Micomsoft SC-500N1 RGB Capture Card

[NightSprinter]

If it's of any interest, StarTech has pre-orders for a 1080p60 version called the PEXHDCAP60L. They're selling it for a little under $320, but with what little it has feature-wise, for someone that doesn't have a monitor with pass-thru outputs it doesn't seem worth the price. Especially compared to the fact you can get the Micomsoft equivalent with its own pass-thru for exactly $200.

[Thrill]

Well that was a hassle but finally done getting Windows 8 installed.

I can confirm that the 100% CPU bug is gone!

http://www.thethrillness.com/2015/02/mi ... fixed.html

[NightSprinter]

I have an x58 system. So far with the new driver my temps have not climbed upwards to 60C as of yet.

[pupin]

Well that was a hassle but finally done getting Windows 8 installed.

I can confirm that the 100% CPU bug is gone!!!!!!

Dusted. OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Out of curiosity, you upgraded to windows 8 or 8.1?

[pupin]

Anyone knows a software for OSX that can use this card?

[Thrill]

Windows 8.1 since it was the latest.

[Thrill]

Now that I can properly use the device I have the first issue.

I gotta use a HDCP stripper for the PS3 and whenever you change something in AmaRec and repreview the card, it looks to renegotiates the EDID(I think?) so the TV also goes out until it can refind the signal. My AVer card never used to do this. Not THAT much of an issue but still annoying, especially if you are in the middle of a run and something happens on the PC.

[eightbitminiboss]

Now that I can properly use the device I have the first issue.

I gotta use a HDCP stripper for the PS3 and whenever you change something in AmaRec and repreview the card, it looks to renegotiates the EDID(I think?) so the TV also goes out until it can refind the signal. My AVer card never used to do this. Not THAT much of an issue but still annoying, especially if you are in the middle of a run and something happens on the PC.

This happened on the XCAPTURE-1 for me too. I ended not using the HDCP splitter which I assume you're using for the stripping and started using a DVI to HDMI converter from Monoprice, haven't lost signal with that method. Alternatively a EDID emulator also works with the HDMI splitter according to a friend of mine in his setup.

[Thrill]

Can't believe I let this slip by for 2 weeks...

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... nsitypro4k

Made a blog post about it but I'll post it here also: http://www.thethrillness.com/2015/03/bl ... 0-and.html

Announced mid February 2015, the new Blackmagic 4K now arrives and has probably taken the throne of the best gaming capture card.

It supports 1080p60 RGB capture and up to 2160p30 at 4:2:2. One of my main problems with the old Intensity Pro was that 480p was not supported over Component, this is now fixed.

People will be comparing this to the Micomsoft SC-512 so we can do a quick pros and cons list.

Intensity Pro 4K

Supports Deep Color output. Due to this, no other capture card can rival the quality outputted by this device. In a real world scenario though, I'm unsure of whether this will actually be beneficial as most stuff will just end up on YouTube.

It's $200 (or £135 according to the site). That's absolutely insane value.

Has passthrough. I'm unsure of whether it will function like the old Intensity and the tech specs don't mention it doing 4:4:4 to 4:2:2 processing. It looks like it might be lagless.

Supports 7.1 audio capture. This is always absent on cards of this price.

If it's like the old Intensity, it won't capture Full range content. I'll need to have the driver and the actual hardware to know for sure. I'm guessing since it supports Deep Color, they did support it.

The drivers can be flaky but obviously this can improve with time.

Obviously no 240p support but that's easily worked around with a GV-USB2 or similar.

Micomsoft SC-512

The Blackmagic crushes it in price and availability.

We know for sure the passthrough is lagless but so might this new Blackmagic.

Ability to capture via VGA so retro console RGB capture is possible. Anyone really into retro gaming has an upscaler so doesn't really matter.

Drivers are currently way better than Blackmagic.

Summary

What's now known as the best capture card completely depends on what you personally need. Both products are great but right now I have to side with the Intensity. That price point and features is bordering on absolute insanity.

[Fudoh]

Did you actually buy the new BM card ? If yes, can you describe how loud it is. The 40mm fan on it looks frightening.

[Pasky]

No 240P is a deal killer for me.

[Thrill]

Did you actually buy the new BM card ? If yes, can you describe how loud it is. The 40mm fan on it looks frightening.

Nah I'm waiting on a store stocking it close to the advertised £135 before I buy it for review.

