Getting Set Up for VGA Capture
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 5 дек 2019
- This is an impromptu look at how I'm going to being doing VGA capture in the future.
There are a lot of factors that go into VGA capture and trying to get a lock on the signal as it is meant to be. One thing later VGA cards have as an advantage I didn't touch on here is the EID interface which gives the monitor-display connection a two way communication path for exchanging info about the resolutions. That was mostly for displays to be able to show what they can support though.
I think I'm on to something here with the TV interface box I have. All of its problems except the color ghosting should be fixable if I had the display. As I mentioned, there are 3rd party devices that do the same thing. So getting one of those from the early 2000's may also work. They aren't common though, I only found three different ones at thrift stores over the last 5yrs or so.
To TL;DW this whole video into two lines, here's how I'm going to do VGA capture going forward:
I'm going to split the VGA signal a second time for the converter boxes and have both connected. I'll only use the Sharp TV Box if the Game Broadcaster HD can't lock on to the signal.
Other Links
RUclips: / akbkuku
Github: github.com/AkBKukU
Thingiverse: www.thingiverse.com/AkBKukU
Patreon: / akbkuku
Discord: / discord 
Наука
I suspect I'm likely to get a bunch of suggestions for different VGA capture solutions based on this. Something I should mention though is that I really don't want to spend a lot of money on this. Both capture cards and all the VGA converters I've shown here have cost me less than $150 over 4yrs because I've been waiting to find good deals. So while I appreciate recommendations and am curious about them, I'm not likely to buy something that costs over $100 for this.
OSSC
OSSC and Framemeister(Its one of the most expensive solutions)
Recycling the otherwise fairly useless tv box is a cooler solution than spending a lot on a new solution especially for a vintage tech channel
One idea I am sure you have thought of... is possibly using a AVR (Audio Video Receiever) that outputs via HDMI, and has a "PC" input... there were a few brands that did this, I'm not sure of quality of lock on, but its definitely worth looking into, I've seen some 2008 vintage Onkyo, and Kenwood AVRs that had the feature. Anyway, a thought if you can't find the bits for the TV box you currently have.
I would just shorten your channels name to Tech Tangents. Good name btw
"I reached out on Twitter and LGR recommended Commander Keen" yup, sounds about right.
My first thought was "use an OSSC", its 100$, it can covert VGA to HDMI and does this with optional line doubling/tripling for optimal quality
This is my frustration with composite and non-PC analog signals, too. At this point (most of the useful drivers/software for it died with XP/Win7) i find it very hard to recommend ANY solution beyond getting a hardware scaler/doubler/deinterlacer and capturing via HDMI
Congratulations on the new name! You seem very happy in what you do for a living and the content you make. You have every reason to be! I hope for many more years!
I love this, it's so obsessive and there's so much information. I'm also glad I'm not the one struggling with the thing.
Ive been enjoying the videos where you're talking to the camera, just feels more personal than screenshots with voiceover 🙏
I have two of those sharp tv that i‘m still using for my arcade machine and that weird looking port is a DFP connector. I don't have that sharp AVC converter box on hand but i think you can try to use a DFP to DVI cable and give it a proper 1366x768 EDID see if that box switch to the normal mode
I've been working to try to solve this problem as well without the display. While the connector is a 20 pin connector, I don't think it is actually DFP... the pin out is wrong based on the tech manual's... It also wouldn't make sense for sharp to require both DVI and DFP being hooked up between the AVC, but it seems it did... That said, I am going to see if I can fake the edid information back to the DVI port and see what it does.
@@JustinGehring how did it go?
..... man... I'm laughing so hard. I remember laughing about those break out boxes when i was a kid. Now said break out box is looking like retro capture gold.
For those interested in horizontal and vertical pulse, pixels (or lack there of), and other quirks of analog television/monitors, Technology Connections has a big old series that is a deep dive into analog television signals.
The default 320x200 VGA mode is both line and pixel doubled, so it's presented as 640x400 pixels, but each pixel lasts twice as long and each line is output twice.
720x400@70hz is standard Vga text mode. 320x200 line doubled is using the same timings as text mode.
I wonder if someone could come up with a way to take the ICs from a VGA LCD and create some sort of digital output from it.
