The native game resolution for most 360/PS3 games is 1280*720 - 720p (i.e. Motorstorm, Gears of War etc.) Some games can be 1080p i.e. virtua tennis, vf5. I want to play games at 1280*720p component input and also record the footage into DV at the same time. My DV camera also accepts S-video, so I can use that aswell.
I want to use a component splitter and downsample/convert one of the 720p signals to a standard definition DV signal and record onto my mini dv camera.

Sony's HC-1 cam will allow you to record in HD and the HDV master will be on tape, the cam gives the option to then downconvert in hardware and output a standard DV signal. I was wondering if there is a product which will also do this by hardware but will take a component 1280x720p signal and downsample/convert it to a standard dv signal output. Sony's HVR-M10u HDV deck will downconvert high-definition video to standard definition and output to DV format through its firewire port. However, that is out of my price bracket and seems proprietary. Does anyone know of any HD Camcorders which will accept hd component inputs?

I know trying to record a high definition source i.e. xbox 360's usual 1280*720p to DVD recorders won't work. According to here DVD recorders cannot recieve HD or Progressive signals so even though it has a component input the picture has to be sent via 480i and you can not use a 480p, 720p or 1080i.

I am aware of the VGA to s-video method of downversion (read it here and here) and have tried it. The downcoversion was unnacceptable quality with the product I bought and there was slight ghosting on the vga pass-through. Many updated better HDTV's models are removing VGA from their inputs and opting for hdmi instead (afaik), but the component input still is there.

However, I am still open to the idea of splitting the component signal then using a component-to-VGA-transcoder (i.e. X2VGA), then using a VGA to S-Video/Firewire converter.

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Component to dv Adapters:
  • Laird LTM-FFP Portable IEEE 1394 DV Media Converter - $1,335.95 ( No downscaling to sd from hd component).
  • ADS Technologies API-555 Pyro Av Link (bundled with adobe Premiere Elements :/ ) is priced at $152/£100, but (if I read right) from reading one of the reviews you have to fiddle about with the original high definition output (make it letterboxed and interlaced) which I don't want to do with the hd source. No downscaling to sd from hd component.
  • Can anyone tell me if the Twinpact100 will convert full-screen 1280*720p to dv? It seems like it only focuses on one part of the screen whether you like it or not and it doesn't list the "supported resolutions" like other vga to s-video converters do (none of which I have come across do 1280*720 :/ )

    i.e.:

    VGA 640x480 pixels @ 60/72/75/85 Hz
    SVGA 800x600 pixels @ 60/72/75/85 Hz
    XGA 1024x768 pixels @ 60/70/75/85 Hz
    Mac 1152x864 pixels @ 70/75/85 Hz
    SXGA 1280x1024 pixels @ 60/70/75/85 Hz

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