For those who have no idea what a capture card is, it tell you that it is a device with a built-in software that enables you to ‘capture’ what is happening on one of your screens (PC or console), and stream it on another. This functionality is mostly used to stream live gaming, so this device is widely popular in the gaming fraternity. While there is software that captures and stream videos from your PC or console for free, but the difference is apparent in terms of video and audio quality.
Capture cards can be both external as well as internal, with their connection port to the PC or console being defined accordingly. Apart from this, there are many other factors that play an important role in defining a capture card’s worth to you. These include the video and audio quality that it displays and integrity of the software which will define its longevity. Based on these factors, here are four of the best capture cards we found.
1 – AVerMedia Live Gamer Extreme External Game Recorder
The strongest competitor to the Elgato, the AVerMedia offers the same specifications of 1080p resolution with 60fps framerate as well as the low latency. It bears the same external and internal ports as the Elgato, but loses out in terms of software. However, there is a free subscription to the XSplit Premium on offer, which softens the blow a bit as it is the best software currently on the market.
2 – StarTech High-definition PCIe Capture Card
One for the experts, the StarTech capture card is a complicated device that is best left for the experts to use. It surpasses even the Elgato in terms of less delay and shows absolutely no discernible lag. It has to be inserted into the computer on the inside, and requires a pretty powerful PC to work in a proper fashion.
3 – Roxio Game Capture
It is mostly known for the video game recording, and the Roxio also records and streams in 1080p resolution from a number of gaming platforms like the Xbox and PlayStation. Unlike the other capture cards, this one only comes with a USB cable and not the other wires required for the process.
I hope these capture card reviews will help you greatly.