For VGA capture, you are in the realm of needing high end "frame grabber" cards which are basically monitor ADCs on a PCI/PCIe card and highly configurable. The Epiphan DVI2PCIe series (note the USB2DVI series aren't as flexible) or the popular Datapath VisionRGB series that RetroRGB recommends are in this class of cards. Best thing is if you are patient on ebay, you can get 2nd hand ones for a fraction of their 4 figure price. Both cards allow one to program the input signal parameters (hsync, vsync, back/front porch, etc.) along with being able to adjust capture phase timing. They also do video mode switching on the fly and can even resize the incoming video to keep the capture file one consistent resolution.
Most signals of the VGA games and textmode are actually 400 lines high on the raw signal level. This comes from the line doubled common 320x200 MCGA resolution which would be most accurately sampled at 640x400 final resolution after matching the pixel pitch. VGA textmode is indeed 720x400, these both run 70 Hz. CGA textmode on the other hand is 640x200 and 60 Hz. VGA also has 640x480 mode which is sometimes used and a bunch of weird tweaked modes like 320x240 and 360x480, these natively 480 lines high modes tend to run at 60 Hz, but even then there are exceptions. EGA also has a bunch of weird modes and doesn't natively do the line doubling VGA does. This means that EGA games on EGA monitor+card actually look different from EGA games on VGA card+monitor because of different scanline arrangement. What's also pretty bad is that most LCDs, especially TVs can't natively display 70 Hz at all. They will show an image, but instead resample it to 60 Hz which will always result in jerky video. Capture could be done perfectly with some custom FPGA device which is more or less synced to the pixel clock, probably hand tuned every time to perfection (or in extreme case perhaps even physically connected to the card clock), but unfortunately such a device probably doesn't exist at the moment. Also, in principle one ought to make sure to match the voltage levels in the sampling to the exact 6-bit ladder of VGA somehow whereas most ADCs in converters are probably sampling somewhere between 8-bit and 16-bits and probably not paying much attention to having uniform deterministic 1 to 1 mapping of these levels.
Must not forget all weird mode x vga resolutions like going from 256x224 to 360x480 and on some VGA adapters even weirder resolutions like 400x150 or 376x564.
I can just imagine having the DVI being split. I wish more TVs has an input box, one cable carrying everything so that means no bulk of wires running down, just the one, and it'll be easier to plug in when wall mounted
Like the new logo. Liked the old one as well but understand why you are changing. Just hope I do not lose the channel in transition. Will keep an eye out for changes.
25:00 Akbkuku is wearing a ghost hat confirmed.
Yeah what the hell was that
This is an amazing demonstration. Subscribed.
I think you chose a very apt name for your channel! Tech TANGENTS for sure. :-)
Thanks for all the work you put into your videos! Fascinating stuff.
Once again great video! Here's hoping the new channel name/look helps your channel get even more recognition, it surely deserves it ;)
6:00: "Construded"? Is that what happens when you're aiming for _construed_ but get distracted by _constructed_ ?
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Could watch Videos about capturing VGA all day.
Mike Chi needs to make a VGAtink. So many people need this.
I like the new logo and intro. Good job!
Wait, who are you and what are you doing in my sub feed? And where is AkBKukU? What did you do to him?
supra107 he’s been captured by his evil twin
crim981 we got him, boys
Super informative info. VGA forever!
The notification had me frowning for just under a second, great video!
Will have to test out VGA capture with the OSSC and the Elgato HD60S.
Oh crap, THAT'S what that Aquos box is for?! I just saw one of those at a thrift shop a few days ago , I may just have to get one of those.
New name is absolutely awesome!
It is amazing that the box is still outputting input video while it is showing error at the same time.
I see videos like this all the time. Every vintage gamer wants a ‘pixel-perfect’ capture from old devices, which is the wrong way of approaching video capture. The proper way is converting the signal to SDI. SDI is the broadcast standard. In the broadcasting industry, you don’t worry about converting to different video standards or resolutions, there’s only SDI. All you need is a VGA to SDI converter box or a video card with both VGA and SDI (which are dirt cheap finds on ebay). From there you can convert SDI into whatever signal you want. But I highly suggest skipping any SDI converter box and just use a SDI to usb 3.0 capture device.
Dave from EEV blog worked on an early LCD panel driver and said getting all the analog to digital circuitry working welll was quite difficult. I don't think there is a video of him talking about it but he does mention it when he opens a newish LCD monitor up and is impressed by the small chip count no doubt due to integration.
i think this is a better channel name than just tech tangents or akbkuku
I would suggest look for a used "video scaler" from Kramer or Extron (the brands i have tested), those units are used at conference centers where people bring strange video electronics every day and just expects it to work. A used scaler can often be bought cheap since it is quite specialized equipment and most people don't know what they do. A scaler will however always re-scale the image to the target resolution but it will do it well. I am no expert on the matter but where i have used them, they have always worked.
