Customer Reviews

Gamebridge AVC-1400 USB 2.0 Cnct Xbox PS2 To Pc Xp SP2 2K SP4

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Bought Adaptec Gamebridge AVC-1400 just for the possibility to play console game without a TV. Adaptec has another model, AVC-1410, which includes TV tuner. But I don't see a TV tuner is useful for me. So, I went with 1400 instead.

AVC-1400 comes with a Gamebridge main unit, a USB cable to connect Gamebridge to the computer, a 4-in-1 cable to connect the video/audio source like game console to Gamebridge, and Installation CD/guide.

USB cable uses the standard mini-USB connector on Gamebridge side, and USB A on PC side.

4-in-1 cable has composite, audio L and R, and S-Video for A/V source, and a very small proprietary connector (smaller than that mini-USB) for the Gamebridge main unit side. The small connector worries me, as it seems to be quite easy to break.

It's misleading to say AVC-1400 is small. The Gamebridge main unit is small for sure, but you can't just carry main unit with you and not bring AV 4-in-1 cable and USB cable. Without those cables, you can't have the video/audio send to your computer. So, consider all the pieces you need to get this to work, the whole thing is not that small. Also, I don't really like the idea to have this AV 4-in-1 cable. I'd prefer all the A/V connectors to be built into the Gamebridge main unit itself. That way, you don't have to worry about breaking that tiny connector. Also, you have less pieces to carry around, thus less chance to lost something.

Software installation includes two parts - Gamebridge driver and InterVideo Home Theater application. Both installed smoothly from the included CD. Application installation take longer than I expected. Also, I thought I don't really need InterVideo Home Theater application.

I tried this thing with my two sons playing GameCube. The video quality is pretty good, but full screen mode is a little bit blurry, as my son put it. Then again, the result is actually better than I expected. I have no problem with sound, unlike a user has reported earlier. Recording is fine too. There is a very short video freeze immediately after click on recording button, but smooth after that. Recording has three mode - Good, Better, and Best. My test was done with Best video quality.

I thought I should be able to use any software that has video capture ability to display the video from A/V source. But I tried Skype and VLC, both failed to open up Gamebridge capture device. VLC actually hung my Windows.

All in all, Gamebridge does provide me the ability to play console games using my computer as a TV monitor. And it allows me to record the game session. All in pretty good video/audio quality. 4-star rating because I don't like the fact that I need to carry three pieces of hardware. This will be a perfect device if the USB cable and A/V cable are built into the Gamebridge.

I bought this because I am going to Iraq soon and did not want to have a TV in my small living space. It installed without a hitch and seemed to work great on my PC. Then when I plugged my 360 into it and there was instantly a very big sound delay. I did some research online and found the fix. It is right here http://forums.avault.com/showpost.php?p=302399&postcount=23. Basically you turn off Codecs except the ones needed for the Gamebridge and your problem is fixed. I played Blue Dragon for about 1 hr and never experienced a problem (with Anti Virus and Bit torrent still running). I do not have the best computer in the world since its like 3 years old. So I know this will solve almost all the sync problems. Get this adapter if you want to play games on Laptop or record game footage. You can't beat it for the price!! I would have loved to have this in Korea.

If you just want to view material from set-top devices through a computer/laptop monitor and you don't have a tuner card installed, then this thing does the job.

If you want to play video games on the same screen, stay away. The delay between the video game console's output, Gamebridge, USB connection, viewer, and monitor picture delay is unbearable.

Also, DO NOT INSTALL THE GARBAGE PROGRAM FROM THE INSTALLER DISC! It's too bloated and automatically associates itself with video files. Only load the driver for the GameBridge to get it to work. You're better off downloading DScaler for free and using it as your viewer.

