Elgato and AVerMedia are generally considered to be the two main capture card providers. However, which do you think is the better option? I haven't had enough experience with both to know myself.
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Elgato vs. AVerMedia - Who Makes Better Capture Cards/Has Better Capture Software?
- Thread starter Deleted member 23212
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I rarely use the software made by Elgato, preferring to use something like OBS so I don't think either really differ all that much. I know Elgato (software?) allows you to record stuff that's already happened so that might be the better option?
I've only ever used Elgato so I don't know about Avermedia.
I've only ever used Elgato so I don't know about Avermedia.
I wish there was a way to connect consoles to PCs and just hit Print Screen to take lossless screenshots. My Elgato HD60 doesn't co-operate with my computers for 1080p capture. You need a really beefy PC to use it properly. :/ Why does it kill my resources to just run the game console? The recorder should just be displaying the picture in this instance if I just want screenshots only.
I had two elgato products and constantly had some weird sound popping issues which was apparently due to me using a Zen CPU. I could never get it fixed and it was horrible hearing consistent crackling. I switch to an avermedia HD2 I think it was PCI card and has been fantastic and easy to setup and use.
I was using El Gato for years. I've had almost every device they've had but I recently made the switch to Avermedia with that new 4K internal card they have.
Jesus I wish I switched sooner, it performs so much better and more importantly the software is miles better than the Game Capture program the Gato uses, especially in regards to sound and how it impacts the rest of your capture setup.
Jesus I wish I switched sooner, it performs so much better and more importantly the software is miles better than the Game Capture program the Gato uses, especially in regards to sound and how it impacts the rest of your capture setup.
I went through a bunch of them a couple of years ago, my personal experience for whatever it's worth:
Hauppauge PVR60: Trash. Their own software would just crash. Returned.
AverMedia LGX: Very easy to connect and use as a DirectShow device in any software. Soon became apparent it would start dropping frames like crazy every few minutes. Their support requested videos and then never followed up on it. Looking around the web I wasn't the only one with this issue. Returned.
Elgato HD60: Very easy to use as well. No real issues I think.
Elgato HD60 Pro: Grabbed one of these on a sale as the HD60's onboard encoder meant OBS would have to waste significant CPU power just decoding the feed for use as a source (Elgato's own software can use the GPU decoder). Saw similar frame drop issues like on the LGX but unlike with the LGX the frame drops wouldn't show on stream, so no problem. I haven't seen these drops in a while though so maybe it got fixed in an update for whichever software was causing it.
I'd say that due to its popularity it'd probably be the easiest to get help with issues on the web with an Elgato if that's a factor in your purchase.
One disappointing aspect of the HD60/S/Pro is that the passthrough is 4:2:2 chroma subsampled, meaning a splitter is required to retain full image quality.
Hauppauge PVR60: Trash. Their own software would just crash. Returned.
AverMedia LGX: Very easy to connect and use as a DirectShow device in any software. Soon became apparent it would start dropping frames like crazy every few minutes. Their support requested videos and then never followed up on it. Looking around the web I wasn't the only one with this issue. Returned.
Elgato HD60: Very easy to use as well. No real issues I think.
Elgato HD60 Pro: Grabbed one of these on a sale as the HD60's onboard encoder meant OBS would have to waste significant CPU power just decoding the feed for use as a source (Elgato's own software can use the GPU decoder). Saw similar frame drop issues like on the LGX but unlike with the LGX the frame drops wouldn't show on stream, so no problem. I haven't seen these drops in a while though so maybe it got fixed in an update for whichever software was causing it.
I'd say that due to its popularity it'd probably be the easiest to get help with issues on the web with an Elgato if that's a factor in your purchase.
IIRC the HD60 Pro uses the same chip as the Startech equivalent card and that one popular Japanese card I forget the name of, I don't know to which extent they are driver compatible though if at all. The Startech I looked at also had way more inputs other than just HDMI which is nice, but yeah, price.
