We're colleting lots of great feedback for video capture methods! Definitely feel free to add links to videos or sources that you have on the subject in comments below... if RUclips rejects the comment, try again or message me with the link and I will post on your behalf!!
Nice one Chris, video capturing is a rabbit hole I don't wish to fall down! So kudos to you, for persevering with another thing, so I don't have to! :)
StarTech's drivers are a bit wonky, I've noticed if you add it to OBS and then unplug and plug it into a different USB port it comes up as a new device. As a general video thing though, you shouldn't really stretch 4:3 video to fit a 16:9 display everything will be subtly wrong.
It's a matter of opinion really. I do like to fill the screen when I make videos, or am using a 16:9 monitor on the desk too. The Epiphan does a nice job with stretching the screen. The Startech does an "ok" job, but not a great job. So, yes, if all I had were the Startech, I'd be less apt to strech.
@@RetroTechChris Well it's more the aspect ratio will be wrong - anything circular on a 4:3 display will be stretched into an oval if you make it fit a 16:9 display. It is a bit hard to notice in DOS though, some games didn't even use square pixels, so stretching might actually correct the image! I wonder if the StarTech looks worse because it can't handle scaling by fractional amounts of pixels that well.
Nice video Chris. I've also got a epiphan device (an DVI2USB) and have had some similar issues with it, although for me the quality depends on the machine I'm capturing as much as the settings. You've given me a few ideas on how to make my device work a little better. I notice you had some of the same lines and jailbars I've had on my device, a commenter on one of my videos suggested adjusting the phase, which in my case seemed to help a little bit.
Nice overview of the drivers and their options, but I disagree about scaling 4:3 sources to 16:9. It looks stretched and not at all how it looks on original hardware.
@RetroTechChris Hello Chris. I asked a question about video capture solutions that can do 320x240 at Retro Machines on Facebook, and someone pointed me in your direction. Have you found a better solution for video capture since then? And your channel is wonderful. Subscribed immediately.
You probably wouldn’t do it this way, so here goes. First in the chain is a DTech powered VGA splitter with DDC2. DDC2 allows it to send the signal out with carrier info, at least AFAIK. I capture from older Macs so I need to go out to my monitor to see the preview, and this just works Then i split off using a StarTech VGA to HDMI adapter with scaler (VGA2HDMIPRO2). This is like a headless monitor, with on screen settings. The Nostalgia Mall and LGR turned me on to this. It just passes a scaled signal from VGA to HDMI; the only thing it can’t handle is VGA output from a G3 iMac at 640x480 which has a 117 MHz refresh rate. Lastly, I go to an El Gato Game Capture HD, the older model because it still supports composite and S-Video. I loan it to my kid sometimes so he can capture from his PS/2, and El Gato has a PS/2 adapter for it. Then I go to my MacBook Air using the El Gato software. It’s much improved and I find OBS too labor intensive. I also use a 128 GB SSD in an external enclosure to capture the video. This allows me to take it directly to my Mac for editing in iMovie. I don’t usually scale my videos to match the dimensions of a modern monitor. If something is 4:3 I keep it that way but I will run the final video through Handbrake to chop off the black bands from the sides and reduce file size for uploading. Of course you’re a PC guy, so you can replace Macs with PCs and iMovie with something similar for Windows. Use what you use. I have a video on my channel with a test capture from my LCIII which, AFAIK, is the first direct capture from such a Mac posted to RUclips. It’s fuzzy but it works. It also has links to what I bought. Cheers!
S-Video seems to be the first standard that was captured - even what I started with on my channel about a half-year ago - time sure flies. I haven't even pulled out my older Apple systems, although I did take some input about scalers from Mike's Mac Shack. Beyond the basics, I suck at understanding video output. I'm happy to have all of my PS/2s with video output I can capture, including on the 'all-in-one' Model 25, 25 286 (I sent Hakemon Mike a video vampire tap that he featured that I run on both), and 25SX. The 'ClearClick' also does S-Video and composite - I should even try the microchannel capture boards. With the addition of an MDA/CGA box that is good enough, I'll be able to capture video from a variety of systems.
