Recommendations for Capture Cards?

Professor Snugglesworth

Okay, so this might be more appropriate as a Technology Tavern question, but since it's related to gaming, I'd like to try and ask here.

I've been interested in acquiring a capture card to record my gaming activities, like the cool kids do. I see the replay videos of Street Fighter IV and MW2 on YouTube and wish I could permanently capture my memories. The PS3 has been promising YouTube for some time, but at the extremely slow pace that it's being implemented, I'm not holding my breath.

Before you give some recommendations, let met tell you what I would like to get out of my future card.

1. To record from both the 360 and PS3. Wii recording is also welcome, but not a priority.

2. To record through HDMI. Since both systems use it, I figure it would be less of a hassle for me.

3. To record in HD, at least somewhere around 720p or 1080i. Seeing how they would go up on YouTube, it doesn't have to be a really big resolution, but I don't want crummy standard definition either.

4. To be able to play the games on my TV as it records on my PC. I don't want to have to play the game through my PC monitor if I can help it. Ditto on sound.

5. And most importantly, it has to be affordable. Something below $200 is ideal.

I appreciate the suggestions and info you can supply me.

Xenogears of Bore

I don't know why I'm helping you of all people but...

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

BOOM HEADSHOT.

Professor Snugglesworth

Do you have something against me?

I thought we were cool.

Xenogears of Bore

Nope, and that's the best capture card for its money out there and the only decent answer for HDMI under $500.

Professor Snugglesworth

Is it going to require some hefty specs? I've got an 8800GT and intel pro duo, so I should be set.

I heard something about the PS3 requiring some sort of dongle to break its HDCP encryption, or some sort. Is this viable?

And finally, where am I most likely going to find the best deal on this thing? If I can bump it down to $150, maybe I can request it for Xmas.

Xenogears of Bore

Game playback is not HDCP encrypted...I think.

That videocard will be fine, but you're going to need a free PCI-e port and between 2-4 gigs of ram, a huge hard drive, and a fairly up to date processor to get this setup to work properly in HD. HD video is annoyingly big before compression.

Morninglord

Can I just downgrade this thread? I want to capture video for let's plays and random combo/gameplay segments. I don't give a damn about hd tho, sd is fine. I can't get a dazzle here so I'm not sure what to grab for that or what is good quality.

Professor Snugglesworth

My specs:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
System Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model EP35-DS3L
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz, 3000 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. F5, 7/16/2008
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 4.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.54 GB
Total Virtual Memory 8.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 6.37 GB
Page File Space 4.00 GB

I also have three 500gb hard drives, so storage shouldn't be an issue. Any video I save will be deleted once YouTube'd anyway.

Stupid question, though, how do I hook up the card to the system I want to record from? Does the HDMI cord go from the system to the card, or from the card to the TV?

Xenogears of Bore

System to the card.

Looks like your mobo is one below the Gigabyte one they recommend so that should be fine, has three pci-e slots, and the processor should be good as well.

Professor Snugglesworth

Xenogears of Bore wrote: »

System to the card.

So the game wouldn't display on my TV then, but on my PC's monitor? I thought some people managed to get theirs displayed on both.

Or perhaps I could have the PC display on my TV (which I often do), so the result would be the same.

Xenogears of Bore

That's usually how those things work, yes.

System to card. Output from your graphics card to both your monitor and a tv.

Professor Snugglesworth

Yeah, I want this. The question is which vendor would be best for any potential Xmas discount deals.

rts

The blackmagic card is great though it requires a lot of fucking around to figure it out. I don't do any capturing myself, I use it for live broadcasting hd video online...but I have heard that you need a RAID setup to really record quality stuff.

I think the best way to record would be to get an hdmi splitter and split the signal between your TV and your computer.

PikaPuff

I got all excited because for the first few seconds I was thinking this was a CCG, and maybe some kind of real life CCG and you were asking for what capture cards to put into your deck.

IceBurner

The BlackMagic Intensity Pro does not do 480p/i and it's $400.

The Hauppauge HD PVR box does a really good job with both SD and HD resolutions, but records into h264 and requires a fast CPU & HDD's. It's quite a bit less expensive than the Intensity, at $249 MSRP.

Edit: Looks like the PVR drivers have been updated and can now record directly into the PS3 .m2ts video format.

rts

The Intensity Pro is less than $200.

Professor Snugglesworth

cakemikz wrote: »

The blackmagic card is great though it requires a lot of fucking around to figure it out.

What kind of fucking around? Software-based? I thought it would be as simple as connecting one end to the other, then displaying the image on your monitor and push record. At least that was what I was hoping by sticking to HDMI outputs.

I think the best way to record would be to get an hdmi splitter and split the signal between your TV and your computer.

You mean like this?

I'm not entirely sure why I'd need that. I have a 3-way HDMI switch so I can easily switch between my two consoles and PC to display on my TV. Or is that splitter meant to display the video on both my PC monitor and TV at the same time?

rts

Fucking around in your settings making sure you have the perfect input and output resolutions.

Also the splitter is to display on both at the same time, recording video can be extremely hardware intensive so it might affect your ability to play if you are displaying it on your computer while recording.

Professor Snugglesworth

So the splitter would greatly reduce the stress from recording, then.

Glal

Any decently priced capture cards that take component? The problem with HDMI input is that I couldn't really plug any of the older consoles in (and S-Video is pretty terrible).

PikaPuff

I wanna throw this completely different question in here:

What about capuring PC video/audio? Suggestions? Still fraps?

rts

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

So the splitter would greatly reduce the stress from recording, then.

I don't think it would reduce the stress of recording much, just the stress on you if you're playing.

Glal wrote: »

Any decently priced capture cards that take component? The problem with HDMI input is that I couldn't really plug any of the older consoles in (and S-Video is pretty terrible).

The Black Magic Intesity Pro has a component adapter.

Glal

Cue image macro with frog going Excellent.

IceBurner

cakemikz wrote: »

The Intensity Pro is less than $200.

Holy shit, that wasn't what I paid for one about 6 months ago! Turned out to be useless for capturing PS2 vids, though, so it was returned.

elliotw2

According to the site, it does everything from 240i to 1080p (NES to PS3), you just have to buy the break out adapter for the analog port

IceBurner

Asked my friend who has the thing for clarification: 480p via component is what doesn't work. 480i does via composite.

rts

elliotw2 wrote: »

According to the site, it does everything from 240i to 1080p (NES to PS3), you just have to buy the break out adapter for the analog port

Mine came with the adapter.

Professor Snugglesworth

So does the Intensity Pro come with its own software for recording? Does it let you edit the video as well (to cut out the parts that I would find YouTube worthy)?

rts

It comes with capture software. It does not have any kind of editing that I am aware of. I believe you can also capture from the card using the newest version of premiere if you have it.

Xenogears of Bore

PikaPuff wrote: »

I got all excited because for the first few seconds I was thinking this was a CCG, and maybe some kind of real life CCG and you were asking for what capture cards to put into your deck.

This joke was so great it took me a whole half a day to comment on it. Bravo.

stigweard

PikaPuff wrote: »

I wanna throw this completely different question in here:

What about capuring PC video/audio? Suggestions? Still fraps?

Pretty much fraps. I can play 60fps@1080p and record at 60fps (1/2 size) with no frame loss in game or in video. You can record your mic conversations now as well. File sizes are huge ~1GB/min. I convert and compress with mediacoder using cuda and the hdds are the bottleneck.