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  1. I'm planning on buying a Macbook Pro this summer to, among other things, capture uncompressed video from my desktop. It seems no matter what software option I choose, there's some drawback (stuttering, crap quality). I need a hardware-based solution. The laptop will have two Thunderbolt 2 and two USB 3.0 ports.

    To capture 1080p60 it seems my only option is the $180 AVerMedia ExtremeCap U3. It does 1080p60, it connects via USB3 (no compression!) Unfortunately, that's Windows-only. Bootcamp isn't an issue, but I'd like to do everything from OS X if I could.

    Apparently the ~$300 BlackMagic Intensity Extreme at some point could capture 1080p60 but it got taken away?

    And there is, of course, all the $1000+ professional grade devices that can do what I want, but I'm not rich!

    Is there some new product out there in the last few months that'll do what I want?

    *BONUS QUESTION: If there is a product out there for me, can it do 1200p60?*
    Last edited by athairus; 5th Apr 2014 at 22:32.
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  2. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    What source are you capturing from? Most 1080p60 sources have links to compatible equipment.

    Scott
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  3. Not exactly sure what you mean by "links to compatible equipment", but the main 1080p60 source I want to capture is my desktop. Via HDMI. I would also like to capture all kinds of analog sources, but that's not a huge concern right now.
    Last edited by athairus; 4th Apr 2014 at 15:03.
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    I haven't been able to find any capture devices that can handle 1080p60 with a hardware based encoder. In fact I only know of two models that support 1080p60:

    Avermedia extreme cap u3:

    http://gamerzone.avermedia.com//game_capture/extremecap_u3

    Micomsoft xcapture 1:

    http://www.solarisjapan.com/xcapture-1-usb-3-0-hd-capture-unit/

    The micomsoft is more versatile as it can capture at 240p which is ideal for pre ps2, gamecube, and xbox generations of video games. The consoles before the ones I listed mainly had their output at 240p with a few games alternating between 240p and 480i. Though this only happened with the n64, ps1, and sega saturn. Anything before these, only output in 240p. Though with both of these, it is a software based encoder which your computer will do the heavy lifting. Not only that but they only support windows currently. If you don't mind windows and are interested in a software based encoding solution, you can try to get a fast ssd and capture that way. This way you could leave the incoming capture stream with lossless or uncompressed capture and your cpu shouldn't take a big hit. Though this will require a fast ssd and a big one. Luckily there are solutions. Check it out:

    http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-EVO-Series-2-5-Inch-MZ-7TE250BW/dp/B00E3W172...1&keywords=ssd

    It's insane how much these ssds can handle now. 1 terabyte for 500 dollars. These were a lot more expensive a few years ago. Samsung and Intel ssds are also known for being fast. I believe this one has a 500 MB/s write speed which is more than enough for uncompressed hd. Especially with downsampling the color from rgb to yuy 4:2:2, which the two capture cards will do.

    I recorded once, with dxtory, uncompressed 1366x768, I think it was at around 1000 mb/s which is 125 MB/s, or it could've been higher but less than 2000 mb/s. Regardless both of these speeds the above ssd can handle. Though with the rgb colorspace the bitrate skyrocketed but you don't have to worry about that.

    Also some clarification: mb/s = megabits per second, MB/s = megabytes per second. Thought I should put that out there in case someone gets confused.
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  5. Member turk690's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by athairus View Post
    I'm planning on buying a Macbook Pro this summer to, among other things, capture uncompressed video from my desktop. It seems no matter what software option I choose, there's some drawback (stuttering, crap quality)...
    Why can't you capture video with the desktop? I wouldn't use a laughtop to capture video. And if the "crap quality" you say is that of the desktop, I suspect using a laughtop will be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
    For the nth time, with the possible exception of certain Intel processors, I don't have/ever owned anything whose name starts with "i".
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  6. Originally Posted by turk690 View Post
    Originally Posted by athairus View Post
    I'm planning on buying a Macbook Pro this summer to, among other things, capture uncompressed video from my desktop. It seems no matter what software option I choose, there's some drawback (stuttering, crap quality)...
    Why can't you capture video with the desktop? I wouldn't use a laughtop to capture video. And if the "crap quality" you say is that of the desktop, I suspect using a laughtop will be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
    Let's just say I'm picky. It seems no matter what software solution I've tried (and believe me, if you can name it I've probably tried it), there's some performance problem. Capturing compressed video? My framerate isn't affected much, but recording introduces micro-stutters which throw me off my game (I'm WELL aware of QuickSync, GPU-accelerated encoding, etc). Capturing uncompressed video? My ssd can (mostly) handle that, but I only have a tiny bit of room for capturing. Using OBS (which uses x264) to capture game footage using just the CPU to compress gives me almost buttery-smooth results at 1080p60, but there are still duplicate frames, most likely caused by the capturing.

    I guess "crap quality" was a bad choice of words. It's mostly stuttering that's the problem (dropped frames). Offloading the recording and encoding to a completely separate computer will hopefully solve this problem.
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  7. Member turk690's Avatar
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    A properly configured desktopcomputer with the details you have will capture OK. How many hard drives do you have? Are you capturing to the OS hard drive? If you are, then I fully expect "crap quality".
    For the nth time, with the possible exception of certain Intel processors, I don't have/ever owned anything whose name starts with "i".
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    A fast ssd with a lot of space may be able to compensate for the all too common problem of capturing on the same host drive as the operating system. I remember once I captured half life on steam via dxtory using the utvideo codec at 1366x768 on the same ssd as my OS and I didn't see any frame drops as is common, and this was a crucial m4 ssd so they're not the fastest as the samsung I highlighted above. A laptop may work if a fast ssd is in place. Only thing is I couldn't find a hardware solution for you. My apologies, but all 1080p60 capturing solutions seem to be software based. Though the more uncompressed you go, the less load it will be on your cpu. You'll just have to compensate with a faster ssd.
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  9. Well, I figured that there wasn't anything out there hardware-wise that I wouldn't have found myself... except for that Micomsoft xcapture 1. Thanks for finding that TheDrifter363, but that's too expensive for me. I guess I can just do bootcamp on my MacBook and use the ExtremeCap U3.

