Adaptec Gamebridge 1400 (play console games on your PC!) - Now $10 at Fry's - review!

Cant install this thing. It installs the drivers, but when it moves onto installing the intervideo app, it gives an error number and tells me to install it using the "original disc". I was right to be skeptical of this deal months ago. I only now took a chance because it dropped to $10. Figures.

I figured I didn't want the intervideo app anyways so I tried dscaler, since I have previous experience with it. But on the device, all I get is a pink screen, while I can hear the dreamcast, through some major static.

Edit: Wait, fixed the pink screen. But now I've come to the conclusion that this device is permanently in 29.97 fps mode. Is that the catch? It doesn't display footage at 59.94 unique fields per second, does it? Does anyone else realize how much slower their games feel in motion on this thing?

Haha oh jesus, throw in some terrible lag to top it off. Also, the fields seem to be handled in reverse. Every other frame, on the whole, seems to want to be 2 frames before it, which causes all motion to have severe jittering. I sure hope all these problems are from intervideo not being installed. I can't see how that's possible. The drivers installed fine.
 
I'm having the same problem with the Intervideo Home Theater software. It installs, but then I can't even open the program. The config utility is useable though. Anybody got any ideas?
 
I'm guessing it's something with you guys' Windows config, drivers aren't updated, not patched up, stuff like that.

Games don't seem slow to me through it, though there is a tiny amount of lag that's unavoidable with USB devices like this.
 
I formatted my entire machine. I have no idea why, but it installed this time. I always have the cleanest installation of windows you can imagine. I am always updated. Hell, that's what probably broke it before. I am NOT fully updated right now, and it works.

Doesn't matter though. The device still blows. Motion is terrible. The motion is a bit better in interplay, but then the sharpness is pitiful even on svideo, and there's noticible interference which wasnt in dscaler. Damn, you just can't win.

On either app, I still can't understand how any of you guys actually play anything fast paced on this. RPGs are doable, but I'd like to see you all play some fighting games on here. You just can't. The motion just sucks.

I figured out how to get dscaler to at least get the motion problem fixed. Don't use any of the deinterlacing methods. None of them work properly. Use "2:2 Pulldown, Flip on Odd". What you FINALLY have here, is the original source footage of 59.94 unique fields per second, being cleanly converted to 29.97 unique frames per second. The problem is, dscaler assumes it is now deinterlaced, which it's not. It won't let you apply a second deinterlacing filter at this point. Regardless, I think if you guys try this, you'll realize what the motion was supposed to feel like to begin with.

I'm probably coming off as snobbish, but I've spent the last 9 years knee-deep in video editing, and tried out just about every major video utility out there, on over half a dozen video capture solutions. I know I shouldn't expect a $10 device to please me when even $90 devices have failed to do so, but I simply expected this device to do what it advertises to do, which it doesn't.

Oh and the gamebridge is freakin' hot. It's probably going to burn my house down, just to smite me more.
 
ARG! I thought I finally had it! Media Player Classic has a video device selector, and it actually works with GameBridge, with minimal lag, minimal interference, and decent deinterlacing. But NOOOO, we have to have a new problem, don't we? The screen locks up after 30 seconds, every single time. You have to hit pause, then play in order to get it running again. Every 30 seconds. What the hell causes this now?
 
[quote name='Mozgus']I formatted my entire machine. I have no idea why, but it installed this time. I always have the cleanest installation of windows you can imagine. I am always updated. Hell, that's what probably broke it before. I am NOT fully updated right now, and it works.[/quote]

My system's fully updated and didn't have any issues.

Doesn't matter though. The device still blows. Motion is terrible. The motion is a bit better in interplay, but then the sharpness is pitiful even on svideo, and there's noticible interference which wasnt in dscaler. Damn, you just can't win.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by interference? Are you using an off-brand S-Video cable?
Other than low resolution graphics getting blown up to high resolution not looking the greatest, and a subtle lag, it should look and work like a TV.

On either app, I still can't understand how any of you guys actually play anything fast paced on this. RPGs are doable, but I'd like to see you all play some fighting games on here. You just can't. The motion just sucks.
Click to expand...

I played Shadow of Rome and Psychonauts and both worked fine. It still sounds like something's messed up with how it runs on your system.


