Question / Help What are the best known capture cards for streaming with OBS

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Lubis

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Hello, I am looking into buying a decent capture card for streaming on twitch via OBS. I have been trying to do a little research to find out what capture cards work best with OBS, but I'm not sure if some of the information I find may be out of date or just plain wrong, so I figured I'd come here to the source.

From people who do stream, or devs from OBS, I'd really like to know your suggestions and recommendations. I've heard that Elgato and Black Magic ones don't work, or have weird audio or syncing issues or something, is that still valid, or are these known to work? Do all USB based capture cards not work with audio on OBS?

If there is a nice thread with this information out there already, I wouldn't mind a link to that as well! But if anyone could post some of their specific capture card models that work flawlessly with video and audio from their consoles, that would be greatly appreciated!
 
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dsr07mm

Member
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

I have Hauppauge HD PVR2, problem is that it doesnt work directly with OBS so you need to stream in window mode and make region from preview window on Hauppauge software but it's possible without any problems.
 
Boildown

Boildown

Active Member
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

The best ones are the ones not listed here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2517

And would depend on the answers to the following questions:

How much do you want to spend?
What are you going to capture?
Same PC, or capturing a console, or 2nd computer encoding?
 
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Lain

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Lain
Forum Moderator
Developer
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

My recommendation to people who are interested in capture devices is this: Avoid USB 2.0 devices for the love of god. They are nothing but trouble. Their signal is delayed, they have to be decoded, OBS only supports two of them directly, and only just barely. They should be the last resort option for people with laptops that only have USB 2.0 ports. More USB 2.0 devices will be supported in the future, I've promised more support, but honestly, regardless of even their eventual support, I would still recommend avoiding them.

Otherwise, USB 3.0 devices are currently the best (as long as you have proper support for USB 3.0, make sure to check), followed by most internal cards. Also of note: Blackmagic/Decklink devices are a bit of a pain to set up because they don't support on-board scaling, but are otherwise acceptable.
 
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Lubis

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Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

Sorry for the very late reply, and thanks for the responses!

I am talking about for capturing gameplay from a console. That is the only purpose for the capture card for OBS. So like, streaming from PS3 pretty much. And as far as spending, probably no more than 300 dollars. Sorry if I didn't clarify the console streaming part, but that is all I'm really looking for a response to. Hope that helps!
 
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Lubis

New Member
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

And also, since USB ones might be an issue, is it more recommended to get one that is actually a card inside your PC ?

Edit: And I should also note that this is going to be for streaming to twitch. Not for recording.
 
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Haliinen

Member
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

Yeah just get a PCIe capture card, I used to have a USB 2.0 HD capture card (USB capture cards that don't support HD and is comaptible with directshow should be fine too if you aren't looking to stream in HD, like the dazzle and the GV-USB2 to name a few I've had experience with in the past) but I couldn't really deal with it as far as streaming concerns go, works fine if you're just going to record your gameplay through their own software really. I'm guessing a blackmagic intensity pro would be a good choice in this case if you want to stream from your PS3 and not deal with any of the crap that comes with USB 2.0 HD capture cards.
 
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Lubis

New Member
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

Haliinen said:
Yeah just get a PCIe capture card, I used to have a USB 2.0 HD capture card (USB capture cards that don't support HD and is comaptible with directshow should be fine too if you aren't looking to stream in HD, like the dazzle and the GV-USB2 to name a few I've had experience with in the past) but I couldn't really deal with it as far as streaming concerns go, works fine if you're just going to record your gameplay through their own software really. I'm guessing a blackmagic intensity pro would be a good choice in this case if you want to stream from your PS3 and not deal with any of the crap that comes with USB 2.0 HD capture cards.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was checking out the blackmagic one you are talking about. Do you know if that will also work with PS2/Xbox and older consoles also? For streaming to twitch. It looks like that one is designed with cameras in mind, rather than gaming, so I was unsure haha.
 
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Haliinen

Member
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

Lubis said:
Haliinen said:
Yeah just get a PCIe capture card, I used to have a USB 2.0 HD capture card (USB capture cards that don't support HD and is comaptible with directshow should be fine too if you aren't looking to stream in HD, like the dazzle and the GV-USB2 to name a few I've had experience with in the past) but I couldn't really deal with it as far as streaming concerns go, works fine if you're just going to record your gameplay through their own software really. I'm guessing a blackmagic intensity pro would be a good choice in this case if you want to stream from your PS3 and not deal with any of the crap that comes with USB 2.0 HD capture cards.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was checking out the blackmagic one you are talking about. Do you know if that will also work with PS2/Xbox and older consoles also? For streaming to twitch. It looks like that one is designed with cameras in mind, rather than gaming, so I was unsure haha.
Click to expand...

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/product ... /techspecs

According to that page it should also support SD resolutions.

EDIT: I do think it only supports HDMI and Component inputs, so if you want to stream from an old console you're out of luck with that device I think?
 
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Lubis

New Member
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

http://www.amazon.com/Avertv-Definition ... d_sim_pc_4

Hmmm, I wonder about something like this. It says it has some kind of dongle included for composite video. So maybe that card would be a good option. It is an Avermedia product, and I know Jim had something about Avermedia C875 not working with OBS. Is that only for that particular model number device, or is it for all Avermedia devices? I just don't want to waste my money if you know what I mean haha.
 
Jack0r

Jack0r

The Helping Squad
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

Only some specific Avermedia devices do not work that good with OBS:

I would personally recommend you the H727 for many inputs and old console support, but similar to the one you linked it only supports 1080i capture which is not preferable. So if you plan on capturing 1080p input the C127 Game Broadcaster HD or the C985 Live Gamer HD are interesting for you, with the Game Broadcaster HD offering Composite and Component video inputs through the extra cables. The Live Gamer HD only offers HDMI input so that one is out for older consoles.
(All 3 mentioned ones work fine with OBS)

For USB 3.0 I think the currently best one with many inputs (for the older consoles) is the XCapture-1
http://www.solarisjapan.com/xcapture-1- ... ture-unit/
But its pretty expensive ;)
 
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Lubis

New Member
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

Jack0r said:
Only some specific Avermedia devices do not work that good with OBS:

I would personally recommend you the H727 for many inputs and old console support, but similar to the one you linked it only supports 1080i capture which is not preferable. So if you plan on capturing 1080p input the C127 Game Broadcaster HD or the C985 Live Gamer HD are interesting for you, with the Game Broadcaster HD offering Composite and Component video inputs through the extra cables. The Live Gamer HD only offers HDMI input so that one is out for older consoles.
(All 3 mentioned ones work fine with OBS)

For USB 3.0 I think the currently best one with many inputs (for the older consoles) is the XCapture-1
http://www.solarisjapan.com/xcapture-1- ... ture-unit/
But its pretty expensive ;)
Click to expand...


Thank you for a very helpful post, I am looking into those 3 right now! One question though, I thought the Game Broadcaster HD only had VGA and HDMI? is there like a VGA adapater it comes with that has pigtails for composite or component?

Edit: And by H727 did you mean C727? I can't seem to find a H727, only this:

http://www.amazon.com/AVerMedia-DarkCry ... words=h727
 
Jack0r

Jack0r

The Helping Squad
Re: What are the best known capture cards for streaming with

Sorry, yes you are right, the C127 only comes with a Dsub to Component cable, I forgot that I had a converter box for scart to hdmi back then.

For the H727 its the AverTV Capture HD in Germany, I think in the US its called Avertv HD DVR High Definition, so thats actually the one you linked earlier.
 
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