This guide will cover some basic usage of the EasyCAP Capture Card and video processing. For help with any advanced settings, please ask a question. There should be enough wise owls here at the NewNet to provide an answer.

Cheers,
Pete













1. Basic Setup

Plug EasyCAP into a USB port and, if necessary, do a Windows Update to make sure you have USB EMP Audio Device driver installed.

Connect AV cables from a game console to EasyCAP. If possible, use S-Video instead of composite (yellow) for better visual quality.

Run the disc that came with EasyCAP to install Ulead movie software.

Open Ulead and run VideoStudio Editor. Go File>Preferences>Capture>tick the check box for "Allow access to capture device's settings">OK.





Go Capture>Capture Video>Options to begin familiarizing yourself with all the various settings at your disposal. With access to EasyCAP settings in Ulead there is a lot to learn about in Options. If you find yourself stuck with anything in Options then please ask a question.










2. Adjusting Capture Volume

Right click on speaker icon in desktop taskbar and go Open Volume Control>Options>Properties>then from "Mixer Device" drop down menu choose "USB EMP Audio Device">OK>then lower Capture volume slider to half way. Doing this should help get rid of excess hiss and distortion in captured audio.









Press flashing Capture Video icon in Ulead to do a quick capture test.



For the testing phase it's helpful to capture a section with a dynamic range of audio and some actual gameplay. If audio problems persist, turn Capture volume down a bit more and test again.



3. Video Cleanup in VirtualDub

VirtualDub download - sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdub/



a) De-interlacing

Depending on the game and capture resolution, interlaced video may display an ugly combing effect on your monitor.



Open your video file in VirtualDub and go Video>Filters>Add>deinterlace>OK>leave the default settings (Yadif, keep top)>OK>OK.











Combing in output preview is now cleaned.





b) Cropping

Captured video will usually have ugly black bars all around (as above). In VirtualDub go Video>Filters>Add>null transform>OK>Cropping.





Use video slider in cropping window to find a frame where the game image is clearly defined against the black.



Use X/Y offsets to crop out all the black and any other unwanted elements, such as the white stripe on the left in MVC2. Make sure to only use even X/Y numbers for cropping.



Go OK>OK and video is now cropped in output preview.





c) Resizing

After cropping, video will most likely be an unusual size. In VirtualDub go Video>Filters>Add>resize>OK.



In Aspect Ratio highlight Same as source. In New Size, next to Absolute (pixels), are width and height numbers. Change height to 480. If necessary, change Aspect Ratio to Disabled and round off any fractions in width to the nearest even number to avoid any odd numbers in video width. Hit OK and video is now re-sized while keeping the game's original aspect ratio.





d) Compression

Before saving an AVI you can decide whether to add compression or not. To add compression in VirtualDub go Video>Compression>select your preferred codec from the list>OK.





If you're going to further edit the video in another movie software then you may wish to save either an uncompressed or lossless AVI instead. It's also possible to do simple editing in VirtualDub by using Mark in/Mark out arrows to create sections to delete. For a straight gameplay video you can use this feature to save an extra editing step in another movie software.

Very Nice! This will go up on the tutorials section of site, too, I hope.
Any reason you are using the Ulead crap that's bundled and taking an extra step to recompress instead of just using some proper capture software?

I suppose it could be easily copy/pasted over to the Tutorials page. The thing is though, the Tutorials page is fine for stand-alone guides, but this console capture stuff is a lot more open-ended so it needs to be interactive. That's why I made a thread instead. For example, you've already raised an interesting point, why use Ulead?

In my limited experience (I've only had my EasyCAP for about a month now) Ulead is the best crap I've used so far. It actually does a pretty good job. Look at my MVC2 capture. The other two I've tried, Amcap and Debut, were problematic. My PC is so old it's practically steampunk. Ulead capture just gives my system less problems so I'm happy enough with it for now. If it works for me then it should work for almost anyone. Since Ulead comes with EasyCAP anyway, it's also a quick, easy setup right outta the box. I wanted to keep things as basic as possible for people while they get accustomed to capturing. When they're stuck or ready to ask about more advanced options, this is the place to ask. The tutorial itself is flexible and can be updated or expanded as needs be.

The extra processing step in VDub was more about video cleanup than compression. I only added VDub compression info for newbs that aren't familiar with VDub. Ulead can do it's own compression during capture if people can't be bothered to cleanup their video later. If there's a proper free software that can capture, deinterlace, crop, resize, and compress in one go without stressing my old box then please enlighten me. If it can clean my house and cook my dinner that would also be handy.

Very good work pete, I knew that I asked the right man to do this job

No worries mate, anytime.

Cool thanks for the tutorial, I'll be upgrading my computer to Windows 7 tommorow plus I'll be increasing my computer's ram with 4 more gigs.

