2025-10-03, 13:34:

DVI is perfect for everything "normal" in windows. Everything concerning DOS (including BIOS) will be scaled to the connected DVI device (e.g. for the retrotink4k it just goes to 1080p). Afaik this is called "EDID".

I was a bit hasty with my first conclusion, DVI output works fine in Windows games, I can get native 640x480 without upscaling.

I'll try to figure it out with EDID for DOS, big thanks!

ott wrote on 2025-10-03, 15:04:

Kordanor wrote on 2025-10-03, 13:34:

DVI is perfect for everything "normal" in windows. Everything concerning DOS (including BIOS) will be scaled to the connected DVI device (e.g. for the retrotink4k it just goes to 1080p). Afaik this is called "EDID".

I was a bit hasty with my first conclusion, DVI output works fine in Windows games, I can get native 640x480 without upscaling.

I'll try to figure it out with EDID for DOS, big thanks!

Good luck with that and please do share successes and failures on that front.

Behavior of a video card's DVI/HDMI port is dictated by the video card BIOS's EDID processing logic. In my experience, so far, on both Nvidia and ATI/AMD based cards, the vBIOS will either typically scale to the monitor's advertised native resolution OR to a "preferred" specific one among the advertised ones. I vaguely recall previously having tried to program an EDID with ONLY the timings of DOS VGA mode 13h multiplied by various factors (2, 3, etc) and not being successful. I might have posted about it at the time.

That being said, if the purpose is primarily video capture, I believe you can disable Nvidia DVI scaling completely in DOS at least on GeForceFX (maybe not all of them) and earlier cards which, if combined with a custom EDID that has the right timings (same vertical refresh as the mode being captured), MIGHT produce a postage stamp sized, unscaled image, surrounded by black pixels and with the the right timings. Not sure if I had tried that approach as it would not have been practical for actual gaming, IMHO, but I'm pretty sure someone did bring it up and remember responding to that post.

Spitz wrote on 2024-10-07, 19:09:

Hi Guys. I would like to small express my experience about VGA/SVGA grabbing. After so many things I bought and tried ... And as […]
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Hi Guys. I would like to small express my experience about VGA/SVGA grabbing. After so many things I bought and tried ... And as I was starting to be rly lost I tried a solution thatbcosted me 25EUR...
And the overall quality is just superb! What is more it is grabbing even 320x200! There is no latency, no loss quality of sound or video ....
Here is some little testing. In this video we have 640x480 quality grabbing and FullHD@60fps is available but due to fact that I was grabbing on very small HDD the resolution was low and fps to 30fps ....
See it for yourself, perfect solution!
https://youtu.be/BPuA82dbkVo?feature=shared
Some more vids:
https://youtu.be/75gyeEdWY2w?si=RFcglnC4jqgmijMN

https://youtu.be/cUqPhvZATpk?si=Zxlhn3XJPmXua05B

https://youtu.be/bTD6QkmGTwg?si=gLPs2mpraufb9Nxm

Again resolution set for grabbing to 640x480, medium quality.

OBS, NCH works flawless!

Hi! Can you please provide a link referring to this "magic" solution. Because I'm really f*** up with this. Many solutions I tried ended with a horrible mess...

In case anyone's using one of those really cheap HDMI-to-USB adapters based on a Macrosilicon 2109 chip which deliver 96KHz mono audio instead of 48KHz stereo, no more need to rely on extra apps to convert it while capturing/streaming since the firmware can be patched: https://github.com/A-Dunstan/ms2109_stereo_patch

Is it worth to switch from Datapath visionrgb e1s to epiphan av.io hd ? I'm still looking for alternative for my main capture card to vga/dvi needs

What's the problem with the datapath card you're trying to solve? I use a Datapath Vision HD occasionally and its handled everything I've ever thrown at it.

davidrg wrote on 2025-11-20, 02:05:

What's the problem with the datapath card you're trying to solve? I use a Datapath Vision HD occasionally and its handled everything I've ever thrown at it.

