Hi guys. Newbie here...need some recommendations:)

[isamu]

Hello gentlemen. I'm glad I found this place as you guys seem to know your stuff.

Anyway, I would like to play my videogames through my laptop screen. I'm not into video editing or all that. But from what I hear the only way to do this is via a capture card or TV Tuner type thing. I need a capture card dongle that's capable of connecting to my laptop via USB or PCMCIA port. Since I'll be connecting my PS2 or Dreamcast, image quality is important and is something I don't want to skimp on. So what do you recommend. I'm willing to spend up to $200. Let me know thanks

[isamu]

Hmm, is this possible? Anybody??

[isamu]

Isamu you're such a moron! There is *no* possible way capture anything on a stupid laptop

Instead of insulting me, why don't prove to me why it can't be done? I don't see why not...

[Poplar]

MMmmm..capture video games from the console? I don't know of anything capable of that. I don't know if two formats are even compatible with each other. Videos we deal with here are 2-D, Video games are 3-D.

One the other hand, you can point your DVCam to your screen and just shoot everything when you play. Might be a good idea :P

[tonyp12]

So you want to use your laptop LCD screen as
monitor for your gamecosole.


If the laptop has a decent CPU and the capture card have the
option of full screen pre-view.

I think it should work.

The USB TV tuner product does, so I can not see why not.


http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50082188

[tonyp12]

Video games are 3-D.

Duh?

NO video game console puts the video image out to a holographics
display in 3D (in 10 more years maybe....)

So capturing (or at least previewing) the gameconsoles
composite video outport should work just fine.

[isamu]

Thanks guys Tony that item you posted might just be what I'm looking for...mind you I don't want to "capture" anything. I just want to play the games in realtime from my playstation through my laptop screen. But I'm a little worried about the image quality...can I expect something that rivals TV quality? Or more like high resolution gaming right from a PC game?

Anyway here's my Laptop specs:

Brand: Segar
PIII 1.0gig
8gig HD
480mb Ram
2 usb ports
1 Firewire port
PCMCIA port

Let me know thanks.

[iamu3]

I used to have a 3dfx 3500 tv card with composit ins and I ran my dreamcast into them and it worked just fine. I could play my games using my computer screen. So you have two options, you could get a tv card that has composit inputs, OR if you get a tv card that just has a coax (cable) connection, you could run your composit from your console to your vcr then out from the vcr to the coax on your tv card. set your tv card to channel 3 and your vcr to channel 3 and you're all set. it is completely possible.

[isamu]

What are your PC specs?

How is the framerate? are you getting smooth 60fps video?

What about image quality? Comparison to TV or monitor quality?

[iamu3]

What are your PC specs?

at the time it was 550mhz pentium with 128 megs memroy

How is the framerate? are you getting smooth 60fps video?

as far as frame rate, the video that comes into your computer from a tuner/capture card is not an animation, the computer is not really rendering the image, it's overlay video which is basically video that is being sent directly to your monitor and is not really part of your computer display (if that makes sense). so in otherwords, it's just as it would appear on your normal tv no matter what your computers specs.

What about image quality? Comparison to TV or monitor quality?

a bit clearer than tv because of the way your monitor displays pixels. your tv displays images with more of a honeycomb pattern with round dots so you have little spaces where the circles don't meet and they kind of glow over (bleed) into one another and it makes the image a little more fuzzy. in the pc it makes squares right next to each other, no spaces so the picture is a bit more sharp. better picture if you ask me.

[isamu]

What are your PC specs?

at the time it was 550mhz pentium with 128 megs memroy

How is the framerate? are you getting smooth 60fps video?

as far as frame rate, the video that comes into your computer from a tuner/capture card is not an animation, the computer is not really rendering the image, it's overlay video which is basically video that is being sent directly to your monitor and is not really part of your computer display (if that makes sense). so in otherwords, it's just as it would appear on your normal tv no matter what your computers specs.

What about image quality? Comparison to TV or monitor quality?

a bit clearer than tv because of the way your monitor displays pixels. your tv displays images with more of a honeycomb pattern with round dots so you have little spaces where the circles don't meet and they kind of glow over (bleed) into one another and it makes the image a little more fuzzy. in the pc it makes squares right next to each other, no spaces so the picture is a bit more sharp. better picture if you ask me.

Thanks iamu...I did not know that the incoming video was *not* cpu dependant. The reviews I've read all said "Video quality may vay depending on your processor speed". Are you sure about this? Also do you know of any that have component or S-video input?

[John Doe]

Howdy,

I'd look throught the reviews of capture cards listed on this site. Link is on the side bar under "OTHER" just search for usb and read what people have said about the product. Hope this helps.

[cykoo]

What are your PC specs?

at the time it was 550mhz pentium with 128 megs memroy

How is the framerate? are you getting smooth 60fps video?

as far as frame rate, the video that comes into your computer from a tuner/capture card is not an animation, the computer is not really rendering the image, it's overlay video which is basically video that is being sent directly to your monitor and is not really part of your computer display (if that makes sense). so in otherwords, it's just as it would appear on your normal tv no matter what your computers specs.

What about image quality? Comparison to TV or monitor quality?

a bit clearer than tv because of the way your monitor displays pixels. your tv displays images with more of a honeycomb pattern with round dots so you have little spaces where the circles don't meet and they kind of glow over (bleed) into one another and it makes the image a little more fuzzy. in the pc it makes squares right next to each other, no spaces so the picture is a bit more sharp. better picture if you ask me.

Thanks iamu...I did not know that the incoming video was *not* cpu dependant. The reviews I've read all said "Video quality may vay depending on your processor speed". Are you sure about this? Also do you know of any that have component or S-video input?

Like iamu3 wrote, TV used dots, PC used pixel. Ideally, your laptop should have a better quality display compare to normal TV; provided you get a good TV capture card. But please be aware, if you used to play your PS2/Dreamcast games on a Digital TV, do not expect a better quality over your laptop using a normal TV captured card.
PS2\DreamCast\Xbox games are sending digital signals to your TV if your are using a digital TV(or emulated digital TV), which give you better quality image than normal TV, this is because the games console will emulate its digital signal into analog for normal TV.
Using a games console to be play on PC involve two steps, 1st convert the digital signal into analog via your composite output, then convert again from analog signal to digital via your capturing card. The quality lost one in the first step, and second time in the capturing card(if it is a cheaper\stupid card). Thats why you need a better card.

Incoming video was not CPU dependant, but only limited to the spec that the card required. What most people said "Video quality may vay depending on your processor speed" are refer to the saving mode, if you want to save the gameplay into the harddisk, then CPU speed and RAM are extremely important. but as what you ask is you wish only to play\display on you laptop. then your PC are well than enough aaccording from your spec.

[iamu3]

yeah, what they said

[Gee W]

You are not going to get better resolution on your Notebook. The games on a console was designed for resolutions of 320 x 200. If you try to plug your console into a USB TV tuner, you will get a small window with that resolution, if you try to make it full screen, it will just get pixilated.

Notebooks have native resolutions for their LCDs and that is how they run, just try to lower or increase the resolution and you will see what I mean.