BenB17 Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 Basically, I want a VCR to record stuff from my Gamecube and N64, which can then be plugged into my capture card so I can record it onto my PC. Problem is, I know nothing about VCRs. For example, will I be able to record in PAL and PAL60 with any old British VCR player, and can the VCR output easily be changed to composite? I have been looking for VCRs on Ebay, but none of the product descriptions seem to tell me what I want to know. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Bogbas Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 If your capture card can capture composite, just plug the composite cable in the cube/N64 and capture directly from that. But if you want to capture to vhs, check if your vcr has a scart socket, if it has plug the composite cable of the cube/N64 into that with the adapter which came with the cube or N64. Then switch the vcr's channel to e1, e2, av or similar. If the vcr has two scarts, use the other to connect it to a tv. Check the vcr's manual for which scart is the input and which one is the output. Oh and don't think about using PAL60 with composite, it'll look horrible...
BenB17 Posted March 22, 2006 Author Posted March 22, 2006 Maybe I have mistaken composite for something else. I mean the cable that splits into Red, White and Yellow. It's the standard one that comes with a PAL Gamecube, and the only connections that will work with my capture card. Also I could just plug my console directly to my PC, but recording like that causes framerate lag, and I can only record for a few minutes before it wastes all my RAM. A VCR will allow me to record for hours, and it won't interfere with the picture.
Bogbas Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 I think you've misunderstood the meaning of the cable. The yellow(=composite cable) one transmits the picture, white one the left audio channel and the red one the right audio channel. A component cable would separate red,green and blue, but there isn't a PAL one for GC. And it would be a waste also as the quality on vhs tape is even worse than on a normal composite cable. So just plug the scart which you have now in your tv, to your recorder. Use the RF modulator or another scart cable to connect the vcr to your tv. Chose the appropriate channel for the vcr and start playing. And press rec on the vcr when you want to record.
Mr_Odwin Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 Why would recording from a vcr make a difference to recording from the gamecube? I have plugged my gamecube directly into my capture card and it worked very well, the only problem being that my card can't handle PAL60, but it also wouldn't handle it from a vcr. What software do you use to capture? I just had a thought that maybe you're trying to capture at an insane frame rate. You need to capture at 25 fps, or 30fps if you are using PAL60. Although the screen updates 50 or 60 times a second, there are only 25 or 30 full frames.
BenB17 Posted March 22, 2006 Author Posted March 22, 2006 So just plug the scart which you have now in your tv, to your recorder. Use the RF modulator or another scart cable to connect the vcr to your tv. Chose the appropriate channel for the vcr and start playing. And press rec on the vcr when you want to record. I don't have a VCR yet, I want to know if any can record in PAL60 before I buy one. Why would recording from a vcr make a difference to recording from the gamecube? I have plugged my gamecube directly into my capture card and it worked very well, the only problem being that my card can't handle PAL60, but it also wouldn't handle it from a vcr.What software do you use to capture? I just had a thought that maybe you're trying to capture at an insane frame rate. You need to capture at 25 fps, or 30fps if you are using PAL60. Although the screen updates 50 or 60 times a second, there are only 25 or 30 full frames. Recording to a VCR will make a huge difference, I can just leave it to record for hours and play my game. I can only record on my PC for a few minutes. It's a pain having to stop, delete the recording and start again so frequently. Playing on a TV screen is also a lot nicer than playing on a PC monitor. I know the picture quality won't be as good, but that doesn't matter.
Mr_Odwin Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 Why is there a difference between capturing from a vcr on your pc and capturing from a console on your pc? What do you do different? I just don't get it.
Bogbas Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 The main thing here is the adda conversion. To the vcr it records as analog, which is what the console outputs also. For the PC it has to be converted to digital format. The conversion takes a lot of cpu power when it has to be in realtime. And there's no point in recording at pal60 the resolution is higher by only few pixels, and I don't know if there are that kind of vcr's that can capture PAL60.
BenB17 Posted March 22, 2006 Author Posted March 22, 2006 I want to record F-Zero X and F-Zero GX runs, which only last a few minutes. If I record on a VCR first, I can leave it recording for hours, and play the game uninterupted. If I play directly on the PC though, it means having to stop and delete the recording then start again every few minutes.
Mr_Odwin Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 If I play directly on the PC though, it means having to stop and delete the recording then start again every few minutes. There's no reason why you should have to do this. What are your system specs? RAM? CPU? Hard disk size?
BenB17 Posted March 22, 2006 Author Posted March 22, 2006 Athlon XP 2400+ Radeon 9800XT 256MB 1GB RAM 40GB Primary Hard Drive 80GB Secondary Hard Drive Pinnacle PCTV Capture Card Even if I could record for long periods of time on my PC, I would still rather play on a TV.
Mr_Odwin Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 Well, ignoring the playing on the PC option, you could get a dvd recorder so that you can just transfer the recordings over to your pc by popping the dvd in your drive. DVD recorders are fairly cheap these days and the quality will be better than vhs.
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