I'm probably coming off as snobbish, but I've spent the last 9 years knee-deep in video editing, and tried out just about every major video utility out there, on over half a dozen video capture solutions. I know I shouldn't expect a $10 device to please me when even $90 devices have failed to do so, but I simply expected this device to do what it advertises to do, which it doesn't.

Oh and the gamebridge is freakin' hot. It's probably going to burn my house down, just to smite me more.
Click to expand...

Mine doesn't get that hot either. Pretty warm, but I wouldn't call it hot really.
 
Dead god, I got it. Media Player Classic doesn't lock up anymore. I just stopped using GameBridge's terrible audio connections and instead ran the audio cords directly into my Audigy 2 ZS card. I only run the s-video to the gamebridge. The audio had static in it before anyway.
 
[quote name='nakedsushi']I finally figured out why there was no audio in recordings. Turned out DScaler automatically mutes WAV in my volume control and doesn't unmute it even if I quit DScaler. Made a little video of Rogue Galaxy's gameplay. I think I need a better compression driver.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4791070180808389814&hl=en[/quote]
That bug happens all the time with Dscaler. I wish they'd fix it.
 
I got the 1410 and I ran into a couple problems.

1.Watching TV works great. I get sound and picture. But when I try to play my PS2 I get the sound but no picture. It doesn't work on both S-Video and Composite settings. I tried it with both an S-Video and Composite cable. How do I fix this?

2. How do I get the GameBridge (PS2 and TV) to run on Media Player Classic? I can't get video or sound. I open up MPC then click File>Open Device but I just get a blank video screen.
 
I ordered the gamebridge on Wednesday and it got here today. It works surprisingly well for me. I get a higher resolution than on my TV, and now I can actually have the TV on if there's something I want to watch and have the 360 on as well. I tried out both Halo 2 and Gears of War and everything looked great. There was a very slight blur when I move quickly, but I very soon didn't notice it while losing very badly to a 12 year old on Gears. Overall, I'm quite impressed. Well worth the $10 to me.
 
[quote name='deathweasel']I ordered the gamebridge on Wednesday and it got here today. It works surprisingly well for me. I get a higher resolution than on my TV, and now I can actually have the TV on if there's something I want to watch and have the 360 on as well. I tried out both Halo 2 and Gears of War and everything looked great. There was a very slight blur when I move quickly, but I very soon didn't notice it while losing very badly to a 12 year old on Gears. Overall, I'm quite impressed. Well worth the $10 to me.[/QUOTE]

Is this on a laptop? Because if you've got a normal monitor, you should hook the 360 directly up to it through VGA. That's going to look a million times better than S-Video through a USB adapter.
 
[quote name='chair_home']My 1410 isn't here yet. I'm trying out the 1400 though... does anyone know how to set it to widescreen? Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Read through the thread. There was some program mentioned that would support widescreen (only useful if you've got a widescreen monitor though).
 
I've been trying to think of a way to play time crisis. so would I be able to connect time crisis through the gamebridge and play on a CRT PC Monitor?
 
Use mine to get video to my PC off my old analog cameras. I did a 30 minute clip and it worked great.

Just my two cents.
 
[quote name='Mozgus']
I figured out how to get dscaler to at least get the motion problem fixed. Don't use any of the deinterlacing methods. None of them work properly. Use "2:2 Pulldown, Flip on Odd". What you FINALLY have here, is the original source footage of 59.94 unique fields per second, being cleanly converted to 29.97 unique frames per second. The problem is, dscaler assumes it is now deinterlaced, which it's not. It won't let you apply a second deinterlacing filter at this point. Regardless, I think if you guys try this, you'll realize what the motion was supposed to feel like to begin with.

I'm probably coming off as snobbish, but I've spent the last 9 years knee-deep in video editing, and tried out just about every major video utility out there, on over half a dozen video capture solutions. I know I shouldn't expect a $10 device to please me when even $90 devices have failed to do so, but I simply expected this device to do what it advertises to do, which it doesn't.

Oh and the gamebridge is freakin' hot. It's probably going to burn my house down, just to smite me more.[/quote]

Thank you sir! I shall give this a shot later on. I know little to nothing about video, and all the options in dscaler frighten and confuse me. Much appreciated!
 
[quote name='schnuth']I got my 1400 yesterday and have been playing around with it. So far it looks like a fun little toy.

