video capture hardware?
 

Hi guys,

I have an application that requires capturing the video display
from one machine to another. I want a complete hardware solution,
no mods to the OS on the target machine. Something that I can plug the
video card output cable into. I need to generate a jpg file output.

Any ideas??

Capture from composite video is not really a problem...but what you are talking about is capture from a VGA (or even DVI) output. Not only do you need a capture device that has VGA/DVI input, you need something that can handle potentially massive resolutions (I run my monitor at 1080p, and plenty of people are running even higher than that).

You could convert VGA down to an NTSC composite video signal, and capture that with commodity hardware; but there will obviously be an extreme loss in video quality. You haven't said what your goal is here, so I don't know if that is acceptable or not (probably not though).

This page has up-to-date information on both true VGA capture devices and NTSC conversion; it even gives some devices and their Linux compatibility. Seems a good a place as any to start searching.

MS3FGX, Thanks for your input. To answer your question, I am thinking about
a test bed that I could use for automated QA testing. It is tough to verify
a GUI interface without being able to 'see' what is on the screen. There
are software solutions but that violates the 'run the production code'
rule. Hence the need for an external hardware device.

Thanks again for the link and your comments.

William.