Hey guys! Time for me to be the noob again.

I've started a new series of videos for the game call of duty 4 - I need to get a capture card for my PC with a long enough cable that also includes audio.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what I'm looking for.

I need to be able to capture sound and visual from an Xbox 360, I have a decent TV with a decent amount of connections on so ask me and I'll check for specific connections etc.

I need it to be as cost effective as possible. Good guide links welcome!

I mean this looks the right kind of price, but I don't know if it does what I need? Is there a portable version available? (IE something I can plug in to my TV/Xbox as a stand alone object with a USB connection for the PC?

yes, there are usb standalone capture card. My company is playing around with one that can capture HD 1080p and it's entirely USB. I'd totally go for something external over a PCI card. Check out this link for some stuff.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1428

I'm no expert, but some stuff you'll want to keep in mind...

USB 2.0 for highest throughput (duh)
Your xbox 360 outputs pictures in 1080p, so you may as well capture them in that even if you're going to resize it later
you're going to need a lot of hard drive space if you're capturing in 1080p
watch for attenuation... the longer the cable, the worse the signal will be because of interference. Try to keep your cable short.
Make sure you're getting a plug that you have an output for. HDMI can carry HD video and audio in one cable. DVI can carry HD video but you'll need separate audio cable. If you're going with DVI make sure your capture card supports an audio feed or you may have to mess with your sound card too.

That's about all I can think of.

Cheers for the link oh tech-god!

I think external is definitely the way to go. The Xbox actually only outputs in 1080i from what I remember, but I'm only running it in 720p due to the fast paced nature of most Xbox games.

I have HDMI, but the question I have now is do I fit these capture cards in series?

Er, what I mean, does it go

Xbox > Cable > Capture Card > TV

or do I have to have 2 HDMI slots and it uses one for an output of some kind? I'm assuming the former, as that makes the most sense. However, I only have 1 HDMI slot, so I want to be sure.

I'd be looking at capturing 1 - 10 minute segments, so HDD space shouldn't be a prob, but space on the external unit might be. Hmmm, thanks Satis you've given me a lot to think on.

I dunno how that works. The capture cards I've personally dealt with are for capturing video output from dvi/hdmi and watching (and recording) it on a pc. You may need a special card to have an output also go to the tv. Or you can take the output from the video card and run that to your tv.

Aaaaaah, so instead I plug the Xbox in to my PC! It all becomes clear! Hmm, that sucks a bit, but at least the Xbox has a VGA connector I can use. Thanks!

360 games are built for 720p resolution. Only a handful actually support 1080p. And if you dont have a big a$$ tv, you wont be able to make the difference.

Yup. And the big ones (Halo 3, CoD 4) Don't actually run at full 720! Just upscaled!

yea, good point, I forgot about that. Stupid. "HD". Technically it is, but blah. I guess the next gen (Xbox 720?) will support 1080p.

posting for Mole:

so he updated the BIOS to get usb2.0 to work on it... now it won't start up! No errors or anything, asked him to remove the floppy, he did... screen went black. Left it a few mins. Nothing. Restarted it. Nothing. Tried rebooting with floppy to reinstall the old BIOS. Nothing. Powered down PSU. Nothing

Any ideas?

oh no. Does he get the power up beep or any display like counting RAM or anything? If not, he's screwed. Sorry. Your motherboard just became a paperweight. Talk to the motherboard manufacturer and see if they'll fix it.

apparently nothing on screen, no beep but there is a 'chuntering' noise, like its trying to start up

edit: he just got a beep... but randomly

EDIT: Ok, Mole here.

The last thing that I did last night was use AWDFLASH + the BIOS Update from the manufacturers website on a bootable floppy. After at first downloading the wrong BIOS, then Aquiring the new one, things seemed to be going smoothly. At the end I was prompted to 'Save new settings Y or N' so I pressed Y, then it asked me to press F1 to restart. Which I did.

When it turn off, and started to power up, the fans all came on and a short chunter was heard. But nothing at all on screen - no signal is being given out as my Monitor is not even switching on, at all. I try powering it up using the button and when it turns on, it says No Signal Output and switches off again.

So, I turned it off and tried again. I get a beep from the mobo and a short chunter, but nothing else.

Complete powerdown at PSU - Turn on, Same again.

Tried leaving it 'on' for about an hour, to see if something might happen, nothing.

Tried powering it down all night nothing.


I believe, unless you have any ideas, it's officially dead. Even though I'm 99.999999999% sure it's the motherboard, I want to start replacing everything if I can't fix it, as I want a new PC from Scratch. This is where I try to catch up with the PC universe again.

The MOBO is a FOXCONN NF48AAUK-8EKRS

EDIT AGAIN: Fuck it. I can't be arsed. Just bought a shit load of new PC stuff of eBay. Heh. I don't have any money to pay for it though, so all donations welcome. Food accepted.

I thought that is one of the unsolvable mysteries in universe. I mean by the time you reach home with your new computer, its actually so old that your neighbour laughs in your face.

Ok, I've decided I'm gonna get this thing working again and then sell it.

What I've done is flashed the BIOS using the the Jumpers and removing the battery.

Now, when I turn it on I get a message saying something along the lines of "The NB fan tachometer is very slow, system is shutting down"

Wtf is a NB fan? Maybe I got the message wrong, I'm in a rush.

Clearing the BIOS "fixed" it?

Anyway, check all your fan connections. The only fans I could see shutting the machine down are the CPU fan and maybe the PSU fan. The latter is less likely. See if you accidently unplugged any fans while playing around in there.

Other than that, congrats, it may not be toast after all. Though it's a crappy BIOS flash.

Swapped the NB fan power connection to a different supply and now the computer boots to the point where it asks if you want to start windows normally or in safe mode etc as though it had crashed. Now when you select any of the options (safe mode, networking etc) it just loops eternally. Tried power down and PSU power down but still boot sequence loops. Also tried updating the BIOS again but problem persists.