Game Console to Monitor via Tuner Card, PLEASE help

[enigmatl]

I am trying to play a videogame console (PS2, Xbox 360, etc) on a PC monitor by way of an s-video port on a tuner card. I have a Pentium Duo and pleanty of memory but the TV Tuner card I have comes from the computer I had last year. It appears to be an ATI Theater Pro. When I attempt to play games on PS2 using the tuner card's s-video in port, I get a 1/2 second lag. In my attempts to get this working, I've tried many TV programs from ATI TV to Dscaler and have played with many settings. Yet, I still get lag. So, I wanted to know if purchasing a new tuner card would get rid of the lag (perhaps because they have better on-board handling of the signal?) So, would it be a good idea to buy a $100 card from maybe Hauppauge or one of the other good brands out there? I would appreciate any recommendations that any of you might have as I have been trying to solve this problem for a week or so.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I haven't tried it myself, but in other threads I've read the lag is worse with the hardware-encoder cards like the Hauppage than with $20 cards that do the encoding in software.

I don't know of any card where people have said lag isn't a problem, so I can't recommend one.

 

[Xellos2099]

I am currently using wintv 150 mce and i find using Dscaler is pretty good. And having half a Second lag is not too bad, true me, wintv tv 2000 got like 1-2 second lag

 

[enigmatl]

Are you saying you get a half second lag and you're using a 150 from Hauppage? And it's only not bad if the game you're playing is chess or something else turn based. There is no way you can defend yourself against attacks in a videogame if you see them half a second after they happen. This is why I'm looking for a solution that has no lag but am trying to avoid a vga box which aside from switching your monitor back and forth disconnects you from your computer. Does anyone have a solution for this or is it an impossibility?

 

[smthmlk]

i tried this... my conclusion is not to do it. picture quality was awful no matter how I set up mine, regardless of the lag. Buy an lcd w/ s-video/component hookups and enjoy

 

[enigmatl]

I can't justify buying an LCD tv at this time as the technology isn't ripe enough for me yet and what's more, I only have so much time to use the computer and play videogames so I'd like to do it from the same machine so that I can still hear/respond to instant messagtes etc while playing. Yes, I know there are other options like VGA boxes and new TVs but the option I'm asking about is the tuner card option. I actually got a great picture but the lag is not acceptable and I'm trying to find out if it's possible to do this with a tuner card and get no lag. Anybody??????

 

[imported_stev]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I haven't tried it myself, but in other threads I've read the lag is worse with the hardware-encoder cards

I have found this to be true. If I run my NVIDIA Dual TV card with hardware encoding, it has a couple seconds of lag. When I run it with software encoding (VirtualDub lets me do this!), it still has about a half second lag. I'm pretty sure there is no way to NOT have lag in this situation.

Out of curiosity, what is it about LCDs that is not to your liking yet? I have heard that Dell's monitors not only have multiple inputs (including S-video), but allow you to do a picture-in-picture thing as well. You could keep it in PIP or switch the view from DVI/VGA to S-video with no lag unlike what you would have when minimizing/maximizing a capture utility.

 

[enigmatl]

It's not that I don't like LCD monitors. I in fact prefer them and I own one (that doesn't have an s-video input). Thing is, I'd LIKE to have the game running in some tuner card on windows if it were possible in case I wanted a snapshot. Also, switching tasks just seems easier with alt-tab than it does with a monitor. My Samsung does have a vga input and I could get a vga box if I wanted. But then, I'd have to push one of those buttons on the monitor to switch views to and from windows. What's more, those buttons are almost always flush with the plastic around the monitor and are often the same color as the monitor so it's always gonna take that extra second to fumble around for the button every time I want to switch between console and PC. What's more, if an FMV ever popped up that I wanted to capture - or perhaps a replay - I couldn't capture it. Not that any of these things are to live or die for, but they're enough that I'd prefer to use a tuner card if it were possible to do it without the lag. And, the deal is, I could have SWORN I played PS1 on my older computer and I don't remember this lag. I had an ati all in wonder then but don't want to fork out extra cash to buy one this time around (or a hauppauge which some say is even better) until I can confirm that this works. But, perhaps it doesn't. One would just think that it should.

