Video input on a laptop

[GrandpaT]

Those of you who've been around for a while probably already know that I travel for work. I leave home every Sunday afternoon and get home every Thursday night. That means that half the week, I can't play my games unless they're on a DS or PSP, which stinks.

I have a laptop, but it's not strong enough to play any recent PC games, so using it in that way isn't really an option. I tend to like console games better anyway, so I'm not overly broken up about that.

I could take a console with me, but anyone who's stayed at a hotel in recent years knows that being able to plug a console into the hotel TV and actually use it ranges between difficult without power tools and hard enough that it's not worth the effort/legal liability.

So the issue is: I want to play console games at a hotel.
My resources are: a laptop.
My liabilities are: a desire to stay out of prison. (OK, not really a bad desire in my book, but it does limit my options.)

Mu current solution: buy a video in card for my laptop. In my searches online, they generally come in two flavors: USB 2.0 and PCMCIA cards. They all seem to come with inputs for co-ax (the same old cable you'd screw into the TV) and what looks like an S-Video port with a fancy adapter that takes either S-Video or composite cables (the yellow, red, and white ones that come out of a non-HD Xbox cable). BTW, the parentheses aren't because I think you don't know what I'm talking about - they're because I want to make sure I know what I'm talking about. They also all appear to come with software for watching and recording whatever it is you're bringing in through the card, and I believe they all come with a little antenna for picking up broadcast TV (hooray!).

Have any of you guys done anything like this? Any recommendations? I've managed to find some pretty cheap options (in the $30 plus shipping range), whereas I had previously only found options in the $100 range, so I'm starting to look at this as a good investment if I can only pick which one to get.

[GrandpaT]

OK, so here's some new info on the subject. I know no one has posted here, but I'm hoping that's because you just don't know any answers to give me, but you do think it's kind of interesting. Also, I'm going on some kind of major posting binge this morning...

I've talked to a few hardware guys - my dad and a friend of mine, not just random store guys - and they both say that the USB will be best. My friend actually has a USB TV tuner at home and says it works great. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find anyone who has actually used them to play games, so I am still just hoping that works well. Even if the picture runs at a steady framerate, if there's lag in the display, that'd be a gamekiller. Oh, well. Fingers crossed and all that.

Also, it appears that although there are cheap options, it may be a case of "you get what you pay for." I think I'm going to have to go with one that's closer to $100, but that means finding a hundred bucks I wasn't already using for something and don't mind blowing on something that is just to let me play video games. Still, the possibility of recording gameplay videos or screenshots is pretty attractive, and I would REALLY like to be able to play my games on the road...

[GrandpaT]

Oh, yeah - triple post, baby! That's what happens when you're the only one who cares about a topic. :D

I had to post this anyway - as I've looked around, the card that cost around $100 was starting to look better and better. It got the most consistent good reviews, and was supposed to have good software to boot. However, as I looked at cards by that company, I saw that many of them were for Windows XP, and I'm stuck with 2000 on this laptop, so I emailed the company and asked them about the issue.

They got back to me and not only answered the question I asked (yes, some of their cards are Win2K compatible), but the question I didn't ask as well. They let me know that their cards aren't recommended for video games, because they don't have the right performance. It sounds like there might be a bit of a delay in the video. Not a problem if you're watching TV, because it all comes out with the same time delay, but a big problem if you're trying to play games. Anyway, I think that kind of response should be rewarded, so I wanted to say somewhere public that Hauppauge seems like a good bunch of folks. Check them out if you need this kind of stuff.

[slimscane]

it is like they can read minds! I really have no knowledge on this subject, but you are going to carry a laptop and a console with you? That seems like alot, but I suppose it is for the hotel, not the road (or air, do you fly?). The imbedded card would probably work faster than a usb 2.0 one, I have no actuall concreate reasoning to back this up, but I think it's probably true, haha. Oh, and no quadrupil post for you! =)

[GrandpaT]

Dang - looks like I'm not getting the Quad Post Damage powerup this time. ;)

I checked with my dad, who's been a computer guy for 30-some years, and he said that the USB card would be faster than the PCMCIA card (which sticks into one of those slots in the side of a laptop). Now, if I had a desktop machine, and could go with a card that actually goes into an internal slot, I think that's a whole other question. One of those would probably be way better.