Also, many of those will feature an SDI or 3G SDI output that will give you a nice, tidy digital signal.
I have a Kramer 724 XL and does not work with DOS resolutions unfortunately!
After a long time researching this and trying various low cost analog-to-digital converters, I ended up going the expensive route. I just couldn't find anything that didn't have one problem or another.
I ended up buying a used Epiphan AVio online for $200. It captures both digital and analog signals, and you can use a utility to configure up to 3 custom resolutions apart from the standard list. So my 486 gaming DOS PC, for example, can output 320x200 and it captures it just fine with no borders, clipping, or scaling. I added 320x200 for 1:1 and 960x600 to my custom resolutions to get 3:1 pixel mapping so I can avoid scaling and get a crisp picture. I'm able to do live streams of my DOS PC and 68k Macintosh with pixel perfect video. It's great. Only annoyance that's outside of my control is when I capture video at 1:1, you get the annoying scaling artifacts from non-native resolutions on a fixed DPI LCD screen. So I try to do everything at least 2:1 or 3:1 so you can blow it up and it'll look nice. I thought about just doing everything 1:1 then double the size of the capture window, but I wanted to avoid any software scaling issues that might introduce artifacts.
If you can find one used, I'd recommend an Epiphan AVio. They're pricey new, especially for a hobbyist, but I can't argue with the quality.
I also recommend getting a proper dual-VGA signal booster, and not just a Y-cable, along with some nice heavy shielded low-noise VGA cables from someplace like Monoprice. That will eliminate ghosting.
Holy shit, WHIPLASH! I haven't seen that game in ages. O____O I played the absolute hell out of that game. So fun.
I have tested a few options as well and I have come to stick with the OSSC and a very cheap USB3.0 HDMI capture device. The OSSC is not cheap (~150 EUR) but the capture card was just 60 EUR. The whole solution allows me to capture both my Sega MegaDrive as well as VGA from my 386. Adding other devices wouldn't be hard, as long as they output RGB or VGA. The only drawback of the OSSC is that it syncs relatively slowly when the source switches resolutions.
Nice to meet you, Tech Tangents By AkBkukU ！
I own a Micomsoft SC512 and recently acquired a Datapath Vision RGB E1s card and I think that might cover a lot of the bases, especially for 70Hz. A user on Vogons has made software for it that can support custom timings as well as real time anti-tear. Vision RGB cards can be expensive but sometimes you find them for a steal of a price. Usually from hardware recyclers dumping old broadcast industry stuff. They had a VGA specific capture card too but I don't know much about it... Missed my chance to buy it when they were $25 each on ebay.
Played with a Gefen VGA - DVI converter for a spell too, but major problem was recovery time when switching resolutions on the fly and also 70hz DOS mode image tearing
I'm really lIking the name "Tech Tangents by AkBkukU", tbh.
Yeah it actually looks good and it adds a bit more flare than just Tech Tangents
Crazy his Discord mod likes the name :O
Hey, look who I found around the interwebs! :)
@@ajjr1228 lol
I remember using assign to fake out the "no CD present" issue in DOS. There was some other mojo required to get around the Whiplash CD detection too.
I'm subscribed and have alerts activated but didn't get a notification that you uploaded this video. It only appeared later in the suggestions.
I think I found the manual for the exact TV this goes with and another thing you did not mention that would be nice to have: the vertical stand. Apparently the AVC for this TV was capable of being set up standing up like the PlayStation 2
I just noticed you have the same mouse as me, good choice
Great and interesting video as always. I’m glad you pointed out that there’s really no pixels in VGA and where’d you get that dope shirt?
2:00 I found a similar issue using a particular monitor for TTL to VGA conversion. This LCD TV/monitor happens to be able to accept a 15.7KHz input over it's VGA, which allows for easy conversion using a resistor/diode network, but playing an older DOS version of Monopoly (for an 8088), I noticed that it was switching between 40 and 80 column mode when it went to the game board, and this would cause the monitor to display the OSD and re-adjust every time the screen changed modes.
if you ever need a hand i have 30 years of pc experience. your doing great keep it up
An Extron 300A is not that expensive. I got mine for around £50, and it solves 95% of these issues in 1 single frame of lag. Also, it outputs at a fixed resolution, so you don't lose sync every time a game changes modes. I use to use an Epiphan capture card, but I never got it to work fine, particularly when you wanted to capture both 640x400 and 720x400 stuff, since it only uses the vertical resolution to detect mode changes.
