Capturing Console Gameplay Help Plx

[Chuchurocket]

Heya guys,

Im looking to record xbox360 gameplay to my computer and ive been looking around but it seems like youve got to shell out immense amounts of monnies for some HDPVR otherwise youre stumped. Ive read about things like easycap and dazzles but its then countered by reviews saying things like it doesnt work due to PAL60 or something like that.

Anyway does any1 have any ideas on something i could buy around 30-40 quid (cheapo cus ive no monnies and i dunno how much ill use it, dont want a Hauppage to gather dust) that can record gameplay footage to an OK standard.

P.S. Tried my dvd recorder but after a day of fiddling and endless youtube tutorials it just wouldnt work, kept saying "Please Check TV System". When i thought it did work and got to playing i ended up with not some sick nade stick double kills or quickscope rampages but instead a black silent screen... ((((

 

[elDiablo]

If you're looking to record anything other than SDTV, then for £30-40, I'm gonna go with no...

As for SDTV, I'm sure a DVD recorder must be able to. Mine has inputs (Scart, Component, etc.) from devices such as TV tuners, and output (Scart) to go to the TV. I then put my TV to it's scart input channel, and set the DVD recorder to whichever input I've got selected (say component feed from the xbox), and then just hit record... If yours doesn't work, you can get one that does for not very much.

 

[thatbloke]

The other alternative is a TV card of some description for your PC that you can just feed the input from the xbox into - you should then be able to record what it being played on-screen...

 

[Wol]

If you have a PAL output from the box of doom, and a tv capture card, then you'll be able to capture (be a man and use VLC), but itll be shite quality (e.g. about 480p).

Any particular reason you dont want anything from Hauppage? They're a fairly standard manufacturer for capture equipment. I've used their stuff in PCs before with no problems before.

 

[Iron_fist]

personally i've found tv cards to have some decoding lag making passthrough gaming not a particularly easy thing to do, though to go about it that way i'd look at a basic card and a signal splitter of some sort so you can play normally on the TV and record on the PC or device of your choosing

 

[Wol]

personally i've found tv cards to have some decoding lag making passthrough gaming not a particularly easy thing to do, though to go about it that way i'd look at a basic card and a signal splitter of some sort so you can play normally on the TV and record on the PC or device of your choosing

That sounds like Vibs' variable lag mac mini which makes rock band muchos fun!

 

[Chuchurocket]

No ive not got an issue with Hauppage its just i want to dip my toes in the water with gameplay recording and i dont want to sink 150-199 in for a HD PVR only to find out i got bored of it.

With the DVD recorder ive no idea why its not working i hooked it up how it SHOULD be but couldnt get it to work it would come up with a blank screen saying "Please check your TV System" or something along those lines.

Ill have another go at trying to make it work but ive tried ever single port and nothing seems to work maybe im being extremely dense. XBox -> DVD Recorder (Line 2/Line 3 tried both) -> TV

If i dont get it to work have any of you got any experience with Pinnacle Dazzle's?? Sorry if im bugging you lot its just ive gotten the montage/gameplay bug, going to get TF2 as well - sniper is IMPOSSIBLE on xbox eughhh

 

[BiG D]

It sounds like quite possibly your recorder is trying to record from the TV? Have you tried xbox -> TV -> DVD Recorder?

 

[Chuchurocket]

It sounds like quite possibly your recorder is trying to record from the TV? Have you tried xbox -> TV -> DVD Recorder?

*Light Appears over Chuchus Head* Ill try that out asap! stupid holiday getting in the way of my tinkering ways (

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

I've never done it with a DVD recorder, but I managed to record some stuff off the PS1 (a looong time ago) using a VHS player. It was pretty simple, PS1 -> VCR input, VCR output -> telly, tune telly in to VCR channel, select the right channel on the VCR and away you go. It should be even easier now with easy-to-use scart inputs and digital tellies and such.

 

[Chuchurocket]

Yeah thats what ive originally tried but it didnt seem to work, so ive now plugged the xbox into AV1 the DVD recorder into AV2. The scart goes into the Scart labelled Decoder in the back of the dvd recorder. testing it out now. Theres also a AV2 in on the front but ive only got scart cables and no RGB which is what i need to plug it in there. Thats what im going to try after im done with how ive set it up now. Just need to get a scart and rgb cable to test it out. I must be doing something stupidly wrong because i remember getting it to work for the tv in the past.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

I don't think that's going to work. If you haven't tried it already, I'd put the Xbox scart into the Decoder port on the DVD recorder, then whatever the DVD recorder output is into the AV1 on your telly. Tune your telly to AV1 so that it'll display whatever's coming through the recorder, change the recorder input signal to 'Decoder' and you should get the xbox displaying on your télévision. If that happens then just hit record and it should work fine.

The setup you've described sounds like the xbox is set up correctly for displaying on the TV, but you've got an input for the TV connected to an input for the DVD recorder. In other words, nothing from the Xbox is going to get to the DVD recorder.

Also, make sure the idiotbox 360 is in a compatible display mode for your TV and recorder. The PAL-60 settings and HDTV business can really screw things about. Bear in mind that PAL-60 is basically NTSC refresh rate, so trying to route that through a 50Hz recorder and/or TV is likely to end up in a gory mess.

 

[elDiablo]

I don't think that's going to work. If you haven't tried it already, I'd put the Xbox scart into the Decoder port on the DVD recorder, then whatever the DVD recorder output is into the AV1 on your telly. Tune your telly to AV1 so that it'll display whatever's coming through the recorder, change the recorder input signal to 'Decoder' and you should get the xbox displaying on your télévision. If that happens then just hit record and it should work fine...

This.

 

[Chuchurocket]

Set it up as follows:

Xbox --->[Line3/decoder] DVD Recorder [Line 1/TV]-----> TV

I select input type as Line 3, try to record and i all that happens is a message popping up on the tv saying "Please Check the TV system". I try it on Line 1 and it records but its just pure static.

http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/2637391111.pdf is the manual for it, im still confused as fook. Sorry for being extremely dense im usually ok with these things but for some reason i cant wrap my head around whats the problem

 

[Chuchurocket]

After changing tvs and plugging more holes than peter north all to no avail. Then i switched my xbox from pal 60 to pal 50 and hey presto i got a signal to the dvd recorder. All was well until i stuck mw2 in and it said must play in Pal 60. Does this mean its end game?

EDIT: Lurking around the internets i found a forum topic which i think has the same problem as me, the poster concluded he thinks he may need a proper scart lead rather than the supplied Composite with Scart converter (which is what i have):

http://www.avforums.com/forums/dvd-blu-ray-recorders-media/711095-recording-xbox-360-games.html

Does this mean that buying a "proper" scart cable for the xbox360 will allow this?????

 

[BiG D]

My guess is probably not. It might be worth trying if you can borrow one or something, but it sounds to me like the recorder simply doesn't accept that format.

 

[Chuchurocket]

Ahhhh well nevermind, thanks for the help you lot hope my nagging wasnt too incessant

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Maybe MW2 is a write-off, and any other game that requires PAL-60, but I think a few older games were PAL-50 compatible. Unless they've been patched out of it, of course.

 

[Chuchurocket]

OK so my original plan failed hard due to pal-60 grrr and ive decided to man up and go for a hd pvr. My shopping cart so far is:

Hauppauge HD-PVR: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hauppauge-C...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1285765330&sr=8-1

Component Cable (to be able to connect to it): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002NQ1QG6/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=A2RCXAQDK3T42M

My TV has the component input (checked and theres the holes for it and a selection for it on the Input Menu of the tv) So do you reckon this would be a good enough set up? Or any recommendations for better stuff.