Trying to take screenshots of SEGA CD games... impossible.

[Hollenscythe]

I have a DV box which allows me to connect systems with RCA or S-video outs to my PC - taking screenshots is a snap, quite literally. So, then I get to my SEGA CD and realize - oh, right it has the old fashioned RF connection. I went to RadioShack positive that I would find a converter to connect an RF unit to RCA so that the game footage could be copied easily but to my surprise I was told no such product exists. I sell a product at work that allows you to do the exact opposite (connect RCA cables to an RF input) - it is just my luck that what I need doesn't exist. RadioShack has been delivering me news like this, something like 17 years now... I'm yet to actually buy anything from them.

So I finally gave up and decided I would record the signal to tape and then run the tape signal through the system but - wow do the images turn out ugly... and there's already a lot of interference going on so it was just fuzzy noise. Is there any way to connect the SEGA CD via an RCA connection? What about a video card with a TV in connector - would that work? Any help would be awesome.

[robotriot]

Just get a cheap Hauppauge TV card for your PC, it'll do the trick. You can connect both RF and Composite/S-Video signals to it, and capturing is very easy with programs like DScaler or VirtualDub.

[Hollenscythe]

Wow, that solves that. I was looking at them today actually - wasn't sure if they'd do the trick or not - I was going to get a Radeon All in Wonder (as I also wanted something good for my current gen games).

Hey thanks again - hopefully I'll return with enough screenshots to donate here, too. Not enough SEGA CD love on the web, it seems.

[Xantan the Foul]

Or just use an emulator and take screenshots with that ;)

[VACRMH]

Or just use an emulator and take screenshots with that ;)

That's what i've been doing recently. I thought the screenshot section for Sega CD was lacking.

I'm using Gens+, no problems here.

[digitalpress]

Hey peeps who are grabbing screen images of Sega CD! If there isn't enough Sega CD love on the web, you can certainly help that by sending your images to me - I'll gladly plug them into the database entries for the associated games and the existing (anemic) Sega CD screen gallery (http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/segacd/).

Naturally you get credit on the gallery page and in any future book that covers Sega CD.

Bring 'em on!

PS I'd recommend the emulator option as well. GENS does a great job at capturing the Sega CD screens. Sadly though, not EVERY game works with it.

[VACRMH]

PS I'd recommend the emulator option as well. GENS does a great job at capturing the Sega CD screens. Sadly though, not EVERY game works with it.

I just sent a few to you Joe :)

What games have you encountered that don't work?

[SamuraiSmurfette]

Here's the solution I'm using:
I've got a VCR hooked up all standard-like (RCA jacks)
and have the Sega (RF) attached to it as an input.
Works perfectly,
and my VCR doesn't have to retire just yet!

[rbudrick]

Here's the solution I'm using:
I've got a VCR hooked up all standard-like (RCA jacks)
and have the Sega (RF) attached to it as an input.
Works perfectly,
and my VCR doesn't have to retire just yet!

That's pretty much what I was going to say. I had a very similar problem once and I went to...surprise: Radio Shack. They tried selling me a VCR. I went home and tried my own VCR and it worked fine!

-Rob

[ddockery]

Or you could always get the A/V cord instead of using the RF...

[digitalpress]

PS I'd recommend the emulator option as well. GENS does a great job at capturing the Sega CD screens. Sadly though, not EVERY game works with it.

I just sent a few to you Joe :)

What games have you encountered that don't work?

The pics look great!

As I recall, I couldn't get Road Avenger or Time Gal to work. There were others but I know these were a problem.

[bigdaddychester]

I went to RadioShack positive that I would find a converter to connect an RF unit to RCA so that the game footage could be copied easily but to my surprise I was told no such product exists.

not to get off topic, some Sega CD action is always good but isn't this the adaptor you're looking for?

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F003%5F011%5F000&product%5Fid=278%2D290

[Cryomancer]

If a game doesn't work in Gens, you might try the emulator Kega Fusion, it's very shiny, plus no changing to 16 bit color depth.

One of my things to do when not lazy is to review / screenshot some sega cd stuff for DP but I just haven't gotten around to it.

