HD Capture cards

[Dangerless]

I'm sure some of you have noticed me talking about them, and I want help on this matter and kinda tired of seeing 'get a better pc'. I know HD capture cards are going to be more heavy regardless but I am willing to take a risk, I am also willing to hold on to the capture card until I do get a better PC.

Here is my current setup on OBS
768x432 (16:9) - Capture card is at 720x480 (Dazzle)
veryfast preset
30fps (60fps is okay too but unneeded)

PC specs
Celeron G530 2.4ghz
2GB DD3 Memory
Intel HD graphics

Generally usage about 30%?

Now comes the question, what can I do with an HD capture card? I would assume using a lower resolution on the capture card would ease up on the encoding a bit which is always a plus (if it's able to be customed), what I want to do is play on my HDTV on well HD. I am not going to use a converter on an composite/svdieo signal.

[Jamacanbacn]

Are you getting an external or internal HD card?
Typically any of the HD cards take most of the stress on their own and leave little usage to the pc.

[Dangerless]

Are you getting an external or internal HD card?
Typically any of the HD cards take most of the stress on their own and leave little usage to the pc.

It would be a external capture card

[Dampylle]

Having done a chunk of research on this... here is what I have figured out.

First take into account that some sources like the PS3 actually can not be captured via HDMI and so you have to run component connection (most compatible capture devices though will have a converter cable for a propriatary imput or composite cable included for this reason).

Also since you want to play on your TV the key feature you are looking for is a passthrough.

You will ideally want a card that does not encode the video via hardware as that results in a lower load for encoding... but also results in the need for specific software to actually stream it (or have to use less efficient means of capture such as running software to display the encoded video and using a window capture to get that). Likewise the instance of encoding and decoding can cause issues in terms of audio sync that can at times be cumulative so that it basically gets worse the longer you stream.

This is the main issue with the Haupage PVR2 and Avermedia cards, they use built in encoding which can cause issues with audio or in the case of the Avermedia the actual need to window capture off their software or use a buggy beta software to decode the video in order to stream it as a source.

The Black Magic capture devices are solid, but are very finicky in terms of hardware requirements and so depending on your rig can be hit or miss... or sometimes not even a viable option.

That of course out of the major options leaves the Elgato HD, this one actually does not have any real "issues" per say though you will need to run the 32-bit version of OBS when capturing it as a source because it lacks 64-bit drivers.

If you choose to go with the Avermedia keep in mind you will not be able to use OBS unless you do window capture or screen regions to capture their software (barring a rather buggy beta software that last I heard was still in closed beta to decrypt the video data so it works as a "source" for OBS). They had a deal worked out with Xsplit so it had native support for that... but that caps resolutions and framerates on the free version unless that has changed (it is why I opted for OBS a year or so ago when I started)

Personally I would say go with the Elgato HD, it has no real issues and the least hoops to jump through.

[Dangerless]

Thank you for your informational post Dampylle. Sounds like Elgato is going to be my best bet (and I have heard good things about it as well).

[Jamacanbacn]

note there may be several seconds of delay , not big but just for example some people may see you split early when you actually split at the correct time, its not that big a deal , ALOT of streamers have this. This is mostly the case with any external capture card. I just wanted to inform you.

(Just about the avermedia thing, i believe a fix was made to allow avermedia cards to be captured via device in OBS. )