The following information mainly pertains to the VisionRGB E series of cards. Most info is also compatible with the VisionAV series.
All versions of the Datapath VisionRGB E series of cards require 4x PCIe lanes to work correctly. In many systems this may involve moving your GPU into a different slot which will bump it down to 8x performance (which isn't actually entirely noticeable in most cases).
You need to download and install the recommended driver and firmware package. Recommended at this point means to install the latest drivers from Datapath's website here. If you have issues with the newest driver an older driver users have success with is mirrored here.
It is also recommended to install these drivers in User Mode when asked. If you run into any issues uninstall, and attempt with Kernel mode.
You will be asked to reboot upon finishing installation. After the reboot it will probably update your firmware to match the driver. If the card ever gets moved into a system with different drivers, it will automatically be flashed to match what the system has. If you move it back, same deal. Will be reflashed to match. If you are running into problems with crashes, you may need to follow the "Golden Firmware Image Procedure" detailed here before installing the drivers.
You should have a program called Vision window now. This will be used for any progressive captures such as 240p content. You should also have the card available as a capture device in your program of choice. You would mainly use it in this way for interlaced content or digital captures such as from another PC, a modern console or a piece of video hardware like the OSSC.
The card is capable of pushing multiple outputs. Meaning you could use the card in OBS and AmaRecTV at the same time for example. However the more captures you pull, the more resources are being used. Too many can cause frame drops.
The E-Series cards has no audio input. This means you need to use another device (i.e sound card) to capture the audio. This may require purchasing of cables to adapt or break out the audio from your current setup.
The card is able to capture digital sources such as the HDMI out from a console via a HDMI to DVI adapter. However the card does not have hdmi EDIDs and therefore some devices may not recognize the card properly and output only 480p or nothing at all. To remedy this you have to invest in an EDID spoofer. The card doesn't capture digital audio either.
This device does not capture composite or S-video.
For direct capture there are some points to keep in mind
- Video has to be optimally timed
- The card has no low-pass or anti-aliasing filter. While this results in sharp capture, poor quality video signals will suffer greatly. This means devices such as the SuperSDSystem3 stock will not look correct at all. When doing direct capture using high quality cables is a must. HDRetrovision cables have a built in low-pass filter while devices such as the Scart2DVI have it on a toggle if you would like to add one to your signal chain.
- The card supports RGB and YPbPr video sources. For RGB you can use RGBS, RGsB and RGBHV. With YPbPr sources there are a few caveats.
- 480p analog sources have a vertical positioning issue with the capture. The top or bottom 5px will be cut off resulting in loss of video. Currently the only work around is converting the video to digital
- Video that is 720x480i (DTV) analog also suffer from an issue where you cannot optimally time your video to then use in a program to deinterlace it on the fly. This is because the DirectShow filter will not change from the detected 640px width even though you require 720px. The simplest work around here as well is to digitize the signal and work from there.