@Macross - that sounds very nice, I guess you will render in "High Speed" then ;-D

Yeah BFP said that he ran into some compatibilty issues with Windows 7. I'll be installing it on another hard drive; and we'll see what happens.

im using windows 7 now 3 or 4 gigs of ram but neckshredder had some problems with my video wich i knew he would lol do you have any hints or anything can you help me i want the best quality i can posibaly get with it i also will make a test video later so you can here the audio and also does anyone here know anything about fme i need help setting it up for a great quality and how to stream it on justintv with fme i was streaming me and my friend playing codbo for a while had 20 people viewing about it but can anyone help if so message me on facebook my email or on skype add me cooldj9239 thanks much and talk to you all later oh and also here is my first video i made with my easy cap not not but it was something

Hey cooldj, it looks like you have the capture side of things down. Let's fix the other main problems. If you scroll down the guide to part 3. Video Cleanup in VirtualDub there's a link to VirtualDub if you don't already have it.

Then in part 3. b) Cropping there are easy steps to clean up the black bars around your vid.

After that you should resize your vid as in part 3. c) Resizing. My example uses 480p video height, which is a good standard size for the stream and YouTube, although if you felt like you could also go as high as 720p or 1080p.

Let's see how your audio turns out in your test vid. Hopefully you can fix any problems yourself with the info from part 2. Adjusting Capture Volume.

Hello cooldj9239, it's nice to see that you joined the NewNet forums!

Before we start to talk about your questions I would like to ask you to use (please) some punctuation in your future posts. I personally had to read your text about 3-4 times until I understood it completly and to be honest i wouldn't have done that exception for a person that I didn't knew already, so be glad that you are you

After I had a look on your test video, followed your live stream for some minutes and analyzed your questions, I would prefer to use the forums instead of facebook, skype, email, or what ever, because in this way even others can join the discussion and we can maybe help even some more people with the same questions without repeating ourselves over and over again.

In your post you talked about two very different things:

A.) How to capture in the best quality
B.) How to stream in the best quality

I think it is clear that point “B” depends a lot on point “A”, so before you can stream in a good quality, the capture device need to be configured in the right way.

When I watched your youtube video I realized some slight color fluctuations while the bit- and framerate looked to be quite stabile at the same time. After I saw the same color fluctuation on your live stream, too – I assume that this problem is a result of a bad screened cable or (maybe) a to high incoming resolution that isn’t perfectly supported by the capture card. However, considering the stable bit- and framerate we can see already that your computer is strong enough, what is a very positive aspect.

For now follow the instructions of "Neckshredder1" reguarding the software and answer to the following questions reguaring the hardware:

1.) Do you use a s-vhs or a composite cable to connect your console to the capture card?
2.) How did you connected (I need a exact descryption) the console to your TV?
3.) Do you use any splitters or switches?
4.) What is the actual resolution of your outgoing console signal?
5.) What are your actual capture settings (Format, Framerate and especially Resolution)

I think that’s enough for now. About the right stream encoder and video editor we will talk when the hardware is configured in a right way

why are my file sizes so big when i capture avi with it i have a 15 second video thats 200 mb in size or more any way to fix this ? or a different file type i can use to get the same results

sorry about the last post i didnt look at the file size after running compression i followed the tutorial and am now going to post my test video of it will post it here in a bit

cooldj9239 wrote:
why are my file sizes so big when i capture avi with it i have a 15 second video thats 200 mb in size or more any way to fix this ? or a different file type i can use to get the same results

cooldj9239 wrote:
sorry about the last post i didnt look at the file size after running compression i followed the tutorial and am now going to post my test video of it will post it here in a bit

cooldj9239 wrote:
why are my file sizes so big when i capture avi with it i have a 15 second video thats 200 mb in size or more any way to fix this ? or a different file type i can use to get the same results

Hey cooldj were you trying to contact me through Skype?

yea awhile ago was wondering if you wanted to help me abit with my stream or anything else play some mame

Yeah I just installed Windows 7 like 2 days ago. I'll need to reinstall Skype.

I watched your test vid on YouTube, cooldj. You're nearly there with the black bars cropping. The sides are nicely cropped; no more blue line on the right hand side so that's a big improvement. There is still a thin black bar visible at the top though. You'd probably only need to crop down by two more points at the top to fix that. Like I said in the guide, make sure the cropping numbers you use are even, not odd, or you'll run into problems later. Even if you have to lose a tiny line of game graphics it's worth it to get full screen height.

Now, I don't have this system or game but judging by some other Black Ops vids I've seen on YouTube I'm guessing that the format should be 16:9, not 4:3 like it is in your test vid. In other words, no black bars at all on YouTube. I would suggest that, after you perfect the cropping, go resize>disable aspect ratio>and change new size to 1280 x 720 then show us the results. All going to plan, you should end up with a great looking full screen vid on YouTube.

Which codec did you use for compression? I recommend XviD MPEG-4 for great compression with minimal quality loss. If it doesn't show up on your list then get it and install it:

www.xvidmovies.com/codec/

I can also hear a constant humming in the audio whenever there are minimal game sounds so it seems like you still need to experiment with the PC capture volume slider to mitigate that problem.

If you're going to want further assistance from Atarix then you'll have to take the time to try and answer the list of questions he gave you at the end of his post. Please try to do so in an organized fashion. Zero punctuation and paragraphing on your part can make it hard for us to understand you, especially when dealing with technical matters.