A GBS 8200 with the GBS-control custom firmware is what you're looking for. It also does resolution switching without losing sync. Only costs ~35$ to build as well.
@1:39 - you could even hear that off demagnetizer cirquit in top-of-the-line NEC or Sony monitors ;)
Id love to get that tv you spoke of now it would be fun to tinker with.
I don't think whether this is any good, but if you found either the Pioneer or the Sharp repair manual for these, you could theoretically see what pins are expected to receive the IR signal. Since I'd think they'd just put the IR receiver into the TV portion and then just patch the IR pins through the communication cable. So if we expect that the IR I/O is on the board and the pins are just routed through the connector as-is, you could theoretically just put in an IR receiver (with a resistor at first) and see if it responds to a universal remote.
If this is the "Sharp LC-30HV4U", I found the Service Manual for it on "manualslib". It seems quite complete, but without having the actual device next to me, I'm not sure what is what. It seems there is a list of actual resolutions and things like that, even the serial communication is described in detail in there.
I Like the way you think! :)
Even if it's not the same exact model, if it's relatively the same era, the commands could be the same, they tend to hold for these for a while for simplicity
Your CGA monitor colors are much more vibrant than they "should" be. The captured colors are "accurate" representations of the color attributes in the CGA video memory. The issue is that the CGA monitor is oversaturating the colors and producing a result you find more pleasing, because it's "correct". It's analogous to the color differences of Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Fuji digital cameras, they all interpret the colors differently. Even high end VGA CRTs look different side-by-side from your CGA monitor, it will be less saturated and more muted.
Fucking love the new name and intro bro keep up the dope content
Thank you for this. I have learned more about VGA signal today than ever before. I couldn't help but think, could re-purposing an LCD monitor that perhaps has a broken panel be another option? Those digital signals have to be accessible somehow. Just a thought. Thanks again!
I managed to get a second hand Epiphan DVI2PCIe on eBay in the US for 100$ + shipping to Germany.
I have to admit, this is the best investment I could have made for capturing. You can use a standard DVI to VGA adapter that came with every graphics card in the past years and connect it directly to a classic computer. It takes virtually every signal you throw at it, from low-res 320x200 modes over 640x350 hi-res EGA modes and the weird timing Jazz Jackrabbit uses up to the 15kHz RGB signal of an Amiga. It's able to sync to modes that no standard VGA monitor would sync to. Flawlessly. In any refresh rate, be it 43, 50, 60, 70, 72, 75, 85, ... Hz. I'm more than happy with that card. It has next to no input lag, you can configure the hell out of it, and - it works with Linux.
The only annoyance is a slight issue with OBS. Every time the video mode changes, OBS doesn't resync to the new timing. You have to open the source settings in OBS and change any setting, then press cancel. This is enough to re-sync to the new mode. I don't know if it is an issue with the driver not signalling the resolution change to OBS or OBS just ignoring any changes. I hope this gets fixed some day, then this setup will be absolutely unbeatable.
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure you could connect it to an MDA/CGA/EGA card by just wiring up a passive adapter using some resistors to convert the TTL level signals to VGA signal levels. I'm sure it would happily sync to it.
1:07 You can tell he has done some similar enhancements to the crt like lgr did video on. Theres a layering problem.
Should be able to use an FPGA and some hardware encoders, for VGA standards there are some out there that allow weird resolutions, or just roll your own with your own ADCs and such. Could probs be done for under $100 in parts.
Shelby, you should get one of those Sharp monitors and reverse-engineer the serial protocol. You can do that, I'm pretty sure. And a video about it would be amazing! And if you can, open source everything.
Had I seen this sooner I would have picked up this old Sony tv for $35 that I saw at a thrift shop which had an extra output. I have been struggling getting good deinterlacing for my VHS and LaserDisc backups for my archive but have a great VGA upscaler that looks amazing on my 65" plasma and has cropping options so that one device could handle everything including line doubling and my PC would just have to capture it.
I got an old Pioneer Plasma TV from 2008, they were realy high end back in the time, espacially the kuro-series, they have that type of converter boxes as well, the had all conections of its time like VGA,DVI Component and Composite, too. Depending on the Displays max. resolution (1920x1080 or 1366x768) it scales and converts everything up. It uses an DVI Connector for Picture and an Displayport for Sound, Remote, and Data, so with an cheap Dvi or HDMI splitter you could grab the Signal and capture it, wirhout HDCP or some of that crap of course. But as you Mentioned, you gonna need the TV to work as well i think, but it works fine with my avermedia capture HD. Using two DVI to HDMI adapters and an simple HDMI Splitter. However, its still pretty expensive though.
