Duration: 7:55

734 views

1

This is a demonstration video that shows the quality of a VGA to S-Video scan converter box at various resolutions. Select video quality to 480p for optimal quality.

0:21 is 1280x1024 (yeah I don't have widescreen)
2:07 is 1024x768
3:47 is 800x600
5:44 is 640x480

The computer is a Mac mini 1.1 with (stock is a 1.66GHz CD) a 2.16GHz CD T2600 upgrade and 2GB of RAM. The operating system is OS X 10.4.11.

Note that each section where the text displays the resolution will suffer a slight quality degrade until the displayed text (such as Resolution: 1024 x 768 pixels....) goes away. Otherwise, it's minimally edited (no sharpening or anything like that) and the only alteration is bitrate capping at 1280Kbps on my end for the H.264 encoding (little detectable difference).

One problem is that the scan converter box has to be readjusted every time the power is cut...A good idea is to fine-tune the scan converter on a monitor that supports S-Video input before you capture it.

The scan converter is one purchased off Amazon for about $15. This has a pass-through so one can view the LCD monitor as usual but still allowing S-Video or composite out. The S-Video output is then fed into a compatible device (in this case a Sony DSR-V10) with S-Video input and has RCA jacks for audio which records to MiniDV-type tapes and then is fetched off via a 1394 FireWire connection. A 3.5mm TRS to RCA stereo audio adapter was used to handle the audio portion. The video is then pulled off the video recording device and dumped into a suitable video editing program, in this case a basic iMovie HD (yeah I don't have Final Cut Express yet).

A better idea is to use component video rather than S-Video. Composite is the last possible option and will result in the worst picture quality. DVI/HDMI is a better option if you can capture it. If your display card supports S-Video or component over VGA then that would be a boon. S-Video is fairly common and is okay for low-mid quality expectations but as mentioned earlier, component or HDMI is your best option. You'll need a transcoder (not a scan converter) to go from VGA to component (YPbPr).

640x480 is the best to use for S-Video because the maximum it natively supports is 480p (720x480). However as demonstrated (unless your computer is older and 640x480 is normal) on a modern computer, space becomes a real problem. 800x600 is a decent compromise and 1024x768 is really as about as high as you want to go. As mentioned earlier, component is probably a much better idea and A-class hardware is the best, if you can afford it and acquiesce it.

I'm quite amazed by the difficulty of doing this sort of screen capture business, really. Of all the hardware we can make these days, and we're still mucking around with 30+ year old fossilized analog standards.

There was a sequel to this video but the quality was far worse, so this was reuploaded.

This is what my setup looked like:
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/Starofire/Random/DSC00708_zpsadf7b143.jpg