Best Dazzle Capture Card for game videos?

[danstan21]

(Sorry if this doesn't belong in this forum, I thought this one was most appropriate but not sure.)

I recently decided I'd like the ability to record some in-game footage, and a friend of mine recommended that Dazzle make generally good capture cards for that sort of thing. I'd only want it for recording Gamecube and N64 footage mainly, so the fact that I'd have to be recording in composite isn't too much of a big deal (I hate playing in composite generally, but it looks fine for vids on a computer). Google has left my clueless about which particular Dazzle is more suitable though. Are the various colours and editions actually any different from each other in functionality? I've seen the red one for as cheap as ?15 BIN on the bay while the silver one seems to be ?50+.

Alternatively, if there's any better (or cheaper) product to do exactly the same thing then please do recommend it to me.

[briareos_kerensky]

I personally run a Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle. It has HDMI, composite, S-video, component and stereo inputs and can record NTSC (i/p), PAL (i/p) and HD resolutions up to 720p60, 1080i60 or 1080p30; HDMI doesn't record from source using HDCP.
There are three models of the Intesity: normal (requires a PCI-E slot inside the computer), Thunderbolt (for Thunderbolt ports) and Shuttle (USB 3.0), which is the one I use.
All models record uncompressed footage, at 720p59.94 it's around 5GB/min, so you need big and fast hard drives or there will be frame drops. The best thing about the Shuttle is that all inputs are mirrored by outputs; the board is also able to do some real-time image processing (upscaling, HD to SD and proportion changes) but I've never tested it. It also plugs in without problems into Premiere and After Effects and there are real-time effects available if needed.

[danstan21]

Well, while that does look like one helluva product, that's a little outside my price range. Plus, I don't really have any use for anything past 480i, since I'll only be recording sixth-gen games or before. I'm essentially hoping to pick up a second-hand Dazzle off eBay for ?20 or less.

[Decider-VT]

Little bit puzzled as to why there are Dazzles being marketed as HD when they only accept composite or s-video inputs. Wouldn't you want to capture footage in RGB, at least?

[speedlolita]

Little bit puzzled as to why there are Dazzles being marketed as HD when they only accept composite or s-video inputs. Wouldn't you want to capture footage in RGB, at least?

As far as I'm aware your options are extremely limited for RGB capture. Low res RGB at least. The Micomsoft jobby will do it though.

Link!

[briareos_kerensky]

Little bit puzzled as to why there are Dazzles being marketed as HD when they only accept composite or s-video inputs. Wouldn't you want to capture footage in RGB, at least?

Marketing ploy, or just because their software is able to upscale SD source to HD.
If you mean RGB=SCART, then it's mostly due to the scarcity of SCART sockets in the US were most recording equipment comes from. Most high-end equipment allows for RGB recording (without a signal coverter) but not directly via a SCART socket, normally with SCART-to-BNC adapter.

[Decider-VT]

Yeah, I wouldn't expect to capture from SCART directly and would expect to upscale via VGA/component at least. The Micomsoft stuff is just too expensive though. I'd have bought the Intensity Shuttle myself if I had USB3 compatibility on my computer. I wouldn't settle for composite/s-video personally, when I know that there are better alternatives available.

[speedlolita]

For SD stuff I don't think s-video or composite would be too bad, we're talking AV Famicom/PCE composite here though.

[Decider-VT]

Those are special cases. I seem to recall somebody (Yakumo?) getting good results out of s-video on the MD as well.