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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:50 pm

HI Everyone,

I'm curious about capturing audio directly from the Amiga to Mac/PC. I know there are about a million different ways to do it.

Has anyone every used the Blackmagic Intensity? Seems like a pretty versatile piece of hardware that isn't too expensive. Looks like it could hook right up during a game or audio play for recording at high levels.

Of course, if I were to record video it would need to be stretched to 4:3 (a step many skip altogether) in post, but that's not a big deal. What do you all use?

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Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Fri Dec 30, 2016 2:47 pm

I use something similar to this for audio. With this I can still have the regular speakers plugged in while plugging one end into a capture card. Capture cards kill me with their delays, this way I can mute the capture software.

Of course I only occasionally record audio and never video. While I'm sure plenty would disagree with me, I record straight from the monitor for a reason, capture cards suck. Why would you need to post process it into 4:3 by the way? Will that card not accept 4:3 signals? If so, better to find an older capture card than post process it. The Amiga itself should throw out a 4:3 signal upon capture, so long as you're not playing an NTSC game in PAL mode.

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Dec 30, 2016 2:51 pm

Oh it might - I was making an assumption that it would capture the native signal verbatim like so many emulators seem to be played.

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Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Fri Dec 30, 2016 2:58 pm

I try to tell everyone, it's not just that American's all stretched their monitors to fill 320x200 into 4:3 - You hook that Amiga up to a TV or VCR or capture card, it's 4:3 - As long as you're not playing an NTSC game in PAL mode I mean. You hook an NES to a TV and it's going to be in 4:3... Atari 2600? 4:3 - All of these systems had different resolutions but will display in 4:3 on an old CRT and a modern one (as long as stretching has not been enabled). The signal leaving the Amiga is already in 4:3, I'm telling ya... Toaster.... Big thing, needed to throw that stuff to a VCR without distortion.

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Dec 30, 2016 4:09 pm

OK but your AC cables are plugged into a capture card in a PC tower of sorts, right? I think the Intensity would allow me to plug into my laptop directly. I don't have a PC/tower these days anymore.

Funny what you were saying about the lag. My boss was recording live video on youtube to our site users (sporcle.com) using some 3rd-party software, and there was this horrible audio that was super distracting... until he upgraded to a newer version. : /

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Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Fri Dec 30, 2016 5:07 pm

Oh no, it's very impractical to have a capture card connected to a PC tower. My main PC is on the other side of the house from the Amiga. I plug it into a laptop when I want to use it. I've got a few capture cards but for audio I use this little tiny thing that's not much bigger than a hand. Powered off of USB. Bought it from Microcenter years ago, couldn't have been more than 30 bucks. That thing is good for audio.... I don't tend to like it's video quality though... But I've got better ones for video and I don't like any of em.

You could always just hook up a DVD recorder to the Amiga. Sometimes those simple solutions can be the best. Capture cards are not going to get you much better quality than DVD, plus I swear it feels less emulated that way. Again I'll say I think the camera on a CRT looks better than capturing, but a problem I have with some capture cards is they're so good they might as well be emulated... If you know what I mean... There's no way to see the difference, act of faith on the ones watching that it's from real hardware.... Something with recording it to a DVD though that makes it look about as good as it can while retaining that "live" feel. If I was going to record from a computer or console via capture card, I'd actually use a DVD recorder, or even a VHS...

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Dec 30, 2016 5:28 pm

Yeah, the DVD Recorder idea seems to be a good one for sure. I found this comment elsewhere, from a YouTuber:
So for the C64 I input the S Video signal into a high end Panasonic DVD recorder that converts the signal to component which I then output to the Intensity. This gives the advantage that I can also capture RGB sources such as the Amstrad CPC and Amiga at full quality.
But yeah, his videos are surprisingly "clean".





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