Has anyone had trouble getting the Genesis to display correctly? The Gamebridge works great with my NES, SNES, and some other consoles I tried, but not my Genny. I tried both my Genny 2 with the composite cable and my JVC X'Eye with the standard composite out and no dice.

The image looks like it's doubling and flickering off to the right, and there are some weird bands that move vertically. I downloaded DScaler and messed with the interlace modes since I thought this might be a interlace problem. But no dice there. Does anyone know if there is a setting with DScaler to get a Sega Genesis working with the Gamebridge? Any help would be greatly appreciated.[/QUOTE]

For you guys having trouble with the Genesis, I had similiar problems with a Genesis 1 and a JVC X'Eye with my Infocus X1 DLP projector. It simply did not look right no matter what - crazy flickering (too badly to even play) on the bottom half of the screen. I assumed the Genesis was bad and got the X'Eye which did the same thing.

There's something funky about the Genesis output that seems to confuse digital devices.
 
I ordered a 1400 model for my computer (Pentium D 3.0GHZ, 2GB ram, Geforce 7600GS 256MB, Windows XP Pro). It works fine and setup was really easy, but the graphics are better when I hook it up to my TV then my LCD display. I have a Dell 17" LCD Model 1704FPT. Games look sharper on the TV too. I decided to use it instead for hooking up a VCR to convert VHS to DVD's. It's probably fine for taking screen captures but for playing constantly it doesn't beat a TV.
 
To the people who got this working properly in Dscaler... what did you do? Any particular special settings? I personally have run into an issue with jittery video when bringing up menus and such, and then it randomly goes away. Strange, to say the least. Also, it makes my speakers pop, which REALLY worries me.

As it is, my best option has been to use Winamp TV, and enable deinterlacing. It's still not very smooth, but it's better than it was. Also, for those of you setting this up with Media Player Classic, did you manage to get this working without blurring issues cropping up at the same time as the jitter issues I'm having with Dscaler? And how in the tarnations do you properly apply a deinterlacing filter?

Thanks much.

Sarge out.
 
I got the 1410 and have a couple of questions if anyone feels like helping me out. I am using Dscaler as the software they send you is for crap. I got the gaming engine to work fine (no lag or anything, even in sound). The problem is that I got this mainly for use as a tv tuner and recorder. three things are keeping me down.

1. When I change the channel in Dscaler it doesen't work. It kinda goes to a staticky jumble of nothing.

2. Can I get the remote to work with the Gamebridge even when running in Dscaler.

and

3. Whenever I try to make a movie of the show I am watching when I "stop" it the program crashes.

If anyone has experience with any of these I would very much appreciate it.

Soule
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']If you're using a regular monitor, a FAR better choice would be to connect your 360 directly to the monitor. That won't have lag, and will be in HD.[/quote]
Could you do that with something like this?
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5244799

And does the monitor specifically need to support HD, or can those higher resolutions be displayed by any LCD?

(Sorry if this comes across as threadjacking...I'm just torn between a VGA converter and the GameBridge.)
 
[quote name='Blank Earth']Could you do that with something like this?
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5244799[/quote]

Yes, but Microsoft's cable will give better quality.

And does the monitor specifically need to support HD, or can those higher resolutions be displayed by any LCD?
Click to expand...

Basically any monitor is higher resolution than "HD", and the 360 supports a variety of resolutions for the VGA cable.

(Sorry if this comes across as threadjacking...I'm just torn between a VGA converter and the GameBridge.)
Click to expand...

Those cables aren't converters-they're just cables. The 360 supports VGA, which is one of it's best features IMO.

The only drawback to using the 360 with a 4:3 screen is that not all games behave the same way. Some do HD in 4:3, some letterbox the content, and a few don't handle the aspect ratio right at all, forcing you to drop back to 640x480 (but that's still going to look better than going through a Gamebridge, and it's still playable).
 
Sorry if this has already been asked, but is there a way to take a screenshot while in full screen mode while using the InterVideo Home Theatre program? I don't like having to switch out of full screen to take my shots.
 
[quote name='chakan']$14 at woot.com right now[/QUOTE]

Yeah I've been following this woot-off too. But do I really want to play my ps2 on my computer when I have a 50" HDTV and a PS3 to play them on? Nah!
 
