How to Capture Video from Arcade Cabinet?

Tech Talk
1

Hi guys i have this trouble, i dont know how to capture video from arcade cabinet, but i like to take a clear video.

Like to SBO DVDs, i dont know if its possible whitout expensive equipment, obviusly the more easy method is take the video directly from a camera, but i dont like to see the black bar arround the the screen every time.

Any sugestion?

Thanks!!

2

I have no clue about doing direct feed from cabinets, but if nothing else you can check the advice on Preppy’s site about minimizing the scanline.

http://www.zachd.com/mvc2/

Just search for “To minimize the scanline” and read that section. It may help you out if no one can answer your main question.

3

http://www.arcadeshock.com/items/snk-capcom-sammy-hardware/video-capture-board-rgb-to-ntsc-converter-rgbntsc-acc-detail.htm?1=1

4

The arcade shock product is incredibly pricy for what it offers. But if you’re handy splicing some wire, you can get a JROK encoder far cheaper, but that requires you to do the handy work on the actual jamma harness itself, BUT, it’s worth it.

The other option would be to get a Jamma fingerboard, a jamma 56 pin connector, and the JROK and have the JROK run in between the jamma board, the jamma harness and the cab’s monitor so you can record off of any cab.

The down side is that you’re going to have to manually wire up a pass through from the harness and to the fingerboard then wire the JROK encoder on the pass through board

see:

fingerboard: http://www.jammaboards.com/store/jamma-fingerboard/prod_1.html

jamma edge connector: http://www.jammaboards.com/store/56-pin-card-edge-connector/prod_9.html

jrok encoder: http://www.jrok.com/hardware/RGB.html

You’ll essentially get the same result from the arcadeshock part but it’s going to be on the range of 100 to 150 bucks cheaper than the arcade shock part.

5

They spelled shoryuken wrong.

6

lol i didn’t notice that before :looney:

7

best squatter site ever.

8

Thanks for all the answers

Taiki its amazing this… i will try to find more info about it!!

Whit the Jamma fingerboard its possible to take audio signals?

I will try to build this soon, and my old VHS VCR are still working, my handycam dont support video in =( …

9

Yes! And if you’ve got a CPS2 or a NeoGeo it’s kind of easier since you can tap it right from the motherboard.

Oh and make sure that when you wire it, it’s audio+ to the center pin on the RCA jack, and GROUND, not Audio-, and to wire up an attenuator circuit. It’ll make a HUGE difference.

10

  1. Buy a jamma extender (around $30-$40, iirc)

  2. Buy a jrok or other RGBS->RCA/S-video converter (they have no-name versions on ebay sometimes)

  3. Strip a small portion of the video red, video green, video blue, video sync, power (usually 12v, but check the specs of your converter) and ground wires on the jamma extender (exposing the wire but not cutting it…exposing about an inch is good). This should be 6 stripped wires in total.

  4. Cut some ~1’ lengths of ~18 gauge stranded wire (six in total)

  5. Solder one end of the wires to the stripped RGBS, power and ground wires on the jamma extender

  6. Solder the other end of the wires to their appropriate connections on the converter

  7. Connect jamma extender + converter between cabinet jamma harness and game board jamma connector

  8. Connect video output from converter to a capture device

This is strictly for video capture. Sound gets a bit trickier, and is dependent on what connectors you have available in your cabinet, as mentioned above. Splitting RCA outputs from a gameboard is easy.

11

Those noname encoders BLOW. Video quality is usually terrible and are incompatible with many gameboards.

12

I’m using one…have been for about 2 years now…and video quality is perfect. :rolleyes:

13

Yeah but try playing MOrtal Kombat or Power Instinct 2, or anything with a funny HSync.

14

You are correct in that composite output (S-video/RCA) does not support 25kHz or 31kHz horizontal sync. If these are the type of games from which you would be capturing, then the jrok encoder with component output would be the best choice (assuming it does support 25kHz a.k.a. EGA a.k.a. medium res). Also worth noting, games such as Power Stone and other hi-res NAOMI games, can be run at low-res (15kHz) via the NAOMI hardware.

Of course, if you are going the component capture route, don’t expect to do it inexpensively.

15

No, by funny hsync, I mean games that do work on 15khz cabs, but are outside the tolerances of most video encoders. Most AD724 and AD725 based encoders have massive problems with funny hsync boards like MK.

16

Or, buy a supergun with S-Video out, split it and record it off that…