What's a good capture card?

[JR98]

I'm wanting to properly record gameplay on PC, PS4 and maybe (If possible) the PS1 I'm getting (probably not possible)

I've seen one called the Elgato Game Capture HD, is it any good and what systems is it good for recording. It's currently £85 so is it a good price and are there any other ones worth the money? Won't be getting it for a few months though.

 

[AOS-]

The Elgato is a user-friendly one. I've used it on the PS3 (which unfortunately had a restriction placed on it to disallow it to have HDMI as the recoding input, meaning you couldn't do 1080p). Last time I heard, it was said that restriction won't be placed on the PS4 so like the X360, you can have the HDMI port as an input. On the PS3, they give you a special cable. IT's like a PS/2 on one end, and the other is the A/V that's used on Playstation... so it may be able to record your PS1. I'm not 100% on that as I never thought to try that (or on the PS2 for that mater).

I don't think you will need it to record PC since you need to run the program on a PC (or Mac) to record in the first place. You might need a different screen recording application for that.

 

[ToyGTone]

For PC, you could buy something like Bandicam or Fraps.

I'm currently planning to buy a new Capture Card for the PS4, PS3 and PS2 so is the Elgato Game Capture HD (no not HD60) any good? from what i've seen it's really worth buying it.

 

[TayeezSA]

I own an Elgato , really good piece of kit for consoles. However I must warn you that you should make sure your PC is fit enough to handle the Elgato processes , don't just chuck the recording qualities on max and expect an easy render. My laptop ended up crashing mid gameplay plenty of times due to that Dial it in according to your PC specs.

If you're going to record PS1 and PS2 gameplay then you should order the analog video cable from the Elgato website which is about 7 quid or find something with exactly the same components at a TV store.

As @AOS- and @ToyGTone said for PC, rather get a screen recording app. Though I have heard of some people using their Elgatos to record on their PC/Mac

 

[JR98]

I own an Elgato , really good piece of kit for consoles. However I must warn you that you should make sure your PC is fit enough to handle the Elgato processes , don't just chuck the recording qualities on max and expect an easy render. My laptop ended up crashing mid gameplay plenty of times due to that Dial it in according to your PC specs.

If you're going to record PS1 and PS2 gameplay then you should order the analog video cable from the Elgato website which is about 7 quid or find something with exactly the same components at a TV store.

As @AOS- and @ToyGTone said for PC, rather get a screen recording app. Though I have heard of some people using their Elgatos to record on their PC/Mac

Well I'll but a PS2 (as it plays PS1 games anyway) and get the analogue cable too

 

[sesselpupser]

If you want to record PC gameplay the best option right now is to just have an Nvidia card with a Kepler or Maxwell GPU and use ShadowPlay. Basically as long as you have a 650 or higher/newer you're ok. It requires very little CPU overhead, it can record up to 20 minutes in the past (yay circular buffer) and it looks really good. As for PS4, can't you use the built-in recorder? Here's a Ground Zeroes video I recorded on PS4 (granted it's only 720p/30, but how many games are 1080p/60? Also, I can't shoot for toffee with the controller any more):



And here's one I grabbed with ShadowPlay on PC, 1080p/60:

 

[JR98]

If you want to record PC gameplay the best option right now is to just have an Nvidia card with a Kepler or Maxwell GPU and use ShadowPlay. Basically as long as you have a 650 or higher/newer you're ok. It requires very little CPU overhead, it can record up to 20 minutes in the past (yay circular buffer) and it looks really good. As for PS4, can't you use the built-in recorder? Here's a Ground Zeroes video I recorded on PS4 (granted it's only 720p/30, but how many games are 1080p/60? Also, I can't shoot for toffee with the controller any more):



And here's one I grabbed with ShadowPlay on PC, 1080p/60:

I use the PS4 recorder but would like to record more than 15 minutes, mainly for PCars. On PC I am just below what is needed for Shadowplay (I have a GT 610) but shall get a 680 Ti or 780 Ti soon.

 

[Ialyrn]

I use the PS4 recorder but would like to record more than 15 minutes, mainly for PCars. On PC I am just below what is needed for Shadowplay (I have a GT 610) but shall get a 680 Ti or 780 Ti soon.

I have a HDPVR2 from Hauppauge, and it is brilliant. But if I was on the market for a new one, I would go with the Elgato HD60 without a doubt.

For PC, do yourself a favour and go with a GTX 980 if you are going for Nvidia, the 700 series and especially the 600 series Geforce cards are outdated now. You could even go with a GTX970, even with that really slow last 500mb of its ram; it is still a powerhouse of a card for gaming. It is on par performance wise with a GTX780ti, and I believe it is cheaper.

 

[JR98]

I have a HDPVR2 from Hauppauge, and it is brilliant. But if I was on the market for a new one, I would go with the Elgato HD60 without a doubt.