One disappointing aspect of the HD60/S/Pro is that the passthrough is 4:2:2 chroma subsampled, meaning a splitter is required to retain full image quality.
Right. I was taking in terms of their software. I wouldn't use either for
streaming. Streamlabs obs works great and you can setup either avermedia or elgato capture cards to work with it. Even recording through streamlabs is pretty damn good.
I have a gaming laptop (hp omen i7 nvidia gtx 1050 ti) and elgato hds and for the life of me I cant record/stream at 60fps not even at 720p (even when it says its sending 720p/60fps to youtube), I dunno if I am doing something wrong, of if its the software, but I was told this laptop would be enough to record or stream at 60fps hd. If anyone has any experience and can point me towards the solution I'll really appreciate it.
I went from the Blackmagic Intensity Pro to the Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro thanks to a friend who switched to those ridiculous Magewell Capture Cards and I'm pretty happy. Recording/Streaming everything through Open Broadcaster Software with no issues.
Most issues occur, because people are trying to play, stream and record at the same time, but since you are using Capture Card, I'd guess that you are trying to stream/record from a console? If that's the case, then you need to be absolutely sure that your Capture Card video settings match your console video settings. Like, you can't have your Capture Device set to 720p, if your console is set to 1080p. Same goes for the FPS/Hz settings. Can't have 60FPS, if your console is set to 50 or 30Hz. In both cases, your Capture Card won't receive a signal from your console.
Anyways, to pinpoint your issue, we need more information:
Most issues occur, because people are trying to play, stream and record at the same time, but since you are using Capture Card, I'd guess that you are trying to stream/record from a console? If that's the case, then you need to be absolutely sure that your Capture Card video settings match your console video settings. Like, you can't have your Capture Device set to 720p, if your console is set to 1080p. Same goes for the FPS/Hz settings. Can't have 60FPS, if your console is set to 50 or 30Hz. In both cases, your Capture Card won't receive a signal from your console.
Anyways, to pinpoint your issue, we need more information:
- What is the exact name of your Capture Card? I assume Elgato HD60 (S)?
- What streaming/recording software do you use? Game Capture HD? OBS? XSplit? Something else?
- What actually happens, when you try to stream/record at 60FPS? No signal? Video actually appears, but it stutters/is distorted/has artifacts/etc.?
- What are the settings in your streaming software? Resolution and FPS are clear, but what about Encoder and Bitrate?
- What does your CPU and GPU usage look like, when you stream/record?
I'll think you mean Atomos. Startech stuff is in the same ballpark as AVerMedia and Elgato.
I recently acquired an Elgato HD60 Pro for my Switch video archive sessions (since I have a poor connection to stream at decent bitrate/quality). At the moment everything runs fine and can't complain about the quality of the videos generated.
Avermedia I see so much complains/issues in the web with their cards (that was another reason to choose the Elgato option)...
Avermedia I see so much complains/issues in the web with their cards (that was another reason to choose the Elgato option)...
This is great - 4K pass through too (albeit no HDR). I use it regularly, whilst the bitrate isn't as good as PC based capture the ease of use is unbelievably handy. I wish there were more cards like this on the market. I do occasionally find it records a black screen of nothingness every now and again but the convenience helps me look the other way on this somewhat.
I've owned Avermedia C985 since 2014 and I've had tons of small issues. After a couple of hours of usage my sound would get delayed so I would have to restart the software. Random bug with the RGB range getting changed to limited colors when starting software and console. Heavy delay unless using HDMI passthrough or splitter. Glitched out functions on the software in general. Oh and Avermedia fucked over old customers by not giving us updates to their latest software, disgusting.
Changed to Elgato HD60 pro recently and everything above is almsot gone. Not to mention there's a very small latency issue so I no longer need to even use passthrough or a splitter. The overall functionality of Elgato's software is miles ahead of Avermedia. The one issue I have with Elgato is that I get audio distortion issues when using their sound capture modes.
