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VGA Capture Thread

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Reply 40 of 1395, by TheLazy1

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<=14ms LCDs should be able to refresh at 70Hz right?
Take my monitor for example, a 5ms response time should give us 200Hz; yet I have not seen the screen information show the refresh rate above 60Hz.

Though I would think VGA capture would require a metric f**ktonne of bandwidth or a built in h264 encoder.

Reply 41 of 1395, by Mau1wurf1977

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It depends on the LCD. There are 120Hz LCDs monitors as you might now. There are also 75Hz 1366 x 768 models.

Capturing isn't such an issue these days. You can buy HDMI / Component Capture cards based on PCIe or USB3 or use something like a DVD recorder.

Reply 42 of 1395, by retro games 100

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Mau1wurf1977, you've given me an idea. Sometimes it is not easy or possible to determine how fast a game is running, when doing benchmarking experiments. Eg, when you run DOS games. Eg Doom, Dark Forces, Duke Nukem, high res Vesa DOS games, etc. Has your video capture project been as successful as you hoped? Because people can upload youtube videos to provide a visual idea of how fast a particular game is running.

Eg: how fast should Wing Commander run? People could do various video captures using real 386/486s, and upload them to see what other people think. Another eg: crank up a Vesa mode DOS game to its highest settings, and benchmark it on various Pentium machines, video capture these games, and then upload them youtube to "prove" in a visual way that one type of hardware set up provides faster/better/smoother frame rates than another.

Please can you tell me, after you have completed your video capture project experiments, what is the best video capture hardware to buy. Thanks a lot!

Reply 43 of 1395, by Mau1wurf1977

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I'm quite happy with the S-Video capture results considering that the converter and capture cards are quite cheap. However you will find that S-Video has it's limitations when it comes to resolution, sharpness and frame rate.

One example I like to use is that scene in "The Heart of China" right at the beginning in the Towns Bar. It scrolls from right to left and left to right and on a real PC it is super smooth. As if you take an image and move it to the left by hand.

On DOXBox and also with the S-Video capture card this smooth scrolling is lost. So a recording doesn't accurately reflect what it looks like on the real PC. However IMO S-Video recordings are still way more authentic and "fun to watch".

I have done a Duke Nukem 3D 640 x 480 recording and you can judge the quality by yourself. Also stay tuned as I have a VGA > HDMI scaler underway and hoping this will work well.

I have linked all of these recordings in this forum! Feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel and leave a comment. Always apreciated...

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Reply 44 of 1395, by retro games 100

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OK, thanks a lot for the advice. Also -

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

... Also stay tuned as I have a VGA > HDMI scaler underway and hoping this will work well.

I would be interested to hear about this new piece of kit. 😀

Reply 45 of 1395, by Mau1wurf1977

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retro games 100 wrote:

OK, thanks a lot for the advice. Also -

I would be interested to hear about this new piece of kit. 😀

Me too! No idea if it will work at all 🤣

Just looked at my videos, this is Duke Nukem 3D in SVGA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wza5eXhKF4M

And this is another one but with VGA games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOz3P3fZHq8

Set the quality to 480 for good results.

To be honest given the limitations of S-Video I'm quite impressed with the image quality. My images are cropped (no black areas around) and the blacks are black (not grey or washed out) like on many other videos.

Still I would prefer the HDMI solution as I then could run a long cable from the Retro PC to my desktop. My netbook doesn't handle the USB S-Video capture card, it drops frames.

The deinterlacing doesn't help with the scrolling. E.g.
The Heart of China" is almost 100% smooth like the real machine when I don't do the deinterlacing. But then you get the interlacing artifacts...

So my hope is that going HDMI keeps everything progressive and smooth...

Reply 46 of 1395, by bushwack

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Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Just looked at my videos, this is Duke Nukem 3D in SVGA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wza5eXhKF4M

AAAHhh! I want to scratch my eyes out, setup up your mouse! 😵 AAAAHhgaaahh!

I laffed when you went into the theater and started shooting that alien in the foot.

Reply 47 of 1395, by Mau1wurf1977

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🤣 yea it was just to record the video. Not set up for decent gaming whatsoever at this stage...

But what do you think about the video quality? That's more important to me than my sucky gaming skills 🤣

Reply 48 of 1395, by DonutKing

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BUMP

I want to capture videos off my RealMagic card, which only outputs VGA.

Which VGA/SVideo converter did you use?

Did you end up getting a VGA/HDMI converter?

If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.

Reply 49 of 1395, by Mau1wurf1977

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DonutKing wrote:
BUMP […]
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BUMP

I want to capture videos off my RealMagic card, which only outputs VGA.

Which VGA/SVideo converter did you use?

Did you end up getting a VGA/HDMI converter?

