Question / Help OBS black screen issue

[FearfulHarmony]

Hello, I'm having trouble with recording my gameplay on OBS through my video card. I'm using a PlayStation 1 console which is connected to SCART to HDMI adapter then through video capture device (HDMI to USB 3.0 Capture) to PC. On my SCART TO HDMI adapter (SCART HDMI to HDMI 720p/1080p) I have some switching modes (SCART/HD, PAL/NTSC or 720p).
I'm trying to play a game on 1024x768 pal 60hz mode (because game works nice 4:3 aspect ratio otherwise it will stretch) and it won't show up on OBS. I'm getting black screen but audio works fine. The only way it works on OBS is if I play on 1920x1080 pal 50hz. Then It works fine. Any idea on how I can fix this?
My current log file is: https://obsproject.com/logs/KEN9x4kd8xHS0HWB

 

[koala]

Pal is 50 Hz, NTSC is 59.94 Hz. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_technical_specifications, the Playstation can output these: resolutions:

Progressive: 256×224 to 640×240 pixels[2]
Interlaced: 256×448 to 640×480 pixels

According to that article and other information, the resolution can be different between games and changed in some setup menu.
You should configure your digitizing devices to exactly the resolution that is set within the playstation 1, and set OBS to exactly that resolution as well. Don't try to capture 1024x768 just because it's nice - the PS1 isn't able to create a resolution that high. You get the best image quality if you digitize and capture exactly the original resolution, because in this case there are no scaling artefacts and no blurring.
If the image appears stretched, for example if you capture 640x240 it's probably stretched, set your digitizing devices to 640x240 but the OBS canvas and source size to 640x480, then right-click the capture source->Transform->Stretch to screen. For this special digital content, it might also give good results if you right-click the source->Scale Filtering and choose Area.

The fps should be exactly the Hz the PS1 is generating. If you set the PS1 to output pal 50 Hz, set your digitizing devices to 50 Hz as well as OBS to 50 fps.

 

[FearfulHarmony]

Hi Koala, I don't know to what are you referring as digital devices but I've tried this: I've changed modes at SCART to HDMI adapter switch (pic at attachment) from 800x600@60Hz being the smallest resolution to 1920x1080@60Hz and changed the settings on OBS accordingly. On OBS I changed custom resolution of Capture Device properties and video settings (50fps/60fps and resolution) to make the same as SCART to HDMI output. At the end nothing worked out except 1980x1080@60Hz but I don't like playing the game all stretched. Whats important to me is to play the game at 4:3 aspect ratio no matter what the resolution is. Is this possible?

 

[koala]

With "digitizing devices" I mean your scart to hdmi" adapter and your hdmi capture adapter. Not "digital devices" but "digitizing devices", since they contribute to digitizing analog video content. Unfortunately I cannot help any further, because this is very specific to the capabilities and features of the actual devices you own.

If I understand you right, then the only setting that produces a video is 1920x1080@60Hz from the Scart-to-Hdmi adapter. A 1920x1080 image appears in OBS, but instead of heaving black bars to the left and to the right, it covers the whole canvas and is stretched.

Well, you can un-stretch the video of course by setting a 4:3 aspect ratio canvas size in OBS. For example you set 640x480 as canvas size, which is probably the resolution the image was originally created. The source is bigger than the canvas, but you can right-click the source->Transform->Stretch to screen and it will be fit exactly into the canvas. This will stretch the stretched video back to 4:3 and it will probably look like the original again. You can now record this, and you can watch this unstreched on your computer monitor by right-clicking the preview->Fullscreen Projector(preview)->choose a display. If you have only one monitor, you can choose the one you have and get a fullscreen image of your PS1 with black bars to the left and to the right, and a 4:3 image in between. Press ESC to quit the fullscreen projector. To control start/stop OBS recording without quitting the fullscreen projector, configure Settings->Hotkeys.

Of course you can experiment with different 4:3 canvas sizes, for example 1440x1080 if you don't want to downscale the upscaled PS1 video, but I bet the most clear and crisp video will come out of a 640x480 canvas size. In the end, everything bigger is upscaled, thus bloated, and contains only upscaling artifacts, blurriness and no additiona picture information.