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Elgato 4K60 S+ announced (PC-free recording at 4K 60FPS HDR, $399 USD, releases January 2020)

Lukar

Lukar

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
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Oct 27, 2017
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Heard this thing mentioned on today's Kinda Funny Games Daily and thought it sounds pretty cool. Elgato's coming out with a new capture device that lets you record 4K video at 60 FPS and in HDR, without needing to use a PC for the recording process. It just saves the recording to an SD card, which you can then pull your files off of on a PC to edit as needed. This is a huge thing for people like me who can't easily hook a PC or laptop up near their consoles, so I'm very curious to see how this thing shakes out. According to The Verge, it releases later this month for $399.99 USD.




Marketing-ass snippets from the website:

Recording 4K HDR content is usually confined to production studios with hefty desktop rigs. Not anymore. Compact and portable, 4K60 S+ sports all the cutting-edge technology you need to record high-fidelity gameplay. Anywhere, even without a computer.

BUILT TO TOUR
From local meetups to global capture events, saving your performance couldn't be easier. Just insert an SD card and hit record. No PC or software necessary.

NEXT-GEN ENCODING
The HEVC chip on board 4K60 S+ touts the highest encoding performance possible. Now, you can record up to seven hours of action-packed 4K HDR gameplay to a 256GB SD card. Or record directly to your PC's hard drive without overloading its CPU.

TRUE PASSTHROUGH
Whether broadcasting live or future proofing your archive, your gaming experience remains unaltered: stunning 4K HDR at 60 frames per second with absolute zero lag.

SET FOR THE STUDIO
Back at your workspace, connect via USB 3.0 and instantly elevate your Twitch or YouTube channel. 4K60 S+ works seamlessly with popular PC broadcasting apps, including OBS Studio.
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CHOOSE YOUR MODE
Standalone
4K60 S+ works both hard and smart to capture 4K HDR gameplay easily, efficiently and without a computer.
  • SD CARD SLOT: Record 4K60 HDR directly to an SD card (min. UHS Class Speed 3/V30).
  • RECORD BUTTON: The capacitive touch sensor pulsates red to signal recording.
  • AUDIO INPUT: Captures all PS4 audio when using Chat Link to connect a headset to your controller.
  • REAL-TIME OPTIMIZATION: Automatically adapts recording resolution, bitrate and file format to console and display settings.
PC-connected
Dedicated PC software for maximum performance. Powerful yet easy to use. Meet 4KCU: custom-built to help you get the most out of 4K60 S+.
  • HDR 10 CAPTURE: Record vivid highlights and deep shadows.
  • FLASHBACK RECORDING: Slide back in time to save gameplay retroactively.
  • LIVE COMMENTARY: Add your voice as a separate track.
  • VIDEO LIBRARY: Archive, find, and export files with ease.
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Desma

Desma

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,195
Pretty cool, but hope they'll make a version that connects to a PC.

Sending to an SD card is bound to cause some problems with the footage
 
Justin Iacobellis

Justin Iacobellis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,304
United States
You can also record directly to a computer, so using an SD card is not required. I was expecting Elgato to eventually release a product like this and am glad that they did. It fills the niche of those that don't own a PC and could not use one of the preexisting PCIe cards.

Funny enough, I noticed the 4K60 S+ on Elgato's website late last night. I had assumed it was already announced because the entirety of the product page was there. I guess it went live prematurely?
 
OP
OP
Lukar

Lukar

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,346
Justin Iacobellis said:
You can also record directly to a computer, so using an SD card is not required. I was expecting Elgato to eventually release a product like this and am glad that they did. It fills the niche of those that don't own a PC and could not use one of the preexisting PCIe cards.

Funny enough, I noticed the 4K60 S+ on Elgato's website late last night. I had assumed it was already announced because the entirety of the product page was there. I guess it went live prematurely?
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Seems that way. The tweet for its announcement is only about an hour old.
 
Protome

Protome

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,673
Pretty awesome tbh, makes sense to get this out before the new consoles hit too where 4K will be the standard. Can't imagine many people will be capturing HDR for a while though.
 