    Or maybe I could blow some cash on development kits and roll my own capture hardware >: )

    EDIT: Oh and TheDrifter363, I don't need the hardware to do the compression. I'd like to be able to use the uncompressed raw stream with a program like Wirecast.
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    Lol. Though the xcapture-1 is great.......if you plan on capturing 240p sources. See since old consoles were 240p, there's not a lot of devices that have support for them and if they do they'll display them at 480i which will apply unnecessary interlacing which will introduce artifacts. The xcapture-1 excels at that. So if you plan to capture anything retro oriented then the xcapture-1 is a great buy. The same company also makes an upscaler, called the xrgb mini, which upscales all retro consoles to 480p, 720p, or 1080p. Handles everything great, especially since it can recognize 240p sources. You can hook up all the old consoles via rgb with scart or jprgb21, though the xrgb mini's native rgb input is wired for jprgb21. It's up to you, pretty tough decision personally. Thing is, I already have a xrgb mini so apparently my decision's been made. With the mini upscaling everything, then you can plug everything into any hdmi capture solution like the extreme cap u3. The mini's handy if you ever plan on taking your consoles anywhere or just don't want to have to use your computer to play your games. Here's some links:

    http://www.sixfortyfive.com/streaming/xcapture1.html

    http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/framemeister.html
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  11. Lone soldier Cauptain's Avatar
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    ~$350.00 for capture 1080p@60??

    Get Avermedia U3. Capture 240p console games use emulators output only.
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  12. Member turk690's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by TheDrifter363 View Post
    A fast ssd with a lot of space may be able to compensate for the all too common problem of capturing on the same host drive as the operating system...
    May well be, brute speed applied. But capturing means writing lots of data which run against convention that writing to an SSD should be held to a minimum if one can help it. SSDs have been known to fail or otherwise have short lives the more I/O is involved; that's why, for one, windoze automatically turns off defrag on SSDs it detects in a PC. Lots of activity on an SSD with an OS in it already conspire to shorten its life from day one, including but not limited to that involving pagefile.sys (which the SSD electronics can't touch); add putting captured files to it. And, unless you are flush with cash, really, do you want to capture to 128 or 256GB SSDs (which is already likely filled with OS and program files and ersatz)? To capture fast, I would likely go with a SATA/eSATA h/w RAID0 conventional 7200rpm (or faster) hard drives.
    For the nth time, with the possible exception of certain Intel processors, I don't have/ever owned anything whose name starts with "i".
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  13. This is all interesting guys, but I guess I should make it clear what I want to do here. I want to capture 1080p60 from my desktop via HDMI. That's just about it. I already have a USB dongle (Hauppage WinTV-HVR 950Q) if I ever want to capture analog footage (unlikely).

    If I want to play classic games, I'll just fire up an emulator. Retroarch (especially the BSNES core) runs games just about flawlessly (59.94fps, no stutters).

    What I really want to do is have my future MacBook take uncompressed footage via either USB 3.0 or Lightning 2 and compress it real-time to H.264 using a program like Wirecast or OBS (I want to stream and save the recording locally at the same time). I already know even my 5200RPM hard drives can handle writing 1080p60 H.264 compressed footage easily enough (bitrate is all that matters in that regard), so that's not an issue.

    I think I'll go with the ExtremeCap U3 unless anyone has some good reason to avoid it.

    If anyone has one of these, can you answer 2 questions: can it do 1200p60 and can you preview the uncompressed footage somehow (virtualdub, amarec) with completely unnoticeable lag?
    Last edited by athairus; 6th Apr 2014 at 20:38.
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    Originally Posted by athairus View Post
    This is all interesting guys, but I guess I should make it clear what I want to do here. I want to capture 1080p60 from my desktop via HDMI. That's just about it. I already have a USB dongle (Hauppage WinTV-HVR 950Q) if I ever want to capture analog footage (unlikely).

    If I want to play classic games, I'll just fire up an emulator. Retroarch (especially the BSNES core) runs games just about flawlessly (60fps, no stutters).

    What I really want to do is have my future MacBook take uncompressed footage via either USB 3.0 or Lightning 2 and compress it real-time to H.264 using a program like Wirecast or OBS (I want to stream and save the recording locally at the same time). I already know even my 5200RPM hard drives can handle writing 1080p60 H.264 compressed footage easily enough (bitrate is all that matters in that regard), so that's not an issue.

    I think I'll go with the ExtremeCap U3 unless anyone has some good reason to avoid it.

    If anyone has one of these, can you answer 2 questions: can it do 1200p60 and can you preview the uncompressed footage somehow (virtualdub, amarec) with completely unnoticeable lag?
    If you plan to stick to emulators for old consoles then extremecap u3 would be a better choice. No need for the xcapture-1. Now I believe the highest resolution it supports is 1080p60, so I don't think it can do 1200p60. I don't want to give you a yes or no as I am not sure. As for the lag, the extremecap u3 doesn't have a hdmi passthrough and they even state it's supposed to be lagless in the preview window so you should be good. I believe the usb 3.0 may be picky on the chipset of the usb 3.0 controller. Intel based usb 3.0 and you should be good. I am uncertain if an amd usb 3.0 controller would work. I remember reading somewhere that a asmedia usb 3.0 chipset did not work.
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