Best HDMI capture card for uncompressed 1080p at 60fps?

[david151]

I am looking for a PCI-E capture card that can capture uncompressed 1080p at 60fps, as I want to use with my Panasonic GH3 camera. Another thing is the capture card must be compatible with OBS.

So far I have only found one card that fits this description - The Blackmagic intensity pro 4k, however I read some very negative reviews about this card.

All other HDMI capture cards, seem to be limited to 30fps, or don’t allow uncompressed capture. Can anyone suggest any other cards apart from the The Blackmagic intensity pro 4k that allow uncompressed 1080p capture at 60fps and interface well with OBS? I also want something that won’t break the bank.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[johns0]

You won't find any capture cards that will capture uncompressed 1080p at 60fps since it will require 1000's of GB per minute which only the worlds best computers can manage which are roughly a millions times faster than home pc,blackmagic is your only choice unless you find any other capture card.

[ezcapper]

The following card works with OBS. If you are willing to open your wallet a little more my friend, you may enjoy this pci-e card more than the blackmagic:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HDMI-DVI-Component-AV-S-1080p60hz-video-capture-card-grabber-T...8AAOxyaTxRSs1a

what most people in your position do is buy a solid state recorder. Blackmagic has one that records to an sd card. The video will be compressed in the intermediate codec prores, which is the closest to uncompressed you want. Solid state recorders are not cheap though.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1137319-REG/blackmagic_design_hyperd_avidas5hd_...eo_assist.html

edit: I missed the streaming part. I guess you need a pci-e card for that. The moderator is right, you will have to compress to stream, sorry.

[KarMa]

Looks like the Panasonic GH3 only outputs 8-bit 4:2:0 over HDMI (1080p@60fps), it should equal ~186 Megabytes per second. Which is achievable with SSD drives, if you wanted to record it lossless.

Might want to look at this OP.
http://orlowskidesigns.com/2013/05/testing-the-atomos-ninja-2-on-the-panasonic-gh3/

[johns0]

Op wants it uncompressed,not lossless,that link looks like a bit of spamming with saying how you can make a 1000 a week.

[KarMa]

Op wants it uncompressed,not lossless

Assuming you are using the same color space and bit depth, then uncompressed should be lossless. My stats were based on uncompressed 4:2:0 8-bit YUV. Which I found by simply by outputing uncompressed 1080p@60fps 4:2:0 8-bit in Virtualdub. Not talking about lagarith or huffyuv, which is lossless but compressed.

that link looks like a bit of spamming with saying how you can make a 1000 a week.

I didn't even read the blue links the first time. As I am pretty immune to ads anymore, even though I report quite a bit of spam on this site any time I see it. That $1000 thing seems to be pretty obvious click bait, similar to "there are 15 sexy singles in your area wanting to chat now!" or "this cheap trick lets my car run on potato shavings". If I can't link to sites with this stuff then it pretty much cuts out half the internet which is sad but true. I don't know the site owner James O, nor am I promoting him, just his site happened to show up in google when searching for this camera and recording the HDMI output.

[david151]

Op wants it uncompressed,not lossless,that link looks like a bit of spamming with saying how you can make a 1000 a week.

Karma is right the Panasonic GH3 only outputs 8-bit 4:2:0 over HDMI (1080p@60fps), so I want to capture that lossless. 186 Megabytes per second is well within the range of every single SSD on the market. As an example my Sansung 850 Evo writes as 520 MB/S, so I don't even have to consider raid or anything.

again I am looking for a card and not some on camera solution, as I want to get this working with OBS

[ezcapper]

Then as far as I know, you have 3 choices. This is good news that you have fast ssd drive. I won't try to tell you which is better, but they're all in the same price range. Yuan makes a card: http://www.sabrepc.com/yuan-sc512-n1-l-dvi-single-channel-dvi-capture-card.html
Timeleak has a card based on the Magewell chip: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HDMI-DVI-Component-AV-S-1080p60hz-video-capture-card-grabber-T...c=1&rmvSB=true
Blackmagic has the card of which you spoke in your original post.
Customer review of the Yuan/Micomsoft card:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/3k54h3/internal_capture_cards_sc512n1ldvi_possibly/

[usually_quiet]

Be aware that ezcapper's main purpose for being a member of this forum is to promote various capture devices from Chinese companies. He began doing this with his very first post. Some are good, some are utter rubbish. Many of them are lacking in the area of customer support,.

Micomsoft (Japan) and Startech (Canadian, with branches in various other locations worldwide) sell some of Yuan's designs, but they provide the drivers, support, and often software for the products they sell. Blackmagic is headquartered in Australia, with branches in various other countries, provides drivers, support, and often software for the products they sell.

With Timeleak, I think you are pretty much on your own for support.

[Edit]Startech's 1080p60 card is the Startech PEXHDCAP60L.

[david151]

Be aware that ezcapper's main purpose for being a member of this forum is to promote various capture devices from Chinese companies. He began doing this with his very first post. Some are good, some are utter rubbish. Many of them are lacking in the area of customer support,.

Micomsoft (Japan) and Startech (Canadian, with branches in various other locations worldwide) sell some of Yuan's designs, but they provide the drivers, support, and often software for the products they sell. Blackmagic is headquartered in Australia, with branches in various other countries, provides drivers, support, and often software for the products they sell.