 

[imported_stev]

I love taking pictures and video from games so I can understand why you'd want to be able to play and capture on one lag-free display.

Anyway, I hope you find a solution. I would be interested to know about it as well, especially since my next monitor will be as big as my current TV

 

[enigmatl]

Seriously guys, is there anyone that can help with this issue? I've read some obscure posts around the net that SAY you can but never quite get to how - perhaps a tweak tool to bipass the decoder or SOMETHING? This is anandtech. If in the past, there's been people here talking about something as obscure as using some sort of oil based cooling system so they can take a pentium 733 and run it at nearly 2 gigs (yes, someone posted that here a long time ago) then there's gota be someone who knows how to take a theater pro card and bipass it's decoder or do SOMETHING to get a PS2 or other game console running. So, is there anybody out there who knows how to get this card to display captured video with no lag? If it can be done, someone on andndtech knows how to do it.

 

[erwos]

Sure - WinTV Go card with DScaler as the software scaler. The wife and I use it for DDR, so you know the lag can't be bad. Image quality is excellent, too.

 

[enigmatl]

USB 2.0 version? I was tempted but didn't know if it's speed matched the PCI cards but would like to try that. I've read similar posts from laptop users. Hmmmm. Maybe should order one.

 

[obeseotron]

This won't work for the older consoles, but you can buy a VGA cable for the 360, made by MS, with good support for configuration right on the dashboard. You get the full 1280x720 resolution the 360 runs games in, or you can choose to have that 1280x720 signal scaled to a resolution of your preference via the dashboard internally on the 360. I got one for Dead Rising which is nearly unplayable on an SDTV because the text is so small, but generally I prefer playing everything except dead rising on a 32" SDTV vs. my 21" CRT computer monitor with widescreen black bars.

 

[Tostada]

I'm not sure I understand your question. What kind of computer monitor do you have? Are you actually considering getting a $100 card just to save money and use the same monitor for your PC as you do for your console?

I know you like the idea of capturing the occasional console screen, and you aren't the biggest fan of having to use monitor controls to switch between PC/console, but it certainly seems like putting that $100 towards a monitor upgrade would be more practical.

Since you say you're playing a PS2, I should mention that a PS2 will look much better over component cables than it will over S-Video, and many PS2 games (as well as ALL XBox 360 games) are optimized for 16:9 screens, so I would really think the best thing would be saving up for something like a cheaper 32" LCD HDTV. Then you can have a screen that's 100X better than using your PC monitor, and hook the HDTV up to your PC as a secondary monitor when you're not playing games on it.

Originally posted by: enigmatl
I can't justify buying an LCD tv at this time as the technology isn't ripe enough for me yet and what's more, I only have so much time to use the computer and play videogames so I'd like to do it from the same machine so that I can still hear/respond to instant messagtes etc while playing. Yes, I know there are other options like VGA boxes and new TVs but the option I'm asking about is the tuner card option. I actually got a great picture but the lag is not acceptable and I'm trying to find out if it's possible to do this with a tuner card and get no lag. Anybody??????

As of this year, there's simply no way you can say LCD technology isn't ripe enough. Maybe last year you could argue that a Wega CRT still looked better. You say, "I'd like to do it from the same machine," but a PC and a PS2 and an XBox 360 are all different machines, and your setup obviously takes up a decent amount of space. I'm confused that you have enough cash to have an XBox 360, but you're trying to avoid buying a decent TV for it. Currently, that's the main advantage the 360 has is the HDTV output, so it's a little silly to be looking for ways to cripple it by running it through a s-video capture card into a window on your old PC monitor. Personally, I have a 32" HDTV right next to my desk with my PC's 20" LCD monitor, and it's easy to be playing games on the bigger TV then see an IM or an email come in on my PC. I simply can't imagine enjoying a game I was playing in a window over my PC monitor. You're whole situation seems a little crazy to me. If you want to play games on your PC, I would think you'd be able to find PC games to play instead of trying to run your PS2 through a capture card. Even the cheapest little LCD TV sitting next to your main monitor would probably be a more convenient solution.