Does this logic make sense to record console?(Based idea on 007Crafts post)

[RoganSarine]

VGA does support 720p+ right?

A user named 007Craft posted this 4 months ago, and wanted to build on it for use of ALSO a Playstation 3. My xbox 360 is lucky enough to have a VGA, but my PS3 does not have a VGA output cable so I need to use a workaround.

Here is the original post:

This is the method I use to record. It allows me to record in SD while remain playing in HD. The total cost for this set-up is around $150+ (The cheapest I can think of). First thing your gonna need is an xbox 360 VGA cable. You can obtain the madcatz cable for alot cheaper then the official cable ($20) (and its much longer too). Now you have your 360 outputting your video signal via VGA at 720P or 1080p or whatever. Now you need to split that signal in 2. To do this, I use a VGA splitter/amplifier. These cost around $50. You can also use a $5 VGA splitter cable, but if you do this, your video will be dark, and/or have lines going through it. This is a result of using a cable to split the signal without boosting it. The one I use is THIS one. HERE is another you can try.

Now you have an xbox 360 outputting in HD (via vga), and the output signal being split into 2 vga outputs (via the splitter/booster). Now, connect one output to your HD display with a vga cable, your good to go in terms of playing in HD. Now for recording, you need 2 more things (well and a computer). The first is a capture card and the second is PC-TV converter or downconverter or whatever you want to call it.

The particular card I own is the WinTV-PVR-150 MCE. I bought this card for $70 2 years ago. You can find it alot cheaper if your resourceful.

Now for the converter. To change the signal, I use THIS one. It seems to be ok, and does the job, but I feel the quality is not as good as it can be (still good tho) You can buy a more expensive one if you want but I feel this is good enough.

If your running a reciever with a 5.1 optical input (like me), then simply plug an optical cable from the back of the 360 vga output cable to your reciever. Then route the left and right (white + red) composite audio cables from the vga cable to the red and white input on your capture card (You will most likely need to buy extension cables because the cables are too short on the vga cable). You can get these cheap at your local radio shack/the source.

If you do not have 5.1 surround with optical, buy a cheap cable that slipts it in 2 and route 1 end to your capture card and the other end to your tv.

Now your total setup should look something like this PICTURE. (click the picture to see the lines and text properly)



The only thing you may need during this is a VGA gender changer. I think the official xbox VGA cables comes with a gender changer while the madcatz does not. Also, it depends if the inputs of your vga splitter you buy are male or female. It does not matter much tho as a gender changer is only a couple bucks. I bought THIS one from monoprice.com (They also sell male to male).

So there, cheapest play in hd while record in SD method I know of. You can see some videos I made with this set-up here. Remeber that I have lowered the quality of those videos to fit in youtubes 100mb limit, + youtube butchered them further with a re-encode yet they are still watchable. The full sized versions I have are alot better, easy to see every bit of detail and text and brighter too.

Now... After knowing all that I tried to think of a variation of this process as follows:


Here's a link to the Neoya ( http://www.x2vga.com/ ). This will work great because I can plug in both my consoles into this little device via component which will convert the connections into a VGA usable (This will be great so I don't gotta keep unplugging the consoles and can switch them on the fly). The VGA will then plug into the VGA Amplifier and everything will go on like in the original diagram.

Would this small modification still work? And would it still allow me to play in 720-1080p, but record at the lower quality of 480i?

Also, since his TV Convertor doesn't exist (Tigerdirect doesn't stock it anymore) I'd probably switch it with something like this [ http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=422949&CatId=1430 ]

[007craft]

First let me say that if your going to be playing through component cables, you might want to consider something like this http://www.myhava.com/product_hava_wireless_hd.html. It will allow you to do everything in the diagram, except much easier, and roughly the same price. The down side to this device of course is your limited to component playback, where my method was designed for higher quality playback (notably 1080p which requires VGA). If you dont care about 1080p, then you might want to use the Hava @ $170 (or less? check ebay).

Now ignoring whats posted above, technically your diagram should work. You might experience another slight bit of quality loss due to the added conversion done by the X2VGA. It should not be too noticable however. That grandtec product you linked too seems to be better then mine. Dedicated positioning switches and a remote. Thats one of the worst parts about mine, resetting the positioning each time but it looks alot easier now with a remote and dedicated switches. Also the price is like $30 less then what I paid. good to see technology always getting cheaper and better .

Heres a link to a Gears Of War montage I made without the youtube slaughter.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NS4UAHM7

Im buying a new quad core rig in a couple weeks and am getting rid of my pvr-150. I want to buy a pinnacle pctv hd card (which will work with pinnacles easy record software which does not support hauppage cards as well as work with adobe premier).

I have also since switched to an xbox 360 elite so im on hdmi now and need a new way to record but am stuck because of the HDCP presented in hdmi/dvi. I wish we could just record in hd but that lame HDCP is stopping us. The only affordable hd capture card on the market is the black magic intensity but without hdcp support, its only good for recording stuff off an hdmi output video camera. Right now I have to switch to vga if I want to record and I dont like that

[RoganSarine]

My TV is the only TV that can support resolutions higher than 480p. The thing is, it being only a 40 inch... The difference between watching/playing in 1080p and 720p on such a smaller TV is actually very minimal. A 1080p option is quite more expensive which is in the end... why I only need 720p.

I just don't get what the heck that thing does... What would the HAVA do in this situation? How would I connect it to a capture card (I assume I'd still need one)? (I assume somehow wirelessly or something).