Capturing

This page will have some general suggestions on how you can record or stream your monkeys.

Unless you already know what you are going with, i recommend reading through all options here.

Minimum/Cheapest (Works for all platforms)

The very least you need is your phone.

point the camera at your tv and the official Twitch app should have an option to start a stream.

• Cons
  • Hard to read chat.
  • No timer on screen.
  • Bad quality with both audio and video.
• Pros
  • Cheap.

Phone/Webcam + Computer (Works for all platforms)

This is a slight step up from the cheapest method.

You can connect your phone to your PC with the charging cable and use it as a camera like in the cheapest method.

I found the app DroidCam should be able to do this both wired and wirelessly.

the difference is that you are now able to use OBS and with it you can have a timer on the screen and reading chat is easier.

• Cons
  • First time setup can be annoying.
  • Depending on the method used, the camera feed could cut out.
• Pros
  • Easier to read chat.
  • Stream layout customizability.

Composite/S-Video (PS1/PS2/PS3/PSP)

For this method you need a computer and a composite capturecard.

Composite capture cards are relatively cheap but beware that cards from EasyCap are nutoriously difficult to get working and they have many bootlegs.

Classic recommendations are the GV-USB2 for around 60$ as far as i know it's regarded as the best one and the Dazzle is a classic name.

After you've got your composite capture card of choice, you simply add it to OBS as a "Video Capture Device".

• Cons
  • Nowadays these cards are rarer and thus can be pricey for the quality.
  • At best you can get S-Video with this which is nice but composite is more common and worse looking.
• Pros
  • Good audio quality.
  • Stream layout customizability.
  • Cleaner game feed.

Component (PS1*/PS2/PS3/PSP)

*The PS1 doesn't output component natively but you can use a PS2 to play your PS1 games and get component quality

The setup is identical to with a Composite setup, you'll just need a capture card that has component inputs.

• Cons
  • Capture cards with component inputs aren't common at all.
• Pros
  • Component is the best quality you can get with PS1, PS2 and PSP games natively.

HDMI (PS1*/PS2/PS3/PS4/PS5)

This requires you to have an HDMI capture card. these can be around 100$ for well known brands but these so called "El Cheapo's" exist and are very cheap and i've heard good things about them.

PS1/2

*For the PS1 you can use a PS2 to play your PS1 games

*Note that most modern TVs and HDMI capture cards DO NOT support the low resolutions the PS1 games use and will display no signal.

*You can use the GSMPS2 homebrew app to upscale PS1 games, most games do not work but i used to use it successfully with AE1 (it temporarily screws up the ps2 menu so you need to navigate blind).

You can find "PS2 To HDMI" adapters for relatively cheap but i'm not sure about the quality, i assume its converting component to HDMI.

PS3

Now this one is quite annoying. The console has HDCP turned on and you can't take it off. It makes it so that you cannot capture the console with HDMI, it's an antipiracy/copyright thing.

HDCP doesn't exist on component/composite but assuming you want HDMI quality you are going to need to search and find an HDMI splitter that can "strip" the HDCP.

Todo: Add links

PS4/5

These systems have built in features to stream and record but I believe recording is limited to 1 hour. The problem with streaming natively is that you can't have a timer on the screen.

If you wish to use an HDMI capture card with either console make sure to go to the settings to turn off HDCP.

Upscalers (PS1/PS2/PS3*/PSP)

*Upscalers usually have a passthrough settings, this might need to be used with PS2/3 games with component.

This is the highest quality option for these systems, it's also the priciest as it requires an HDMI capture card and an upscaler.

The upscaler is a piece of equipment that's placed between the console (composite, s-video, component) and the capture card (HDMI).

A better and more indepth resource can be found here.

The RetroTink line has many amazing upscalers you can use but they are pricey.

• 2X-Classic (*Not produced anymore and must be bought used)
• 2X-Pro (140$)
• 2X-Mini (100$ *Composite only)
• 5X-Pro (325$)
• 4K-Pro (750$)

There is also the OSSC (seems to be around 120$) and its Pro (335$) version.

The thing with the OSSC is that it doesn't have a composite or s-video input so you must use either RGB or component.

There are cheap alternatives too like the RetroScaler 2x which is a cheap (45$) bootleg of the RetroTink 2X-Classic, it has composite, s-video and component inputs.

Another one is the GBS Control but this one i believe needs some soldering to mod it.