Omega-TI Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 This year my target of spring cleaning is the elimination of literally hundreds of bulky VHS movies and other videos. I'm not concerned with the movies I've seen countless times, but the home movies... gotta keep them. So, I searched and bought this cheap little device on fleabay.... I know a lot of you already have F18A's, but IF you are still using the standard NTSC output of the 9918, this would sure be a cheap way to do screen captures from "Real Iron". Also, there is an old TI video titling program floating around out there somewhere... this could give a new video some "retro feel" or "look". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 Do you find that it works well with the TI? See: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/261662-video-capture-device/?hl=%2Bvideo+%2Bcapture+%2Bdevice&do=findComment&comment=3684534 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 21, 2017 Author Share Posted February 21, 2017 I thought about that X10 one a while back, but it did not have audio capability, so I passed on it. This one has audio, so I went for it. I'll test it out once it arrives and maybe even make a blog entry on it so people can see the output quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jedimatt42 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 If you find one that works, that would be good news. I have something that looks like what you depict, I was hoping to use to give my PC a TI-in-a-window but it did not meet my standards. I wonder if there are cheap VGA->USB capture devices, or HDMI->USB capture? (Still look a little expensive) My cell phone hates focusing on Parsec. -M@ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I thought about that X10 one a while back, but it did not have audio capability, so I passed on it. This one has audio, so I went for it. I'll test it out once it arrives and maybe even make a blog entry on it so people can see the output quality. I use the OLD x10 one.. some of the newer devices are expecting something more than the TI puts out as ntsc composite and don't work well.. I just set the input to the mic input on my recording sw, and hooked the ti sound output through a stereo to mono splitter and cable and works good Greg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 Hopefully it will work on the spare TI, if not people will know in a few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 I tried two different units, a $20 Sabrent and a $50 StarTech. The StarTech is the one which I used to capture the Mega Demo; the Sabrent would not sync to 240p (the output of the TI, Commodore, Atari, etc.) I did a second capture from a console on which I did the video fixes from MainByte and the quality of the capture is even better. Good luck on your hunt. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kl99 Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 (edited) I tried twice to capture the YUV/RGB output from the European PAL 99/4A video. I have a Pixelmagic PDI Deluxe Video capture card which should do component video capture, but so far no luck of a stable colored picture. I guess it requires some sync signal in addition. The software support for it is crap and from the very old windows days. Edited February 22, 2017 by kl99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 I tried two different units, a $20 Sabrent and a $50 StarTech. The StarTech is the one which I used to capture the Mega Demo; the Sabrent would not sync to 240p (the output of the TI, Commodore, Atari, etc.) I did a second capture from a console on which I did the video fixes from MainByte and the quality of the capture is even better. Is this the same StarTech you're using? http://www.ebay.com/itm/StarTech-com-USB-S-Video-Composite-Audio-Video-Capture-Cable-Functions-Video-/391598580505?hash=item5b2d182319:g:A54AAOSwZ8ZW6P-E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 If you find one that works, that would be good news. I have something that looks like what you depict, I was hoping to use to give my PC a TI-in-a-window Well crud. Sometimes you only get what you pay for, so I guess it'll be a wait and see situation. I remember some real funny video quirks from the old days. I once had a piece of equipment that would not display worth a dang directly to the monitor, but with a VCR in between, it displayed fine, totally weird. I'm glad we've evolved from the lossy and quirky analog era, it's made life easier... and more compact. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 Is this the same StarTech you're using? http://www.ebay.com/itm/StarTech-com-USB-S-Video-Composite-Audio-Video-Capture-Cable-Functions-Video-/391598580505?hash=item5b2d182319:g:A54AAOSwZ8ZW6P-E Yup. Well crud. Sometimes you only get what you pay for, so I guess it'll be a wait and see situation. I remember some real funny video quirks from the old days. I once had a piece of equipment that would not display worth a dang directly to the monitor, but with a VCR in between, it displayed fine, totally weird. I'm glad we've evolved from the lossy and quirky analog era, it's made life easier... and more compact. Most likely because the VCR does not simply duplicate the input signal on the output. Even if the VCR will sync to a 240p signal it mostly likely still outputs 240i. I also remember this being a trick to filter out the Macrovision copy protection used on many commercial VHS tapes: the output of the playing VCR would have whatever out-of-whack signalling which would confound a recording VCR's recording system, but it would output the incoming signal just fine and a third VCR could then duplicate the original at some minor loss of quality. But, face it, if you are going through that kind of trouble to duplicate a tape quality is probably the least important factor on your list. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 Back in the latter part of the last century Costco used to sell a dual-deck VCR called a "Go Video". That thing would record ANYTHING... it simply ignored any and all copy protection schemes... like they were not even there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 A little extra, I stumbled across the StarTech a bit by accident. I wanted to get that demo captured and knew I wanted to do other stuff. I found a USB3 unit for $200 which captures HDMI, VGA, composite, and S-Video, but I was not ready to plonk that down not knowing if it would work. My local wholesale vendor carries a lot of Prudent Way and StarTech stuff (that Prudent Way stuff is actually pretty impressive, inexpensive but not cheap) so I happened to mention what I needed and he handed me the StarTech video capture unit. I mentioned it might not work because of the progressive video issue but to my surprise (and glee) it works just fine. So, yay. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 A little extra, I stumbled across the StarTech a bit by accident. I wanted to get that demo captured and knew I wanted to do other stuff. I found a USB3 unit for $200 which captures HDMI, VGA, composite, and S-Video, but I was not ready to plonk that down not knowing if it would work. My local wholesale vendor carries a lot of Prudent Way and StarTech stuff (that Prudent Way stuff is actually pretty impressive, inexpensive but not cheap) so I happened to mention what I needed and he handed me the StarTech video capture unit. I mentioned it might not work because of the progressive video issue but to my surprise (and glee) it works just fine. So, yay. Your capture of the megademo is great, but it's only 30 Hz (fps). Could you post a few seconds of "raw" output from the StarTech so I can try to recover a 60 Hz signal? That should often be possible according to this blog. Thanks - Rasmus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Your capture of the megademo is great, but it's only 30 Hz (fps). Could you post a few seconds of "raw" output from the StarTech so I can try to recover a 60 Hz signal? That should often be possible according to this blog. Thanks - Rasmus. Right, I looked at that, too. But the original interlaced capture is 29.97 fps. Per these parts In NTSC, there are 59.94 fields displayed in each second, half odd, half even. This gives an actual frame rate of 29.97 frames per second. Dropping or blending frames may reduce artifacts, but they compromise the visual integrity of the footage and effectively reduce the video to 30 frames per second. Consoles did not look like that. My friend Trixter showed me a guaranteed way to properly split the frames (unless your capture device does something stupid like dropping half the frames) From the original capture And the converted capture using ffmpeg -i MegaDemo.avi -vf yadif -pix_fmt yuv420p MegaDemo.mp4 The original capture is only 30fps (29.97) as is the converted, de-interlaced output. This does fit Google's recommendations even if not as desired. Per that blog, I could resize it to 720p for YouTube to recognize 60 fps but I would also have to duplicate frames. The end effect would be the same as the input in this case. Compare below extracted with ffmpeg -i MegaDemo.avi -ss 00:00:09.000 -vframes 4 output%02d.jpg These images are four frames extracted from the stretching master title screen. You can see tearing between each frame. These are extracted from ostensibly the same spot using the de-interlaced output of the capture program (Movavi Video Editor SE, included with the StarTech.) These are extracted, again ostensibly from the same spot, of the ffmpeg-converted output using the original capture as the source. Note the yadif filter's default mode of send_frame has the essential effect of blending. Later today I am going to try the send_field mode to see if I get better results. It appears that, while the StarTech can indeed synchronize to a 240p signal, the input signal is treated as if it were interlaced. Where I expected to see a big difference is the "flag girl" segment. IIRC, this is Tursi's routine which flips back and forth between multicolor and bitmap mode at each vertical blank interrupt. Oh, boy, are there differences! Click this image for rotating comparisons: With this deficit, the StarTech would appear to fit the mold of "on the cheap" while not absolutely perfect. Even the included Movavi Video Editor SE software has shortcomings in its de-interlacer which can be overcome with a little help from the awesome power of ffmpeg. In any case, the raw capture is 8GB and I can put it somewhere you can download it if you want