The ' Sharp ' TV box was actually the same as the one used by Pioneer plasma TVs.
That tshirt. Awesome 😎
I have seen AV receivers with VGA inputs before. mostly older Onkyo models.
that would seem like a decent solution
I got a Datapath VisionRGB E1s very cheap on Ebay a few years ago. It can capture pretty much anything analogue (and digital up to 1920 x 1080) pixel perfect with some configuration. If you look there are some great deals out there on professional hardware some business is trying to get rid off due to the 5 year cycle.
Very informative video! Thanks! Do you know which TV sets was equipped in this media converting/switching thing?
Shelby Tech! I use a VGA to Composite adapter and use an ATI HDTV Wonder 650 for video capture with a digital video stabilizer.
People shouldn't think that game developers did all of this for arbitrary reasons. VGA popularized the custom display because PCs were never designed for video games, and this low-level manipulation of the display controller allowed a developer to come up with a configuration of video memory usage and timing that best suited the game they wanted to make. There's various aspects of the internal configuration of VGA that developers took advantage of as well which affected those decisions. You could also manipulate timings on VGA's predecessors since you had direct access to the display controller ports, and those chips weren't designed specifically for those pieces of hardware, but the uses were a lot more limited due to the designs of the video cards themselves.
I use Philips FTRs for converting analog signals (composite,component, svideo) to VGA
first hat so set a jumper inside and be quick enter a code number by remote control, to enter the service menu, so I was able to stop it waiting for feedback from the plasma screen
has great video upscaling, buffering, and so on. down side: only 50hz (europe)
may be one like this also exists with hdmi/DVI?
Awesome hat!
I have one of the Epiphan cards (VGA2PCIe). It's great because you can specify custom timings for any resolution (I've even been able to capture 15kHz RGB out of my Tandy Color Computer 3 with it). But I have had issues with it dropping frames. I suspect that is more of a software problem than a hardware problem but I haven't found a capture software solution yet that will work without the frame drops.
Use Epiphan's capture tools or AmerecTV. VirtualDub will NOT work properly with this card because it expects capture devices with fixed frame rates and mis-guesses the current frame rate of the video signal.
you could try using an OSSC and capturing from the hdmi output on that.
^ Unfortunately most HDMI capture cards don't agree with the unusual output from the OSSC (it's a line doubler, not a scaler). You would most likely need a secondary scaler like an Extron DSC301HD or DVDO. But Ak already has an HDMI scaler box so worth a shot.
@@s8wc3 The OSSC has a "passthru" mode for situations like this where it simply digitizes the incoming video. No line doubling applied.
This is what I use to handle VGA sources. I'm not doing capturing, but HDMI is much easier to switch and route to multiple displays.
Pretty sure that's out of the price range
@@s8wc3 Actually there's an $11 HDMI capture card that DOES work with the OSSC. Look up HDMI to USB capture card on eBay and amazon and you'll find a little black rectangle that is strikingly similar to the elgato camlink.
Might be possible to take the scalar/controller board for an LCD display (with whatever relevant inputs) and use an LVDS to DVI/HMDI converter to connect to your capture device.
It would be a bit of a pain to set up, but *should* work. Ideally the LCD controller should be one from a 1280x720 or 1920x1080 LCD, that way you get a decent standard res to work with.
I have an old board laying around that I've been meaning to try this with, but I just don't have the time to do it.
If it does indeed work, that could be a cheap solution, LCD driver/controller boards can be had for really cheap on Ali/eBay ($15?), and the LVDS converters are "decent" depending on what/where (I've seen ranging from $50-$100).
For a very low-tech solution, have you experimented with adding variable resistors (to change the sync level) or variable capacitors (to extend or delay sync pulses) in between the H/V sync lines of your VGA output? It sometimes worked with my finicky upscalers/monitors/TVs. Perhaps there's a sweet spot (of capacitance/pulse droop) that will fool your capture card at any screen resolution?
But the moment it upscales pixels other than integer scaling it gets all blurry.
For other analog formats, adapting to hdmi is actually considered the best standard for digital conversion. Vga may be the same way.
Weird... On my Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4k capture card (and using OBS on Linux) it has no issues with 480p over HDMI, it just hates 480p over component for some reason.
the display driver/Input boards put out the the LCD mostly over LVDS, so now you need to capture or convert the LVDS back to HDMI/DVI/DPP some how.
