Console capture card?

Armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillo

Soldato
Joined
29 Feb 2004
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I'm looking to get a capture card to record some game footage, probably mostly Mario Kart 8 and other WiiU stuff.

Looking around it seems most people seem to use either the

Avermedia live gamer portable or Elgato Gamecapture HD. Reviews don't really seem to separate them either.

So for those who have used them, which would you recommend? or maybe something I've overlooked. Just looking to get some first hand opinions on them :).

Also slight concern. They would both be hooked up to a laptop. CPU exceeds what they need (i3-350m), but ram is only 3GB. Both want 4GB, but both have editing features. I'm assuming that ram usage will only be hit when editing large videos and 3GB would be fine for just recording? I can always move the vids and edit on desktop.

Thanks :).
 
Avermedia GameCapture HD 2 is good if you just want to record. just plug in a USB HDD and go. Comes with a remote to start and stop the recordings.

Live Gamer Portable had some serious issues with the length of a video you could record to the SD card, (45mins) not sure if they fixed those though.

All mentioned will do 720p @ 60fps or 1080i @ 60fps

The only card to do 1080p @ 60fps is this one: ExtremeCapU3 But passes through raw video and needs very quick drive speeds (SSD RAID 0) to write the data.
 
Decided to go with the Elgato.

Gamecapture HD2 is out, forgot to mention I wouldn't mind trying out streaming, which that can't do. Most reviews also say it's a bit fidgety, especially without the smartphone app for it.

I did see the U3, but no chance. None of my computers meet the specs for that. Looks like it offloads everything to cpu. Seems all the 1080p/60 cards do, while 1080p/30 have onboard hardware encoder.

Out of the three others (elgato, hd pvr2 & live game portable), seems they are much the same, but most places/people seem to think the elgato has the best/easier software, so going with that.

If it won't place nice with 3GB ram, I'll just upgrade that as 4GB is pretty cheap and go 1x2GB and 1x4GB module (has a 2GB and 1GB stick in at the moment).
 
You could have looked at the Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket which can be used as a standalone or hooked up to a PC
 
Quick update just in case anyone else got similar specs.

It seems to work perfectly fine with the i3-350m and 3GB of ram. Recording with no issues. I suspect the ram might come into play using the video editor, but for now it's fine on 3GB.

Just waiting on my splitter from china now, that apparently removes the hdcp, so I can go back to hdmi on ps3.
 
Just wondering how you getting on with the Elgato ?

I'm thinking of ordering one today but I know there are a few other options so wondering if the Elgato is still the best option ?
 
Jase said:
Just wondering how you getting on with the Elgato ?

I'm thinking of ordering one today but I know there are a few other options so wondering if the Elgato is still the best option ?
Click to expand...

Working great. Most of the usb 2 cards seem to be much the same. Max capping of 1080p 30fps. So unless you want to go for one of the usb 3 ones, I think it just comes down to software/ease of use.

Got no complaints with the software for it, easy to use. No issues there.

Only issue I really have is:

Streaming with OBS instead of the elgato software is not working, I suspect it's the laptop though. OBS seems to be harder on the system and gives "taking too long to encode!" error. Streaming with the elgato software is fine.
 
I ordered one earlier anyway so I could have a play on the weekend. I don't have good enough internet for streaming at the moment so it's only for capturing the 1 out 10 good games I have :)

What sort of size are the files it creates, say 1080P and 20mins ?
 
Jase said:
I ordered one earlier anyway so I could have a play on the weekend. I don't have good enough internet for streaming at the moment so it's only for capturing the 1 out 10 good games I have :)

What sort of size are the files it creates, say 1080P and 20mins ?
Click to expand...

Has a slider for quality, so will depend on that. I don't have a 1080p cap to hand, only vid I got that is that sort of length is a 720p/30fps cap. That was around 1.3GB for 20min on default settings.
 
Elgato is very good, but I would say the Avermedia Capture HD as an internal card would be the best option because you won't have sync issues.

Either way you are good to go. I nearly bought the Elgato recently. The software is good.
 
Jase said:
Just wondering how you getting on with the Elgato ?

I'm thinking of ordering one today but I know there are a few other options so wondering if the Elgato is still the best option ?
Click to expand...

If your after a cheaper alternative to the Elgato the Roxio HD is good as long as you don't use the included software as it pure crap use GamerCap for capturing and VideoReDo for editing and its a good device

Been using a Rocket for a while now which is a great little device but thinking about buying the AVerMedia ExtremeCap U3 because as far as i know it's the only capture device which does 1080 60fps captures which are handy if you have a PS4 or One plus YouTube is doing 60fps video soon :D
 
EYEREX said:
AVerMedia ExtremeCap U3 because as far as i know it's the only capture device which does 1080 60fps captures which are handy if you have a PS4 or One plus YouTube is doing 60fps video soon :D
Click to expand...

Make sure you have an SSD / RAID 0 to record to (its pretty darn good though!! :D)
 
Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket and Roxio Game Capture HD Pro capture side by side

Only difference i can see between the two is a very small difference in colour

 
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