Avermedia Live Gamer HD

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

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Ok, so not a PC game but very much PC game related and I think more interest in here than in General Hardware.

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http://www.avermedia.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?Id=571

http://www.avermedia.com/Upload/1080p_game_capture/index.html

http://www.avermedia.com/Upload/ProductImages/C985+Datasheet20120214.pdf

I have been looking for a hardware based encoder for a long time and this looks ok, I think?

Also supports Streaming in 1080p which considering will have no system overheads is pretty impressive.

The only downside for me is having to use a passthrough cable. Surely it should be possible to use just as an encoder?
 
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I have the previous model of this, and it works really well in all honesty. I know totalbiscuit bought an avermedia broadcaster card recently for his streams and the posts regarding it were all good so I'd be pretty confident in saying that this would be absolutely fine for local recording or streaming.

If you have a decent enough PC, you might not even need the passthrough, depending on what you're doing. I was a bit worried when I bought mine since I'd read about delay when recording. However I have a decent PC so mine runs at perfect speed on the PC monitor without messing about with splitter cables and so on. You might be lucky and not actually need to use it.
 
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Good to know, thanks.

Just awaiting a launch price and release date in the UK. Apparently available from the 30th April apparently.

Does the Broadcaster have hardware encoding as to reduce resource overheads when streaming?

Looks like it does not but I guess it is better than a pure software based method?
 
I don't know the exact specifics of that card to be honest, but reading through the bumph on it, it's just a newer version of what's out there.

All the avermedia stuff will happily record into several formats, however the h.264 format that they use is spot on for youtube, so I tend to stick with that. The card does the encoding for you, so literally, you click record and it creates 1 file. Fraps will create several files, and uses up a load of harddrive space, while the avermedia files are miniscule in comparison.

For me, (I record at 1280x720) fraps takes a little over a gig per minute of footage. The avermedia one usually comes in at around half that. It really depends on which settings you're using and so on though, so don't take those as gospel, but it's usually noticeably smaller. I find the fact it records to one file is really useful too. It allows me to archive stuff better.

I've not streamed with this card I have yet though, so I can't really comment on it, but there's certainly a fair number of youtube users using avermedia cards so I know they're not a piece of junk or anything.
 
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Damn, I just grabbed the game broadcaster hd from them recently (c127), I'm wondering if I got the right one now or I should have gotten this instead.

Edit: Looks ok.. main differences being h.264 hardware encoding (broadcaster doesn't have that according to AverMedia's site), I think I can manage without that, and it outputs HDMI / stereo sound, whereas I'd have to use a splitter for my sources going in if I want to do the same thing. Those who want to record PS3 will have their work cut out for them with the newer live gamer HD though since it doesn't support components.
 
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Just watched the video for the RECentral software they're using with the new card, and it seemed to show a configuration pic where a PS3 was hooked up to the card using HDMI for recording.

If it can do that (as directly as that), that will be of interest to me..
 
All the avermedia cards should allow h.264 capture. Not sure if i'm misreading or whatever, but they all pretty much use the same AverTV software so I'm 99% sure that they can all record to h.264 out of the box.

Topdog's right about the PS3 though, it's an encrypted HDMI signal and none of the cards will capture that. Some come with a 10 in one converter to convert component and composite to HDMI, mine being one of those so I'm ok, but it's worth bearing in mind.
 
Both live capture hd and broadcaster hd allow h.264 capture, but one can do it using hardware on the card itself, the other relies on the PC's CPU to do the encoding work - that's the difference, for when you're recording the local PC itself, though in my case it won't matter much since I'm usually recording from an external source anyway, and the PC has enough CPU spare in those instances.

I just did a translation of the russian website that reviewed the live hd though, and they confirmed that the HDCP with PS3 over HDMI is still an issue with the new card. Too bad.
 
Ah I see what you mean. Too busy to read properly lol Like you said if you have a decent enough PC it should be ok, but that's a SHOULD, not a will. Mine doesn't encode on the hardware so I know it slows down the PC a bit, but I only upgraded last year and the i7's got plenty of juice so I don't even notice in all honesty.

I got to say that RECentral software looks a damn sight better than the AverTV stuff. I could be very interested in the way it does voice, video and streaming all from the UI like that, that's pretty sweet instead of using different apps for them all. Will definately keep an eye on it and see how it goes down.
 
The Live Gamer HD only encodes to h.264 so you cannot save as alternate formats. For what will probably be around the £1150-£170 mark, that is fine by me.

For me, that is not a problem but some will have problems taking a 1080p source and shoving it through h.264.

For the mainly streaming purposes and occasional backup I need, it is not an issue.

What I want to know is if you can use it without using a passthrough cable. If you cannot, then I do not see what is "PC" about it. Still looks a great piece of kit though as not that many hardware encoding capture cards available in the sub £200 price range.
 
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iviv said:
Any word on if they can deal with 1920x1200?
Click to expand...

1080p is the maximum it can officially capture as far as I am aware.

All depends if the encoding chip has enough "oomph" left over I guess if it can be forced to do otherwise although I doubt it.

When capturing 1080p at 60fps, it will encode to 1080p at 30fps which is still not to be sniffed at, although depends on your usage I guess.

I just want to live stream and upload to Youtube so for me, anything more would be overkill.
 
I'm becoming interested in capturing my gaming, I was wondering would something such as 'Roxio Game Capture' be suitable for some probably quite short, raw footage with no fancy edits?

Or something like Fraps? I would just like to capture the raw footage and put it on places such as youtube. Thanks.

The roxio game capture for console comes with a hardware encoder but the pc doesn't, is there anything available for the pc that doesn't cost the earth?

Or is this avermedia live gamer hd thing all thats available.
 
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The Avermedia card is unique which is why it is gaining attention in that it is able to encode on the fly. It is also superb for those of use wanting to offer a live stream of our gaming as hardly any system resources are used by the process.

If you just want to capture to place on youtube and have enough HDD space, then try something like:

http://www.fraps.com/
http://dxtory.com/v2-home-en.html
http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/index.htm

Fraps for example will record .AVI files so you will need to encode them to work with them really. I use the AMD Video converter as it is much quicker than allowing the CPU to do the encoding.

If you want to Stream, then the Live Gamer HD is definitely worth a look.
 
Gazanimal said:
Looks good Gimpy.

I want to see it in action 1st before I plump for a large outlay like that on a capture card. DXtory + Xsplit seems to be OK atm.
Click to expand...

I was torn between a CPU/Mobo upgrade or the Live Gamer and for myself, streaming will be the main use and the fact this can encode the stream iteself on the fly, is perfect, especially on lower end hardware.

If you have a decent enough CPU like an i7, maybe you may not notice much difference although I would expect a standlone solution to offer benefits above software based encoding.
 
I know streaming for me takes a fair hit on the fps, even with a i7 2600k @ 4.5GHz

I probably lose about 40-50% of my FPS when it's running, but it depends on the game tbh.

I know it'd be nice to have a proper capture card, but £200 is a lot of cash for it.... hmmmm.
 
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