Question about VGA To NTSC converter

[Captain Satellite]

Will http://google-cnet.com.com/4014-3002_9-30154293.html?subj=Ultimate_2000&part=google-cnet&tag=178836 this unit allow me to record streaming video from the internet? I do it with WM Recoder but some content on AOL cannot be recorded. Will this unit record even that. How would the quality be and are there better units or better ways to do this? Thanks!

[harmlessgryphon]

The device in question allows you watch your computer's video output on a television. It doesn't act like a capture card for the computer.

You could record the output with a VCR and re-capture it, but that's not really a good solution.

[Captain Satellite]

Right, but can't I record the output on my DVD recorder?

[harmlessgryphon]

You can record it with a (standalone) DVD Recorder. You'll get *exactly* what you see on your computer screen.

[Captain Satellite]

Cool. Are they all pretty much the same quality-wise?

[harmlessgryphon]

Not really. VGA is capable of higher resolutions and framerates than NTSC or PAL. You're going to lose some quality because the converter device has to discard something to display on a standard TV.

It's mostly going to be a trial-and-error method to see what looks best for you.

[edDV]

Quality will be sub 640x480. Most likely in the 330x480 range best case.

A broadcast quality VGA to NTSC encoder, say like those used on G4/TechTV, will set you back $1K-5K. Resolution would be closer to 640x480 or 400-450 analog lines of resolution.

The first thing the DVD recorder would have to do is decode the NTSC to YUV. Without a very good 3D comb filter, Y resolution will be serverely limited above 3MHz (~240 lines or less than 330x480).

Better to find a S-Video solution that preserves Y bandwidth or better yet a YUV component DV or MPeg2 TS stream over IEEE-1394.

The need is for an external DVD recorder that takes YUV 480i or 480p components directly.