For PC, do yourself a favour and go with a GTX 980 if you are going for Nvidia, the 700 series and especially the 600 series Geforce cards are outdated now. You could even go with a GTX970, even with that really slow last 500mb of its ram; it is still a powerhouse of a card for gaming. It is on par performance wise with a GTX780ti, and I believe it is cheaper.

I'm going with a 780 Ti, saw one today for £115. Only games I play that I have trouble getting decent FPS on are ETS2 and GTAIV. I leave all the big AAA games to my PS4

 

[Ialyrn]

@JASON_ROCKS1998 Where did you find a 780ti for £115?

 

[JR98]

@JASON_ROCKS1998 Where did you find a 780ti for £115?

Sorry, meant 680 Ti. https://uk.webuy.com/product.php?sku=SGRANVIGTX6802GB#.VPyByYbfXCQ

 

[Ialyrn]

@JASON_ROCKS1998 I wouldn't use CEX to purchase components from, they tend to sit them on carpet in their shelving racks. Not to mention they only run a quick 30 minute test to make sure they run, so it might crap out under heavy use. You also have no idea if that card has been fried via overclocking.

 

[JR98]

@JASON_ROCKS1998 I wouldn't use CEX to purchase components from, they tend to sit them on carpet in their shelving racks. Not to mention they only run a quick 30 minute test to make sure they run, so it might crap out under heavy use. You also have no idea if that card has been fried via overclocking.

Alright then

 

[Johnnypenso]

If you want to record PC gameplay the best option right now is to just have an Nvidia card with a Kepler or Maxwell GPU and use ShadowPlay. Basically as long as you have a 650 or higher/newer you're ok. It requires very little CPU overhead, it can record up to 20 minutes in the past (yay circular buffer) and it looks really good. As for PS4, can't you use the built-in recorder? Here's a Ground Zeroes video I recorded on PS4 (granted it's only 720p/30, but how many games are 1080p/60? Also, I can't shoot for toffee with the controller any more):



And here's one I grabbed with ShadowPlay on PC, 1080p/60:

I am just figuring this stuff out myself, but I have videos from Shadowplay recorded at 1080/60 but when I edit it on Windows Movie Maker and custom save it at 1080/60 and then upload to YT it's only 30fps. How do you get it to YT at 60fps?

 

[sesselpupser]

I am just figuring this stuff out myself, but I have videos from Shadowplay recorded at 1080/60 but when I edit it on Windows Movie Maker and custom save it at 1080/60 and then upload to YT it's only 30fps. How do you get it to YT at 60fps?

I use AVIDemux just to trim clips and save them, I don't do any editing beyond that because I'm not a professional youtuber or whatever.

 

[Grayfox]

I use AVIDemux just to trim clips and save them.

Same, AVIdemux may have some issues but it is a pretty powerful editor.

 

[AOS-]

I am just figuring this stuff out myself, but I have videos from Shadowplay recorded at 1080/60 but when I edit it on Windows Movie Maker and custom save it at 1080/60 and then upload to YT it's only 30fps. How do you get it to YT at 60fps?

Can Windows Movie Maker even output to anything past 720p? If it's the same dated technology I remember it being, you may have to find other software.

 

[Grayfox]

Can Windows Movie Maker even output to anything past 720p? If it's the same dated technology I remember it being, you may have to find other software.

Yes, Windows live movie maker can do 1080p60 if you want.
And in theory it can even do 4K@30fps

 

[JR98]

For anyone using PlayClaw: Mines just stopped recording. I can take in game screenshots and record on desktop but I'm game recording don't work. I get error 5 every time I start it up too.

Edit: Reinstalling it fixed it

 

[Johnnypenso]

Yes, Windows live movie maker can do 1080p60 if you want.
And in theory it can even do 4K@30fps

How do I get it to YT at 1080/60?

 

[Grayfox]

How do I get it to YT at 1080/60?

You need to download a program called Windows Media Encoder 9, install it and then you need to create a encoding profile with the resolution you want, the frame rate you want, whether they are interlaced or progressive and the bitrates for audio and video, you can kinda select between codecs but they are all the WMV based ones so stick with the newest(not professional and not lossless)

Then you need to place the encoding profile save in the WLMM folder where the other profiles are.

 

[AOS-]

Yes, Windows live movie maker can do 1080p60 if you want.
And in theory it can even do 4K@30fps

Nice. The last time I used Movie Maker was on the Windows XP default program (now that I think about it).

 

[Grayfox]

Nice. The last time I used Movie Maker was on the Windows XP default program (now that I think about it).

That was Windows Movie Maker 2.7, It is better that the WLMM as it did not have the stupid ribbon UI and scene based timeline but a proper one with time based slider.

And just because it can do it in theory does not mean it can do it in real life.