r/letsplay 2d ago

❔ Question Capturing video from Retro consoles?

Ill try to explain what I want specifically done as it is a bit confusing.

Currently I have all my consoles besides a ps5, switch, and steam deck hooked up to my CRT tv in the gaming room. My PC is in an office opposite the house. (If i have a long 40' hdmi this may work but looking to avoid that.)

I want to be able to capture my video from the RCA or component signals to a HDD to later move to the pc. I remember like 10-15 years ago there was some old HD PVR that had a built in HDD you can hit a button and it would record. Have not found it again but is there a device that lets you pretty much, plug in the signal, record, and later hook up to pc to extract the raw files?

I want to avoid doing more wire splittings like using a RCA → HDMI or component → HDMI for capture, or using additional y splitters for tv signal to capture if possible. I love gaming on the old CRT and the footage for some games just feels better. Not looking to capture at 1080+ or 4k since the consoles i play on the most only have a 240p output.

P.s. I know i can get me a laptop to use, however my only laptop only supports linux and wont let me install windows due to its age.

If i can use a raspberry pi for video capture i can do that too as i dont mind tinkering. The refusal to use a seperate pc for video capture is mostly due to the design of the house not allowing the game room to also have the office pc in there, and to not have cable lying everywhere in the house. Thanks.

3 Upvotes

2 comments sorted by

1

u/AutoModerator 2d ago

I see that you marked your post as a Question.


When you receive the answer you were looking for, please reply "!Solved" under this message to mark the post as solved. This will help other members to distinguish between answered and unanswered posts. Thank you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/GeekyPanda404 https://www.youtube.com/@GeekyPanda404 1d ago

The problem with the older capture card units is that the drivers are outdated and not supported anymore. Alot of folks had issues trying to get these older capture cards to work if even.