Cabling and Setups For Dummies

.CaLLouS · 06:31 PM

***NOTE- This Thread is generally about the Dazzle Type Capture card, and this guide uses Pinnacle Studio 9 for Capturing.***

Okay well I've never seen any of these type threads before... I don't think this has been posted before, unless its on gfxug... So... Yeah... This is a guide to cabling... For Dummies... For all those noobs out there who are thinking about capturing... And need help cabling.

This is in corrispondence with The Montage Picture Tutorial

So... Let me begin the Uber Noob Tutorial to Cabling and Setups. =)
Cables

*There are four main cables, the three composite cables (The colored cables, as everyone knows them by, the red, yellow, and white cables). The red and white cables are used for audio, while the yellow cable is used for video. You

*Another Cable is the S-Video cable. It projects better quality than the normal Yellow composite video cable, which is why it is the prefered cable for capturing.

*An intermediary cable is called the "AV Advanced pack." This acts as a connection between your xbox and everything else. Look below for more info.

Basics on the "idea" of a capture card

Okay the point of a capture card is to basically establish a connection between your computer and your tv, and through that, your xbox. A capture cards "main" use is to record from your TV to your computer, and from that you can save shows, movies, etc, similar to recording on a VCR. To connect the capture card regularly, you would just have to connect your capture card to your PC Via the USB port, and then connect three composite cables from your TV to your capture card. You could also use an S Video cable in place of a composite video cable (The yellow one), if your TV has an S Video port. Mine doesnt, all TV's are different. If you use this "regular" setup, you would only be able to capture TV, nothing related to the xbox, as you would have to include the xbox with the use of an AV advanced pack, which is explained below. You see, if you want to capture w/ xbox, (gameplay) then you would have to let the xbox get a share of the power too.

Capturing with the use of an extra accessory- In our case, an XBOX.

To capture with an XBOX included, what you have to do, is instead of connecting your TV directly to your computer, you have to put an extra unit inbetween, the XBOX. The way the xbox can connect is through an AV advanced pack, which replaces a power cord on the back of your XBOX.

So, what you would need to do, is connect a video and audio cord from your Capture card, to your AV advanced pack (which connects to the xbox, thus giving the XBOX a share of the power), and connect a video and audio cord from your AV advanced pack to your TV. There are a couple ways to do this.

1. You can use an SVideo cord, and audio cords from your capture card to your AV advanced pack., then connect three composite cables from your AV advanced pack to your TV

2. You can use three composite cables from your capture card to your AV advanced pack, then connect audio cables and an SVideo cable from your AV advanced pack to your TV. *Note, this will only work if you have an S Video jack on your TV, Some TV's have this, some don't.

I recommend #1, as with this, you are recording in "S Video" (S Video cord is the video cord which is connecting xbox and capture card), which has better quality then recording in "Composite". (A composite video cord from the Capture card to the AV advanced pack)

^^^ Basically the difference between #1 and #2, is that we swapped the S Video cord and the composite video cord (The yellow one). However, the S Video cord gives us better quality.

Now, if you look closely at the cabling i have described above, you will see that you do not have enough ports on the AV advanced pack to fit five composite cables... You only have three jacks. (keep in mind that there are actually six cables connected to the advanced pack, the sixth one being the S Video cord) To solve this problem, we bring out the AV splitters. What the splitters do, is split the number of jacks that the advanced pack can allow. So, one port now becomes two. You need to buy two splitters, as the splitters only add one extra port to the advanced pack, and you currently have three, you need five (+2).

Okay, we have completed the setup part of this. To look at a picture tutorial of all of these connections, be sure to go back to

http://www.halo3forum.com/h2fvideos/montagetut.html

And go to the external setup.

*** Note, the montage picture tutorial (external) uses method #2 described above. For method one, change what is described above.

Pinnacle Setup

Okay, now you have finished your cabling. Now you need to configure your Pinnacle settings.

