Question / Help USB Capture Recommendations?

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nikoskazan

New Member
I'm planning to purchase an external USB capture device to use with a Windows 10 laptop. I see that the prices easily range from under $200 to $500 or more. I'm concerned that the cheaper devices may offload some of the processing to the PC/laptop and I would prefer to avoid that if possible.

I'd like to capture 1080p60 although even 1080p30 would be fine for now.

I've mostly been looking at the Magewell USB Capture HDMI Plus and AVerMedia Live Gamer Extreme 2.

I would appreciate any comments on my concerns above and any recommendations you may have on capturing HDMI via USB.

Thanks
 
Boildown

Boildown

Active Member
The problem with USB in general is that USB doesn't have enough bandwidth for HD video and it shares bandwidth with all your other USB devices. So make sure your USB device you pick is USB 3.0 and that your laptop properly supports USB 3.0. Make sure its the only device on the USB root hub you have it plugged in to. Regardless, you're going to have more problems (despite marketing otherwise) using USB capture devices compared to having a desktop computer and using a PCIe device. Oh, and your laptop needs a decent GPU and very good CPU, for a laptop, because of how OBS works. Unless you absolutely need the ability to easily move it around, you will save money and frustration and achieve higher quality results by building a desktop computer with a PCIe capture card.
 
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