I'm only using it now to watch TV from a set-top recorder's tuner on a small section of the monitor while working on something on the computer at the same time. That's the only good use for this.

this is great. i was able to record my xbox360 with a splitter that went to the gamebridge and the tv so i didnt have to watch myself play on my laptop. only drawback is that it doesnt have the tv tuner like the newer version does, so when i was recording tv (with AV cables from my cable box) i wasnt able to set it to schedule a recording start/stop time. but i just let it run for about 12 hrs, and just cropped out what i didnt need. as long as there is space on the HD, it is fine. overall this is worth the price, especially if you like to record yourself and post up your vids on the web.

My son is deployed to Iraq and has his PS2 and laptop there with him for when he has down time. Unfortunately, a forward base he was sent to did not have a TV so he could not use his PS2. He asked me to look online and find out if there was a way he could play his PS2 on his laptop screen, so I did some research and finally bought this Gamebridge.
I had to send him the special instructions for use with Windows Vista, and also downloaded DScaler onto a CD to go with it, but I am happy to say it works perfectly!!

Perfect service, however, the product doesn't work with Vista. I should have looked more closely.

This is a wonderful product that works as advertised.

one thing that you might want to know, is that if you try playing directly to your pc, it may lag slightly. so if you're using this to record competitive games, I suggest getting RCA splitting cables (1 female - 2 male). then you can play on your tv and record on your pc at the same time. it works wonders.

Seems like a lot of people, including me, are having sound trouble even though we have top-notch computers. The company really isn't doing much and it's practically impossible to get customer support.

I play my PS2 on it. Video's ok, sometimes there're green horizontal glitch-streaks but that's not much of a problem. The sound is choppy and that's really annoying.

I haven't tried other cards, but I'd recommend those than this one.

I've been wanting to get a PlayStation 2 for some time now... but having a lack of money has been a problem.

Recently, I was able to finally afford to buy one, but since I don't own a TV, I needed to either wait until I could also afford that, or I needed to find a way to hook the PS2 up to my computer monitor.

Enter the GameBridge by Adaptec. This handy little box of hardware allows you to take your PS2, or any other gaming console with standard RCA audio/video outputs, or anything that uses S-Video as well, and plug it into your computer via a USB port. I thought to myself, "that sounds perfect!", and given the price of only $20.00 I thought I'd give it a try before spending $100.00 or more on a TV tuner that I could plug into my monitor via VGA or DVI connection.

The GameBridge does what it's supposed to do. It allows you to successfully hook up your console system to your computer through a USB 2.0 connection. After that, it relies on the InterVideo Home Theater software (included) to interface with the audio/video signals coming in from the GameBridge (I assume it handles this much as a streaming multimedia file). So basically, the GameBridge takes the TV audio/video signals from the console and converts them into steaming multimedia. The Home Theater software then allows you to view, listen to, and record that streaming media.

Now all that is GREAT! Unfortunately, here's where the problems come up. Firstly, as others have noted, there is low-quality graphics. This is due to the fact that standard TV signals are in either 800x600 or 640x480 resolution (I forget which) and most peoples' computers run at higher desktop resolutions than that these days (1280x960 and 1280x1024 are the most common standards of today). So when you make the Home Theater interface go full-screen, you are blowing up an 800x600 (or smaller) image to something much larger than that, and this causes a decrease in image quality.

You could theoretically reduce this by setting the PS2 up to broadcast in HDTV mode, which increases the resolution to 1080x810 (I think. This is about a 35% increase), unfortunately, the GameBridge cannot handle or convert HDTV signals from the console, so this isn't an option. We are therefore left with three choices... 1) leave things as they are and simply accept the lowered image quality, 2) get a different piece of hardware, such as a TV tuner that you can plug straight into your monitor and that is capable of utilizing and converting HDTV signals (this could improve image quality somewhat), or 3) reduce your desktop screen resolution to around 800x600 everytime you are going to be using the gaming consolse, and then switch it back again for normal computer useage (I actually cannot lower mine any smaller than 800x600 because of hardware and driver limitations).