[Dimitri]

I went to RadioShack positive that I would find a converter to connect an RF unit to RCA so that the game footage could be copied easily but to my surprise I was told no such product exists.

not to get off topic, some Sega CD action is always good but isn't this the adaptor you're looking for?

Hideously long link. (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F003%5F011%5F000&product%5Fid=278%2D290)

That looks like it would simply change the connector type, not convert the signal. Many systems with RF output use that type of connector on the console end of the RF leads.

[Melf]

If a game doesn't work in Gens, you might try the emulator Kega Fusion, it's very shiny, plus no changing to 16 bit color depth.

Kega doesn't have a screenshot feature like Gens does, but it doesn't require you to fiddle with your ASPI layers either. I just hit "print screen" in Kega, then crop out the screen in Photoshop.

There simply aren't enough screen shots for Sega CD games on the web. Every time I put up a review for a game on my site the biggest problem is always taking the darn shots. If anyone has any Cobra Command pics they'd like to donate, I'd be obliged! :D

[VACRMH]

Another question for Joe, you said you didn't want Title Screens... but what about Cutscenes?

[Hollenscythe]

Thanks to those who responded with more helpful suggestions. Yeah, I'll give the emulator a shot - I've had to resort to that a fair bit with other systems (something I don't typically like doing, but it can't be helped sometimes - oh well)

I'll bump this thread up in a couple of days when I am done - or have at least got a fair bit done. I've got a huge collection to burn through - but anyone who needs them is welcome to them with a small credit to me. :)

[Brian_Provinciano]

I used to record the snazzy videos on Sega CDs onto VHS back in the mid 90s. Simply connected it to my VCR. VCRs have composite outputs, so you can connect your cap device to that. There'll be quality loss, but there is also loss in BGR (WTF get rid of that chocolate puddin crap overwriting R...Gr.B) to Composite to BGR, so BGR to RF to Composite to R-G-B isn't so bad, heh.

On a more technical side, Genesis systems can be modified to produce a crisp BGR VGAish signal which a good multisync monitor can display (I've done it before). With that, you'd just need three A/D converters, and could capture perfect video.

[pr8cjb]

PS I'd recommend the emulator option as well. GENS does a great job at capturing the Sega CD screens. Sadly though, not EVERY game works with it.

I just sent a few to you Joe :)

What games have you encountered that don't work?

The pics look great!

As I recall, I couldn't get Road Avenger or Time Gal to work. There were others but I know these were a problem.

Gens has an option "Perfect Synchro - slow" or something like that. It doesn't slow down play at all on anything like a modern PC and gets Gens through those movies that crash it otherwise - Time Gal, Road Avenger, Sensible Soccer etc. All the shots on my site except those for 32X CD were taken in Gens. I'm about half way through uploading my collection and haven't yet hit anything Gens won't run with that enabled.

Joe - if you need any PAL shots for MCD poke around my corner of the web (see sig) and let me know if there's anything you want a full-sized shot of. Just be warned that I only have JPEGs - I don't keep the full-sized BMP shots as they're huge file size wise.

[digitalpress]

Gens has an option "Perfect Synchro - slow" or something like that. It doesn't slow down play at all on anything like a modern PC and gets Gens through those movies that crash it otherwise - Time Gal, Road Avenger, Sensible Soccer etc. All the shots on my site except those for 32X CD were taken in Gens. I'm about half way through uploading my collection and haven't yet hit anything Gens won't run with that enabled.

Realy! I will give that a try. I never did read the documentation, just figured these games were incompatible.


Joe - if you need any PAL shots for MCD poke around my corner of the web (see sig) and let me know if there's anything you want a full-sized shot of. Just be warned that I only have JPEGs - I don't keep the full-sized BMP shots as they're huge file size wise.

JPG's are what we use too since the pics are mostly served up on the web database. If you have non-US releases captured I'd take them in a heartbeat!

I got a great batch of US game screen sfrom VACRMH and time permitting I'll have that first set online and attached to their Sega CD online guide entries.

Thanks again.

[Ed Oscuro]

As I recall, I couldn't get Road Avenger or Time Gal to work. There were others but I know these were a problem.
I saw a couple GIF animations of Time Gal recently...have them on my PC actually, but they're too small to be of any use.

