Capture Cards - Picking and is it worth it?

Gandeh

Gandeh

Gandeh

Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2011
Posts
545
Hey folks,


Hopefully I've put this in the right place... I don't think there is anywhere better it could go but no doubt the mods will bash my head if their was and I can cower like the noob I am.



So yea, I do quite a bit of game recording on my PC. And I have so far been confined to Fraps.

My Gfx card is a Gainward GTX 580 3gb.

I like to and want to continue recording in full HD as I often integrate "real world" video that is 1080p.


So 1080p is a must and I guess I'm looking at a PCI E card which is fine I've got the space.

Now here is the issues.

My friend bought this one:-

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_colossus.html

He claims it is garbage, was a lot of money and produces poor quality than fraps. On top of which the file format apparently wasn't compatible with his Sony Vegas video editor which is one I use quite frequently.




Another friend of a friend swears by this one:-

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

Though I have not been able to speak to him in person yet.




The one I want is this one:-

The Intesity Pro PCI E.

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensity/models/




Thoughts, experience, advice is much sought after and needed! Storage space is not an issue on my machine what so ever. I care only about the quality of the end product and crucially being able to import it into video edition software like vegas, adobe, after effects etc.
 
The bad news is that no capture cards at the mo can record 1080p@60fps.
The best they can do 1080i@50 or 720p@60.
You can input the game @ 60fps but you will only get 25/30 recorded.

I use Blackmagic cards. I've got and intensity pro (PCIe) and shuttle(USB3.0) to do my xbox recording and they work very well.
AVerMedia is also a well known brand although I have never used one, there is a lot of streamers which do use it and recommend it highly.

These 2 cards will allow the stream to be viewed on your PC, you will need a program to do the saving. If you are using your PC to game at the same time as recording like this you will notice a dip in performance as your processor will be encoding the stream as you play. (that won't happen with the Hauppauge)

When I travel to Leicester they record using the Hauppauge HD PVR. (it doesn't accept HDMI though)
They also then edit to Vegas, i believe you can change the file type it saves as.
(the drive is inside the device and it automatically saves it)

As they all cost roughly the same you can't go wrong with any of them.
 
Which is better 1080i@50 or 720p@60? Can both cards above do this quality?

I thought the beauty if a capture card was that it does not give you a dip in performance. Also it's strange to hear that the card will not auto save and I would need another programme running.
 
If the card was installed on another PC then if wouldn't give you a dip in performance, which they are designed for. (dedicated recording/streaming PCs)
Both cards come with software bundled with them i believe (blackmagic definately does) but you only need something like adobe live media encoder which is free.

I prefer 720@60 after trying the two out, but if you want 1080p then most people won't notice it @ 30 fps especially if its going on Youtube or similar.

The blackmagic software does allow you to pretty much save the raw data. when i mean raw i mean @ 1080 you are looking @ 1GB a minute. This barely impacts your processor at all but obviously eats your HDD space, and requires fairly quick write speeds to not drop frames/quality.
 
I've got multiple hard drives so the idea was to write to one that wasn't being accessed for the game.

But the key for me is the ability to save as I record
And then deal with the files when I get out of the game. If that is the case could you pick ou one card over any other?
 
I have a Hauppauge Colussus in my rig for capturing and it works fine but I am not sure I would recommend it. When I was looking I heard good things about it as well as good things about blackmagic capture cards too. While I have never used a blackmagic card for comparison I have had niggles with the colussus which while I have sorted them out, I had trouble finding guides or help so was very much trial and error.

Video quality wise though, I am perfectly happy with it. You can choose the quality if records at which obviously low is terrible quality however high gives good videos in my opinion. I assumed I was capturing uncompressed video however as per the posts above in doubt about it as when capturing the file size is 1gb for about 7-8 mins of video. As for opening in vegas, I have no idea what your friend is talking about. I cap to mp4 and it opens without problem in vegas.

Edit: As I said never used anything else for comparison but the Hauppauge works fine but.... It is a 'but' product. In that for what I need it captures all the video etc buf maybe qualfy.
 
Last edited:
I think if I'm being honest I'm between these two:-

http://www.avermedia.com/product/Pro...il.aspx?Id=571

or


http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/prod...ensity/models/


I am not so focused on 1080p. All of the videos I'll be publishing will end up on youtube. So a 720p standard will be absolutely fine. I would prefer 60fps but obviously 30fps would be fine also.

My main focus is on a card that will give best quality with the least impact on performance. And the easiest compatibility for importing the video to editing programmes. Basically I'm wanting it to record and immediately save in a format that I can instantly import to an editing software.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom