Question / Help Capturing from 2 separate computers

Ravenslark

New Member
I am looking to capture HDMI/DVI video from 2 computers going into a broadcasting computer. I was hoping that I might be able to get some insight on which capture cards to use to best do the job. I currently have 2 available PCI-E 1x slots available to use.
Thank you in advance.
 

mrasmus

Forum Moderator
There's a good primer on capture cards here.

My recommendation would be either a couple of C127's, or a couple of C985's, depending on your budget and needs. The extra money for the C985 gives you two relevant features:

A built-in hardware scaler, which allows the device to give a different resolution to OBS than what's coming out of the source (PC). The major thing this allows you to do is achieve 60FPS from 1080p sources by scaling them down to 720p. Neither of these devices will allow you to capture full-resolution 60FPS 1080p, they both capture 1080p sources at 30FPS (regardless of if the source is running 30FPS or 60FPS).

Pass-through: This allows you to plug a monitor into the second HDMI port of the C985, such that you can view the signal that's being sent to the card. To do this with a C127, you'd need to pipe it through a splitter (still lower combined cost, just slighting increased wiring mess). If your displays and source computers are near each other and further from the capture computer, this means running two long HDMI cables there and back for each source computer, versus two short cables at each computer + splitter combo, and one long cable to the capture computer; something to keep in mind, depending on the layout of the machines. All that said, if your source computers both have a second output on their graphics card, you can just clone the displays and not need a splitter with either card.

I personally use two C127's for this purpose. They work well for me, but I exclusively stream at 30FPS so the 1080p60 capture limitation doesn't come into play, plus my layouts require the sources to be further from the capture rig, so the splitter configuration is preferable.
 

Ravenslark

New Member
All 3 rigs are within a 8ft area and the broadcasting rig is in the middle with a monitor attached, basically I need to record both computers into 1 stream. I really have no need to be able to see the output from the cards, just need to casting rig to dump them into obs.
 

mrasmus

Forum Moderator
Presumably you'd want to also be able to play on/use the source computers, which means they'll each need a monitor. Otherwise, you'll need to play/use them off the capture window on the broadcasting rig. If they have two outputs on their graphics cards, you can plug their monitors into the second output of each and you're good. If they only have one output (or, say, you wanted to use consoles), that's when you'd need to consider the splitter vs pass-through situation (for your setup, sounds like passthrough would be a little simpler from a wiring perspective). So for you, deciding on whether the extra money is worth it should come down to if you need to be able to capture 1080p60 sources as 720p60.
 
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