Posts Tagged ‘elgato’
Tech: Comprehensive Capture Device Review
First and foremost, let me preface by saying that this entire post is in no way promotional. While I may link to a slew of items – using Amazon because it’s the only location to find all of these items, but many can be found elsewhere and sometimes at better prices – there is nothing in it for myself of Gaming History 101. We did not receive any of these items, all were purchased by the reviewer (ie: me, Fred Rojas) and none of the links here involve any kickback for purchasing through them as I’m told you can do with Amazon and of course, Gaming History 101 remains completely ad free. I am writing this piece because when I looked for buying advice online it was nothing but paid promotion, a few hardware reviews that are years old and speak nothing to the current state of these capture devices, and of course none of them had accurate information when it came to capturing retro devices. In a world where we want screenshots, streaming, video capture, and just to have fun with the prized possessions in our collection and share it with the world, capture devices are a great way to do so. I have also been told that capturing and streaming emulation, especially if you generate ad revenue (we are ad-free on GH101 as well as our YouTube channel), can be illegal and get your videos taken down so use caution if going that route. We only capture actual consoles with actual game carts/discs, and use flash carts when necessary for items like homebrew. Therefore, here is the most comprehensive review I can give with about as much geeky tech background as I can provide.
As stated in the intro, I wanted a device where I could both capture retro and modern consoles that also supported streaming, commentary, and a myriad of content creation options. I should also point out that my plans were, and currently consist, of importing almost all gameplay into Sony Platinum Video Suite 13 (formerly Vegas) for editing and rendering, so that does play a part in my opinions. I tested these devices on three computers, all of which I will provide basic spec for you now. In reviews, these will be labeled as Computers 1, 2, or 3.
What’s Old Is New
I’m just a curious soul when it comes to software or electronics, and I’ve always been that way. Now ask me to turn off the water in my house, change a window screen, or heaven forbid lay tile and I’m out. For some reason those decisions and actions, while much more predictable than electronics and software, have permanent consequences and thus I leave them to professionals. On the tech front it’s mostly just money, and I’ve wasted plenty of that to go into most projects all “gung-ho!” On the flip side I try to capture my memories/nostalgia when it comes to gaming so I’ve done such insane things as bring a Pit Fighter cabinet into my house to play MAME (arcade) titles on, lugged a 300 lb 38″ RCA HD picture tube display for classic consoles and light gun games (a personal favorite), and I have a machine that literally boots into DOSbox and then Windows ’95 (it’s an old XP machine) just to enjoy a handful of games like Jurassic Park: Tresspasser and hopefully soon Ripper. I think that’s why capturing gameplay and making more entertaining videos is so fascinating but also a challenge to me. Last week I discussed how to upgrade your visuals for YouTube export but the clear omission was how to do it without losing that classic feel. I don’t want to play my NES on my LED display, I want it on the old tube with composite video because it looks and acts like I remember, but I also don’t want it to look like the color bleeding blurry mess I see when I export it to YouTube either. So now I’m trying to do the opposite of what I used to: get all of my consoles to export video – both for capture and gameplay – in the best resolution possible without buying the $500 framemeister (that was in last week’s post linked above). This does mean that certain consoles, namely the PS2, Xbox, and Wii (yes, it was pretty much that same gen in terms of visual and output), are un-tethered from my big old tube TV and migrated into the main room for the LED television on account of their 480p/720p capabilities. Along with that came the hunting of component cables, HD AV packs (shame on you Microsoft, the Xbox could output 720p and play DVDs natively but you chose to charge accessories piece meal…just like today), and even a HDMI conversion dongle for the Wii! It wasn’t all that cheap, probably $60 in total for all the pieces, but the results are quite impressive. I had no idea that X-Men Legends or Hulk: Ultimate Destruction could look so good in 720p on the Xbox or that Gradius V really does look much sharper in component even if it’s still a 480i signal on PS2, and I cannot get over how Super Mario Galaxy 2 dazzles on Wii via 720p HDMI upscaler dongle (despite me having still not played that game even though I’ve booted it up dozens of times for visual comparisons). I’m also upgrading my SNES, N64, Saturn, and PS1 for S-Video output to get slightly better captures in 480p on my SD captures, which was like $20 on Amazon for random third-party cables (not as necessary to get high-end when not passing HD through an analog source like component cables on the PS3, for example). This is probably nothing new to many of you out there, but HDTVs were not cheap and these consoles were just dipping their toes into the water when I was a new graduate and didn’t have time or money to figure out how to make an Xbox look fancy. I always knew the option existed, but I was more interested in surround sound back in the early 2000s and never much into graphics. Oh and before you mention it, I’ve had a VGA box for my Dreamcast almost a decade, but stupidly didn’t capture in anything but composite as of late so I’ve truly been cheating myself.
Gaming History 101 