Justin Iacobellis

Justin Iacobellis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,304
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LukarWuff said:
Seems that way. The tweet for its announcement is only about an hour old.
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I guess so! The earliest article I could find is from The Verge, which went live at 12PM EST today. Also, they mention that the card will retail for $399.99. That might be a good detail to add to the OP. 😉

ILikeFeet said:
wouldn't the low speed of SD cards cause issues?
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Not necessarily. The maximum bitrate of the 4K60 S+ is 140 Mbps, which only equates to roughly 17.5 MB/s. This is closer to the lower file size for typical 4K recordings on a hybrid camera, which is generally between 100 Mbps to around 500 Mbps. A standard SanDisk SD like this one will handle recordings just fine!
 
Hanbei

Hanbei

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Nov 11, 2017
4,089
So finally, they jumped on the "PC-free" boat. Took them longer than what I thought. Better late than never, I suppose.
 
Overflow

Overflow

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Oct 29, 2017
3,155
Wollongong
Price is ooof, but expected. Neat bit of kit. One of my biggest wishes for PS5 is that it has some kickass internal video recording. The PS4 Pro, even, is pretty lacking with shitty bitrate and max 1080p/30 recording.

pathetic.gif
 
NoKisum

NoKisum

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Nov 11, 2017
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Does this mean I can do high quality Twitch streaming no matter what computer I have? Would be cool to meet up at a friend's place to stream with them, without lugging a huge gaming desktop with me.
 
Edge

Edge

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Oct 25, 2017
21,012
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400 bucks for a thing that records your screen. Technology made a weird turn somewhere between the end of the 90s to today.
You would think that can't be that complicated, but then, I'm thinking that for at least 10 years now.
 
Videophile

Videophile

Tech Marketing at Elgato
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Oct 27, 2017
63
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NoKisum said:
Does this mean I can do high quality Twitch streaming no matter what computer I have? Would be cool to meet up at a friend's place to stream with them, without lugging a huge gaming desktop with me.
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No exactly...the encoder on the device encodes the incoming HDMI video so it can be transmitted via USB 3.0 or sent to the SD card.
If you're streaming, you still need to re-encode the video once you're added your camera, overlays and other audio sources.
 
Videophile

Videophile

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Karak said:
399 isn't too bad. Will be interesting to see what the capture lag is if folks want to go straight to OBS through it and the USB.
Was sort of eye opening to see the lag tests for lots of these cards in the OBS forums
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Due to the onboard encoder the latency is around 200ms. For comparison, our devices without an encoder have a latency of around 70-100ms.
 
JustinH

JustinH

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,389
"A game changer for events"

Yeah... seems like it would be really handy for people who go to like... E3 or something.
Seems really cool, but way too expensive for me you know... for someone who doesn't like publish anything lol.

I'd just record myself playing NES, SNES or Genesis games off my AVS, Super NT or Mega SG but some kind of set top DVD recorder would probably make a lot more sense for me (not buying anything would make the most sense).

edit: I guess I could just swipe my Pop's old DVD TV recorder. He doesn't have cable anymore anyways lol. I wonder how bad the lag is with one of those...
 
Anth0ny

Anth0ny

Member
Oct 25, 2017
46,805
4K 60fps at an acceptable bitrate results in absolutely gigantic filesizes, and the hard drive game hasn't caught up yet. 8TB externals ain't SHIT.

I'm still fine doing 1080/30 or 1080/60 with a high bitrate.
 
LordofPwn

LordofPwn

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Oct 27, 2017
4,402
I feel like Blackmagic Design could really swoop in and undercut that $400 price tag. Will need to keep an eye on NAB this year.
 
kubev

kubev

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Oct 25, 2017
7,533
California
Kudo said:
Can't stream with it?
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Do streaming services support 4K60 yet? I haven't been able to find anything about this. I've been researching it, since I finally have a decent upload speed after having upgraded my Internet plan.

Marsy said:
How would this work with HDCP copy protection? Like PS3 for example.
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You can generally bypass that easily with an HDMI splitter.

I use one of these for my PlayStation 3 and my PlayStation TV:

 
jediyoshi

jediyoshi

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Oct 25, 2017
5,117
Edge said:
400 bucks for a thing that records your screen. Technology made a weird turn somewhere between the end of the 90s to today.
You would think that can't be that complicated, but then, I'm thinking that for at least 10 years now.
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There've been a lot more expensive, industry oriented devices inbetween then and now. This is a downturn in price and upturn in accessibility.
 
