How to capture/record video from HDMI (record game play from XBox 360, PS3 to PC)

Originally Posted by clement

Hey, you can record video from HDMI easily with some program. I always use some screen recorder to help record video from my desktop. And the quality is also good.

I have a couple of questions:

1. How to you get video (with audio or without it) on your computer from HDMI (without a capture card like Blackmagic Intensity Pro)?

2. Have you ever tried to record 720p or 1080i videos from screen? If you manage to record such videos, please share your hardware specs, your video codec as well as your screen recorder.

[extcyrav3]

the main problem with wanting this is that you want a computer with an hdmi in or somhow convert it to usb im not sure that s possible but i have seen a man that used an hdmi splitter and with the scart ps3 chords and some how with a desktop and dual moniters he was able to record with running one of the chords through a 70$ modem but if u could find some how a hdmi to usb that would be great but what ps3 shouldl have done was (if u dont need 1080 and would settle for 720) they should of made it so u can run out more than one cable option at a time like have an svideo running to a 30 easy cap card and play in hdmi to make it easier.... but there is a product by the name of "roxio" or something and it is 100$ and uses componant cables (a step down from hdmi but a step up from msvideo and componant) well i hope i could help but based on what u want again like i said you would be looking for a very awkward device but again sony could have made it a little easier to record given the options that theyy had

[extcyrav3]

u cant see all devices are hdmi out for an ablilty to hook them up to a moniter or tv u cant hook up one out (ur gaming sys.) to another out(your computer) without some kind of device in the middle that could either make hdmi into usb and in that case u could hook it right in to your usb drive

[extcyrav3]

we are talking about an external gaming system sure through moniter thats easy but u may have been using "frapps" but anywaay u either record from desktop or find a device to hdmi to usb because a desktop doesnt usually have a hdmi in and if u do please contact me cause thaty could really help all of us out

[extcyrav3]

umm im sorry im not an expert but ill try to ask kwhat ur saying to confirm i belive that without some card upgrade you cannot bring in hdmi material to your computer directly without running it thourhgh a seperate device first

[extcyrav3]

?? we were talking about gaing recording lol

[extcyrav3]

by the way if u want an idea i have heard that some moneiters have been upgraded and tthey now have some recording software preinstalled so u can just run hdmi from console through splitter one to tv and other to this new moniter im just saying bcuz this will cos more money but it would have other uses as wel and u can always look for other devices with similir capabilities

[Stream Ripper]

Are you having a conversation with yourself?

[wild_asterix]

I recently set up a system to do this and it works great. The key components are getting the Video from the console into the PC and also being able to record the video to the hard drive in real time.

I used an HDMI splitter box (cost around ?50) to take the video to the PC. I used a Blackmagic Intensity Pro capture card with its bundled software to record the video. (I could have saved on the cost of the splitter box as the card allows the video signal to be looped through but this would have meant that I would have had to have the PC on whenever the XBox or PS3 were in use.)

In order to record, disk write speeds have to be fast. I found that the cheapest and best way to do this was to create a RAM drive. I used some software from Dataram to create this RAM disk. (I think that this is always going to be the best solution as the actual data transfer rate for Magnetic hard drives have not increased in 10 years meaning that the latest SATA III drives are no faster than the old E-IDE ones! The data transfer rates are still only around 110MB/s even though the SATA III standard allows for 600MB/s. SDD's are now approaching this max speed. A RAM drive however is many times faster than even an SSD and is therefore the best choice for any process that will involve a lot of disk access. (I installed extra RAM so that I could devote some for the RAM drive when needed.)

I did find that the best I could record was 1080i and not 1080p. This may be a limitation with either the Blackmagic card or bundled software, though it is advertised as being capable of 1080p. This was my only minor issue. ( I did check that it was not the splitter's fault by wiring direct.) The Blackmagic Express software produced the warning "No Remote" any time the input signal was 1080p.

I hope that this helps someone else.

[plow66boy]

I am thinking of doing this, a friend of mine has a Fusion IO PCI-E SSD card:

http://www.fusionio.com/products/iodrive/

Do you think this will be fast enough in stead of using the ram?

Visually, is there really much of a difference between 1080i and p?