Hey friends
I need to get a capture card.
Reason: I don't have a tv or a monitor to play console games on.
Instead of spending a ton on that, and I wouldn't have room either, I wanna plug the console on my capture card and play watching obs.

I used to do this ages ago when I was dual booting windows, the capture card I had doesn't work on linux, there are new drivers someone managed to make and some say it works, doesn't for me though.

Goes without saying, I need as little delay as possible.

The most competitive game I play is splatoon, though I might get that new fromsoftware game on switch2.

@raccoon Guessing you are using a laptop rather than a desktop if you say you don't have a monitor already?

My pennies' worth here is consider searching for a 'KVM switch' as well as 'capture card'. They're functionally the same hardware, but KVM switches might be better optimized for low latency than a typical capture card. KVM switches are expensive, but the advantage of being 'office' equipment is that you might get a second-hand bargain more easily.

@seabass@social.seabass.systems
I'm looking into them but I'm not sure they do the same thing.
I'm finding very cheap ones too, but what they seem to do is control multiple machines with the same set of keyboard and mouse, am I misunderstanding it?

@raccoon Sort of - the basic KVM switch is just connecting two or more computers to the same peripherals like you say.

A networked model ("KVM-over-IP") takes this one step further. The machine (let's say your games console) is plugged into it and "sees" a monitor attached to itself. The KVM-over-IP unit doesn't have an actual screen, but instead sends the video signal from the console to another computer on the same network. You'd see a window on your laptop with the entire video output of the console inside it. You could resize or hide that window, and the console would still happily think it's got a screen attached to it.

If you can connect a gamepad directly to the console that would work perfectly, but sending the gamepad signal through the KVM switch (because you want the console to live in different room to your laptop, for instance) is trickier.

I'm sort of hesitant to recommend it too much really, just because of how expensive these devices are. But if you could pick up one cheaply, I think it would make for a very pleasant experience. Remember Google Stadia? It'd be like your own personal version of that :)

@raccoon Oh, and be careful to make sure it's actually a KVM-over-IP unit and not just a KVM switch with a network switch built-in... that's probably what the cheap ones you're seeing are, although I'd be delighted if I were proved wrong!

@seabass@social.seabass.systems
And you wager one of those would do what I need? With close to no latency?
Sounds insane that something over IP would do that.

That said, sadly even the cheaper I can see on ebay is still a bit more expensive than another options I have.
The only reason I am not buying one of the other options is because
For one I dunno if it would work on linux (Elgato HD60 S+)
The other I dunno if it would be close to no latency (Blackmagic Design Decklink Mini Monitor)

@raccoon Yeah, I might have introduced you to a red herring there, sorry... IP is definitely not the bottleneck; single-digit-millisecond latencies are possible (I've achieved them in certain setups) including with high-resolution video. But I can't actually find any low-latency KVM-over-IP devices for sale

I guess something that is possible does not equal something which is purchasable

@seabass@social.seabass.systems
Womp womp :(

@seabass@social.seabass.systems @kkarhan@c.im @lexxy@social.foxtail.garden

SO!
I ended up buying something that @snacks@netzsphaere.xyz suggested on xmpp.
UGREEN HD USB Video Capture Card.
There were a few ugreen options, I bought the cheapest and most simple one, it's just a dongle with an hdmi in and usbc out, with included an adapter for usbc to usba.
I don't remember the price exactly, but it was around 20 euros.
Worked out of the box, nothing required to be installed.
I haven't used it to play competitive or fast paced games yet, so I don't know how good the delay is, playing a comfy game feels like the delay is negligible, I press a button and the character reacts seemingly instantly.
Just sharing this because the dongle is very cheap, the quality is good, works on linux plug & play. The game colors look fine, it doesn't seem to be blurry. 1080p 60fps.
Attached, a screenshot taken while wifey is playing.

@raccoon Wow, great news! I'm very happy that it's all worked out ^^

@snacks @kkarhan @lexxy

@seabass@social.seabass.systems @snacks@netzsphaere.xyz @kkarhan@c.im @lexxy@social.foxtail.garden
Thanks, I shared just because it's good to get the infos out for others to find.
BTW I didn't realize I was talking with someone from fdroid.
I use it as my main source of apks, thank you <3

Off topic but what are the plans for when google starts doing the bullshit with "OnLy ApPs FrOm VeRiFiEd DeVs CaN bE iNsTaLlEd" ?

@raccoon @seabass @lexxy as far as i can tell all recent cheapo capture cards should be like this since they'll use some off the shelf universal video capture chip

Hello again @raccoon ! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - I wanted to give a proper response but that also meant replying to you went in my stupidly long backlog of F-Droid tasks

I'm so glad you find F-Droid valuable. It always makes my day to hear how people appreciate using it

Regarding the Google changes, we're actually having a special meeting this week to discuss that. We've already spent hours discussing this, so unfortunately even the threat of Google introducing these new restrictions has already been taking valuable resources away from improving F-Droid :(

One thing we are doing is trying to improve the relationships between F-Droid and other free builds of the Android Open Source Project - things like GrapheneOS, LineageOS, CalyxOS and so on. We already shared a stand with e Foundation (of eOS) at the last FOSDEM conference, which was really great! The reason why this is important is that these operating systems won't be subject to Google's restrictions, so users will continue to be able to use F-Droid as normal.

For the users who will be using Google builds of Android, which unfortunately will still be the majority for a long time, we're exploring some options to make it easy for users to run apps inside virtual machines. This still won't stop Google having ultimate control, but will take a lot of the hassle away from using F-Droid after the new restrictions come into effect, and it should prevent Google selectively banning specific Free and Open Source apps.

Also a big shout-out to @IzzyOnDroidOrg who have been doing amazing work as well. Their efforts have been absolutely invaluable in getting the [https://KeepAndroidOpen.org] campaign off the ground (F-Droid is one of the 71 organizations backing it.)

Thanks again for asking and I would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have or clarify anything I was unclear about

@snacks @kkarhan @lexxy

@seabass@social.seabass.systems @IzzyOnDroidOrg@floss.social @snacks@netzsphaere.xyz @kkarhan@c.im @lexxy@social.foxtail.garden

GrapheneOS happens to be my os of choice for mobile, I always thought adding fdroid as a preinstalled app would be a nobrainer.
I wish I could do something useful, but I never managed to learn how to make applications and I struggle learning things in general so...
I know I could donate, but I'm doing poorly economically so the best I can do is cheer you all on T_T

@raccoon We really appreciate the cheers from users like you Don't feel obliged to donate or anything :)

GrapheneOS hasn't been super positive about adding F-Droid by default in the past, but that's exactly the sort of thing which hopefully we can establish a rapport with them for, and see if we can resolve any of the objections they have :)

@snacks @kkarhan @lexxy