Can you capture video from a Falcon like this?

[uji]

Heya,

 

I was thinking of purchasing:

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-C-LAB-Atari-Falcon-030-computer-VGA-monitor-adaptor-cable-ALL-resolutions-/162075979716?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

 

Then I was going to open it up and solder a composite cable on to the composite output pins, effectively getting VGA and composite out simultaneously. Would this work? I'd like to have VGA to my Falcon monitor and then composite to my PC video capture.

 

Thx for any thoughts,

[pixelmischief]

My understanding is that the Falcon is in a very different operating state when displaying VGA vs. RGB and composite. I don't think you'll be able to do this. What you could do, though, is get a PC to TV box with pass-through. That way, you could use s-video or composite into the capture card and pass VGA though to the monitor. Here is a link to such a device:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Lenkeng-104724-Monoprice-VGA-RCA/dp/B001CJOLBW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5KPVHT5MK1078KAB4TQP&linkCode=ll1&tag=atariage&linkId=cb4f861c41180881ee7e3e06af54e495

[Christos]

Nope, you shouldn't be able to since the signals are quite different. However I would like to know if vga -> hdmi -> hdmi capture card could work. Even in low res my monitor reports 640x480x59.9 Hz which some of these devices say they upscale to 720p but it's possible (likely?) it won't work.

[uji]

Thanks guys, that TV box with pass through looks good so I may give that a go.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Of course you can not produce at once VGA and some TV (PAL or NTSC) - may be on RGB too video from Falcon. Signal types, frequencies are quite different, even if vertical refresh rate is close.

That monoprice VGA to RCA maybe can do the job, but for that price I would not expect some qood quality.

 

But solution is simple and cheap: you don't need VGA monitor on Falcon when capturing with PC capture card (called TV card too). You will have pic of Falcon on PC. Really don't see why you want VGA from Falcon when doing capturing.

I do capturing that way, and can capture even monochrome mode.

Btw. that passive C-Lab cable is too expensive. If you want best quality better buy RGB capturing device. It's little expensive though.

[oracle_jedi]

No, that idea would not work.

 

The 19-pin Falcon video output has pins 18 and 19 assigned as M1 and M0 respectively.

 

These two pins determine how video output from the Falcon will be generated thus:

 

M0 M1 Monitor

0 0 Mono

0 1 VGA

1 0 RGB

1 1 TV

So the VGA cable in question has M0 connected to ground, and M1 left open.

That disables the composite video output, so even if you soldered on to pin 12 for composite video, you'd get nothing.

Edited November 5, 2016 by oracle_jedi

[rustynutt]

I didn't go look at the video link.

 

What I've done is connect the Falcon to an HDMI upscaler, output HDMI to a PCIe HDMI capture card.

It's really crisp, as least as much as the Falcon output and conversion allows.

You'll need a Falcon to SCART cable.

 

You can test the Falcon/HDMI scaler on a monitor that accepts HDMI.

They are on ebay pretty cheap, as are the HDMI capture cards for a PC.

On all the Atari, Falcon included, the detect line (think it's pin 13 on the scart cable) must be cut on the Atari side of the SCART cable, and a small resistor set up from the 5V power in to the internal pin of the HDMI capture box (pin 13) to set the box to accept the input as SCART signal. Otherwise, it will jump back and fourth from composite to SCART, and not display correctly if at all. Atari does not output a voltage on the line to identify the connection as SCART as per SCART specification.

 

I have a few Expose cards. The capture quality isn't bad at 320*200 using an RGB source and modified Expose cable adapter for RGB input (you don't have to use the splitter for RGB). PAL/NTSC doesn't matter.

 

Problem is, about the only device that outputs RGB is the Jaguar. Would be cool if there were some euro spec VCR's that output RGB, but have been told they were never made.

 

Next would be an older DVD player that had a SCART with RGB out to capture from. Maybe playing a DVD half speed would get you more frames captured on the Falcon that way, I've never tried it.

 

Make sure you get a true fully wired SCART cable, may outlets sell a SCART cable with only composite and svhs wired. Best Electronics has what you need, and have seen a Brit cable company that also sells quality cables, and a user from Czechoslovak on ebay makes custom cables now and then.

 

On an Afterburner running at 44mhz, it will achieve about 12fps into fast ram. The AB can hold 64mb. You can capture quite a bit of video, likely more than you want to wait for Apex to compress into an editable format. Once there, it's a blast

 

Chew on that.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

VCRs never had RGB output. And considering poor quality and resolution that would not improve anything.

Capturing video with Falcon, even accelerated ? What blast ? Really pointless forcing of old HW for something what can be done much better for few bucks. And U R OT.

[rustynutt]

Firstly, it's an Atari thing ? Myself use Expose to capture small clips, create a final project, and texture map in Zenomorph or other tracing apps.

 

Secondly, most of the source I have is SVHS tape. Right, quality is pretty much fixed. An RGB output would clean up signal loss resulting in better capture. With the VCR, point is moot as we both stated.

 

For quality capture of SVHS tape, I use an ATI All in Wonder 8000 series. This card captures SVHS output uncompressed allowing for final editing before compressing the file. I don't think you'll find any other card that can do this now. Everything is compressed on the fly, sh!t video is compressed, with no real method to edit raw video.

 

Sure, lots of PC hardware to TRANSFER HDMI to a PC, but that not really the topic here. ?

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I do always my capturings with lossless Huffman codec. And it worked with all capture cards, It's not on card self, but on SW. You simply not use SW given with card, but Virtual Dub for instance.

[rustynutt]

Name one PC capture card PCI or above that does not upscale or perform some compression on the fly.

Name one that can capture composite RGB video.

Can you answer this without asking why would I want too?

Only easily available composite RGB capture card for Falcon is Expose. On 040 processor with bus speeder capture is about 12fps. Not 24fps? Simple, genlock and time stamp video to offset even odd frames.

But still, best way is SCART cable from Falcon to HDMI scaler to PCIe card. As good as RGB can be.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Any older analogue Pinnacle card. I have 3 of them - like PCTV Pro (That has stereo sound with TV and FM tuner). Here I see all time them offered on online second hand shops. For few bucks. Leadtek Winfast TV2000 - not so good as Pinnacle, but same capture chip, so can use same SW.

With their factory SW you can select few compressions and formats. With Virtual Dub you can do any compression codec what has sense, There is no upscaling. Actually, those cards use BT878 chip, which does capturing always with some higher res, and internally downscales - horizontally only, of course. So, it is exactly opposite than what you think. Cards does not do compression. It is in SW.

For RGB capture cards you should look at AF - Stefan jL has one.

"But still, best way is SCART cable from Falcon to HDMI scaler to PCIe card. As good as RGB can be." - I can agree with that. Or maybe bare RGB is better ... In any case, for low res composite or S-Video is quite good.

Edited December 24, 2016 by ParanoidLittleMan

[rustynutt]

I have the best one, ATI AIW, AGP P4 3.02 Ghz