Have you taken a look at older rear projection tv's? Some of them have the equivalent of that external box you got inside of them and they are usually free or very cheap due to people upgrading to flat screen tv's. Some projectors also have this arrangement but would be harder to find.
I have a 386 computer and the clock chip had gone faulty for the graphics so it was putting out really high frame rates of around 118hz and my crt was fine running at all its crazy framerates but no LCD could manage. I have now fitted a new clock chip and it's back to normal framerates.
Well one thing that I haven't seen with vga at least is per scanline resolution, at that point I'd guess even the Sharp box would drop out.
I wonder however if it isn't possible to make at least framebuffer cards that output to dvi and hdmi or even display port, not a solution for every problem of course as not everything runs on a framebuffer device but should be fairly easy to set up and possibly with very low technical costs, not only due to simpler electronics but also due to possibly not being as niche as I could see both businesses and organisations having use for that too.
holy shit i had the same monitor back in the day, hauled it home in the public bus :D
Super interesting! I have an idea for you. I wonder if this is something that could be done with any ol' plain monitor and some ingenuity? What I mean by that is get an LCD monitor, gut it. Inside the LCD monitor will be a board that does the Analog to Digital conversion, then sends a digital signal to the LCD panel itself right? I've seen some channels that use a cable to connect DVI outputs to laptop LCD cable inputs... I don't know the names off the top of my head. But I suspect that the digitizing board has an output that connects to the LCD panel via DVI or something of the sort. It may be possible for someone of your know-how to breadboard the outputs of that digitizing board to a DVI output intended for the LCD panel?
Had the same idea. It should be feasible to do this conversion from the digital bus between the main LCD controller IC and the display matrix controller to HDMI with an FPGA.
Hmmm i wonder if one can extract the digital signal after it has been processed by a Monitor Processor. I mean there has to be SOME way the Processor and Display Driver communicate. I wonder if that is some signal that is relativly easily convertable to a standard
I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned this yet, but have you looked into using an OSSC for analog to digital conversion? They have a VGA input and support a lot of odd resolutions, with a lot of customization.
I got a very inexpensive combination of devices to work!
Item 1: Amazon: "VGA to HDMI Adapter with Audio, (PC VGA Source Output to TV/Monitor with HDMI Connector),VENTION 1080P VGA to HDMI Adapter Male to Female Cable for Computer, Desktop, Laptop, PC, Monitor, HDTV" (Reviews even say it goes down to 320x200 and DOS ASCII, and it does!)
Item 2: eBay: "1080P 4K HDMI to USB video capture device"
new name and photo, interesting
It seems like you could hijack the signal that the LCD montior circuitboard is sending to the panel and feed it to a capture device.
was it component, where the green channel is not present, and they just send red blue and alpha ?
its weird I recognized this as an akbkuku video by the thumbnail before seeing the new logo and channel name which confused me immediately after
what about those vga to hdmi adapters, surely you could do something with them? I use a vga to hdmi adapter with a capture card, usually i get pretty good footage.
ive taken apart a projection tv to find they used an internal hdmi cable from the inputs board to the light engine....hmmmmmmm, i dont believe that model had vga input tho. Something to look out for maybe?
I used to use those Input Boxes but mine was a Sony one.
so.. i wanted to do this for a long long time with my retro machines, but not for capture but remote control. there is no such thing as 'VNC' for DOS - you can telnet in by using some really sketchy old software, but even ASCII art gets garbled. not to mention starting a game and switching resolutions etc.
do you know of any converter box-like hardware that has a VGA input, sound input and PS/2 output on one end and an RJ45 or USB port on the other so one can remotely see and hear and control stuff over a network?
on my 486 I had a video card by ATI that had a SVideo out. I used to use it to hook up to my tv. I would think a tv capture card should do the job.
I bought an "all to hdmi 4k" from aliexpress, it is suppose take input from vga, hdmi, composite, ?s-video?; it works but in rescaling it's not super crisp, does everything real time but seems to degrade things or blow out the image a bit..... on the positive, price is not bad.... personally I'd go the route of vga to hdmi converters(there's these small ones that are usb powered, look very similar to the converts that do hdmi to vga) that seem to work really well, and seem to support most resolutions; the issue I ran into was that capture cards I have only support 720p or 1080p so I have to rescale to one of those
Have you spoken to Clint at LGR or David the 8-Bit-Guy? They do a lot of VGA capture. Also, that Sharp box has some major lag.
I have a tv card with s video and compoits I can use a adapter to get VGA to comosit