Edit: Never mind, just thought that was interesting.

[Naouruki]

For crying out loud, WHY THE HELL are you using an RF cable on a CD-based console , if at all???????????? Is there a point?

Your post sounds like you think the SEGA CD/genesis only have an RF connection available, and the fact that only one person corrected this while others have gone on about head-scratchingly cumbersome , expensive and frankly idiotic suggestions - the most absurd being that one suggesting a Hauppage capcard with RF-in.

If you haven't figured it out yet - BUY A COMPOSIITE CABLE FOR YOUR SEGA CD/GENESIS. WHY ARE YOU HASSLING YOURSELF WITH A SHIT RF CABLE?

I simply cannot understand for the life of me why on earth anyone would think that a console released in the 90's would not have an AV cable available. For crying out koud, even the NES had AV out, mono albeit, but AV out nonetheless.

Not being a troll, but the compleete absurdity of this topic just struck me as surreal.

[FurinkanianFrood]

Doesn't capturing screenshots with the Hauppage/etc. cards give sub-optimal images regardless of the connector (I've never tried it with S-Video).

Emulators seem to give better screenshots it seems. Most shots for non emulated systems that I see around the net look god-awful (though still very much appreciated).

This reminds me, I have been thinking about the addition of PC Engine CD and PCFX screenshots to the site, not to mention more pictures of HuCard games, and some new reviews for those would be pretty cool.

I have pretty decent NEC collection (at least 80 plus games, lots of uncommon to rare import stuff, haven't counted for a long time)

[Hollenscythe]

For crying out loud, WHY THE HELL are you using an RF cable on a CD-based console , if at all???????????? Is there a point?

Your post sounds like you think the SEGA CD/genesis only have an RF connection available, and the fact that only one person corrected this while others have gone on about head-scratchingly cumbersome , expensive and frankly idiotic suggestions - the most absurd being that one suggesting a Hauppage capcard with RF-in.

If you haven't figured it out yet - BUY A COMPOSIITE CABLE FOR YOUR SEGA CD/GENESIS. WHY ARE YOU HASSLING YOURSELF WITH A SHIT RF CABLE?

I simply cannot understand for the life of me why on earth anyone would think that a console released in the 90's would not have an AV cable available. For crying out koud, even the NES had AV out, mono albeit, but AV out nonetheless.

Not being a troll, but the compleete absurdity of this topic just struck me as surreal.

You're right, you're not being a troll - but you are being a complete and utter jackass. I appreciate you correcting me on something I honestly had no idea about - but once would have sufficed, you didn't have to write a long tirade on what you seem to view as "the dumbest gamer of all time" - Jesus man, do you feel better after that? I counted no less than five childish jabs at me and the situation and can't for the life of me understand why it was necessary. Do you correct most people this way?

No, I didn't know the other cables existed - as you pointed out, it doesn't seem to have been on the top of anyone elses mind either. I purchased the SEGA CD about 4 or 5 months back - used (actually it was a present from my wife) and that was the only cable that came with it - I've been amassing games for a project (see: website) that I am working on and haven't really given thought to what the connection alternatives may be - it isn't as though they still sell these things in game stores.

But, apart from your completely lack of tact in the situation - I do thank you for alerting me of my oversight. I'll make sure you get a nice little credit in the 'thank you' section. :evil:

[vulcanjedi]

I still have a minty new Sega model II stereo AV cable for sale.

Of course you want to use the Audio outputs from the SegaCD and not the genesis for the sound :)


VJ

[Wavelflack]

You can either order the correct cable, or you can do an easy modification to your Genesis and add a/v jacks on the back. Or you can "hack" it and simply splice the wires (pushed in to the DIN jack on the back) to a set of RCA cables, or use clip wires (alliator leads/ jumpers/ etc.)

Old SMS units came with a mono a/v cable that works with the genesis. segaparts.com has others you can buy.

The Genesis 2 came with a/v cables (different size than Genesis 1), as well as 32X (which cannot be used with a RF unit).

Easiest example would be to use a 32X CD setup, if you have one. Or get a 32X on ebay. Cheaper than ordering the Gen1 cable (probably), more capability, and less hassle than doing mod/ hack work yourself.