it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 The good news is send_field creates video output at 60 fps, now I just have to get the output to resize (not scale) to 1280x720 so GooTube will recognize it and not re-sample back down to 30 fps. Oh, AND it looks REALLY good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 ffmpeg -i MegaDemo.avi -vf yadif=1:0:0,scale=-1:720,pad=1280:720:160:0 -pix_fmt yuv420p TI99MegaDemo720p.mp4 This takes the input and de-interlaces using the send_field method creating a 60 fps output, takes the standard definition (sd) video, VGA (640x480) in this case, scales it to 1080x720 (aspect ratio equal to 640x480, though I used -1 in the width as a matter of habit) and places it on a pad of 1280x720 (the proper resolution for 720p.) One thing I noticed is what looks like a problem with sync which causes the top of the video to jerk to the left a bit in some scenes. This was present in the raw capture but it become exaggerated in this process. As well, I can see flickering in the "flag girl" segment in the video before uploading but YouTube processing not only made the flicker worse, it pretty much destroyed all of the color. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I bought one of these a few years back to transfer over old VHS tapes and it worked perfect. I bought mine listed as a 4 camera security device but that was just the software, hardware is the exact same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 ffmpeg -i MegaDemo.avi -vf yadif=1:0:0,scale=-1:720,pad=1280:720:160:0 -pix_fmt yuv420p TI99MegaDemo720p.mp4 This takes the input and de-interlaces using the send_field method creating a 60 fps output, takes the standard definition (sd) video, VGA (640x480) in this case, scales it to 1080x720 (aspect ratio equal to 640x480, though I used -1 in the width as a matter of habit) and places it on a pad of 1280x720 (the proper resolution for 720p.) One thing I noticed is what looks like a problem with sync which causes the top of the video to jerk to the left a bit in some scenes. This was present in the raw capture but it become exaggerated in this process. As well, I can see flickering in the "flag girl" segment in the video before uploading but YouTube processing not only made the flicker worse, it pretty much destroyed all of the color. Great - Looking forward to see the result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted March 5, 2017 Author Share Posted March 5, 2017 The gadget in message #1 arrived today. It works, but 720 X 480 is it's max resolution. Also, the supplied software only saves in the older MPEG format in no greater than 4GB blocks. So I'm using it's interface with another piece of software to capture stuff in MP4 format in one single file of any size I need. Considering the price, still a good deal. I've still not bothered to pull out a TI to test it on yet... too many other irons in the fire at the moment. Soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted March 6, 2017 Author Share Posted March 6, 2017 Okay, I don't have the time, and it's not worth making a blog entry over, but I thought I'd post a super small (36 second) video to show what the video adapter looks like in action... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n443a67eRSg&feature=youtu.be My take on it? For TI use, you get what you pay for, it's only $6.98 delivered to your mailbox. It works, but it's not even 1920 X 1080 and there are some annoying vertical lines on the right hand side of the screen that show up when using the TI. The lines are absent when using it with a VCR however... weird! There is no lag (at least on my computer) when using the PC as the TI's monitor or when recording. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Hey, Kevan, check this out let me know what you think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 (edited) I forgot I have a ATI RADON 9550 that has video S-Video input. Totally forgot I could use this to capture TI99/4A video from my Samsung Flat Screen TV/Monitor that has input and pass thru ports. Could capture at 200 fps. Edited March 6, 2017 by RXB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 I forgot I have a ATI RADON 9550 that has video S-Video input. Totally forgot I could use this to capture TI99/4A video from my Samsung Flat Screen TV/Monitor that has input and pass thru ports. Could capture at 200 fps. Would like to see how that works. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted March 6, 2017 Author Share Posted March 6, 2017 (edited) Hey, Kevan, check this out let me know what you think. Not bad! I tried to cheat using Classic 99 to record it 'crisp & clear' like on my F18A equipped system, but it keeps hanging at the same spot. I included the video below so you can see what I'm talking about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOOSSCHVvkM&feature=youtu.be Jump to 5:33 to see the hangup. *** EDIT *** Tursi was right in << THIS MESSAGE >> it wan an older version of Classic 99 that was the culprit. Here is the demo from start to finish...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH8StdmIUUg&feature=youtu.be Edited March 8, 2017 by --- Ω --- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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