Capturing from 360

[KONSPIRACY]

Whats the best way to capture gameplay from Xbox 360 in good quality?

Need to know recommended:


capture cards
cables
pc spec
harddrive space


I've heard rumoirs that capturing would be of better quality and easier using the Elite and HDMI. Any info on this?

Need to know basis for XL, so please post accurate details n preferably tried and tested. Any examples of the quality of your 360 gameplay appreciated :cool:

[Tugsy]

Read (http://forum.videohelp.com/topic335354.html) and Read (http://forum.videohelp.com/topic334002.html#1735920).

[KONSPIRACY]

*kon will research fully next week*

edit: hmmm...not convinced by that solution as the quality is restricted (switch to standard tv not hdtv) n they mainly advise on recording to VHS.

[sub]

To capture anything off the 360 first you must decide what format you are outputting to for the gamers.

If it's HD then you have a very limited set of options for capping. You are basically restricted to buying a few HD capture cards, they run from ?300+, then you need a beefy computer, Intel Core 2 Duo is considered the starting point for any HD capping and pair that with some **** fast hard drives with good space, say WD Raptors at ?80 a pop... so to build one HD capture machine you could be looking at outlaying near to a grand. Connection wise depends what you are hooking upto TV wise, if its component to the TV then you need to make sure the cap card can take the component signal at the same resolution as the TV, the 360 can only output one video signal at a time, if its a HDMI 360 thats used and the HDMI connection then the cap card must do HDMI, they can't run a HDMI to the TV and component/composite to a cap card.

[Azure]

Even with a core2duo myself running at 2.5 gig I would expect to see stuttering as it tried to lay it down on the HDD, it might not but i am not about to try it with a ?379+ capture card, and not just for Halo 3 either.

[sub]

Azure has just MSNed me and reminded me that you can save game footage in Halo 3 so we could turn around and save all the matches on one console and simply record them at a later date at SD res.

And to get the 360s onto the projectors a simple VGA or Component splitter would do us.

[carocat]

I believe there may be a limit as to how many games can be saved on one console/profile, but I'm not 100% on that. If that's the case it'd just have to be different POV's.

[sub]

Theres a limit to what you can upload, don't think there is one for how many you can store locally. Even if there is it's not a difficult thing to simply save them on a different console.

[KONSPIRACY]

With regards to the input...my main issue with what I've read about capturing from 360 is that you have to switch the input to "tv" on the cable therefore whoever is playing on that console would have a degraded screen quality. I believe this is correct but can simply test on mine to confim.

If that is the case then saving locally onto consoles would be the best option. Obviously going to need to test how much gameplay can be saved per HDD (bare in mind the footage could be recorded on multiple consoles).

[DayC]

You can probably save a fair bit to a 20gb hard drive I think the videos in the beta took up about 6mb of space each, only from what I remember saving though.

[Tipsytom]

Easy way out is to get the sata to ethernet adapter for the 360's so you can save it on a comps HD over a network... Sorted!!!

[FiveOhOne]

Or.

Since we're using recorded footage. Get one of these - http://uk.slingmedia.com/page/home - plug it into your 360 and hit go, then record whatever hits the screen using something like fraps. Sorted.

[Tipsytom]

It only will work with Low def sources so unless someones wants to play looking like poo as kon said earlier, its a no go. Its easier to just split the Av cable in that case anyway.

The capture device needs HD input.

[FiveOhOne]

Balls will it. I've got one of these (http://store.slingmedia.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&Locale=en_US&id=ProductDetailsPage&SiteID=slingbox&productID=53043100) streaming BBC HD to my laptop right now...

[Tipsytom]

My bad I just looked at the tech specs of the wrong sling box... The PRO box will work then but there is the issue still the issues of splitting the source without lag to the player.

[FiveOhOne]

Heh.. Comes with a handy splitter my good man... ;-)

[Tipsytom]

Cool sounds good then.. Shame about the price tag however.

