Question / Help HD capture cards with little to no preview lag

[Haliinen]

Yeah I don't know if I should ask this here but I give it a shot anyway, hopefully someone knows...

What HD capture card has little to no preview delay? What about the PCI-e ones etc? I know there is this AVerMedia Live Gamer Portable that has like 300 ms only of preview delay which is pretty good for an HD capture card, but is there any other HD capture card that possibly has a lower delay? If you own an HD capture device with very low delay then please share this information with me!

Sorry if this has been posted before. I searched around a bit but didn't find an answer.

Peace

 

[dodgepong]

There aren't any USB 2.0 HD capture cards that have no delay. If a capture card says it's HD and transmits over USB 2.0, it has to do on-board processing to compress the video before sending it over the wire, because USB 2.0 can't transfer uncompressed HD video fast enough.

PCIe capture cards, on the other hand, don't have that restriction, because they use the PCI bus, which is plenty fast. Also, USB 3.0 devices like the XCAPTURE-1 can also transmit uncompressed HD video over USB 3.0 (only via Intel or Renesas USB 3.0 controllers).

 

[Haliinen]

Thanks for your post! I didn't specifically ask for portable devices with no delay at all, just devices that has a delay say below 500 ms.

So you're saying that most if not all PCI-e capture cards are delay free?

 

[dodgepong]

I've never heard of a PCIe capture device with delay, and I see no reason for them to have a delay. I have a Live Gamer HD and a AverTV HD DVR, and neither of them have delay.

 

[Haliinen]

I really appreciate your input! There is something else I want to know about the Live Gamer HD, since it has no input for component, if I wanted to capture anything from a PS3, is there an adapter or a cable that possibly covers this and is included with the capture card in the box?

 

[dodgepong]

Nope, not for the Live Gamer HD. The Black Magic Intensity Pro can capture 1080p over HDMI as well as component, but Black Magic devices are sort of difficult to work with. Personally, my recommended PCIe card is the SC-512N1-L from Micomsoft. It can capture 1080p60, as well as an array of other formats, including component/composite, and RGB.

 

[Haliinen]

That is one interesting device right there, I wonder if it's directly supported by OBS though? Or you could just screen region the software you feed the signal to I guess.

 

[paibox]

Both the XCapture-1 and SC-512 are supported directly in OBS, so no need to worry there.

 

[Muf]

I've never heard of a PCIe capture device with delay, and I see no reason for them to have a delay. I have a Live Gamer HD and a AverTV HD DVR, and neither of them have delay.

I don't believe there are cards without delay. Have you tried recording a video like this? Left side is a duplicated HDMI output, right side is the duplicated output fed through a capture card and the preview displayed full screen.

 

[dodgepong]

Well, sure, all capture cards have delay, but PCIe capture cards have a delay on the order of tens of milliseconds as opposed to USB 2.0 devices which have a delay on the order of entire seconds. You are correct :P

 

[Sixfortyfive]

I can say from experience that both the XCAPTURE-1 and Intensity Shuttle have very low delay, seemingly less than 1 frame (17ms) each, but my testing method wasn't the most precise so I can't be more specific than that.

PCIe cards generally have no *reason* to have extra lag, but I've been burned by some crappy cards in the distant past.