@@RetroTechChris Here is the link to my video. It’s just the captured footage from the LCIII. By the way, the LC has the old style DB15 video output connector, so I also use a DB15 to VGA adapter. There’s a link for that as well. ruclips.net/video/yhaIRTKRpjM/видео.html
@@RetroTechChris deinterlacing mode like bob or weave rejecting or combining fields, on static pictures ok, but on motion it may provide judder or ladders, if motion adaptive mode is available then you see just clean picture as if it was progressive, except different scalers can combine two neighbor frame in to one, and instead of 60hz we got 30. But others can do 3D motion based deinterlace where they consider 3 frames current/previous/next and rebuild progressive picture so we got true 50/60i to true 50/60p without repeated frames or combing (line doubling) artifacts
I am also using the VGA2USB LR. I see that you are using OBS, and you scale the video to 1920x1080 in OBS. I must try that. It could maks things easier. Why dont you adjust the aspect ratio to 4:3 screen? I am using the VGA2USB LR software that came with the hardware. I then record the video without any compression to AVI. I then use ffmpeg to scale it to 1920x1440 and then resize it to 1080 in Adobe Premiere while editing the video. Also remember that the DOS textmode resolution is 720x400. This means deifferent pixel size aspect ratio. Also a huge advantage with the VGA2USB LR - it can record CGA! Take a look at this video that is recording CGA with the VGA2USB LR. The settings i how in this video has been improved, and i will make a video the optimal settings for CGA and VGA recordings later. I also believe that i can record Hercules graphics with the VGA2USB LR. Video showing CGA capture: ruclips.net/video/m1pd2aZox68/видео.html My videos on capturing: ruclips.net/video/4oAPOdhbPFk/видео.html
@@RetroTechChris: I was thinking of recording the PC Convertible external video, but it would be the composite video ('RCA') connection. An MDA/CGA converter is an eventuality for me - and I have a box that converts the PCjr CGA connection (which I think is the same for the Convertible) to a standard DB-9 CGA.
@@IBM_Museum awesome. You should definitely check out Dag Erik's video on this (RUclips: Retro Erik). Oh, I see he linked his videos above, excellent!!
We're colleting lots of great feedback for video capture methods! Definitely feel free to add links to videos or sources that you have on the subject in comments below... if RUclips rejects the comment, try again or message me with the link and I will post on your behalf!!
Nice one Chris, video capturing is a rabbit hole I don't wish to fall down! So kudos to you, for persevering with another thing, so I don't have to! :)
Haha, for sure. Yeah, it has been hard to find a perfect solution!!!
StarTech's drivers are a bit wonky, I've noticed if you add it to OBS and then unplug and plug it into a different USB port it comes up as a new device.
As a general video thing though, you shouldn't really stretch 4:3 video to fit a 16:9 display everything will be subtly wrong.
It's a matter of opinion really. I do like to fill the screen when I make videos, or am using a 16:9 monitor on the desk too. The Epiphan does a nice job with stretching the screen. The Startech does an "ok" job, but not a great job. So, yes, if all I had were the Startech, I'd be less apt to strech.
@@RetroTechChris Well it's more the aspect ratio will be wrong - anything circular on a 4:3 display will be stretched into an oval if you make it fit a 16:9 display. It is a bit hard to notice in DOS though, some games didn't even use square pixels, so stretching might actually correct the image!
I wonder if the StarTech looks worse because it can't handle scaling by fractional amounts of pixels that well.
@@ncot_tech good points! Ya, that could very well be the case with the StarTech
Nice video Chris. I've also got a epiphan device (an DVI2USB) and have had some similar issues with it, although for me the quality depends on the machine I'm capturing as much as the settings. You've given me a few ideas on how to make my device work a little better. I notice you had some of the same lines and jailbars I've had on my device, a commenter on one of my videos suggested adjusting the phase, which in my case seemed to help a little bit.
Great suggestion, I will have to try that. Thank you!!
I find it hard to believe there was a capture device in Minocqua. (Your eBay listing) Cool content.
Haha, could be!
I love the conclusion :)
Right! I wish I had a better answer :(
Great vid again. I've never heard of OBS, so thank you!
You betcha! It's a great program!!
Nice overview of the drivers and their options, but I disagree about scaling 4:3 sources to 16:9. It looks stretched and not at all how it looks on original hardware.
Thank you for the feedback on the overview :-)
Wait... you're showing a screen recording OF OBS... how? Is the output of this machine being captured by another?
Correct! Using the same capture software I use to make my walkthroughs, which is FreeCam. There are probably better options, but I like it!!
@@RetroTechChris So you have your DOS laptop being captured by your modern laptop being captured by another machine? 😁
@@ncot_tech kindof. DOS laptop captured by modern laptop, with FreeCam software running on modern laptop. But ya, it's a little nutty!
@RetroTechChris Hello Chris. I asked a question about video capture solutions that can do 320x240 at Retro Machines on Facebook, and someone pointed me in your direction. Have you found a better solution for video capture since then?
And your channel is wonderful. Subscribed immediately.
Thanks for subbing! I haven't done too much video capture work of late, but these two devices are still my "go-to" devices for capture.