The cheap one from eBay:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Computer-VGA-Outpu … 7c5c8f08&_uhb=1

Yes I got a VGA to HDMI convertor and had no luck getting it going 🙁

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Reply 50 of 1395, by vetz

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DonutKing wrote:

Did you end up getting a VGA/HDMI converter?

Stay away from VGA to HDMI converters. Shitty quality and compatibility. Better to use S-VIDEO capture (unless you can afford a VGA capture card).

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Reply 51 of 1395, by DonutKing

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Thanks, I've just ordered one of those VGA-SVideo converter boxes and a C200 Pro - we'll see how it turns out 😀

If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.

Reply 52 of 1395, by schlang

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I'm using this VGA grabber card:
http://www.epiphan.com/products/frame-grabbers/vga2pcie

Example vid:
http://youtu.be/Au2pZ9ho4xg

PC#1: K6-III+ 400 | 512MB | Geforce4 | Voodoo1 | SB Live | AWE64 | GUS PNP Pro
PC#2: 486DX2-66 | 64MB | Riva128 | AWE64 | GUS PNP | PAS16
PC#3: 386DX-40 | 32MB | CL-GD5434 | SB Pro | GUS MAX | PAS16

Think you know your games music? Show us: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37532

Reply 53 of 1395, by Great Hierophant

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schlang wrote:
I'm using this VGA grabber card: http://www.epiphan.com/products/frame-grabbers/vga2pcie […]
Show full quote

I'm using this VGA grabber card:
http://www.epiphan.com/products/frame-grabbers/vga2pcie

Example vid:
http://youtu.be/Au2pZ9ho4xg

The output quality of that card is nice, especially using 480p. According to its maker, it should support up to 85Hz for VGA, which should include 70Hz. However, it is been discontinued and its successor is enormously expensive.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog

Reply 54 of 1395, by schlang

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mine wasn't cheap either 🙁

PC#1: K6-III+ 400 | 512MB | Geforce4 | Voodoo1 | SB Live | AWE64 | GUS PNP Pro
PC#2: 486DX2-66 | 64MB | Riva128 | AWE64 | GUS PNP | PAS16
PC#3: 386DX-40 | 32MB | CL-GD5434 | SB Pro | GUS MAX | PAS16

Think you know your games music? Show us: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37532

Reply 56 of 1395, by vetz

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ReeseRiverson wrote:

What resolution does Wing Commander run at, when you took that video?

I certainly have high interest in recording directly from my machines too. 😁

320x200, but the raw capture is done at 640x400. If you want to join the capture club then there are basically two options under 150 dollars (Avermedia and Startech) and more expensive options like the vga2pcie at 800 dollars.

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3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 57 of 1395, by Mau1wurf1977

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DonutKing wrote:

Thanks, I've just ordered one of those VGA-SVideo converter boxes and a C200 Pro - we'll see how it turns out 😀

Any look?

The best IQ is from video cards that have S-Video out. Be vary though, some cards do funny things if you also plug in a VGA monitor...

VGA to S-Video converter works well, but with a slight reduction in quality. This gets worse if you go through a KVM like I did and/or have a splitter in there as well.

Biggest plua about S-Video capture is:

- It's easy on the hardware. Older machines have no issue keeping up capturing.
- It will record anything. No matter the resolution, if yo do a reboot, if you unplug and hook something else up. You get one file with everything in it.
- Affordable. When you add up the VGA to S-Video converter and the S-Video capture device you can get away with under 50 bucks, maybe less.

I got an AVerMedia as well and already uploaded two clips captured with VGA:

Monkey Island: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lHFG9Zbms

Pinball Dreams Deluxe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVA0ZQXMWb8

I'm currently rendering a DVI > HDMI capture which is likely the way to go for me. The video workflow is easy as, even less work than with S-Video. It obviously means you need to use a graphics card with DVI, but I'm not shy about promoting my Super Socket 7 Gaming Time-machine 🤣

I'll link the result and you can compare it with other captures out there.

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My YouTube channel

Reply 58 of 1395, by ReeseRiverson

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vetz wrote:
ReeseRiverson wrote:

What resolution does Wing Commander run at, when you took that video?

I certainly have high interest in recording directly from my machines too. 😁

320x200, but the raw capture is done at 640x400. If you want to join the capture club then there are basically two options under 150 dollars (Avermedia and Startech) and more expensive options like the vga2pcie at 800 dollars.

So for Avermedia and Startech options, are these actual VGA capture cards that can take on the output of these DOS games?

So far I found these: http://solutions.avermedia.com/?q=en/products … stal-hd-vga-pro and http://www.avermedia-usa.com/avertv/Product/P … ail.aspx?Id=503

Reply 59 of 1395, by leileilol

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Technically on VGA, the resolution that low is doublescanned to 640x400... a few higher resolutions (400x300, 512x384) tend to be doublescanned as well (though there are some rare cases where 512x384 isn't)

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