I'd like to make real captures of few demos from a real CPC.
I have no dvd recorder, no PC with acquisition card, no PC with Windows OS.
What are the best options to do that ?
I guess video capture recorders are needed to do that, but a quick look on Amazon shows that the cost is between 50€/150€ which is too much for such usage especially without guarantee of quality.
So is it the only solution ?
- If yes, which material would fit this purpose without too much deformation in the result ?
- If no, what are the other solutions ?
Note that
- I have Bryce's SVIDEO converter and I can wire special cables if needed.
- most old demos do not display 312 lines as expected ; I guess it can be problematic for the acquisition
Thanks
You can rent a pro camera with clearscan functionnality (Canon C300 for example) designed to capture cathodic screens
A rent for 150€/day is not an option at all ;)
I can forget to do good acquisitions
How much are you willing to pay? You can get something like the Elgato Game Capture HD for a bit over €100 and it will capture S-Video, composite or component.
Bryce.
You need a capture card that can capture component and a way of converting RGB to component live. Preferably turning the 50i signal into 50p at the same time. I personally use a Pioneer DVD recorder to do that part of the process which does a very good live conversion. Don't expect to come away with much change from £300 whatever way you go.
Quote from: Bryce on 21:13, 14 February 17
How much are you willing to pay? You can get something like the Elgato Game Capture HD for a bit over €100 and it will capture S-Video, composite or component.
Bryce.
If I'm sure I am able to capture the intro of S&Koh, revolog and From Scratch which are demos not at 50Hz with complex crtc tricks (for s&koh I guess on crtc 0 there are 3 hbl signals generated per line) I'm ready to pay that because I think all demos could be captured.
I have not used my SVIDEO extension since years, I'll try it within the next days to have on idea of the result on a crtc tv and a modern tv
If it uses CRTC trickery then no capture hardware is going to help you. They all work on fixed frequency capturing, so the screen will flicker or loose sync as soon as the trickery begins.
Bryce.
Quote from: krusty_benediction on 09:09, 15 February 17
If I'm sure I am able to capture the intro of S&Koh, revolog and From Scratch which are demos not at 50Hz with complex crtc tricks (for s&koh I guess on crtc 0 there are 3 hbl signals generated per line) I'm ready to pay that because I think all demos could be captured.
I have not used my SVIDEO extension since years, I'll try it within the next days to have on idea of the result on a crtc tv and a modern tv
S&KOH is 50Hz during the all demo, CRTC tricks do not matter as the video signal is always clean
From scratch is not 50Hz so it may hang the capture
Camembert 4 / some Gozeur demo use multiple HBL so numeric capture will be difficult
Thanks for your answers ; too bad to see that modern hardware is less permissive than the original one.
Sadly, the intro of S1Koh is not at 50Hz it makes roll my CPC screen ;)
Note that several demos which are not at 50Hz can be projected with a video-projector (no idea for those with several hbls) ; CPC demo-meeting organizers know the list of those which do not put the projector in a no-display step
It depends on the projector and how you wire the CPC to it (same as when plugging to an RGB TV with LCD display).
I have built my own solution to convert the CPC (or other RGB 15kHz signals) to VGA (50Hz progressive). I used a Gonbes GBS8200, but with a custom firmware reprogramming its video converter chip. We used this at last year Forever party for CPC and Sam Coupé demos, but we didn't get it working with Zx Spectrum just yet. Probably some more tweaking of the timings would be needed.
However, this does not get you much closer to capturing, I guess. You would need some kind of "CTM Emulator" to handle the bad syncs and everything just like the CTM, and generate a clean signal, with faked CTM distorsion. Or, you would need a custom video format where each scanline can have a different size, and let the CTM emulation or whatever happen at the replay side.
I think the simplest ways end up being:
- Capturing by a camera in front of the CTM
- Capturing from a (good) emulator. Maybe a Mac Mini and a MorphOS licence are cheaper than these scan converter hardware?
I have quickly tested 2 demos (+ the current project I am working on) on a CRT TV thanks to the S-video adapter of Bryce: From-scratch and S&Koh.
First remark, I have no idea if it comes from the converter or the TV (sony trinitron kv m1450b) but the colors seem too bright and the pixels too fuzzy
My work (always 50Hz, CRTC transitions managed properly):
- seem to be properly rendered
- but little color issues in a mode 2 screen (standard blue background, yellow foreground) where sometimes the foreground color is not the foreground color but a mix of the background and foreground
S&Koh (intro not at 50Hz, main part supposed to be at 50hz I guess tested with a crtc 1 instead of 0...)
- the intro is properly displayed on the TV (wheras it rolls on my CTM 644)
- the main part is displayed in black and white
From scratch (not always at 50hz, lots of flipping pictures) :
- seem to be properly rendered
- there are issues in the last part of From Scratch in the color : there should have mode 1 shades colors on this screen ; on the tv we see some kind of diagonal bars because the shades are broken
- the flipping pictures give the impression there are movements in the colors (like a translated fog )
I'll check camembert 4 as soon as possible and another TV to see if the issues come from the converter or the TV