You probably wouldn’t do it this way, so here goes. First in the chain is a DTech powered VGA splitter with DDC2. DDC2 allows it to send the signal out with carrier info, at least AFAIK. I capture from older Macs so I need to go out to my monitor to see the preview, and this just works
Then i split off using a StarTech VGA to HDMI adapter with scaler (VGA2HDMIPRO2). This is like a headless monitor, with on screen settings. The Nostalgia Mall and LGR turned me on to this. It just passes a scaled signal from VGA to HDMI; the only thing it can’t handle is VGA output from a G3 iMac at 640x480 which has a 117 MHz refresh rate.
Lastly, I go to an El Gato Game Capture HD, the older model because it still supports composite and S-Video. I loan it to my kid sometimes so he can capture from his PS/2, and El Gato has a PS/2 adapter for it.
Then I go to my MacBook Air using the El Gato software. It’s much improved and I find OBS too labor intensive. I also use a 128 GB SSD in an external enclosure to capture the video. This allows me to take it directly to my Mac for editing in iMovie.
I don’t usually scale my videos to match the dimensions of a modern monitor. If something is 4:3 I keep it that way but I will run the final video through Handbrake to chop off the black bands from the sides and reduce file size for uploading.
Of course you’re a PC guy, so you can replace Macs with PCs and iMovie with something similar for Windows. Use what you use.
I have a video on my channel with a test capture from my LCIII which, AFAIK, is the first direct capture from such a Mac posted to RUclips. It’s fuzzy but it works. It also has links to what I bought. Cheers!
Excellent! You are definitely welcome to link the video here! This sounds like a great method for capture!!
S-Video seems to be the first standard that was captured - even what I started with on my channel about a half-year ago - time sure flies. I haven't even pulled out my older Apple systems, although I did take some input about scalers from Mike's Mac Shack. Beyond the basics, I suck at understanding video output.
I'm happy to have all of my PS/2s with video output I can capture, including on the 'all-in-one' Model 25, 25 286 (I sent Hakemon Mike a video vampire tap that he featured that I run on both), and 25SX. The 'ClearClick' also does S-Video and composite - I should even try the microchannel capture boards. With the addition of an MDA/CGA box that is good enough, I'll be able to capture video from a variety of systems.
@@RetroTechChris Here is the link to my video. It’s just the captured footage from the LCIII. By the way, the LC has the old style DB15 video output connector, so I also use a DB15 to VGA adapter. There’s a link for that as well.
ruclips.net/video/yhaIRTKRpjM/видео.html
@@StevenSmyth excellent!!
Hello how first device acting on deinterlace? What mode is it like motion adaptive? It do 50/60i to 50/60p?
Not sure I understand the questions. Can you expand a bit?
@@RetroTechChris deinterlacing mode like bob or weave rejecting or combining fields, on static pictures ok, but on motion it may provide judder or ladders, if motion adaptive mode is available then you see just clean picture as if it was progressive, except different scalers can combine two neighbor frame in to one, and instead of 60hz we got 30. But others can do 3D motion based deinterlace where they consider 3 frames current/previous/next and rebuild progressive picture so we got true 50/60i to true 50/60p without repeated frames or combing (line doubling) artifacts
@@protasov-by sorry, I honestly am not sure.
I want that LTE 5400!
It's a great little machine
I am also using the VGA2USB LR. I see that you are using OBS, and you scale the video to 1920x1080 in OBS. I must try that. It could maks things easier.
Why dont you adjust the aspect ratio to 4:3 screen?
I am using the VGA2USB LR software that came with the hardware. I then record the video without any compression to AVI. I then use ffmpeg to scale it to 1920x1440 and then resize it to 1080 in Adobe Premiere while editing the video.
Also remember that the DOS textmode resolution is 720x400. This means deifferent pixel size aspect ratio.
Also a huge advantage with the VGA2USB LR - it can record CGA! Take a look at this video that is recording CGA with the VGA2USB LR. The settings i how in this video has been improved, and i will make a video the optimal settings for CGA and VGA recordings later. I also believe that i can record Hercules graphics with the VGA2USB LR.
Video showing CGA capture: ruclips.net/video/m1pd2aZox68/видео.html
My videos on capturing: ruclips.net/video/4oAPOdhbPFk/видео.html
Excellent! I definitely want to record CGA, so I will need to check that out!!
@@RetroTechChris: I was thinking of recording the PC Convertible external video, but it would be the composite video ('RCA') connection. An MDA/CGA converter is an eventuality for me - and I have a box that converts the PCjr CGA connection (which I think is the same for the Convertible) to a standard DB-9 CGA.
@@IBM_Museum awesome. You should definitely check out Dag Erik's video on this (RUclips: Retro Erik). Oh, I see he linked his videos above, excellent!!