Help recording on my PC.

Vladakabrent · Post by **Vladakabrent** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:13 pm

Alright heres the deal. I want to record my Xbox 360 stuff. I do have a capture card. I play on my VGA monitor. So what I want to do is split the VGA signal; one going to the computer monitor like normal, then the other VGA signal becomes a Svideo (or composite) cable.
I did buy a cheap-o VGA to Svideo adapter, but it didn't work. The signal on my VGA monitor severely lost it's quality, and it was really static-y on the capture card.
So, would I need to grab a VGA amplifier to strengthen the signal, or would I need to find another way to do this. HD Capture Cards are too expensive for my blood. Thanks for the help.

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:19 pm

Why mess around with tons of conversion when they already make S-video cables for the 360? (Besides that it should have shipped with at least a composite cable...)

Vladakabrent · Post by **Vladakabrent** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:00 pm

No, I want to continue to play the xbox 360 on my VGA monitor. I also want to split the VGA signal so I can also play in Svideo (Through my capture card) Sorry for the confusion

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:03 pm

Ok but... you dont need more than one screen to play, and if you are capturing it through your video card, you can just watch the same feed you are capturing on the computer's display. So why do you need two video signals at the same time?

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:14 pm

timmeh87 wrote:if you are capturing it through your video card, you can just watch the same feed you are capturing on the computer's display.

Exactly. Any good capture card will let you watch and record simultaneously. Even my $5 PCI TV Wonder VE can do that! (Don't give me the "lag" line either; there is very little lag, even with this card which does not have onboard encoding capabilities.)

Vladakabrent · Post by **Vladakabrent** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 5:04 pm

I love playing in HD too much. I already know I can play through my capture card through Svideo. But there is a lot of lag. Thats why I want to split the signal

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:16 pm

Vladakabrent wrote:I love playing in HD too much. I already know I can play through my capture card through Svideo. But there is a lot of lag. Thats why I want to split the signal

Then the easiest solution I can think of is a PC -> TV bridge. (A dedicated box to convert VGA to S-Video.) I used to use one on my HTPC but bought a video card with S-video built in. (Mine was a crappy old one that only supported 640x480 and made a dark picture; they make much better ones now. It shouldn't run you more than $50 for an inexpensive one.)

You shouldn't have any problems if you rig it up something like this:

<img src="http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5411 ... lolcj9.png">

You might not even need the splitter; a lot of them have VGA pass-through ports.

<s>EDIT: <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 30">Here's one for $40.</a></s>

EDIT 2: Whoops, sorry that goes the other way around. (Turns your monitor into a TV.)

EDIT 3: Okay, <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 30">here's one for $40 that supports up to 1024x768.</a>