Yeah, I'm thinking about carrying my laptop and a slim PS2 with me. I couldn't take an Xbox every week, or even an old PS2, but the slim one is so small that I really could cart it with me. In any case, you're right - I'm planning on it for the hotel, not on the road or in the air. Since I fly home every Thursday and back every Sunday, I could actually leave the PS2 locked up at the office when I leave and pick it up on Monday mornings (I get in late on Sundays - don't need to start playing games right then).

And yes, I do fly - an average of about 110,000 actual miles/year. As of right now, I have flown 634,383 actual miles on Delta, and another 56,929 on United. I say actual miles because as you all know, you get frequent flier miles for flying, and that's what you use to get free plane tickets. You get bonuses on your frequent flier miles - I actually get something like 2 times the miles I fly - but they keep track of how many miles you've actually flown, too. I've only driven places twice: the Thursday after 9/11, I drove home from San Francisco to Utah (about a 12 hour drive) with another consultant I was working with who was also from Utah, and once when the alternative was sitting at O'Hare airport for two days, I drove from there to Ithaca, NY (about a 14 hour drive) with a lady, her 13-year old daughter, and her 80-something year old mom, who I met waiting in line and who just happened to be going the same place I was.

Wow - I just figured it out, and I've flown enough to go around the world almost 28 times. How many more trips before they let me drive? ;)

[DarkSoul]

I may have the solution you need! I am looking to do the same thing, and have found this product recently:
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/proddetail.html?prodkey=AVC-1410

Now, the only problem is...I'm not sure if it's a new product, or an old one. All the stores that supposedly carry it do not have it. I also can't seem to contact Adaptec about it. I may just order it online to check it out. If you get it, or find out anything about it...please share! Hope this is what we are looking for! :D

EDIT: Well, the good news is...it looks like it's a newer product since it supports Xbox 360! Also, it has two versions...a $99.00 and a $69.00 one. I'm almost definately gonna order it shortly...I'll keep ya posted.

[GrandpaT]

Wow - I don't know if there could be a more clear fit than that. The "Adaptec® GameBridgeTV™"

Makes me sad that on Monday, I bought this:
http://www.allaboutadapters.com/vitovgausb20.html

You know, I've worked hard to become a patient buyer, but this time, I decided it was just time to buy one. After looking around like I did, I didn't think I'd find anything new. And now here you are, with what seems like the perfect product. I guess I haven't quite learned my lesson well enough yet. :)

The one I bought is supposed to work for playing console video games on your laptop, but it looks like it's not as good as the Adaptec product. On the upside, it comes with VideoStudio 7, which I've heard good things about on various forums, and it was only $48 including shipping.

I'm hoping it'll be there when I get home Thursday, so I'll probably be testing it out on Friday. If it doesn't work out, I'll return it and try the Adaptec product. Either way, I'll definitely pass on a review here.

Looks like the important differences between the $69.99 and $99.99 versions are that the $99.99 version has an "external input for TV source (antenna, cable, or settop box)" and a built-in TV tuner. I'd say it's probably worth ponying up the extra $30, even if you don't plan on using it for TV right away, because if you wanted it later on, you'd really regret not spending that extra bit.

[GrandpaT]

Well, I got the one I bought and tested it out. It's pretty good - does what I need it to, and for far less money than the other options. It could be better, but nothing's bad enough that I'm going to try to return it.

Here's the pros:
- Plays just great. No lag, and I can play full screen without any trouble. When it comes right down to it, this is the most important thing there is.
- Software installation and use is really easy. I put the disc in, it automatically installed everything. I started up the software, and it worked perfectly. Tweaking things was pretty easy, even considering the fact that I know very little about video and audio recording. Don't think I could be much happier with the software.

Here's the cons:
- To record, I have to change the window down to something like 352 * 480. However, when I play it back and maximize the window so it's playing full screen, it still looks great, so I'm not unhappy with that. I think that this is a restriction of my laptop - not the card. If I had more RAM or a better video card (mine's 32 Mb), I don't think I'd have this problem.
- The sound is a bit crappy. Basically, it's because the sound just goes through the microphone port. A composite cable sends a lot more sound than a microphone should, so it is getting kind of overloaded, even if I have the microphone volume turned down almost all the way. However, I found a checkbox in the options called "loudness." When I turned that off, the distortion when I play went away, too. I'm still a little unhappy, though, because the sound has a little trouble in recording. Again, this could be my laptop's fault.
- The videos that your record are huge - even bigger than I was led to believe that they would be. A 3 minute video was almost 1 Gb. I've seen some places that I can change things about the video recording, so it's possible that I can affect this as well. I just haven't had enough time to test it out.

