VOGONS


First post, by PhallosV

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Hello, this is my first post and I really dont know where else to ask:
I want to make a video of me playing dos games. Dosbox is not an option, it has to be on an old computer running DOS, which I own. The problem is: My current graphic card has only a VGA output. So my two questions are:
1.) are there any cheap ways of recording input from an vga output? all converters and grabbers I found didnt work or were way to expensive for me
2.) is there a graphic card that works under dos (no installation under windows 98/95 possible, ive got only DOS) which has a TV out?
I hope someone is able to help me 😀
thanks in advance!

Reply 2 of 12, by DosFreak

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Well if you want to record yourself playing DOS games then your going to need a capture solution seperate from your computer.

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Reply 5 of 12, by dvwjr

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PhallosV wrote:

Well I dont want to record myself. I want to record the screen. and a vidoe camera is not an option because it should be really good quality.

Then you want something like this:

diagram_01_vga2usb.png

Epiphan Systems, Inc - VGA2USA product
Cost ~$300

Have your DOS PC with the game and a WinXP PC to record the game being played on the DOS PC workstation.

See this information: Epiphan Systems VGA2USB product

This is the cheapest model in the Epiphan Systems, Inc. product line-up, but it does do what you say you want to accomplish. If it is out of your price range, then use a cheap video recorder or do without.

Best of luck,

dvwjr

Reply 6 of 12, by jthieme

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Monoprice has a cheap VGA to RCA converter that has a monitor pass thru:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp … &seq=1&format=2

You would still need to have a way to digitze the result. If you have a digital video camera with rca inputs that would work, or you would need some other sort of video capture card, newegg has some as low as $10:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp … And&Order=PRICE

Reply 7 of 12, by bestemor

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hmm, interesting... 😎

I've been toying with the idea of buying a 'real' capture card, like this one:
http://www.datapath.co.uk/rgbcapturecards.html

They cost an arm and a leg, though..... 😒
But, been saving up for a while... maybe soon (?)
Making myself a platform independant recording machine - just plug in a 15-pin D-sub vga cable, via scan converter if I must (9-pin cga/ega PC-XT recordings!), and videoes ahoy!

The other problem is, I don't know the first thing about recording software... which one to use, etc etc... So, I get a captured live image, but how to proceed ?
Could of course use the native program/codec, but i want universal mpg/avi... hmm, what to do ?

.

PS: not to mention sound... but I guess a cable into the recording machine's sound card in-port would work (the XT would need a mike though, as no sound card to take it out from, just the speaker ...)

Reply 8 of 12, by dh4rm4

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The cheapest way would be to get an old PCI VGA card that has TV out for the DOS Machine, then record that output (COMPOSITE or S-VIDEO) into either a VCR or another PC which has VIVO (Video In Video Out) capabilities. The only issue is that almost all DOS generation VGA cards can only do 800x600 maximum resolution via TV out, so you'll need to limit the game resolution to match.

Reply 9 of 12, by PhallosV

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thanks everyone for the tips 😀

dh4rm4 wrote:

The cheapest way would be to get an old PCI VGA card that has TV out for the DOS Machine, then record that output (COMPOSITE or S-VIDEO) into either a VCR or another PC which has VIVO (Video In Video Out) capabilities. The only issue is that almost all DOS generation VGA cards can only do 800x600 maximum resolution via TV out, so you'll need to limit the game resolution to match.

thats the thing im trying to find at this moment. can you tell me waht pci vgs card has a tv out that works in dos?

Reply 10 of 12, by dh4rm4

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Almost all PCI VGA that have TV out automatically 'clone' the output to the TV output. Offhand, I can think of S3 Virge, Nvidia TnT and the ATI Mach 32 as cards of that generation which I used to use to record 3D animations to Video in DOS and Windows back then. I'd say that your best bet would be to get something like an Nvidia FX series card if you have trouble finding older, true DOS Generation cards.