Capturing DVI signal

[Lordiego01]

Just to update my own thread, this is the answer from BlackMagic's own techpeople...

Our cards will do what you are trying to do-but up to a certain extent. As
they were not designed to work with computer resolutions, our cards will
only capture the output of your computer as long as the resolutions are
1920X1080, 1280X720 and 720X486 as our cards were designed to work with TV
resolutions. Any resolutions in-between what I listed will most likely not
work.

[imashination]

Counter top games machine running linux. Are we talking a coffee table MAME setup here? Also what is the destination for the video? Generally a capture app is going to be much easier and cheaper to work with, ive looked into dvi capture numerous times, but you have to start using some expensive kit to capture a dvi stream.

[Lordiego01]

Counter top games machine running linux. Are we talking a coffee table MAME setup here? Also what is the destination for the video? Generally a capture app is going to be much easier and cheaper to work with, ive looked into dvi capture numerous times, but you have to start using some expensive kit to capture a dvi stream.

The machine is a "Megatouch", which are found at bars and restaurants just about anywhere in the world.

I just need to capture short DVI clips out of it. I found some hardware by a company called Epiphan, but they are WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much money.

What do you suggest?

[imashination]

Well this is why I ask for the destination. 320x240 web adverts? Full PAL/NTSC, HD broadcasts? what exactly do you intend to do with the output.

If youre just making some youtube promotion, you dont need uncompressed lossless dvi recording, you could get the full quality needed by hooking up another machine with a tv capture card.

[Lordiego01]

The destination will be 640x480 videos running on the machine, all the way to 1080p stuff running on televisions.

I need something to capture a DVI signal of what is essentially a computer, and have it grab it at 640x480 all the way to 1080p.

[brianod]

Hardware is one way to do this but have you considered software? Since you make the machines and it's basically a Linux PC running as an arcade machine would a screen capture program work?

If it was a Windows PC, you could use Camtasia but Linux has something similar called xvidcap
http://xvidcap.sourceforge.net/ which can make movies.

xvidcap 1.1.4


xvidcap is a screencast application for Linux. It allows you to capture either parts of the full screen of your Linux desktop. This makes it an ideal tool for making either demonstrations of software - such as tutorials or for documenting installation of different software packages. The screen capture is actually done by saving each frame as an individual image - this is then sent through a transcoder which produces a complete MPEG video file.

....

I don't know what distribution of Linux you are using and you would have to talk to the software developers to get at one of their development machines.

I don't know that this would work, it's a longshot but it's just another way to approach this problem from another angle.


If hardware is simpler, some Sony professional camcorders have a Clearscan setting that prevents the screen from rolling when it's being taped. I have seen some stunning captures off of computer screens done this way. Sony DSR-300 DVCAM

[Vashner]

Why does it have to be DVI? Get an ATI wonder or other card with RGB outputs.

Fraps only captures stuff that comes from DirectDraw API that's why it didn't capture it.

Another trick is just use a digital camera on a tripod and without glare on the light. Then you will have it in mpg and can covert / edit etc.

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