Xenosaga

Xenosaga

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Oct 27, 2017
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LtRoyalShrimp said:
If you guys have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them as best I can.

who I am - https://mobile.twitter.com/ltroyalshrimp
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This product sounds really great for someone like me who doesn't have a great PC and is far from the console...
So can you adjust the video quality settings when you record PC-free directly onto the SD card? Like resolution/framerate/bitrate?
If not, what is the default setting for recording PC-free?
 
Pargon

Pargon

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Oct 27, 2017
11,988
At this price, it would be a far more interesting product if it was networked so I could pull the files over to my PC instead of having to dig out an SD card and reader every time.
The use of SD cards probably rules out the possibility of a "replay buffer" mode too, where it's always recording and pressing the button dumps the last X minutes instead of the whole session (which is how I typically use OBS when capturing game footage, rather than streaming).
App/Assistant integration would be nice to see too. Then you could hide it away somewhere.

Yukari said:
Still need another pc to steam or not?
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People saying that you need a second PC for streaming don't know what they're talking about.
Sure, if you're doing this professionally, where it is your main/only source of income, you'll get a higher quality stream with another PC handling the video encoding, but you don't need a second PC to game and stream at the same time - especially not if you have one of the latest NVIDIA GPUs.
 
Videophile

Videophile

Tech Marketing at Elgato
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Xenosaga said:
This product sounds really great for someone like me who doesn't have a great PC and is far from the console...
So can you adjust the video quality settings when you record PC-free directly onto the SD card? Like resolution/framerate/bitrate?
If not, what is the default setting for recording PC-free?
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You can adjust the bit rate - resolution and FPS of the recording is based on the input.

If the input is 1080p60, the recording will
Be 1080p60. If the input is 4K60 HDR the recording is in 4K60 HDR.

The SD card contains a file called settings.txt which lets you configure the standalone settings such as Bitrate, recording format, and the audio source (Line-in, HDMI)
 
Videophile

Videophile

Tech Marketing at Elgato
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Oct 27, 2017
63
San Francisco, CA
Pargon said:
At this price, it would be a far more interesting product if it was networked so I could pull the files over to my PC instead of having to dig out an SD card and reader every time.
The use of SD cards probably rules out the possibility of a "replay buffer" mode too, where it's always recording and pressing the button dumps the last X minutes instead of the whole session (which is how I typically use OBS when capturing game footage, rather than streaming).
App/Assistant integration would be nice to see too. Then you could hide it away somewhere.


People saying that you need a second PC for streaming don't know what they're talking about.
Sure, if you're doing this professionally, where it is your main/only source of income, you'll get a higher quality stream with another PC handling the video encoding, but you don't need a second PC to game and stream at the same time - especially not if you have one of the latest NVIDIA GPUs.
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While the 4K60 S+ has no replay buffer on-device, the 4K Capture Utility which it comes with does. We call it Flashback. It has a time range of 4 hours down to 5 minutes. It's always recording in the background and you can scrub back and start the recording at any point that you choose.
 
AcuteAwareness

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May 21, 2018
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Hanbei said:
So finally, they jumped on the "PC-free" boat. Took them longer than what I thought. Better late than never, I suppose.
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Yeah. Avermedia has been offering PC-free recording with its LGP line for years. I think both Elgato and Avermedia offer very solid products (but for me, their internal capture cards are the way to go).
 
maximumzero

maximumzero

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Oct 25, 2017
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Every now and again I'm tempted into picking up an Elgato device just to record clippets of gameplay, but it looks like my dual-core Macbook Pro is SOL for practically all their products, so I guess I'm waiting it out for a new computer first.
 
Exentryk

Exentryk

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Oct 25, 2017
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Would have liked a 4K 120fps passthrough at least. Recording limited to 4K 60fps is fine. Don't care about HDR capture for now.

Price is high too. Will wait for HDMI 2.1 version.
 
GreatBriTom

GreatBriTom

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Oct 27, 2017
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Hey everyone! I spent all day yesterday testing out the 4K60 S+. It's a beast of a device, but I'm not sure the money and computing power necessary is worth it. More thoughts here.
 
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