Capturing as I play PS2

[satyricon553]

The best way for me to ask my question is to tell you exactly what I want to do and I just need feedback on if it will work with the desired hard/software.

I am conducting a research experiment. I plan on playing multiple Playstation 2 games for 1 hour each. I need to record all of this playing time. I need to be able to view the recorded hour multiple time and then eventually edit all of the game data and make a highlights video displaying certain parts of each game.

Will I have to play the games on the computer screen?
This device will capture the games as I play them?
It will save them to a hard drive and I will eventually be able to burn them to a DVD?
How much space will one hour of gameplay take up on my HD.

The hardware I am looking at buying (mostly because it is external and the school would like to me be able to do this without installing new hardware on their computers) is : PINNACLE MOVIEBOXUSB9 Video Editing Box

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814144022

Thanks so much for any help.

[smearbrick1]

What is your thesis?

Will My Constant Playing of Playstation 2 Adversely Affect My Sex Life?

Conclusion: Yes!!!

If you have a capture card with a TV Out, you will be able to capture to your harddrive (for later editing) and either watch the Playstation action unfold on your computer monitor or run a line out from your TV out (on your capture card) and watch the excitement on your TV. My advice... ATI TV Wonder Pro... good card... little cash. ATI MMC has some issues, but otherwise... worth it. I'm not much of a fan of USB capture devices.

After all of this excitement, you will then be able to burn these must see highlights to DVD.

[TaoTeWingChun]

I am conducting a research experiment. I plan on playing multiple Playstation 2 games for 1 hour each. I need to record all of this playing time. I need to be able to view the recorded hour multiple time and then eventually edit all of the game data and make a highlights video displaying certain parts of each game.

OK, it soounds like you need TV-IN, and not TV-OUT for this. The Pinnacle MovieBoxUSB9 looks like it will do the trick for you, but there are likely other less expensive capture cards that will do the same for you.

As for the rest:

Q - Will I have to play the games on the computer screen?
A - If you want to do it all for cheap on your PC, yes

Q - This device will capture the games as I play them?
A - Yes, but as I said so will others

Q - It will save them to a hard drive and I will eventually be able to burn them to a DVD?
A - Yes, although you will need to ecode them to DVD compliant MPEG-2 video

Q - How much space will one hour of gameplay take up on my HD.
A - Depends on the codec/compression you use. RAW uncompressed DV footage occupies approx 13GB's per hour of footage. Better have a nice large and fast drive set aside just for this function if you don't already have one.

Good luck!

TTWC

[satyricon553]

We plan on using the games for several areas of research. First we are just doing a general content analysis.

I would much rather use an internal card, but it is very unlikely that the school will allow it. Is the main drawback from the usb device the possibility of dropped frames? I also liked the Pinnacle setup I quoted above because of the included software.

I have never used a capture device so I do not know much about it at all.

[satyricon553]

Q - How much space will one hour of gameplay take up on my HD.
A - Depends on the codec/compression you use. RAW uncompressed DV footage occupies approx 13GB's per hour of footage. Better have a nice large and fast drive set aside just for this function if you don't already have one.

After compressing them, how much space. Will the software included with the device to this compression or will I require a 3rd party application.

[byteguy]

Q - How much space will one hour of gameplay take up on my HD.
A - Depends on the codec/compression you use. RAW uncompressed DV footage occupies approx 13GB's per hour of footage. Better have a nice large and fast drive set aside just for this function if you don't already have one.

After compressing them, how much space. Will the software included with the device to this compression or will I require a 3rd party application.

The box you're looking at captures straight to Mpeg2 which is ready for DVD authoring (mostly). Ignore the comment on DV, you can't capture to that anyway. Storage for MP2s should run around 5GB for 2 hours.

It sounds like the box includes all the software to get you all the way to a DVD. However, if you want to trim or cut sections of your captures, you should take a look at VideoReDo since it will process your files a LOT faster than a full NLE will.

Also, this box does NOT have a TV in or out port. It only says it has composite and s-video jacks. I don't have a PS2 do I don't know if you can hook it up to this. To go to a TV you'll need to make sure it has a composite in jack (most do, but make sure first).

[TaoTeWingChun]

Thanks, byteguy - I was merely pointing out the max disk space ceiling he might run into with the raw DV statement as an example. Of course this unit does hardware MPEG-1 and -2 encoding, the rest is up to the particular software that he uses to capture with.

As to TV ports, the website says it has both composite in and out ports, and as the PS2 is a TV-OUT device using a standard 3-line RCA composite line (Red & White stereo audio and Yellow video) he can use the TV-In composite ports and hook up the PS2 --> MOVIEBOXUSB9 --> USB2.0 PC and use his PC's software to capture all the playtime he wants, provided he has ample disc space.

ALSO, if satyricon533 uses TMPGenc DVD Author to do his project in, he really doesn't need to trim with anything else - TDA allows you to edit your MP2's before creating an image/VIDEO_TS folder directly so you don't need another video editor - TDA can handle both editing and DVD creation in one neat little package.

Cheers!

TTWC

[satyricon553]

Thank you all so much. I will get my stuff ordered and I will check back in to let everyone know how its going and probably ask a few more questions. Once again thank you so very much.