Whats the best HDMI / Component / VGA video capture device?

[fagin]

As title.....

[Fudoh]

since you already have a DVDO Edge, the answer would be a Blackmagic Design Intensity ($199).

[ZOM]

Same as fudoh said. Note that the latest drivers can capture 480p too, no need for shuttle.

[fagin]

Thanks... will have a look at the features and see what it provides.

Any of you two guys got one of these?

[ZOM]

Yep, used it mainly for streaming on Justin TV. As long as your HDDs provide the needed bandwith and you feed the correct signal, the card is a beast (for that price-range).
The cons would be that the software is a bit crap and it's extremely finicky - that is, it wants the exact signal properties you choose. Anything slightly off and you get a black screen. Shouldn't be a problem if you're equipped with an Edge tho.

[fagin]

Just reading that it doesnt work with x58 motherboards, i7 processors and Win7 64bit. That's about as much use as tits on fish for me!

[Fudoh]

I'm using a BMD Multibridge (you can look it up on the BMD website).

If you have native USB 3.0 on your mainboard you use the Intensity Shuttle instead (external design, $199 as well).

[dieKatze88]

Avermedia HD-PVR, if you're looking to save money

[Capoz]

I'm using a BMD Multibridge (you can look it up on the BMD website).

If you have native USB 3.0 on your mainboard you use the Intensity Shuttle instead (external design, $199 as well).

If you have usb 3.0 onboard check that have a good bandwith, otherwise (like me) you have to buy a pci-ex usb 3.0 card and put in a 5gt pci ex slot, most of pci express 1x slot goes only to 2,5GT that isn't enough for the shuttle.

[fagin]

My MB does not have native USB 3.0 as it is about 3yrs old. Couple that with the problems apparantly associated with the rest of my set-up, this is perhaps going to cause me major pain.

Think I am going to go for the AVerTV HD H727.

[BuckoA51]

Just reading that it doesnt work with x58 motherboards, i7 processors and Win7 64bit. That's about as much use as tits on fish for me!

Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Guess I'll hold out and see what the new Micomsoft capture card will be like.

[ZOM]

Just reading that it doesnt work with x58 motherboards, i7 processors and Win7 64bit. That's about as much use as tits on fish for me!

Where did you get that nonsense from? I'm using exactly that combination and it seems to work like a charm
I'm sure the guy writing that just wasn't persistent enough.

[fagin]

Just reading that it doesnt work with x58 motherboards, i7 processors and Win7 64bit. That's about as much use as tits on fish for me!

Where did you get that nonsense from? I'm using exactly that combination and it seems to work like a charm
I'm sure the guy writing that just wasn't persistent enough.

Just because it works on your x58 MB does not mean it works on all of them.

A quick look on google suggests that "the guy" is infact a lot of people..... the problem seems to be well documented.

Here is a quote from BM themselves:

"The original (read gen 1 x58) motherboards were problematic with our 1x PCI-express cards. However since then the chipset has been updated by intel and now works just fine.

We've tested both Asus and Gigabyte x58 motherboards and as long as they are newer boards (as in not sitting on a shelf for a year) they should be fine."

Since I have a version 1 x58 MB I stand by my original and correct statement!

Anyhow.... the AVer card was over £30 cheaper and it will be delivered on Saturday. Smiles all around then.

[fagin]

In fact on that same thread that BM made the statement on, another customer then posted the following:

"That's not entirely true. I just got the Intel DX58SO2 mobo, which is version 2 of the problematic mobo listed on Blackmagic's site - and my Intensity Pro doesn't work on this v2 card either!"

ROFLOL

[dieKatze88]

If anyone needs a demo of the Avermedia card, I plan on broadcasting Otomedius Excellent gameplay tonight. I can't promise I'm good, but I can promise I'm having fun.

http://www.justin.tv/diekatze88

[ZOM]

"The original (read gen 1 x58) motherboards were problematic with our 1x PCI-express cards. However since then the chipset has been updated by intel and now works just fine.

Ah that must be it, then. For reference, I have a Gigabyte EX58-DS4.

A quick look on google suggests that "the guy" is infact a lot of people..... the problem seems to be well documented.

Yeah, I see what you mean - wasn't aware. However, I've encountered multiple people that simply fed it with the wrong signal/didn't change the settings/didn't try to reinstall or rollback drivers and wrote off the card on their systems because of that. I had my problems too at first, but a few driver re-installs helped to fix them. I guess it also has something to do with the driver install also rewriting the card's firmware. The thing about it not working on Win7 64 is clearly false, though.

[fagin]

Yeah.... after further research the Win7 64bit thing seemed to be a driver / firmware issue that certainly seems not be an issue now.

[Ramza]

Can anybody comment on the system requirements of capturing 720p with the Blackmagic Design Intensity? Thanks!

[Fudoh]

really depends on the codec you want to use.

If the included MJPEG codec is ok for you, then the hardware requirements aren't too intense. Most single HDD setups can do this and a medium Core2Duo processor should be plenty as well. If you want to capture uncompressed you need a Raid 0 with at least 2 fast 7200rpm drives, better 3 or 4 drives. The netto data rate for 720p60 is between 100 and 150 MB/s uncompressed and around 12 MB/s in MJPEG (that's both Megabytes, not Megabits).

Both codecs (MJPEG and uncompressed BMD) are full i-frame based, so you can edit both in VirtualDub.

If you want to use other codecs (for example caturing in Newtek's codec in iuVCR/VCS) then you need a more capable processor.

