nesdev.org

I could talk for a month about this subject, but I decided to keep it terse.

Does anyone have a list -- or even anecdotal experience -- with Windows-based capture devices that work well with the NES's composite output?

I've tried two so far -- the Hauppauge USB-Live 2 (around US$40) and the StarTech USB3HDCAP (around $200), and neither work all that well (the USB3HDCAP does a lot better, but still has major issues like captured resolution isn't correct (maybe 60-70 pixels lost from bottom of screen, though it seems to "auto-detect" as 1440x240p (little weird, IMO)), lots of weird quirky problems, capture software that doesn't work, etc.)).

I'd try an XRGB-Mini but they're ridiculously expensive (almost $350); waiting for the Hi-Def NES is overall a way better choice in this case...

I used to use an EasyCap DC60 knockoff. Stay away from that. Picture quality with the NES was horrendous: the top half of the image had a pink tint, the image was blurry. I used it about a year in a live visuals rig (seen here) where the video was processed and distorted in a bunch of ways anyway, so the quality loss wasn't a huge deal. The device eventually stopped working all together.

I've got one of the newer Ezcap models now and it works reasonably well with other composite sources but I have yet to use it with my NES. I'll give it a shot and capture some video/screenshots from my NES tonight. I have low expectations.

EDIT: Just thought of the time a friend of mine was trying to capture video from a composite source; he tried using a cheap RCA to HDMI adapter (similar to this one) and fed it into to an Atmos Ninja 2 (standalone, battery backed video capture device). The setup failed miserably; the Ninja's LCD screen's refresh rate would go berserk whenever the converter was connected and powered. He later tried a better conversion device (can't remember which) which worked reasonably well.

So after fooling around, I managed to get the USB3HDCAP to work. I wanted to post this for the benefit of 'netizens.

To "properly" handle NES (composite) and SNES output (composite and S-Video -- I tried both), you have to disable a driver feature. I've only tested this with driver 1.1.0.160.5, and with NTSC. The capture software used (VirtualDub, OBS, etc.) needs to provide a way to get access to a lower-level dialog provided by the driver itself (in VirtualDub this is called "Capture filter...", in OBS it's "Configure Video"). There's a box titled DRIVER PROPERTY. In there, you need to uncheck the item called AUTO RESOLUTION SCALING & RGB24/32 OUTPUT ( PLS REBOOT ) (I didn't have to reboot for this to take effect, but possibly the RGB24/32 colourspace options disappear after a reboot), and then in the capture software, pick/force a resolution of 720x480. Depending on the "colour levels/range" you want, you may also (in the capture software) need to set YUV Colour Space to 709 and YUV Colour Range to Full -- choosing the wrong value can cause blacks to appear as dark grey, etc... YMMV.

Attached are screenshots of the results so that folks can understand the effects.

I should note that RGB24 and RGB32 don't appear to do the "right thing" no matter what's selected (RGB24 at 720x480 will look like YUY2 at 720x240 regardless of the driver option, and RGB32 looks similar to yuy2_720x480.png; maybe wrong H-hold or H-blank timing or horizontal resolution, I don't know).

I couldn't get the deinterlacing capabilities of the USB3HDCAP to work (or if they do work, they don't really have much of an effect). Dunno what that's about, but oh well. And capturing things with VirtualDub is painful -- sometimes the framerate will be awful spontaneously, other times the audio frequency would slowly/gradually increase (there's a setting for this under Capture -> Timing), etc.. Such are the complexities of A/V capturing. OBS Studio worked fine though (and does offer deinterlacing capabilities on Video Capture Devices).

For NES capturing, I'll probably just end up getting the Hi-Def NES mod done to my toploader and do HDMI capture. Seems most of the pain stems from analog sources and timing. <3 Kevtris. :)

jmr wrote:I've got one of the newer Ezcap models now and it works reasonably well with other composite sources but I have yet to use it with my NES. I'll give it a shot and capture some video/screenshots from my NES tonight. I have low expectations.

After much frustration, I've reached the conclusion that this device does not work with a NES at all. The device works just fine with the composite out from my cable box, but I don't even see so much as a flicker from the NES.

Does it specifically have to be USB? I haven't used it extensively yet, but I've liked what I've seen out of my ADVC110. It's a FireWire device, and you can snag them on ebay under $100.

darryl.revok wrote:Does it specifically have to be USB? I haven't used it extensively yet, but I've liked what I've seen out of my ADVC110. It's a FireWire device, and you can snag them on ebay under $100.

Yes. PCIe might be a possibility, but I'm already out of physical space/room for another PCIe card (motherboard manufacturer chose very, VERY poorly where to put PCIe slots in correlation with the GPU).

My experience with Firewire devices (and I have used a few, including for VCR capturing) in the past has been predominantly negative; there's an even higher reliance on "software-driven behaviour" than on USB (ex. I had to use Adobe Premiere with a hardware Firewire capture device I had; VirtualDub or any other WDM-driven software would see the device and work with it, but there would never be any video). The situation is substantially different on older Macs, from what I can tell (do they even include Firewire any more? Heh).

SDA has useful information. Seeking help on their forums would also be a good idea†.

I use one of the "Easycap"* devices and it works just fine. The catch is, there are four (known) chipsets. I also have one of the USBTV007 ones when trying to get an STK1160, which didn't really help me because the Linux drivers still don't support sound from it.

†Doing so now might not get you a quick response due to SGDQ coming up.
*actually not branded as such, a Sabrent "USB 2.0 video capture creator with audio video DVD maker" model number USB-AVCPT. But it uses the STK1160 chipset (if I recall correctly), and looks the same.