[KONSPIRACY]

How much n how many of those sling boxes are needed?

[FiveOhOne]

You can't buy the Pro ones over here yet, probably around the 150-200 mark, and its one per console - you feed the signal into the box and it just chucks it to where ever you want...

Lemme find out how I get on when H3 actually comes out, and I'll let you know...

[KONSPIRACY]

Ok, as long as we have a solution in place for XL that records in HD quality and doesnt make the players screen quality reduce then I'll be a happy man. :cool:

[Tipsytom]

Does the transmit the data as an mpeg 2 stream to the PC/MAC.. or use its own crazy format that needs to be decoded then re-encoded into a video format?

[FiveOhOne]

crazy format

[Azure]

Why do you want to record in HD? You're only gonna crush it down to 640x480 anyways right?

[KONSPIRACY]

Cos if you record in standard "tv" then the players screen displays in standard "tv". I'd rather not have players complaining they were on the capture screens with **** quality screen.

[Tipsytom]

Cos if you record in standard "tv" then the players screen displays in standard "tv". I'd rather not have players complaining they were on the capture screens with **** quality screen.

Yepp :p

Plus it would make a great promo dvd if it was in HD. And look pro to have it up on the site in HD.. Gunna cost a bomb in bandwidth though.

[carocat]

If you're talking about Halo 3, then you can always just save the games with the Halo 3 saved films feature then play them back later and record them in HD. That way you'd only need one box and get everything done post XL.

[Tipsytom]

Already been said earlier...

[KONSPIRACY]

Yep, just need some large HDDs so will prob invest in some Elites. How much will the 120GB HDDs be on sale for...or are they already available?

[Razor]

?130 if brought seperatly.

[KONSPIRACY]

130 quid?! :eek: ...best be ordering some Elites then! lol :D

[kurosaki7]

Why do you need large hdd's for? You do realise Halo3 replays are saving in a pretty small file? From what I have read up on it anyway the 20gb should be enough :/

Its not like you are ripping raw video to the HDD.

[quickshot89]

ok guys, ive been looking at this too for a while, im sticking with k-world tuner that ive ued for years on vista, and using a program called VirtualDub. standard def is the only was we will capture a games console for now, and even then, you dont have to play halo3 and record at teh same time, just use saved films feature, pick your best games, instead of filtering the files on your HDD, sata 2 connections are fine for recording gameplay, dont bother with the raptors, WD suck. just go with a nice seagate that has a decent cache etc linky (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/115418/rb/0) until some company relises that this is becoming a big thing SD is the only option for us, just make sure you capture in avi with divX or mpeg with a decent framerate - 2000kb/s +

btw, that program has loads of features for the compression etc, i suggest some of you try it out

[Zyber]

Why do you need large hdd's for? You do realise Halo3 replays are saving in a pretty small file? From what I have read up on it anyway the 20gb should be enough :/

Its not like you are ripping raw video to the HDD.

The replays aren't being saved on the hard drive from what i read on Bungie. They are providing us with online storage for all the replays and custom game settings. Although, if you want more space than they are providing for free you can purchase more space from bungie and i think its a 3 tier system.

The 120GB hard drive is something i'm considering purchasing because of the video market place which should be up before the end of the year. As for capturing...not know anything about that sorry. :p

Edit: I was trying to find the article about the hosting but i can't. I'll keep looking.

[sub]

They are saved on the HD unless you choose to upload them, at least thats how it worked in the beta.

[Zyber]

Ahh yea, i remember now, although i can't understand why people would pay for the hosting now.

[quickshot89]

Ahh yea, i remember now, although i can't understand why people would pay for the hosting now.

i remember the article now

everyone has like a certain space online where you can upload around 100 items, items consist of saved games, game types and maps, bigger the item means the less you can store however, if you run out of space, you can buy more space for around 200 M$P, i think also if your item becomes shown on b.net you get some space asa gift etc