Question / Help Having trouble with component capturing

[38Sharks]

I recently bought a BlackMagic Intensity Pro and am trying to capture gameplay from my Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. My xbox came through just fine using an HDMI cable, and I know that I need a component cable for PS3 because of the copy protection, but I just get a black screen no matter what I do when I try.

I have a universal component cable that is used by a friend of mine who has the same card I do and uses it the same way, and I have tested the cable on a TV and it works just fine. I thought that maybe the component splitter cable that comes with the blackmagic card was defective so I sent it back and got a replacement but I am having the same issues.

My settings for the card are HDMI & Component for output, Component Video & Analog RCA Audio for input, 7.5 IRE for the usa in the USA, default video standard is HD 720p 59.94, the settings in OBS are made to match that, and my PS3 is set to display through component and is set to 720p.

I've been fiddling with it for a long time and am at a total loss, any ideas are appreciated, thanks.

 

[kaloc]

You could try AmarecTV to make sure the signal is indeed making it to the card. If you're not familiar with Amarec, below is an tutorial on how to setup the basics. You do NOT need to install ffsplit or the live_setup he talks about in the vid ( for what you are doing ) and anything after 3:10 is not needed for just testing your card. Once you choose your device settings and hit OK it will display the video in the preview window if everything is set properly. If it's still a black screen, try the other choices under video capture device. If nothing works, then perhaps you need to uninstall /reinstall your BMI drivers ?

http://youtu.be/Mts8qS5BhOU

 

[38Sharks]

Hey, so I did what you suggested and grabbed AmaRecTV, got the same result with the black screen. So then I went and uninstalled and reinstalled my drivers and that didn't seem to help at all either. I got them off the Blackmagic website, desktop video 9.7.1.

Not sure what else there is to do, anyone else have any suggestions? or need anything from me to get a better idea of what to do?

 

[kaloc]

There is some info on the BMagic forums .. such as this tutorial thread.. you just have to sift though the useless stuff.
http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4687

Here is something out of the thread that might be helpful :

Another problem that I've face with Playstation 3 i that if you left the HDMI connected, every time you boot the console it will tell you that it has found a HDMI connection and ask if you wanna change it or not.

Disconnect the HDMI from the Playstation 3 and use just the component cable to see if it's working or not. Don't forget to set the video for NTSC first to see if the Playstation 3 is sending video at this format.

 

[38Sharks]

So, after following the instructions in that thread I was able to get picture to show up in blackmagic media express, up to 1080i. However, OBS could only detect it if I had it set to NTSC (which I guess is 480i), and not any higher than that. I just get a red screen now, any idea why that might be?


EDIT: Nevermind, got it all figured out. Thanks so much for the help

 

[kaloc]

Sharks, in case someone else has the same problem, what did you do to fix the problem ? Or just post your settings in text or screenshot form. Thanks

 

[38Sharks]

Alright, basically I followed those instructions in the thread exactly and it made me able to capture in the lowest quality setting, NTSC (480i) which is the 8-bit version in the configure window for "Blackmagic WDM Capture" at Device Selection of OBS, not the 10-bit. I still don't know exactly why I couldn't get it to work without going through that process first, but there you go. After that you can move up to 720p or 1080i, but remember that most games don't work in 1080i and the PS3 will automatically revert to 720p when you try to run them which will result in a black screen on your end, so just to be safe you should keep it at 720p.

Another issue I ran into was the audio coming through with either low garbled static or high pitched screeching and it's solved by just restarting your PC.

Remember that your passthrough won't work unless it's being actively captured by something, like OBS streaming or the preview, or Blackmagic Media Express. Also, leave Custom Resolution unchecked unless you know what you're doing with that, it has to be exact or you'll run into problems. And remember that your component cables from the console are plugging into the cables labeled IN on the component splitter that comes with the capture card, not OUT, obviously.

Hopefully I didn't forget anything and this will help out anybody else who ran into the problems I did.