Guide: Recording Xbox 360/Digital Cable/PS3/Xbox in 720p Using BlackMagic's Intensity Pro By Skate Zilla HD Studios

This Guide will Present you with the Method I Currently Use for RecordingXbox/Xbox 360 Footage to High Definition Video Files, Using Free Applications.

This Guide is ForAdvanced Users, and Requires Multiple Steps

To Record in High Definition, Black Magic recommends a Decently Powerful desktop with a Two Disk Raid-0 Array, For General recommended specs Go Here:Intensity Pro Support Link.

The Specs For the System used during the completion of this guide are Listed under MY HARDWARE

Software: Windows XP SP3,Direct X 9.0c (Latest Runtimes), Virtual Dub 1.7.7,The Intensity Pro 2.1 Driver/Firmware Set,DiVx 6.8,Lame MP3 Codec,Windows Media Encoder 9,Windows Media Player 11 (Windows Media Video 9 Codec, Windows Media Audio 10 Codec)

What You'll Need, A High Definition Enabled Source (Xbox 360, PS3, Etc), A RCA Component (YPrPb) Cable And RCA Stereo Audio Cable (Only If you Intend to Loops the Signal through your PC back to your HDTV,  Make sure its long enough to go from your PC to your HDTV), and A PC that is Comparable to the specs above (This Rig is nearly 2 years old).

Ok, Lets begin setting up the hardware, First thing you need is a source (Xbox 360, PS3, or another HD Source), Boot the Source on your TV as normal and Configure the source to Run 720p, Shutdown the source, unplug the RCA Component Cables from your HDTV, And plug them into the RCA Inputs Labeled "R-In", "R-Y In", "B-Y In" For the Video, and Left/Right In for the Audio (They Should be Labeled and Color coded.). Next, Take your extra RCA Component and Audio Cables and plug them leads into the R, RY, BY Outs and the Left Right Audio Out, Run the cables to your TV and Put the leads into the appropriate input jacks on your TV. You can connect the any Digital(Optical) SPDIF Cable from Your Source Directly to your Surround sound system as normal.

Now that the hardware is setup, lets begin setting up the software to function correctly, first make sure you have all the latest up to date software, drivers and firmware listed above. Before recording, we must setup the Intensity Pro's settings, as well as the settings in the Capture Program (Virtual Dub),

Lets start with the Intensity Pro, by default the input is set to HDMI, we arent using the HDMI Input due to lack of HDCP, Goto your systems control panel (start, control panel), Click on the "Intensity" Icon, Set the input to "R, R-Y, B-Y & Analog RCA Audio", Set the output to "HDMI & R, R-Y, B-Y". Now that to sources are setup, Boot up your source (Xbox, PS3, Etc), Turn On Your TV, and Select the appropriate input, note, your TV will not be recieving a Signal yet until we configure the Capture Program,

Next, Open Virtual Dub, goto the File Menu, Choose "Capture AVI", the Program screen will then change and a preview window will appear, however based on system settings, Virtual Dub may or may not have setup the default Device as your Intensity Pro Card, So First goto "Device" menu, and ensure that "Decklink Video Capture (DirectShow)" is Selected,

Now we'll start by Setting up the Video Settings, Goto the "Video" Menu, Choose Overlay, and Choose "Stretch To Window" (if you want Ful screen), Next step is to setup the capture format, Again on the "Video" Menu goto Capture Filter, and Choose "HD720 60P 8 Bit 4:2:2" (Timecode Format : Timecode, and Choose "read from VITC", Click OK. At this Point You Should be able to see the picture from your Source on both your PC Screen and your TV, Your PC will be delayed a few frames because Primary Preview is Looping back to your TV. Now that the format is set up, we have to setup the compression, "Video" Menu again, and go down to "Compression", you should only have Two options, "No Recompression :HDYC" and "Black Magic 8-Bit MJPEG Codec", Choose "Black Magic 8-Bit MJPEG Codec" Note, if the MJPEG Codec is not listed, Download it from Blackmagic's support site, install it, and reboot your PC, also make sure you disable any other MJPEG codecs already installed to avoid MJPEG Codec conflicts.

Now that the Video Settings are set, we're gonna go and setup the audio setting, Goto the "Audio" Menu Choose "DeckLink Audio Capture" and Check "Enable Audio playback" and "Enabled Audio Capture", Next, On the "Audio" Menu goto Compression, Set it to "No Compression, PCM Format", Also on the "Audio" Menu, Select Raw Capture Format and Ensure it reads "48000Hz, stereo, 16-Bit". Now lets make sure the volume levels are setup, "Audio" Menu, Windows Mixer, Which Will Bring Up the "Recording Control Mixer", Click Options, then Properties, Under Mixer Device, Choose "DeckLink Audio Device", Then Click the Playback Bullet, Check Any Volume Controls that Appear, Click OK, then Unmute, and Turn them All Up to MAX.

Ok, the Audio is now setup, lets go through and setup the system control/recording options, First, On the Capture menu, goto Capture Settings, Fill in the Frame Rate to "60.000" hit OK, Also on the "Capture" Menu, goto "Correct Video Timing", Set the RE-Sync Mode to "resync audio to video by resampling the audio to a faster or slower rate", Check "Correct Video Timing" Box, and the "Force Audio Clock" Box and Hit OK. Next Goto the "Capture" menu, Choose Disk I/O, Set Chunk Size To 512KB, and Set the Number of Chunk to 16, Check the "Disabled Windows Write Buffering" box. Next Under the "Capture" menu, ensure that "Show Information Panel" and "Show Status" Bar is Checked.

Now Lets Set the Filename for the file your Recording, Goto the "File" Menu, choose "Set Capture File", Enter a filename and Click OK ( Note you have to manually change the file name between recordings or the program will overwrite it).

Ok You've Set all the Settings, you can now start recording by pressing the "F6" Button on your keyboard, Record the footage, to Stop the recording, Press ESC button on your keyboard. To Switch the preview windows to Fullscreen mode on your PC, Press ALT+ENTER.

Now that We have the raw AVI File recorded Exit Virtual Dub's Capture Mode (File, Exit Capture Mode), The Raw AVI File Even with MJPEG Compression is going to be large, Around 1 GB Per Minute of Footage, So Lets Compress it to MPEG-4 Format. From the Main Virtual Dub Screen, Open the AVI File (File, Open, Select File).

Now that you have you AVI File open, lets Setup the Video Compression Settings, On the Video menu, Set it to "Full Processing Mode", Goto Frame Rate in the Second section, Choose "Convert To fps :" and Enter 30.00, Hit Ok, Next on the Video Menu, Choose Compression, Highlight "DiVx 6.8", Click Configure, On the main TAB, Choose 720HD Profile, Check "Use Presets.." and Move the Slider All the way to Quality, under Rate control Mode, Choose "1 Pass quality based" with a target Quantizer of "4", On the Video tab under DiVx Properties, Ensure its"Square Pixels on Both Format In and Out, No Resize, No Noise Reductionand Choose Progressive, Click Ok to Get back to the main screen.

Next Lets Setup the Audio Compression Settings, Under the "Audio" menu, Choose "Full Processing Mode", then goto Compression, Set it to "Lame MP3, and use any of the 48KHz options (User Preference), Click OK.

Now lets Save the New DiVx AVI File!, Goto File, Save As AVI, Enter a New File Name, and Hit Save. The Compression Time will take a anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on source video length and system specifications.