Changed to Elgato HD60 pro recently and everything above is almsot gone. Not to mention there's a very small latency issue so I no longer need to even use passthrough or a splitter. The overall functionality of Elgato's software is miles ahead of Avermedia. The one issue I have with Elgato is that I get audio distortion issues when using their sound capture modes.
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The 2 Plus has 4K passthrough, but the regular 2 doesn't. I'm not sure which the user has. But yeah, the PC-free recording is the most appealing aspect of AVerMedia to me, because it means I can go to someone else's house and just hook it up and record much more easily.
Are there any capture cards anywhere that capture from display port cable?
I want to capture at 120+fps onto a separate PC so as not to affect performance. I know there are splitters for display ports, so that's one hurdle crossed, but everything else is few and far between. And the few are often not even for sale, just experimental stuff not on any major site without a price displayed and if there is a price it's in the thousands.
120fps for creativity purposes (music videos), I don't care about posting anything on youtube.
I want to capture at 120+fps onto a separate PC so as not to affect performance. I know there are splitters for display ports, so that's one hurdle crossed, but everything else is few and far between. And the few are often not even for sale, just experimental stuff not on any major site without a price displayed and if there is a price it's in the thousands.
120fps for creativity purposes (music videos), I don't care about posting anything on youtube.
The avermedia has some great cards and at better prices but their support is not the best. i got the live gamer ultra no latency easy to set up but it froze at random intervals. Tried to get help from the support but it was a) difficult to get them to respond b) their english communication wasn't the best and after a lot of back and forth i had to return it (mostly they said they have some issues with amd their cards are made for intel cpu's).
To be fair to them after me bugging them quite a bit they did offer multiple suggestions and got a motherboard like mine to run tests with. Maybe my card was problematic and returning it will fix the issue. But i did see other people had the same problem.
To be fair to them after me bugging them quite a bit they did offer multiple suggestions and got a motherboard like mine to run tests with. Maybe my card was problematic and returning it will fix the issue. But i did see other people had the same problem.
Avermedia Live Gamer 4K can do 1440p144 and 1080p240. Only has an HDMI port though. Not sure if an adapter would work
I never used AverMedia before, but I have almost no problems with my Elgato HD60s. The one problem is that the Elgato recording software is a piece of shit compared to OBS/Streamlabs. Fortunately that is easily circumvented since OBS/Streamlabs can directly hook up to them so it's no big deal.
I have an Elgato HD60. But the Elgato software sucks for live streaming. I have a MacBook Pro and I would frequently have streaming issues. And now lately the software constantly asks me to sign into YouTube in the middle of my stream to YouTube. So then it freezes and screws up the stream. I have Gigabit internet and everything. I'm guessing MacBook Pro's are just not great for streaming? But just for capturing footage, it works great and I can record pretty easily.
Elgato seems to be the way to go, really, but.. Other than some minor quirks with the Avermedia Card I have (older one, it's an AverMedia HD Capture Pro C027, though sometimes uses the Dark Crystal), I've been generally happy with it, really. Component is a little wonky, though. Also can de-sync, but I use a program that helps keep the audio and video synced (but it does cause some minor audio stretching issues, as a result, but it's doable), but I forget name (EDIT: Figured it out. AmaRecTV is what I use for this. For stuff that may desync, it's been a godsend for me for component captures, just wish I could do something about the audio problem specifically, but at least that's the worst of it, having the audio partially warp to stretch and fit the video. Not sure why component desyncs otherwise, but eh).
No problems with HDMI capture, though. Composite seems fine too, just a weird issue with Component specifically, from what I can tell.
I still use external software to stream, because Aver Media doesn't really have the best support there, but I know a lot of Streamers do this still with Elgato despite the built in function. I'll note either option you go with, OBS can be a bit finicky to use for both and takes a bit to set up properly. Sometimes can desync even HDMI captures, so just double check this before you start streaming or recording. It's usually only when it initializes that can happen, otherwise it's fine beyond that. I've done 8-12 hour streams/recordings and had no desync issues, for the record.
