Screenshots From A Real Monitor

[chinnyhill10]

Spent the weekend working on a website for ChinnyVision and as part of that I've been pointing a professional video camera at a CTM644. It's the one that came with that 6128 I got the other week and in fact I've already promised it to someone for sale as I don't want CRT's cluttering up the place.


Anyway as I spent the evening recording various bits off of the screen including the whole of Batman Forever. Sound from the CPC went straight into the cameras audio in. As its a pro camera I could adjust the shutter speed to get a clean picture from the CTM (with the occasional scan line).


I've included 3 screenshots below.


This got me thinking. Should we be looking to preserve off-monitor images so we can see in future years what a CRT looks like? For ChinnyVision I capture RGB from real CPC's which looks different and more authentic than an emulator. But CRT capture is a stage further still.


Meanwhile I now have the whole of Batman Forever as a 50fps 720p file but don't know what to do with it as it's not really something I'd put on the Youtube channel. I'd like to get it out there though. Looks really good!


Edit - Well I WAS going to post them but they "failed security checks". Hmmmmfffff.

[Bryce]

Just a tip for photographing or filming CRTs. Back in the days of "CAD Tubes" when screenshots didn't exist, we used to photograph screens regularly. If you give the screen a light coating of hairspray it reduces the reflection of the screen without loosing any of the picture detail. It's easy to clean off again, but we normally left it on as we took pictures almost daily.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Why not using a screen filter? They are few bucks only. I wouldn't spray anything on my CRT! 

[Bryce]

What kind of screen filter? And where can you find a screen filter these days? Hairspray has no negative effect on the monitor or its plastic.

Bryce.

[chinnyhill10]

Didn't need a screen filter or hairspray. I just turned off the lights!

[Bryce]

That might cause the camera to over compensate and make the screen too bright.

Bryce.

[Lazy Dude]

also might be handy if you want to get a mid-action shot by shorting the pins to do a system pause (obvious I suppose but worth a mention!)

[chinnyhill10]

That might cause the camera to over compensate and make the screen too bright.

Bryce.

Why would the camera be overcompensating. You should be shooting in full manual.


Anyway to get around the draconian attachment system on here, here's the Head Over Heels loadings screen via Twitter.

[Bryce]

Full manual?? You over-estimate my photography skills. If it wasn't for all the Auto settings on my camera, I'd probably have never taken a single decent picture in my life!

Bryce.

[Lazy Dude]

lol everyone has their limits!
I found mine in trying to capture slow flyby pics of jet fighters (sort of about 700 mph)

[AMSDOS]

Full manual?? You over-estimate my photography skills. If it wasn't for all the Auto settings on my camera, I'd probably have never taken a single decent picture in my life!

Bryce.

Full Manual gives you best control of the camera, I haven't tried it on my CPC Monitor, but it works well on closeup. Only time I'm not using it is for taking things on the fly like birds or boats on the lake. 

[Bryce]

Full Manual gives you best control of the camera, I haven't tried it on my CPC Monitor, but it works well on closeup. Only time I'm not using it is for taking things on the fly like birds or boats on the lake. 

And turning off Auto-pilot gives you full control of the airplane, but if you can't fly then it's not a great idea

Bryce.

[AMSDOS]

And turning off Auto-pilot gives you full control of the airplane, but if you can't fly then it's not a great idea

Bryce.

You're comparing a Camera to an Aeroplane?    Nobody ever built a Camera Crash simulator did they? I usually just play around with the thing - don't have to worry about peoples lives, only requires patience. 

[Bryce]

True, but I was just pointing out that having full control of something isn't always the best solution

There are plane CRASH similators?? I thought the idea is NOT to crash

Bryce.

[AMSDOS]

True, but I was just pointing out that having full control of something isn't always the best solution

There are plane CRASH similators?? I thought the idea is NOT to crash

Bryce.

Well I think for a computer monitor you can pause a game and take a photo. I think when AA reviewed their games they didn't want Pause written on their screenshots if a game did that, so would use a Multiface 2 to get a screenshot & take a photo of it. In those situations control of the camera can be used, but when you start taking photos of moving things outside of your control you haven't got time to adjust, there's probably tricks around that if you're dealing with something like Motor Sports or Horseracing.


Well it's really a Plane Simulator - do all the things you can in a plane without dying or killing anyone. Investigators use them as well to determine if a crash has occurred and are trying to work out what made the plane crash.

[Gryzor]

The failed security tests are not, unfortunately, due to any draconian rules, but due to a documented bug in the forum software. Usually you can get around the false rejections by re-encoding (opening-saving) the pics...