Any Advice on Choosing a Capture Card?

[Doopliss]

If you're playing on PC, probably not. Just gotta play with settings and hope for the best. Maybe try different (less CPU-intensive) software.

If you're playing on a separate monitor, you can just split the console output cable - run one into the capture card and the other directly into your TV.

Buying this shit was a huge mistake... how do I split the cable?

[Pokey86]

Gah, just noticed that it's like 5 frames of input delay on the capture card, there must be a way to get rid of it, right?

When i used my CC i found that lag etc was almost entirely dependant on what recording software i used.

I ended up using McFunsoft video converter (Which also records) but don't forget to just try out Windows movie maker as it's pretty easy to try. turn off all extra programs running, if you know how to, ctrl+shift+esc & delete any running processes that you know you can do safely.

Either way they worked out badly for me, i ended up having to playwith no sound & if i recorded for longer than about 2 mins lag was unreal.

Oh yeah, if you record directly to uncompressed avi the computer doesn't have to do any conversion work during recording. This should ease up the CPU usage... you'll need alot of free space on your hard drive though.

Buying this shit was a huge mistake... how do I split the cable?

I hear this has problems, if you just up & use a cable splitter (small box you put one in gives two outs or male/female) then you get something apparently called ghosting, some kind of video overlay problem... I know they have hardware that resolves this, but when i went to buy one it was like £30 so i opted out.

This is in britain so things might vary. Personally i use a DVD player, which funnily enough, i hear isn't as straight forward over in the US

[Doopliss]

I live in sweden

But I will try uncompressed AVI. That's basically how I record from my PC now.

[Pokey86]

I live in sweden

But I will try uncompressed AVI. That's basically how I record from my PC now.

Sorry, my default presumption is US for some reason, i really need to change that setting

[Doopliss]

Well, most of the time it's true, so don't bother XD

[Magnetro]

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/produc ... techspecs/

The new USB3 does 480p among other things.

[Doopliss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPbnuypdYDQ whis is what I got when recording in uncompressed AVI. I must say I'm quite pleased.

[Smileymike101]

How much did it cost you?

[Doopliss]

Around 1000 SEK, because I had somepeople install it for me for 320 SEK. That's around 100€.

[Smileymike101]

Crap...I only have 3 and a half dollars...

[Doopliss]

Btw, is SFIV always widescreen, even if you set your console to 4:3? Sure seems that way...

[Maj]

Are you on PS3 or Xbox360?

[Doopliss]

360

[Maj]

Well, all my SF4 vids are 4:3 so how different do yours look from that? Maybe your capture card is stretching them out?

[Doopliss]

Nope, I try to record in 4:3, the 360 menu looks normal, but SFIV looks the same like when I had it on widescreen.

But when I look at your videos, they are a little deformed as well. I guess I will do that then. is 640x480 the size you use?

[PimpWilly]

Just wanted to chime in here, since I threw some money into my rig to start doing recording, streaming, etc from my computer. Basically, I needed something powerful enough to capture at least at 720p, and also one that would allow me to do streaming. I read lots of issues with USB devices not registering as a camera source for most streaming software, so I decided to go with the internal card solution. Less portable, but more powerful.

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

I went with the Black Magic Intensity Pro, props to Magnetro he helped me find a solution that would work for me. It has an HDMI in and an HDMI out, so I can pass through the signal with no noticeable delay to a second monitor, and record while playing without having any frame lag (important because I'm not using programmable controllers). The file size on this stuff is crazy if you do uncompressed video, its about 100MB per second at 720p. However, it has a built in encoder that can compress the video without strain on your CPU (I believe, its a setting in the control panel for the card) and reduce the file size greatly without too much compromise in quality. It also has the ability to downconvert the signal on the fly from HD to SD, which is key because when streaming most software really only supports SD becase HD would just be overkill. The signal passed through still becomes HD. IT also has the ability to do component or composite video. I actually have mine set up to take the HDMI video signal, and the RCA audio signal, which I then run through a mixer board with microphones and stuff. Works really nice.

