SVGA or hi-def capture pc or device

[jeffareid]

It's been a while since I last looked into this, but I'm trying to find some means of capturing PC video output to a second PC or a device to avoid the cpu overhead of using fraps or a similar program to capture a raw video during game play.

I have a Sony HC1 camcorder, but it's only input device is the 1394 interface, and so far I'm not aware of any video cards that output to a 1394 interface. The other issue is that I would expect some degrading of the quality of the picture, but maybe a hi-def capture wouldn't reduce the quality that much.

Since the FCC shot down the request to make a law restricting what inputs a DVR or similar device can use to record, are there any devices out there that can record from a component interface?

The other thing that would be nice is a means to transfer video from a DVR into a PC, to capture clips of videos, but this is a low priority for me.

[jmac698]

-Of course, you can use a PC with TVout and record that. There's various ways to record video;
*with a DVR, then reading the DVD disk in your computer,
*with a camcorder, read the video through DV and firewire,
*with a capcard, such as WinTV PVR 150
-To a higher quality, you can record component video output, which is output for some video cards, you can then record with the SweetSpot, http://www.pluggedin.tv/s.nl/it.A/id.10/.f?sc=2&category=2
-You can run the game in an emulator, with VirtualPC, but it may not look as good or run too slow, though it may be easier to capture with a screencam program.
-If you can run at 720x480 max, you could make a custom cable for VGA->RGB for the SweetSpot, also some "unwrapping" software would be needed.. it's a long story but it can be done

VGA 640x480 runs at 480P exactly as far as I can tell, just slightly different color signals.

-This is theoretical as well but some older video cards had a Feature Connector or two other kinds of parrallel digital connectors which exposed the full video frame, this is how video inlay cards worked, such as DVD cards (RealMagic Ventura).
It is also had 3d graphic cards used to connect to 2d graphic cards.
-For more ideas, ask the authors of the demo DVD, they went to great extent to capture old demos played on PC in high quality.
www.mindcandydvd.com/

[jeffareid]

I have an ATI 1900XTX video card, and it can output to component video at 1080i, can the sweet spot card capture this video?

[jmac698]

The sweetspot only does standard def. 720x480 but at great quality in component.
For HD component, see
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=113242
The cheapest card is in the USD $1500 range.