A bit of troubleshooting help

*Copyed from one of my other threads*

***Aight if you get an error message like "Your computer is running 1.1 USB ports. This device cannot operate on a USB 1.1 port." then... try downloading the appriopriete download on this page...

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSit...de= documents

Your computer should now recongize your USB2 port. Note: before you do this, actually make sure that your computer DOES have a USB2 post by following these instructions by Scott-

How to tell if you have USB 2.0 or not.

***If you do find out that you do NOT have USB 2.0 ports (your computer is outdated or whatever), then check this link out to upgrade to USB 2.0, provided by DayC. Extrememly handy. -

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/108594/rb/19972751448

For instructions on how to install PCI cards (the USB 2.0 upgrade) and other cards into your computer, check out this handy link once again provided by DayC.-

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/f...ard-135479.php

More info, troubleshooting, and other stuff can be found in DayC's Hardware thread, which can be found here.

Starting up in Pinnacle

Find this in Pinnacle:

Look on the left, where it says video input. If you have used method #1 described above, then check "Svideo". If you have used method #2 described above (Also pictured in the montage picture tutorial) , then check composite.

In the box on the upper right (Mines black b/c i dont have my capture card plugged in) you should see whatever you see on your TV, assuming of course, that you have your "Video 1" Channel on or w/e its called on your TV and you're playing Xbox.

Now, go to Setup -> Capture Source, and select your External Capture Card, as shown-

To get the quality you want, check out the quality tutorials (The stickys)

here.

What i would recommend is recording in AVI (which is a HD memory killer.) Assuming you're making a montage, I would record your gameplays, (be sure to look at the "time left" icon, to make sure how much memory you have left in you computer HD), save the individual montage clips into a folder, then go to your source for the original gameplay (usually My computer -> Shared Documents -> Shared Video) and delete your original gameplays as to save disk space. Otherwise, your harddrive will be out of memory in a day. I then sharpen the clips in vegas by .600 ~.700 ; More ways to get fantastic quality are in the stickys and in Quickpros fantastic thread on improving quality in Vegas -

*PIC TUT*::: Improving Quality in Vegas

If you are planning to make gameplays, what i do is I record in AVI, then render the entire gameplay, then import that AVI file into windows movie maker, then render with the "Size" option, which will allow you to choose your file size when rendered.

*To get to the "size" option, import your gameplay into WMM by using the "Import into collections" tool, then hit "Save Movie File" when you are ready to render. Both of these options are under "File". A popup box will appear. Hit "My computer" to save the file onto your computer, and hit Ok. Enter a name for your movie, and the output location on your computer.

Then, a box like this will come up:

Hit the option i have selected, and enter a desired size for your gameplay. Then, it'll start rendering.

Wait for it to render (A long time, about 45 minutes for a 6 minute video)

and enjoy.

Quality Examples

If you go to the "Capture" window of Pinnacle, you should see this in the bottom of your screen:

(Minus the red stuff, of course)

There are three quality types in Pinnacle: MPEG Good (The worst quality), MPEG Better (The medium quality,) and Full DV (The best quality). Their locations are marked on the picture above.

Here are examples of each quality. [Each clip is staged, its just to show quality.] Be sure to view in full screen (Hit (If you cannot see the video, click here to play it directly in your media player.)
For each clip, I captured in the indicated quality setting, and rendered in .avi format. No clips have been edited in any way.

**All examples are captured with a Dazzle 85**

MPEG Good Quality (Worst Quality)-

http://useruploads.mythica.org/view....Good_Worst.avi

MPEG Better Quality (Medium Quality)-

http://useruploads.mythica.org/view....ter_Medium.avi

Full DV Quality (Best Quality)-

http://useruploads.mythica.org/view....ality_Best.avi

As i said before, I record in Full DV quality. Then I sharpen my clips in Vegas by .600~.700. Here is my DV quality clip sharpened by .650.

http://useruploads.mythica.org/view...._Sharpened.avi

(View in full screen, once again.)