It's a little finicky in Vista so far, sometimes the signal just wont come through without a reboot of the entire computer if I've been running too long, and the pass through signal is only active if the card is actually active, which means you need some sort of software accessing it it even get the signal. The default software it comes with only actively takes the signal if its an active window, which means tabbing to a web browser makes you lose the signal. Theres other software though (UStream Producer, for example) that keeps the signal active all the time so its not too bad of an issue.

The end result is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE7uaPc2Y2s but of course this is compressed further by Vegas to get the filesize reasonable. All in all not a bad investement for recording

[CPS2]

What do people use to capture from the PC? I just upgraded my computer, can run SF4 now (should be able to start using AutoMacro with it), but fraps really slows it down way to much to do anything. Tried HyperCam but this only runs well with a really small window, and it's pretty CPU draining so I can't really use it with SF4. I have a Hauppauge HD PVR which has component pass thru and capture, but my graphics card outputs in DVI and HDMI.

I guess what I need is either better capture software or advice on converting HDMI into component Also advice on more hardware I can buy to capture from the PC... do internal capture cards usually record what you're running on PC (without lagging up the game), or are they more for capturing from something plugged into the PC?

[error1]

I have fraps record at half resolution but you do need a powerful pc to do even that.
they do make adapters for dvi->component and hdmi->component that might suit you http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13184

[CPS2]

Cheers, I'll try some cables out. Had some bad luck with switch boxes and things that don't work in the past, and don't know what does or doesn't have HDCP. These are pretty cheap tho, worth a shot.

[Magnetro]

You have to make sure your out frequency is something that your capture card can read.

Also, you might have to run SF4 at a lower resolution if you plan on capturing it into the same computer that you're running it from.

[CPS2]

what I'll do is run the computer in 720p (monitor is 1080p, but I'll change it to be safe), then record on a laptop. that should work if the cable is ok. for some reason, they didn't even charge me shipping to australia

[PimpWilly]

Also note with fraps, if you try to capture at 30fps (thinking it'll put less strain on your computer) thats bad, since fraps actually caps the framerate of SF4 if you do that. Make sure you have fraps recording at 60fps when you're trying, it may not actually be your computer straining (though it very well could be).

[ShinjiGohan]

looks like blackmagic came out with a new portable intensity device. Has an array of inputs, supports HDMI 1.3, 480p etc... but you need to have USB3.0 on your computer to actually use it lol. Same price tag as the PCI Express card though. When I upgrade my PC again I may sell my old intensity pro card and get the shuttle. So I can free up 2 PCI Express slots.
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

[Dammit]

So I can free up 2 PCI Express slots.

Why two?

[ShinjiGohan]

So I can free up 2 PCI Express slots.

Why two?

cause then I won't need my soundcard for the audio recording.

[PimpWilly]

Does the sound not work through your black magic? Or do you mean just audio only recording? Sadly, the only way I could get sound was to record video and just take the sound track using mine, which made it a pain for doing just voice recording through my sound board

[ShinjiGohan]

it was a perference of mine to record using the RCA input jacks on the 5.25 bay that came with the soundblaster audugy card. and an overall dislike of that breakout cable that must be used with the intensity pro. getting the shuttle would mean that I can easily plug in everything I want onto it.

[ShinjiGohan]

Ordered a new PC setup. Should be intensity shuttle compatable, but I'll find out when everything gets here.

Case: HAF 932
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7
Cpu: AMD Phenom 6X 1090T BE
Ram: 16GB (G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL)
CPU Cooler: CoolIT Systems ECO-R ECO A.L.C CPU Cooler
Capture Card: Intensity Shuttle

Thats all the new stuff. I'll carry over a few PCI and PCIx capture cards, videocard, dvd burner, etc... from my old system.

Though I'd still be looking for maybe an external raid setup. I'll need to see which type works best for HD video capturing.

[Doopliss]

Wth, all of a sudden I'm getting sound sparks when recording loud noices (Like lvl.3 FA hitting, Ultra activation), that has never been there before... annoying.

[ShinjiGohan]

I saw this and am thinking about getting it
http://www.micomsoft.co.jp/sc-500n1.htm
http://micomsoft.co.jp/shop/sc-500n1.html

mostly because capturing rgb from my PS1/PS2/arcade boards is seemingly impossible with my current equipment. Both of my intensity products are too picky about the sync and won't sync to anything rgb even if its roughly converted to ntsc.