No problems with HDMI capture, though. Composite seems fine too, just a weird issue with Component specifically, from what I can tell.
I still use external software to stream, because Aver Media doesn't really have the best support there, but I know a lot of Streamers do this still with Elgato despite the built in function. I'll note either option you go with, OBS can be a bit finicky to use for both and takes a bit to set up properly. Sometimes can desync even HDMI captures, so just double check this before you start streaming or recording. It's usually only when it initializes that can happen, otherwise it's fine beyond that. I've done 8-12 hour streams/recordings and had no desync issues, for the record.
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Wait what? An HDCP bypass? So it can record PS3 games? Which one is that?
I had an Avermedia one, but it overheated. The only reason I know that is because it worked for a bit after I threw it in the freezer for a bit (it was after months of it not working).
From what I've been told you can bypass HDCP on PS3 with any capture card by using an HDMI splitter.
tons of HDMI splitters can do itt
i used to do it with this one
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I actually have 2 splitters, the first one was a bit flaky, only working at 720p. I have a new one though, but I haven't tested it yet because all of my PS3 controllers have a mind of their own so I'll have to open them up and try to fix them.
AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K All day everyday! By far the best capture card I have used to date. Not only can it do 4K60 in HDR, but it also works with my HDMI switch! Can't say the same for Elgato's HD60 PRO. I've had nothing but problems getting my HD60Pro to work with my HDMI switch. It would usually take several power cycles just to get it to output to my TV and even then I'd still run into constant flickering. The only real issue I have with the Live Gamer 4K is the software it comes with is pretty bad.Though since I mainly only use OBS it doesn't really affect me.
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My first capture card was a Dazzle DVC100, that thing was a piece of shit that always had driver issues, especially for audio capture.
Anything but the Hauppauge HDPVR2. I have one and it's junk. The Elgatos are pretty good from my experience and easily available at a lot of retailers so that.
I'm trying to do some basic recording with an HD60 S and OBS. I'm new to this whole thing though.
Chroma questions:
Source material is 4:2:0 1080p/60.
The source device is automatically outputting 1080p/60 4:4:4.
If I understand correctly, the Elgato will either handle this as 4:2:0 or 4:2:2.
Do all of these chroma conversions create loss?
I need to do some post-processing so I'd like to minimize this if loss is involved. This might mean I need a different capture device, perhaps the AverMedia Live Gamer Ultra. I don't have room for a PCIE device to fit comfortably.
OBS setup questions:
Ok I also found that I can use another device as source and it'll output the same content at 1080p/60 12 bit 4:2:2.
However if I do this I'm not sure how to setup OBS. If I reference this article: Link This tells me that I should be able to use the HD60 S for YUY2, which is apparently 4:2:2. However if I setup the device in this way it's not clear to me what to use for recording in the Advanced tab (choices NV12, I420, I444, RGB). The same link tells me that RGB isn't real, as it's simulated in some way.
Chroma questions:
Source material is 4:2:0 1080p/60.
The source device is automatically outputting 1080p/60 4:4:4.
If I understand correctly, the Elgato will either handle this as 4:2:0 or 4:2:2.
Do all of these chroma conversions create loss?
I need to do some post-processing so I'd like to minimize this if loss is involved. This might mean I need a different capture device, perhaps the AverMedia Live Gamer Ultra. I don't have room for a PCIE device to fit comfortably.
OBS setup questions:
Ok I also found that I can use another device as source and it'll output the same content at 1080p/60 12 bit 4:2:2.
However if I do this I'm not sure how to setup OBS. If I reference this article: Link This tells me that I should be able to use the HD60 S for YUY2, which is apparently 4:2:2. However if I setup the device in this way it's not clear to me what to use for recording in the Advanced tab (choices NV12, I420, I444, RGB). The same link tells me that RGB isn't real, as it's simulated in some way.
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