[slimscane]

Well, that member was unexpected, but welcome none the less. Have you gotten a chance to actually field test it yet? Or have you jsut tried it out at your home?

[GrandpaT]

I agree - popped out of the blue with a very helpful post #1.

As to field testing, I'm not sure what you mean. I haven't used it on the road yet, but the only difference between using it at home and using it at the hotel is where I'm plugging things in (home wall outlet vs. hotel wall outlet). I haven't used it at the hotel yet, but I will tonight. I will probably spend some time trying to change the video settings so the files aren't so huge before I really get into playing anything. If anyone's an expert in that sort of thing, suggestions are very welcome.

[GrandpaT]

I sat down last night for some real playtime with this input device, and after a lot of poking around, I'm pretty satisfied with the results. It's a long post, so here's the short version: VideoStudio 7 is good software. It's easy to use, but lets you tweak quite a bit of stuff if you want. I recorded a 28 minute video, and it came out as 362 Mb.

First off, it came with two pieces of software - VideoStudio 7, which I hadn't done anything with before, and VideoView, which I used the other day to play and record that enormous video. Last night, I tried out VideoStudio 7, and I decided pretty quickly that VideoView is intended to be used just for watching stuff or playing games, and that VideoStudio is what you should use if you want to record stuff.

I tweaked the video and audio settings in VideoStudio for quite a while before finding a set that I was happy with. It allows you to change the frame rate, the sampling rate (both video and audio), the resolution you want it to be in, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting right now. What I ended up with has a little bit of skip to it when you're actually recording, but when you watch the playback, it looks just fine, and the audio is synched up nicely, so I'm keeping it just like it is. For now, what I'm trying to do is record the cutscenes in Kingdom Hearts 2 for my wife, so I don't care what it looks like while I'm recording - just what the end product looks like. If I were trying to record gameplay, I might need to do some more tweaking to get something I'm happy with.

In VideoStudio, the software's window covers your screen, and the middle part is the part that shows whatever's coming over the input device. The top has different tabs like "capture," "edit," "effects," etc. The left side has controls that change according to the tab you're on, and the right side has a list of video files in the directory you're working from. The bottom of the screen I'll explain in a bit. If you're on the capture tab, you can just watch the input, as I did while I was actually playing the game, but you can also hit the Capture button at any time to start saving the video. When you hit the Stop button, it saves what you captured as a video file in the current directory and puts it at the end of your "project," which is what you see at the bottom of the screen. It's just a big set of movie "clips" with transitions between them. It automatically assigns one at random from its list every time it adds a new clip, and I pretty much just left it like that, even though some of them are kind of annoying.

When you feel like it, you can move over to the edit tab and do things like add more movies to the project (or take some out), change transitions, and trim the movies themselves. For example, as I record a cutscene, I like to leave it recording after the screen goes black, just in case there's another scene right away. If the game goes back to the play screen, I stop recording. That means that on VHS, you'd get scene, blackness, and then a few frames of the game screen before I hit pause. With this, I just trimmed off the end of the movie so you get scene, blackness, then another scene.

When you trim a movie, it doesn't actually make a change to the video file - it just remembers for its own rendering purposes. However, you can choose to save the trimmed version. This would be handy if you wanted to just record an hour's worth of game play and then go back and trim out all of the playing to leave just the cutscenes. You'd start with the whole long video, trim it down, and then put the trimmed scenes into the project instead of the of the long version. Don't know if it sounds easy, but it is.

In the end, like I said above, I had a video that's about 28 minutes long, and clocked in at 346 Mb. A TON less than the video I recorded using VideoView. I'm going to try to post it someplace - if I do, I'll post a link here so you can all see it.

[GrandpaT]

Shoot - the fine folks at Google Video have decided that they can't post my video for copyright reasons. Wonder how it's different from all of the other video game footage out there. Oh, well. I'll keep looking for a host.