DC10 video capture card

[lost eden]

Does anybody here have any experience with a DC10 motion-JPEG video capture card? I bought one on ebay & am trying to use it to play my PS2 through an XP machine, however the quality is just too dreadfully low.

Here are some exampls of the quality of image I'm getting at the moment;





I'm not sure whether it's just a crud card or whether it's the hideously designed driver/tool that is preventing me from getting the best out of the card. Atm it claims to be capturing at 768*576 but it looks more like 320*240 stretched up a bit.

So, has anybody used one of these before, & if so what driver/software are you using to get acceptable results from it?

[chis]

Pinnacle hardware is pretty good. Their software is generally shocking. Truely shocking. Be sure to use the S-Video inputs, rather than composite. Have a look around at TV-Cards.comrubbish»rubbishNews to see if anyone there has the card (is it a Miro?), and if any of the third-party software produces better results for you.

[lost eden]

Well my PS2 doesn't output s-video, only composite, so I don't have much of a choice?

[chis]

Use one of these:
Amazon.co.uk: PlayStation 2 S-Video Cable: PC & Video Games

(Or something similar, ignoring the yellow phono, obviously)

Playstation 2 consoles will output s-video, composite, scart AND component. All you need is the right video cable.

[lost eden]

I was hoping somebody could give me some positive feedback about the card before I started spending even more money on yet more cables, which of course might turn out to be useless if the card itself is crap.

[chis]

Did you miss the other link I gave you? Yes, I think you did. Well because I'm a nice guy, here it is again: TV-Cards.com » News Check the forums!

You'll hardly be wasting money on those PS2 cables, anyway, as you should never ever use composite with anything. VGA -> HDMI -> Component -> Scart -> S-Video, in order of preference. (VGA most preferable of course, but PS2's cannot do this without a converter, and these are usually rubbish)

Finally, looking at your screen caps, it would appear that the incoming capture res is set to something like 320x200 and is being scaled up. Look to change that resolution if you can. Perhaps find some newer drivers. Failing that, look for another card.

Edit: Fixed a glaring mistake, reordered preferences. Brain wasn't working the right way before, I guess.

[shaithis]

SCART being better then S-Video? As long as both source and display support RBG SCART (99.99% of devices in the UK do) then SCART will look a LOT better then S-Video.

The main reason it looks bad is because you are using composite I would guess. The picture quality with composite links is appalling.

[lost eden]

Did you miss the other link I gave you? Yes, I think you did.

No; I checked the link & there was nothing to do with the DC10 anywhere.

You'll hardly be wasting money on those PS2 cables, anyway, as you should never ever use component with anything. Scart -> S-Video -> Component -> HDMI -> VGA, in order of preference.

It would be a waste, as I already have a PS2-->SCART cable &, as shaithis pointed out, RGB SCART looks better than S-VIDEO.

Finally, looking at your screen caps, it would appear that the incoming capture res is set to something like 320x200 and is being scaled up.

Really?! Just like I said in my original post;

Atm it claims to be capturing at 768*576 but it looks more like 320*240 stretched up a bit.

Perhaps find some newer drivers.

I'm using the latest ones.

Failing that, look for another card.

Sure, if I don't want to waste money on a new cable I'm likely to waste even more on a new card when I could buy a PS2-->VGA converter for less?

Anyway, I did just that & bought a converter on ebay yesterday. I'll report back on how well it performs.

[chis]

You'll hardly be wasting money on those PS2 cables, anyway, as you should never ever use component with anything.

Huge mistake there, sorry. I meant to say you should never use COMPOSITE phono video connectors unless they really are your only option. Component is the obvious choice for PS2 on HDTV's.

Anyway, have you tried capturing with Virtualdub?