EZcap USB (composite) VS Blackmagic VIDEO RECORDER (component)

[wagz82]

Okay folks, time to do a battle:

I haven't found any similarity/difference tests with exact images to see the comparison of anEZCap(USB composite/S-video) video capture card versus a Blackmagic Video Recorder the USB with a component breakout cable (BMVR) set up with an xbox 360 or similar device.

If I had the cash I'd totally do it myself but I want to see if someone out there has both, maybe bought the black magic after getting an ezcap, etc.

They say they BMVR can only go up to 480i (or it's p, I don't know) and ISN'T really considered HD, more like SD. Now why the heck would it have component??? Anyone want to run some tests between the two - how bout a screen capture of the actual quality of the same screen (or menu) or perhaps two videos, one showing ezcap the other Black magic's

if EZcap it ten times better....and cheaper....then why would anyone want to buy a BMVR? Someone please prove me wrong.....or at least try, I dare ya! lol

[jagabo]

The Blackmagic Video Recorder has a hardware h.264 encoder to compress the video as it's being captured -- that's responsible for most of the difference in cost. The EZCap captures uncompressed video and uses software to perform any compression. Both capture standard definition video only.

[wagz82]

Thanks jagabo,

Seems like quite the hike of a price to just having it compressed AS you're capturing it and still achieving standard definition...I guess what I'm also trying to ask is about the difference between their component and their composite image quality.

I'm wanting to see some images or screenshots as it were of the quality between the two, in theory the justification of compression during capture is great but to show the difference is much more satisfying.


Putting the "money where your mouth is" so to speak.

[jagabo]

I can't speak about the video quality since I don't have either. One thing I can tell you: many cheap capture devices are very susceptible to external noise, ground loop problems, etc. They also have cheap comb filters for separating chroma and luma from composite sources, leading to bad dot crawl artifacts. Using s-video can avoid that. Capturing from component will give sharper colors than s-video or component.

[usually_quiet]

The difference in cost is less glaring if someone buys a real $33 EzCAP116 http://www.ezcap.tv/ instead of a $10 knockoff of one of their discontinued products.

These products are geared towards different operating systems too. The Blackmagic Video Recorder is for Macs and does not include any software for Windows. If there is a way to use it with Windows, the manufacturer website doesn't say. The real EzCAP116 (and most of the imitations) only come with Windows software. Videoglide software, recommended for using the real EzCAP116 with OSX, must be purchased for an additional $30, but the EzCAP116 has drivers available for OSX. I don't know what OSX software can be reliably used with the knockoffs, plus they may not have drivers available for OSX.

[johns0]

Thread moved to mac forum.