Retro Twitch Stream

[FoxNtd]

If we're talking about capture devices, I got one thing to contribute towards that. If you're doing retro and don't give a damn about HD, check out the infamous dazzle device. I got mine for ten bucks on ebay and it supports composite and s-video inputs. Native driver support in Linux and I think the quality is good enough. Any capture device that supports HD is magically over $100, I have no idea why. I don't truly believe this hardware is inherently that expensive. People keep buying this shit sure enough so that price won't drop for a while I gather.

So having hardware to grab your analogue signal from a game console is the easy part. The trick is solving the wiring situation so you can have output go to both the device and your TV.

[Retronick]

If we're talking about capture devices, I got one thing to contribute towards that. If you're doing retro and don't give a damn about HD, check out the infamous dazzle device. I got mine for ten bucks on ebay and it supports composite and s-video inputs. Native driver support in Linux and I think the quality is good enough. Any capture device that supports HD is magically over $100, I have no idea why. I don't truly believe this hardware is inherently that expensive. People keep buying this shit sure enough so that price won't drop for a while I gather.

So having hardware to grab your analogue signal from a game console is the easy part. The trick is solving the wiring situation so you can have output go to both the device and your TV.

I was just going to ask about that. Right now I'm capturing SD through a Canopus ADVC-110, which still fetches a cool $200 on ebay (I inherited mine). It's great because it has an input for RCA and S-Video but then it also has an output for those same things. That said, the Digital I/O is through Firewire 400, which my MacPro is woefully lacking. Connecting through a Firewire 400-800 cable didn't work either, nor did buying an AC adapter to offer auxiliary power.

I would try the Dazzle, but I'd like to know if and how it can be hooked up to a TV simultaneously to avoid death by lag.

[FoxNtd]

I was just going to ask about that. Right now I'm capturing SD through a Canopus ADVC-110, which still fetches a cool $200 on ebay (I inherited mine). It's great because it has an input for RCA and S-Video but then it also has an output for those same things. That said, the Digital I/O is through Firewire 400, which my MacPro is woefully lacking. Connecting through a Firewire 400-800 cable didn't work either, nor did buying an AC adapter to offer auxiliary power.

I would try the Dazzle, but I'd like to know if and how it can be hooked up to a TV simultaneously to avoid death by lag.

Firewire was an interesting idea but it died. More likely than not, by blind guess, Apple somehow fucked it up. We're not here for that though.

You don't connect a Dazzle to the TV. It goes straight to your computer. You'll need a way to split your output to feed both capture and TV. Some people use VCRs which works nicely for that purpose. In some cases the TV has an A/V out connection which you could use to send a copy of the signal to the capture. An A/V switchbox might provide 2 outputs but if it's not amplified, you'll have serious degredation and the picture will be dark (I've tried it once with a non-powered switchbox just to see first-hand how it works out. They shouldn't bother building those fucking things with multiple outputs if it's not amplified!!)

[Retronick]

Firewire was an interesting idea but it died. More likely than not, by blind guess, Apple somehow fucked it up. We're not here for that though.

You don't connect a Dazzle to the TV. It goes straight to your computer. You'll need a way to split your output to feed both capture and TV. Some people use VCRs which works nicely for that purpose. In some cases the TV has an A/V out connection which you could use to send a copy of the signal to the capture. An A/V switchbox might provide 2 outputs but if it's not amplified, you'll have serious degredation and the picture will be dark (I've tried it once with a non-powered switchbox just to see first-hand how it works out. They shouldn't bother building those fucking things with multiple outputs if it's not amplified!!)

Thanks for the tips on Dazzle.

Firewire used to be the standard for pro video capture, and then firewire 800, but that is a bygone era. I think the best way to split it up is with a VCR or DVD player with AV in and out. I've got an old Samsung recorder here that would do the trick.

Anyway, thanks again! I'll try out the Dazzle and hopefully get off my old box and be able to use OBS.

[FoxNtd]

Anyway, thanks again! I'll try out the Dazzle and hopefully get off my old box and be able to use OBS.

You got it. And make sure everything is sane for Dazzle's Mac support since that's your platform.

[Retronick]

You got it. And make sure everything is sane for Dazzle's Mac support since that's your platform.

Definitely. I'm pretty sure it's compatible, but the devil's in the details, right?

[Niku-Sama]

You could get 3 Y splitters for RCA and split it right before your dazzler run one set to the TV and the other to the dazzler.

Sorry dazzler is in my phone's dictionary but the actual name is not