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Seeking converter to take VGA to USB-recognized-as-webcam

Bill-kun

Bill-kun

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Joined
Nov 2, 2020
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686
Location
Michigan
I’d like to record some Let’s Play videos, while playing the games on my genuine 386. Audio transfer is easy. I have a splitter for the VGA output, but I need a converter that will turn that VGA into a webcam signal going to a USB port. Please make recommendations for such a device.

Converting from VGA to “red-white-yellow RCA” or “red-white RCA + S-video” is also an option since I already have a converter to take it forward from that into USB-recognized-as-webcam.

Thank you!
 
I’ve got a startech usb3hdcap. It’s got hdmi, dvi, a dvi to vga adapter, and a breakout cable that does compositors video and stereo audio with rca. I think you can also acquire a cable that does component video.

I’ve only messed with it a little, but it seems to work pretty well. One issue I had was an alignment issue when capturing a windows 95 install. It only happened when it switched to 640x480 graphics. I couldn’t find a way to adjust it, but I might be looking in the wrong spots. This was using the bundled software. I need to try with OBS to see if it has any different features.

I’m not sure if it shows up as a webcam or not, but it is used for steaming.

Also I’ve had bad luck with my vga splitter. It makes the image pretty dark. I’m tempted to buy a powered “active” splitter to see if that is any better.
 
To capture composite video I've been using a DIRT CHEAP hdmi capture device back to back with one of those $10 RCA AV to HDMI adapters and the results are surprisingly "okay". (The AV adapter actually does a better job with 240P video than the built-in RCA ports on some of my cheaper monitors.) There are VGA to HDMI dinguses that include analog audio capture for around $16 on Amazon, I'm kind of tempted to buy one and see how stacking that works out. (Probably not great, but if it were as good as the AV capture it'd probably do.)
 
I think I paid less than $200 on Amazon for the one I’m using, but that stacking two adapters looks like a good way to go. The VGA adapter even appears to do audio.
 
Two years ago I would of recommended someone who was selling Optibase MGW FlashStreamer pods which were rebadged Epiphan VGA2USB 1 pods for $50. Those older pods and clones of it show up from time to time for around that price and they both work with Epiphan's drivers and appear in OBS and any other choice of recorder as a capture device but they are typically maxed out at 15fps interlaced.
 
Per my previous comment, I was just spending a little time going through the reviews on a couple different VGA to HDMI converters on Amazon, and it looks like a potential deal breaker for Retro/DOS applications is at least some of them can’t handle VGA’s 70hz text mode. (This would also affect the 200/350 line graphics modes.) So maybe that’s a nonstarter unless you can find one known to support that.
 
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