[quote name='rufio2004nfg']Yeah I've been following this woot-off too. But do I really want to play my ps2 on my computer when I have a 50" HDTV and a PS3 to play them on? Nah![/QUOTE]
Its not just to play through, its for a record function.
 
[quote name='rufio2004nfg']Yeah I've been following this woot-off too. But do I really want to play my ps2 on my computer when I have a 50" HDTV and a PS3 to play them on? Nah![/QUOTE]

Ah, but you can have computers in places TVs can't go :D

I'll say no more ;)
 
The 1410 IS NOT ON THE WEBSITE ANYMORE! I've searched the net and found it for 100 dollars +. Does anyone know where I can get a 1410 for around the same price as they had it on oupost.com?
 
Does anyone know where I can download the drivers for the 1400 and InterVideo Home Theater? The CD was missing from mine.

Thanks in advance
 
[quote name='RoDrAs']Does anyone know where I can download the drivers for the 1400 and InterVideo Home Theater? The CD was missing from mine.

Thanks in advance[/quote]
It should have been tucked in with the blue paper backing thingy.
 
That really stinks RoDrAs....got my 1400 a few days ago. I bought it to transfer videos from vid-cam to PC. It works great for that and installs in minutes. So far no problems. I did hook up my GC and played a little Geist, was really choppy and hard to watch but I didn't get it for that reason. Maybe I'll try the PS2, N64, Genesis and see how they do.
 
Would it be possible for you to send me drivers to rodriteixeira94 [at] gmail [dot] com or host them in a site like sendspace.com and send me the link by PM?
 
[quote name='RoDrAs']Would it be possible for you to send me drivers to rodriteixeira94 [at] gmail [dot] com or host them in a site like sendspace.com and send me the link by PM?[/QUOTE]

You know what stinks? I would LOVE to help, but I'm scared it's somehow illegal to send DRIVERS for something that should have come with them, and that this could be some kind of bizaro-set-up.

That's the wonderful world we live in thanks to the DMCA and things like it :bomb:
 
Got mine today, really quick shipping, I just ordered on the 29th.

Here are a couple of testers, works great so far. I just wish I could play it in widescreen.

0131195443.jpg

0131195626.jpg

0131194148.jpg
 
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=151C3FZP

Full 10-minute match is Rainbow Six Vegas(360). File is 200some megs. I tried putting it in Windows movie maker to compress it, but it actually crashes WMM when I try importing it into collections >_<
Anyone know a good free program that compresses vids without leaving a watermark?
 
[quote name='moojuice']http://www.megaupload.com/?d=151C3FZP

Full 10-minute match is Rainbow Six Vegas(360). File is 200some megs. I tried putting it in Windows movie maker to compress it, but it actually crashes WMM when I try importing it into collections >_<
Anyone know a good free program that compresses vids without leaving a watermark?[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't touch Windows Media with a 10 foot pole. There's all kinds of free tools to create MPEG4s (regular and AVC). Vidora's thing has versions for the iPod, PSP, etc. (it's really just the same program with different pre-created profiles, and it's really just a graphical front end for ffmpeg I think).
Besides actually working and being higher quality, MPEG4 has the advantage of being playable on tons of different programs, operating systems, etc.
 
So I just recieved my GameBridge, got it all hooked up and works pretty good. But I'm encountering one annoying problem and wanted to know if anyoen else experienced it or knew how to get around it. When recording something, the preview window just turns solid green. I'll still get live audio, but can't see anything. When I stop recording, video returns. I checked out the video I recorded, and it actually records it correctly, I just can't view it as it's happening. Not a problem right now as I'm just transferring a few things from VHS onto the PC, but obviously if I wanted to record any actual gameplay it'd be impossible.

Suggestions?
 
So, I've been using Dscaler a lot now. That 2:2 pulldown on odd setting seems to work like a champ. The problem I'm getting now is audio lag. Its weird cause it'll start off good, but as I play longer, the audio separates from the visuals gradually till it really gets noticeable. I have to stop and restart Dscaler when it happens. Any advice? I'm getting my 1410 today (hopefully) to replace my 1400, so I wonder if the same issues will be there.
 
Plug the system's audio directly into your sound card. That'll eliminate having to mess with the problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top