I need always color correct everything because its too greenish in capture also resizing window of cropped image. But when i use it to capture winxp machine i got badly framerate when capturing 1600x1200 on 100hz. Just a little things but overall is ok card

Hello all! I recently purchased a DataPath VisionAV-SDI (Model 199) and wanted to share my experiences using it.

Physical hardware: The card comes in two parts and seems to be an unlisted/intended for embedded systems model in the VisionAV lineup. It has a whole plethora of inputs, including: HDMI, DVI, D-sub 15 (VGA), and SDI.
Here's a picture of the inputs along with PCI brackets I remixed and printed for it:

If anybody is interested in the brackets, I have published the STL files to Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/1534769-pci- … ionav-sdi-model

Software: The standard unified drivers package from DataPath installed smoothly and updated the firmware of the card. (Note: Check if the firmware update pins are bridged (They are the set of two pins to the side of the large bank of jumper pins). If they are, remove the jumper or the card will not be detected in Windows). The Vision Application software installed just fine but is more of a mixed bag. There seems to be a hanging issues in the Vision Window program (it hangs Windows if an input is selected that does not have anything connected to it(? unsure, not inclined to test the theory 😅)). The Vision Configure program works though, and is the more important bit so that's good.

Initial Testing: I've only been able to test the HDMI and DVI inputs so far, but they seem to perform identically. I'm waiting on a m/m adapter for the d-sub connector to test out the VGA capture.
For now, I have made a quick demo of the relative latency between a laptop screen and an OBS Source Preview (with hardware acceleration option enabled) via HDMI on Windows 11: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O4NvuDqV5MA
I'll note here that the card does not really handle resolution changes too gracefully with the digital inputs I've used so far. The workaround/fix seems to be deactivating the capture device in the OBS options for the Video Capture Device before re-enabling it again after a few seconds.

General usage: My goal in this is to be able to play games from my Windows 98 PC via source preview so that I can use the screens seamlessly with my primary pc without clunky monitor input switching and having my primary PC mouse occasionally go off into Narnia if a display is in use. This is very janky, I know. I just don't have the money and desk space for a high quality 4:3 or 5:4 LCD screen right now, never mind a now relatively expensive, heavy, and voluminous CRT monitor. The latency is definitely there but tolerable to me and I've played some Heavy Gear and Mech Warrior II with good enough results for the time being, especially given the next-to-nothing price I paid for the capture card.

I've skimmed through and have seen mentions of VCS but I'm not entirely sure what VCS is/if it is relevant for my use case/if it is compatible with VisionAV and can't find a readily available download link right now (the github repos seem to be gone), so I am tabling that for the time being.

I only recently (~2 months ago) got into retro PC stuff, so please let me know if there are better solutions (esp. cost effective ones) to what I am trying to do here!

I am still tying to find a solution of the grain/noise which I get, but did a couple more tests.
My setup is currently that I am using the retrotink for scaling, and converting to hdmi, and then I use the datapath to capture it.

The issue is that on DOS Games I get the grain/noise which is then amplified via using video compression when capturing it, especially with the relatively new AV1 codec. So Ideally I'd like to get rid of the grain in at the source somehow. Unfortunately there also doesnt seem to be anything like a pixelgate filter for OBS.

What I am using on the retrotink 4k is a sample rate of 1600, and that should also be fine in theory. Changing it up or down only makes any noise worse.
I also changed cable, and instead of my Voodoo 3 I tested a S3 Trio, but the issue exists there as well.

Now on the retrotink discord I was told it's analogue noise.

But then I checked 640x480 again, and this is basically perfect.
So...I don't quite see how 320x200 can have analogue noise, but 640x480 is perfect.
Is that some inherent issue of double scans?

What do you guys do to get a clean recording of 320x200?

JammyPajammies wrote on 2025-12-30, 21:47:

Hello all! I recently purchased a DataPath VisionAV-SDI (Model 199) and wanted to share my experiences using it. […]
Show full quote

Hello all! I recently purchased a DataPath VisionAV-SDI (Model 199) and wanted to share my experiences using it.