I am actually worrried that they thought the card needed a fan. I might actually try and run some 6 hour capture sessions with the fan unhooked and see if it overheats.

[lettuce]

Well that was a hassle but finally done getting Windows 8 installed.

I can confirm that the 100% CPU bug is gone!

http://www.thethrillness.com/2015/02/mi ... fixed.html

Im on windows 8.1 and still get the cpu bug

[Thrill]

That's weird because I just verified it's Windows 8 and driver related. Updated it here with screenshots: http://www.thethrillness.com/2015/02/mi ... fixed.html but I'll copy/paste it here.

So I decided to look back at this and do some more investigation. If we look back at the Micomsoft driver page for v1.1.0.124, we will see this entry.

Windows8使用時にCPU使用率（合計）が98～100%と認識されてしまう問題に対策しました。

Roughly translated, it means they identified and fixed the bug, but only for Windows 8. I guess we can't really blame them since they probably only develop on latest operating systems.

To see if this was true, I downloaded the previous driver where the bug should have still been present (v1.1.0.122). The below screenshot shows the bug active.

I then uninstalled that driver, restarted the system and installed Micomsoft's latest driver. It has now been fixed (you can check the PS3 clock if you want).

So yeah, just make sure you are running Windows 8 and the latest drivers. Either from Micomsoft or the Yuan VidBlaster ones and you should be fine.

[Thrill]

I'm wondering if anyone else could verify this for me. I've posted it on the OBS forums but not got a reply yet.

I believe that the DirectShow audio from a capture card is slightly delayed when used directly in Obs. I have two setups:

First setup:

PEXHDCAP with PS3 > Set to 720p > Obs at 720p 60 > Directly use the audio from capture card (http://i.imgur.com/tKyy5UC.png)

Second setup:

PEXHDCAP with PS3 > Set to 720p > Obs at 720p 60 > Listen to audio in AmaRecTV program with Disabled set in the audio source of OBS (http://i61.tinypic.com/21awsiw.png) - the video device does not matter.

The first setup seems to lag in audio by a slight margin. The second does too but it's not as noticeable. I don't have any concrete evidence but maybe this helps. I recorded two videos with my microphone picking up the sound from my ASUS VH236H while playing. The ASUS will give us the fastest response since it doesn't need to be processed via DirectShow. It's fed via splitter.

Here is setup 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLpO6xRyvFg

Particularly from 0:07 till end. You can hear that little noise before the main gunfire. That's my monitor speakers of the gunfire.

Here is setup 2 via AmaRecTV listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWWLugtfzFM

You can still hear my monitor in the bckground but it's clearly much closer and there is not a big gap between them anymore.

This leaves one conclusion. It seems like the OBS implementation and processing of sound isn't as fast as other DirectShow processing methods (e.g. AmaRecTV).

[Thrill]

Found out how great the Histogram is in VirtualDub for getting objective data on capture cards. Some interesting results: http://www.thethrillness.com/2015/05/an ... evels.html

tl;dr basically HDMI is fine depending on your setup but Component is a tough one.

I got my friend to test VGA: http://imgur.com/a/CfwC4#1

I think we can all agree that Bypass looks the best and gets close to our 16 and 235 levels. Currently the driver configurations that utilize close to the full 16-235 spectrum and never clip are:

HDMI: Default is fine. Just configure your console and driver properly.
Component: Not sure yet. Everything seems to clip atm on Bypass, particularly in the high range.
VGA: Bypass at Brightness 140, Contrast 140 and Saturation 140.

[Mishrak109]

Would you elaborate on how this actually translates to performance in capturing? I'm not understanding and I'd like to, esp. component video clipping and what that means.

[Kadano]

Would you elaborate on how this actually translates to performance in capturing? I'm not understanding and I'd like to, esp. component video clipping and what that means.

Two very dark colors, for example #010101 and #080000 would be both output as full black (#000000), so detail in very dark (and very bright) areas would get lost (crushed). Look at the top of Marth’s head in the darker screenshots TheThrillness linked—with bypass and 128 levels, you can’t tell it apart from the black stage background, but with shrink and 140, it’s very easy to tell them apart.

[popn_ponies]

Found out how great the Histogram is in VirtualDub for getting objective data on capture cards. Some interesting results: http://www.thethrillness.com/2015/05/an ... evels.html

tl;dr basically HDMI is fine depending on your setup but Component is a tough one.