Products

Aight since most or all of the product links in the Montage Picture Tutorial are down, i thought i'd get you guys new links.

S Video Cable- http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

(This is an S Video cable with two composite audio cables, a great deal.)

Capture Card (Dazzle)- http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Dazzl...oductDetail.do

rS CARNAG3 Recommends buying your capture card on Ebay. (www.ebay.com)

(This is a Dazzle 90, it costs 79.99, but you can get a Dazzle 85 in some stores for 49.99, as i got mine )

Three cable Composite cable set- http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

(3 Foot cable, all three composite cables on each end.)

AV Advanced pack- http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

(AV advanced pack, used as an intermediary to connect xbox to pc and tv)

AV splitters- It looks like this:

or like this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...t=true&ie=UTF8

(You need to buy two of these, they can be bought at most Radioshacks, look above for instructions on how to work and use these. Each splitter costs about $5 USD)

Capturing with VCR

Now we know some people don't have capture cards... Thats okay... You can still record with a VCR for old times sake. What you do, is instead of connecting you xbox directly to your TV, let your VCR act as an intermediary, placing it in the middle of all the connections.

You should now have your Xbox connected to your VCR, and your VCR connected to your TV. Now, just flip the TV on, turn to Video 1 (or w/e channel you use to play XBOX), and hit Record. And Bam! You have now recorded without a capture card.

Recording VHS tapes onto your computer with a capture card

This is the same concept as the TV - Capture card idea.

Just connect your VCR to your capture card via the three composite cables (Yellow, Red, white), and put the tape you recorded with your VCR (Your halo 2 footage) in and start it up. Pinnacle should now play whatever you recorded on your VHS beforehand.

Now this does not always work.

Read RVideo's tips-

racer4770 (12:24:07 AM): well most off the shelf vhs decks have macrovision protection
racer4770 (12:24:19 AM): so usually its dif to record
racer4770 (12:24:29 AM): the outgoing signal is degraed
racer4770 (12:24:37 AM): copy protection
racer4770 (12:25:42 AM): ..it depends on the manufacturer

^READ^ if you needhelp on transfering VHS footage to comp.

360 Capture with a Dazzle

Read this excellent thread by KiIlswitch on how to setup and cable a dazzle with a 360.

*Wanna know how to hook your Dazzle up to a 360? Then Look Here!*

___________________

Well, thats the end of this guide... For now... I will probably add more stuff to it in the future... Until then, hope this helps, and Thanks for reading!

If I made any mistakes or anything like that in this thread, then post here, and i'll be happy to fix them.

If anything I wrote in this thread is confusing in anyway then please post and elaborate on what you think is confusing to you and i'll be happy to fix it also.

If you have any questions about anything in this thread, then IM me.

AIM = LL eNdUrE

Please refer to this thread-

Computer Hardware.

for more information on computer hardware, capture cards, and more.

Thanks to RVideo for actually teaching me some of this stuff in the first place, Scott for sticking, and select people on my AIM buddy list who confirmed info in this thread.

Also thanks to rS CARNAG3 for providing a product page for the splitters.

Thanks for reading!

Crest · #2 07-06-2006

Nice man, this must have taken a looooong time to type. You did a great job on it.

.CaLLouS · #3 07-06-2006

Took an hour and half, and that was while talking to like ten people on AIM. Thanks for the compliment dude.

FolksyChipmunk · #4 07-06-2006

Great thread for the noobs of capturing and cabling.

Nice work.

.CaLLouS · #5 07-07-2006

*Updated with VCR capturing and connection information, and updated with product links and information.*

DayC · #6 07-07-2006

Good work pimp i like this alot nice and clear, most pictures to a reasonable size and you've obviously spent a lot of time on it, i don't often say this but

STICKY THIS THREAD

.CaLLouS · 01:07 PM

*Updated with quality examples and sharpened quality examples*

EDIT: *Updated with little Pinnacle troubleshooting section and changed format of a few things*