Question / Help Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle vs Elgato Capture HD

R

RamuneGaming

Member
Alright so I am in the market for a new capture card as the one I current has does not work. I have come down to two products, which seem to be worth the money the Blackmagic Intensity: shuttle or the Elgato HD capture. Basically I just want to know the pro's and con's of both cards. I would also like to know of people's experiences with both cards.

My main use for this card is going to be livestreaming consoles using OBS for twitch.tv both old consoles and new (prefeble at least new and ps2), however in the future I plan to do some game capture for youtube videos.
 
A

AndehX

Member
if you are streaming consoles, especially old consoles, go with the Game Capture HD. I've used both devices and the Elgato is by far the better device. The Elgato has support for 240p which makes it a much better device for streaming consoles as a lot of consoles (SNES, PS1, N64) display in 240p.
The Shuttle does not support resolutions lower than 480i, and with it being USB3.0 it is very picky about what systems it works on. If your system doesnt support the full 5gbp/s through a single USB3.0 port, the Shuttle wont work.
As a general rule that I learned, if your system is ivybridge or newer, then the Shuttle "should" work, but take that with a grain of salt.

As I said though, go with the Elgato. It's a better device, has support for more resolutions, and much better software. The only downside to the Elgato is that its USB2.0. So there is a 1.5 second delay between what you see in realtime, and what you see on your computer screen. With it being USB2.0, is basically garunteed to work on your system.
 
L

Lain

Forum Admin
Lain
Forum Moderator
Developer
Just personal advice here, if you have USB 3.0 ports, get a USB 3.0 capture device (if it can capture the output of the console you're using). If you're on a desktop instead of a laptop, then you have a variety of more options available to you in the form of internal capture devices. Use USB 2.0 only if they're your only option.
 
R

RamuneGaming

Member
It's important for me to have access to streaming older consoles so if the Blackmagic Intensity is going to struggle recording the older consoles then it seems unless to my needs. However I am open to more opinions, I would very much like to heard from someone who has used the intensity shuttle
 
paibox

paibox

heros in an halfshel
Well, it's BlackMagic, so in addition to not supporting 240p at all (can't capture a bunch of consoles at all, like Andeh_X already mentioned), the drivers are absolutely terrible.

While the Elgato does support capturing them, their drivers are less than ideal, and currently operates using an incomplete DirectShow filter that requires a bunch of workarounds, and as far as I know it's not possible to capture SD content at its native resolution, the filter itself is locked to 1280x720 and 30 frames per second.

If you need a versatile capture solution and you have the money to spend on it, the XCAPTURE-1 is pretty much the ultimate solution for capturing anything: Composite, s-video, component, HDMI, analog RGB (including VGA), support for many, many resolutions, etc.
 
R

RamuneGaming

Member
http://www.solarisjapan.com/xcapture-1- ... ture-unit/

I presume you mean this, while this does look like a good piece of tech, I am not made of money. I don't mind doing workarounds as long as it will work. I did contact Elgato and they said that it would work to livestream a ps2. It seems the intensity shuttle has been eliminated if it can't stream 240p. Which is a shame as it looks like a nice piece of kit.
 
S

Sixfortyfive

New Member
RamuneGaming said:
It's important for me to have access to streaming older consoles so if the Blackmagic Intensity is going to struggle recording the older consoles then it seems unless to my needs. However I am open to more opinions, I would very much like to heard from someone who has used the intensity shuttle
Click to expand...
From personal experience, the Shuttle doesn't play nice with consoles older than the Dreamcast. A Dreamcast through composite will work but an NES or Genesis won't. I suspect that it just can't handle 15khz sources. Anything newer than that *should* be fine, though, up to 720p60 or 1080p30. Newer drivers for the Shuttle can be a crapshoot but once I rolled back to v9.6.x I never had problems with it.

If you want the absolute pinnacle of quality for retro game capture, you need one of the following:
- StarTech PEXHDCAP (internal, supports 240p60 to 720p60)
- Micomsoft SC-512N1 (internal, supports 240p60 to 1080p60)
- Micomsoft XCAPTURE-1 (USB 3.0, supports 240p60 to 1080p60)

Out of those three, PEXHDCAP is probably what you want if you're on a budget.

There are other viable options for retro capture of course, but none to my knowledge that support RGB inputs like the above do. The Elgato Game Capture HD can display a picture from legacy systems, but only through composite and maybe s-video IIRC.
 
R

RamuneGaming

Member
Sorry I should of made it clear that I am looking for an external capture card. At present I am stuck using my laptop as my desktop is broken and I have little money so I can not afford to repair it. Anyways it does not have any spare pci slots left so even if I think it I won't be able to install a new card.
 
M

Muf

Forum Moderator
Seconding paibox about the XCAPTURE-1. Both the Intensity Shuttle and the XCAPTURE-1 are USB 3.0 and have the same hardware requirements (an Intel XHCI USB3 controller), but the XCAPTURE-1 will work with (almost) any source without trouble, whereas the Intensity Shuttle is extremely picky about exact video modes, and the drivers have many issues.

As for the Elgato, that's a USB 2.0 device, and to see what a lovely device it is (sarcasm) just search for "elgato problem" on the forums here and browse through the threads.
 
A

AndehX

Member
In all honesty, in your situation, the Elgato is your best option. the Xcapture-1 is the best device, hands down, but it sounds like its out of your budget. The elgato has it's issues with directshow, but it does the job, and will capture your retro consoles without any fuss.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top