Capture Card

Hardware Hub
1

Hi guys

i need help decide what capture card i need. I read many reviews and search for forums, but there are many different opinion on every card. Someone say it is best and other it is worst. Same for all cards. I do not wanna your suggestion based on stores or product page. I need to hear your true experience.
I know all cards have some pros and cons. I am not IT newbie. I can fight with some troubles, but after I set up, I just wanna use it with no other effort. My budget for this is about 200€ +-20€ (in USD is little bit more) so it is not cheap and I don't wanna spend that much money for something useless.
My use of this card is mainly for record and stream from my gaming PC to my workstation via HDMI. But if it support analog recording via composite cable, it will be perfect. I like to record some of my retro consoles or just video from my older camera. My workstation parameters are: Intel Xeon E3-1231 v3, 16GB of DDR3 RAM (4x4GB), 2 way SLI Nvidia 660Ti (my old gaming cards, found new use), Kingston SSD for OS and PNY SSD as aditional storage, OS Windows 7 enterprise or Linux Ubuntu (changing OS drives, depend in my use). Main softwere for recording is OBS (because I like it), Xsplit possible, but I prefer OBS.
Prefer internal (PCI) card, I do not know if USB is fast enought for 1080/60. But if you have good experience with USB external card, just tell me. I am keeping open mind.

From what I read now:
Black magic design Intensity Pro 4K:
Pros: HDMI and S-Video, and NTSC/PAL connections
Internal
10 bit color
Cons: Many troubles to get it work
Heard that did not work with PC HDMI, because it is different type of output than cameras (with consoles work fine)
Really loud and really, really hot
Elgato game capture hd60 pro:
Pros: 1080/60
Cons: audio desynchronized and lag (read about it a lot)
Avermedia live gamer hd c985:
Pros: work (not a lot of negative reviews)
Cons: Old
only 1080/30
Form USB side:
Avermedia live gamer extreme:
Pros: HDMI and S-Video, and NTSC/PAL connections
1080/60
USB3
Cons: mixed reviews
USB
Elgato game capture hd60:
Pros: 1080/60
Cons: only HDMI
USB 2 (HD60S is USB3 type C but did not see it sell in EU now, only on Elgato store not in local stores)

Do not mind the included software, if it have drivers and work with OBS (or xsplit if nothing else), I am happy.
Sorry, it is getting longer than I was planning. But this decision is hard for me, because i do not use any of this before. And i wanna spend my money on something that work good.
Just write your experience, opinions or suggestions (if you have good experience, with other cards). I really appreciate it.

Thanks :)

2

Hi

I don't know if someone is interested in this topic, but I wanna share my struggle to get best I can. Definitely not buying Black magic design Intensity Pro 4K, because they do not support HDCP and many people had problem to get it even work. Elgato HD60 PRO is not my choice, too. Because, after I change few mails with they support, they say HD60 PRO is not compatible with Xeon processor due to Xoens different architecture, compare to i5 or i7. But they support is really prefect, thumbs up. They know about problems with Xeons CPUs, they honestly tell about it and they even communicate with me at Sunday evening (7-9 PM GMT). Only solution is now (if I don't want to have USB capture card) is Avermedia live gamer hd c985. This is not bad capture card, many people like it, but it is old. Last firmware is from 2013-06-17. Yeas they Application & Driver (RECentral:v1.3.0.109) is from 2016-10-14, but it is because they use same application for they USB capture cards.

!!!!Damn!!!!Damn!!!!Damn!!!!Damn!!!!

3

I have the avermedia c985 and I have not had a problem with it. I love the thing for ease of use and reliability. Once you do the initial setup with it, your done fooling with it. I have used the same card on three different systems and on two different OS's (windows 7 and windows 10) and have not had any issues with it. Also, I have not noticed any change with performance from the card with a change in system ram, or cpu. I, however, would suggest having the card paired to a SSD so that you don't have any buffering issues. I have not tried it with a HDD so I can not say if there is any difference.

4

Thanks for respond. I'll give it a shot. I need to hear something like this. Thanks