I got my friend to test VGA: http://imgur.com/a/CfwC4#1

I think we can all agree that Bypass looks the best and gets close to our 16 and 235 levels. Currently the driver configurations that utilize close to the full 16-235 spectrum and never clip are:

HDMI: Default is fine. Just configure your console and driver properly.
Component: Not sure yet. Everything seems to clip atm on Bypass, particularly in the high range.
VGA: Bypass at Brightness 140, Contrast 140 and Saturation 140.

Just curious have you used a tool like what you mentioned to capture 240p? I want to be able to do 240p and this card looks perfect aside from that.

[Collectablecat]

I'm having a very annoying intermittent issue with the PS4 capturing via the SC-512N . I honestly don't know how to describe it. First this happens http://gfycat.com/ThisZigzagAfricanbushviper , then it'll freeze for a second and come back with this weird bar on the left and stop tearing http://i.imgur.com/SWTHoqw.png . What am I misconfiguring here?

[Stefan_L]

I have a question about AmaracTV and how it record sound.
From what i noticed when recording from Commodore Amiga so is AmarecTV automatically switching to mono when a sound is only present on either left or right channel only, so the question is how to disable that feature since i could not find where it is done?

Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yG5-dBXSX4
Skip to 01:44 to hear how it changes to mono when the right channel is silent and then switch to stereo when there is sound on the right channel.

[plxbollo]

Hello,

finally, I also started recording (vintage) gaming action with a Startech PEXHDCAP and amarec.
Unfortunately, the sound is always out of sync - any ideas anybody?

[Thrill]

New drivers released. Dated March 18th 2015, v143. Newer than both Yuan and Micomsoft's current ones. I don't use the card anymore so can't give a driver rundown or look at changes unfortunately.

Download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B77Wil ... sp=sharing

[NightSprinter]

Thrill: are those the drivers for the PEXHDCAP60L? I have those installed and so far so good. Though I think the card is a smidge pickier than I originally thought in terms of sync. I have a Genesis2/32X/CDX cable made by Drew (it's the "boosted sync" type, so it has an LM1881 circuit in the SCART hood). Apparently even pass-thru from my NEC monitor set properly causes every capture program to fail at acquiring a correct signal. Also, if I ever get my GroovyMAME box up and running, I can see about how the card is for capturing those odd arcade resolutions (like R-Type or Kung-Fu Master) on the new driver.

[Update: 7/10/2015] So far, it seems I'm not experiencing any "high-CPU-load" bug in Win7 on the new StarTech drivers. The CPU meter on my Logitech G13 and G15 haven't shown anything above 30% (using VDub, Amarec, or StreamCatcher). The sucky job I did years ago with applying thermal paste is holding up too. RealTemp isn't showing a single core reaching over 55C on load. If I find any more updates, I'll continue to add to this post.

[blizzz]

The card seems to work fine with Windows 10 Pro x64, no 100% CPU load.

Recording is also fine. No dropped frames with HDMI 720p input on my i3-2100T 2.5 Ghz. Recording with x264vfw ultrafast preset. CPU load is below 40% while recording, even with this weak CPU.

[blizzz]

The PEXHDCAP60L has been listed today at the German hardware retailer Mindfactory. Price is 235,97€ shipped, which is nearly 100€ cheaper than importing an SC-512N1-L. Not a bad price.

[blizzz]

Sorry for the triple post. I was doing some tests with driver 140 (the latest one from Micomsoft) on my capture machine running the latest version of AmarecTV. I couldn't get a recording without dropped frames from the Framemeister, and both MediaInfo and MPC-HC were showing that the video wasn't being recorded as 60.10Hz. In one case MPC-HC even showed 25fps. Reverted back to version 124 from Startech and it's now recording at 60.10Hz without dropping frames again.

[Thrill]

Someone try installing this driver (v149 aka lots should have changed in the layout since last was 142): http://www.yuan.com.tw/en/market/softwa ... .149.0.exe

[NightSprinter]

I'll give it a shot this afternoon, since I want to livestream myself stumbling in the Japanese remake of RE1.

Also, for arcade/console shooters and games made for a vertical monitor (like Namco Museum Vol. 5's Dragon Spirit), the new OBS can rotate the gane display. So I may make exteneive use of that.

[NightSprinter]

The first thing I've noticed so far was the fact it has new options for HDMI/DVI, and VGA/DVI-A option for 16:10 output.