[Ramza]

Thanks, MJPEG codec would be fine, don't need to capture uncompressed. I was thinking about building a small HTPC anyways, but I guess a Intel Atom N330 Ion might be to slow for use with the BMI.

[dieKatze88]

I can't find any information. Does the Blackmagic have hardware H.264? Because if it doesn't, and the system requirements suggest it doesn't, it really is no better than the Avermedia HD DVR.

I'll be posting a tutorial sometime soon, the 2011 version of how to capture video games in HD.

[Fudoh]

Ramza: most definitely, yes.

Do you already have the Intensity ? You could still grab a Hauppauge HD-PVR instead (realtime 720p h.264 encoding) which connects to the PC via USB 2.0. Here you could probably use an Atom-based HTPC just easily. Also plays very nice with the iScan HD+ up front.

[Fudoh]

Does the Blackmagic have hardware H.264? Because if it doesn't, and the system requirements suggest it doesn't, it really is no better than the Avermedia HD DVR.

the BMD does not have hardware h.264, since that's not what it's built for. The main difference between the BMD and the Avermedia (or the Hauppauge HD-PVR for that matter) is the BMD captures frame-based, which means you can edit on every frame without reencoding. It also has hardware acceleration for it's MJPEG codec.

I dislike the Avermedia because it's capturing in (HD-)MPEG-2 and uses the system's CPU to encode.

The Hauppauge HD-PVR (or the internal Collosus PCIe card) are hardware h.264 encoder.

[StarCreator]

I dislike the Avermedia because it's capturing in (HD-)MPEG-2 and uses the system's CPU to encode.

There seems be a way to get around this (using different software to capture), but I have yet to do any solid testing due to lack of free time. Apparently, if you don't upgrade beyond a certain version of the Avermedia software, you can even capture from HDCP-protected sources this way.

[Fudoh]

OK, but at 50 or 60 EUR more the Hauppauge Colossus still seems like the better deal to me. It has HDMI as well and hardware h.264 is quite a plus.

[dieKatze88]

Does the Blackmagic have hardware H.264? Because if it doesn't, and the system requirements suggest it doesn't, it really is no better than the Avermedia HD DVR.

the BMD does not have hardware h.264, since that's not what it's built for. The main difference between the BMD and the Avermedia (or the Hauppauge HD-PVR for that matter) is the BMD captures frame-based, which means you can edit on every frame without reencoding. It also has hardware acceleration for it's MJPEG codec.

I dislike the Avermedia because it's capturing in (HD-)MPEG-2 and uses the system's CPU to encode.

The Hauppauge HD-PVR (or the internal Collosus PCIe card) are hardware h.264 encoder.

Uh, you can capture uncompressed frame by frame video on the Avermedia in anything but its stock software. The stock software is bad, don't use it.

the Avermedia doesn't have hardware MJPEG, but MJPEG is so awful that you probably shouldn't be using it anyway.

Works great with Lagarith in Virtualdub.

I dislike the Avermedia because it's capturing in (HD-)MPEG-2 and uses the system's CPU to encode.

There seems be a way to get around this (using different software to capture), but I have yet to do any solid testing due to lack of free time. Apparently, if you don't upgrade beyond a certain version of the Avermedia software, you can even capture from HDCP-protected sources this way.

I haven't tested this. I could test this, I own a PS3 (Which does HDCP All the time always) but I hear it only lets you preview HDCP sources in Avermedia's software, also, it was *ADDED* to newer versions, not removed, because when I got it it absolutely refused to play nicely with my Playstation 3.

Although if you can find something about capturing HDCP encrypted video with this, please do let me know. Thats one of those things that you put on a flash drive and tape to the inside of your computer case.

OK, but at 50 or 60 EUR more the Hauppauge Colossus still seems like the better deal to me. It has HDMI as well and hardware h.264 is quite a plus.

Absolutely, I'd rather have hardware H.264 anyway, but since most of us don't have a freshly released capture card, H.264 accelerator card or a Sandy Bridge series processor we need to make do with what we have.

[fagin]

Is virtualdub "the" software to use with the AVerTV CaptureHD card?

[StarCreator]

I haven't tested this. I could test this, I own a PS3 (Which does HDCP All the time always) but I hear it only lets you preview HDCP sources in Avermedia's software, also, it was *ADDED* to newer versions, not removed, because when I got it it absolutely refused to play nicely with my Playstation 3.

Although if you can find something about capturing HDCP encrypted video with this, please do let me know. Thats one of those things that you put on a flash drive and tape to the inside of your computer case.

I don't have the version number handy (but I do know it's the exact version I have installed), but what you do is launch the Avermedia software but do NOT put it in TV mode. The Avermedia software completes the HDCP handshake as long as it's running, freeing you to use another capture program on the HDMI pin.

This exploit was, of course, patched out of the newest version.

[Fudoh]

iuVCR/VCS is *the* recording software (keeps 100% a/v sync even if the video or audio hardware drops frames)
VirtualDub is *the* editing software for i-frame-only encoded material (= NOT h.264)
SmartCutter is *the* editing software for all non-frame-based codecs (like MPEG2 or h.264)

[fagin]

Thanks for the info....

Not going to get too anal on this as the Avermedia software (current version) seems to work well enough for what I want to do encoding with H.264. I then use Sony Vegas for my editing, so unless I am "missing out" on something key I doubt I will be arsed to install something else.

However... I'm all up for being enlightened if anyone can be "arsed".