But the problems the GameBridge has don't end there. As some of the previous reviewers have mentioned, there is an audio delay of roughly 1-3 seconds. Now, Shaun Oberlin did a review in which this problem was addressed and a website address was provided that leads to a forum message. In that forum message are instructions for how to supposedly correct this audio lag problem. Those instructions do not work, so don't bother to try them! Using those instructions, and taking them a step further, I disabled ALL of my audio and video software, drivers, and codecs, and then systematically restarted them until I found that only two are necessary for use with the GameBridge and the InterVideo Home Theater software. I disabled all others except for those two and found that while the audio lag disappears at first, it slowly returns and worsens over time as you use the console. This cannot be changed.

I did, find a suitable workaround for the audio lag problem though. I went out to RadioShack and baught a simple and inexpensive adapter (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103710&cp). This allows me to take the RCA Phono audio cables (the red and white ones) and convert them into standard 1/8" Stereo MiniJack and plug it into the "Line In" connection on my sound card. Now, I have the yellow, video connector connected to the GameBridge and running through USB and InterVideo Home Theater, and the red and white audio connectors are now running directly into my sound card. Because the audio signals are now handled directly by my sound card, there is absolutely NO noticeable audio lag.

This leads into a third, and very minor issue. Once I started using the audio adapter from RadioShack, and thus had no audio lag, I did notice that the GameBridge has a very slight graphical lag as well... roughly 0.25-0.5 seconds worth. Now, this really shouldn't have any adverse affects on anyone's performance in playing games... I don't even notice it during high-speed races in Gran Turismo 4, but it is something that could use improvement (although such improvement may not be technologically possible at this time).

So in summary, the GameBridge, together with the audio adapter from RadioShack (similar adapters should be available at other electronics stores as well, such as BestBuy), and a sound card that can accept 1/8" Stereo MiniJack Line In connections, will allow anyone to play their console through their computer rather than through a TV. And if you already own a computer, this is a much less expensive path than buying a TV or buying a full TV tuner for your computer monitor (such as those here at Amazon.com). You'll have to deal with low image quality, but that really cannot be helped because of the technologies being used... this is a limitation of the consoles. There are, however, three areas in which the GameBridge can use improvement... First, they could be redesigned to allow for HDTV signals from the consoles to be interpreted and converted properly to help improve image quality. Secondly, they could use their own software to interface between the GameBridge and the computer, rather than the InterVideo Home Theater software. This could give them the opportunity to create a software package that would automatically change the screen resolution that the program runs under so that people don't have to manually change their screen resolutions every time they want to play with reasonable image quality (this is the way most games made for the PC handle it if the game's resolution is lower than the desktop resolution being used on the computer). And lastly, they could either improve the way the system handles audio signals in order to eliminate the audio lag, or they could include an adapter such as the one that I'm now using.

So in short, I give this little item 3 stars. It works, but it only works well if you couple it with other items and make some adjustments. It does roughly what it's supposed to do, and does it cheaply, but it definitely needs some improvement.

So, I bought mine about a year and a half ago, but I bought mine for about 15 bucks, right here on Amazon.com. They were having a deal that I could NOT believe! But as far as the GameBridge goes, it came with the CD and I was able to use it on my laptop no problem. I recently installed it on my PC as well that's running on Vista, and if you type into Google about using it on Vista, you can find a bunch of forums that show how to install it, and I have no problems whatsoever. The only slight problem which I easily fixed by getting a Y adapter to go from the red and white audio to a headphone connector, and then bought a little golden cylinder that takes in a headphone connector on either side just so I could connect the red and white audio connectors from my PS2 into some speakers, because if you use the GameBridge to connect your audio, I found a slight lag in it and that got annoying. But otherwise, great!

As for the cylinder thing, I don't remember what it's called, but it's a cylinder that has a female 2.5mm headphone connection on either side, so you can connect the Y-Adapter to a pair of speakers and listen from the speakers, or to a set of headphones and listen like that. Hope this helps!