Physical hardware: The card comes in two parts and seems to be an unlisted/intended for embedded systems model in the VisionAV lineup. It has a whole plethora of inputs, including: HDMI, DVI, D-sub 15 (VGA), and SDI.
Here's a picture of the inputs along with PCI brackets I remixed and printed for it:

The attachment IMG_20251225_142929.jpg is no longer available

If anybody is interested in the brackets, I have published the STL files to Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/1534769-pci- … ionav-sdi-model

Software: The standard unified drivers package from DataPath installed smoothly and updated the firmware of the card. (Note: Check if the firmware update pins are bridged (They are the set of two pins to the side of the large bank of jumper pins). If they are, remove the jumper or the card will not be detected in Windows). The Vision Application software installed just fine but is more of a mixed bag. There seems to be a hanging issues in the Vision Window program (it hangs Windows if an input is selected that does not have anything connected to it(? unsure, not inclined to test the theory 😅)). The Vision Configure program works though, and is the more important bit so that's good.

Initial Testing: I've only been able to test the HDMI and DVI inputs so far, but they seem to perform identically. I'm waiting on a m/m adapter for the d-sub connector to test out the VGA capture.
For now, I have made a quick demo of the relative latency between a laptop screen and an OBS Source Preview (with hardware acceleration option enabled) via HDMI on Windows 11: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O4NvuDqV5MA
I'll note here that the card does not really handle resolution changes too gracefully with the digital inputs I've used so far. The workaround/fix seems to be deactivating the capture device in the OBS options for the Video Capture Device before re-enabling it again after a few seconds.

General usage: My goal in this is to be able to play games from my Windows 98 PC via source preview so that I can use the screens seamlessly with my primary pc without clunky monitor input switching and having my primary PC mouse occasionally go off into Narnia if a display is in use. This is very janky, I know. I just don't have the money and desk space for a high quality 4:3 or 5:4 LCD screen right now, never mind a now relatively expensive, heavy, and voluminous CRT monitor. The latency is definitely there but tolerable to me and I've played some Heavy Gear and Mech Warrior II with good enough results for the time being, especially given the next-to-nothing price I paid for the capture card.

I've skimmed through and have seen mentions of VCS but I'm not entirely sure what VCS is/if it is relevant for my use case/if it is compatible with VisionAV and can't find a readily available download link right now (the github repos seem to be gone), so I am tabling that for the time being.

I only recently (~2 months ago) got into retro PC stuff, so please let me know if there are better solutions (esp. cost effective ones) to what I am trying to do here!

It is a nice card, appears as a Datapath VisionEC-HD when configured properly. Inroduced during Windows 8.1 and WIndows 10/11 no older Win7 support Datapath 5.x is Win7, Daatapath 6.x is Win8.1 Datapath 7.x is Win10/11. Only the older device drivers work (low 7.x for me on Win10) without locking up. I think they moved on with the unified drivers and left the card behind as far as testing goes. Later device drivers on Win10 lock up or behave badly. But the capture signal is nice, and the audio capture is nice. I had to remove the jumper too in order to register the card properly. AI advice for the card stressed the importance of "matching" the device driver to the "vision" application or system lockups or no video signal at all will appear, I had that problem. I'm not sure how to match them though. Trial and Erorr? fairly decent weekend puzzle setting figureing out the drivers and locks ups.

JammyPajammies wrote on 2025-12-30, 21:47:

I've skimmed through and have seen mentions of VCS but I'm not entirely sure what VCS is/if it is relevant for my use case/if it is compatible with VisionAV and can't find a readily available download link right now (the github repos seem to be gone), so I am tabling that for the time being.

VCS should work for your 'source preview' type use case - this is what I primarily use it for too with a VisionAV-HD and its much nicer than the program that comes with the Datapath drivers. As you've found it is effectively unmaintained at the moment, but I believe the latest source and binaries for Windows can be found here: https://github.com/arnoo-sel/vcs - this is what I use on Windows 11, and it works fine. There is source for a slightly newer version here but its linux only.