With Timeleak, I think you are pretty much on your own for support.

[Edit]Startech's 1080p60 card is the Startech PEXHDCAP60L.

That is the problem I don't see many reviews or community support forums for these Chinese cards. Whats more I can't understand why these Chinese cards are in many cases more expensive than the Blackmagic. What possible advantage can they have. Surely to compete with a brand name they must at least be cheaper. If I am going to take a chance on Chinese, I would expect it to be at lest half the price of the Blackmagic.

[usually_quiet]

ezcapper mentioned a Magewell device in a thread from last week, and one of our long-time professional members agreed that Magewell made excellent, very reliable products, probably better than Blackmagic's competing product in some cases. However, according to the originator of the thread it appears customer support could be better. Magewell was much slower than Blackmagic when replying to his inquiry. (He hadn't yet received an answer after at least a few days of waiting for one.)

If you want to look at it anyway, this is Magewell's competing 1080p60 card, which reportedly works with OBS: http://www.magewell.com/pro-capture-hdmi/tech-specs

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magewell-Pro-Capture-HDMI/dp/B01E2N96MI/

[ezcapper]

Because you truly are capturing lossless, I think it's pretty safe that there would be no major disadvantage to getting the blackmagic card. It's a pretty safe buy. Blackmagic is very good at professional oriented products, but their low-end consumer products are sometimes less flexible than the competition. But you should be good with the Blackmagic in your situation, assuming your computer has the required specs

[david151]

so it looks like the blackmagic or magewell are probably the best bet for cards.

Out of interest, if I wanted to reconsider my options and think about getting a usb or thunderbolt device - what would people recommend? The only usb or thunderbolt devices I see which claim uncompressed 1080p 60fps are the


Avermedia live gamer extreme

Avermedia ExtremeCap U3

Again I want this to work with OBS and be tried and tested by others. Are there any better options than those suggested - what would people recommend?

[Brad]

AFAIK all AVerMedia devices still have a bug where they treat 1080p59.94 as 1080p60.00, causing some stutter.

Karma is right the Panasonic GH3 only outputs 8-bit 4:2:0 over HDMI (1080p@60fps), so I want to capture that lossless. 186 Megabytes per second is well within the range of every single SSD on the market.

There is no such thing as 1080p 8-bit 4:2:0 over HDMI; it isn't a supported resolution + subsampling combo. HDMI only supports 4:2:0 for UHD. The most-subsampled mode allowed below UHD is 4:2:2.

The GH3 subsamples internally to 4:2:0, then is required to upsample it back to 4:2:2, 4:4:4 or RGB to output over HDMI at 1080p. You have the choice of capturing this as-is or doing yet another conversion, back to 4:2:0, to save space.

Because you truly are capturing lossless, I think it's pretty safe that there would be no major disadvantage to getting the blackmagic card.

When downsampling 4:4:4 sources to 4:2:2, Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4K does it the worst possible way. They drop samples, leading to aliasing. Maybe their "real" pro line (Decklink) does it properly, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Chroma subsampling really messes with the idea of truly "lossless" capture unless you're very careful. Of course, most people don't look that closely, and for real-life photography it doesn't matter much.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/376473-Lossless-HDMI-capture-devices-comparison-screenshots

[usually_quiet]

so it looks like the blackmagic or magewell are probably the best bet for cards.

Out of interest, if I wanted to reconsider my options and think about getting a usb or thunderbolt device - what would people recommend? The only usb or thunderbolt devices I see which claim uncompressed 1080p 60fps are the


Avermedia live gamer extreme

Avermedia ExtremeCap U3

Again I want this to work with OBS and be tried and tested by others. Are there any better options than those suggested - what would people recommend?

I remember watching a video review for the Magewell USB Capture HDMI XI100DUSB device on "Lon Seidman Reviews Tech" at YouTube. Streaming and capture software apparently detects the Magewell XI100DUSB as a webcam. Lon liked the way it handled video from his camera or switcher, especially for Skype, but was disappointed with it for audio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx2uldWz_K8

I suspect that the Magewell XI100DUSB works well with both the Windows and OSX versions of OBS, but haven't been able to verify it. When I did a search at OBS's forum, I found some threads with replies recommending the Magewell XI100DUSB for use with OBS on a Mac, but no information about using one with OBS on a Windows PC.

[david151]

AFAIK all AVerMedia devices still have a bug where they treat 1080p59.94 as 1080p60.00, causing some stutter.

Karma is right the Panasonic GH3 only outputs 8-bit 4:2:0 over HDMI (1080p@60fps), so I want to capture that lossless. 186 Megabytes per second is well within the range of every single SSD on the market.

There is no such thing as 1080p 8-bit 4:2:0 over HDMI; it isn't a supported resolution + subsampling combo. HDMI only supports 4:2:0 for UHD. The most-subsampled mode allowed below UHD is 4:2:2.

The GH3 subsamples internally to 4:2:0, then is required to upsample it back to 4:2:2, 4:4:4 or RGB to output over HDMI at 1080p. You have the choice of capturing this as-is or doing yet another conversion, back to 4:2:0, to save space.

Because you truly are capturing lossless, I think it's pretty safe that there would be no major disadvantage to getting the blackmagic card.

When downsampling 4:4:4 sources to 4:2:2, Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4K does it the worst possible way. They drop samples, leading to aliasing. Maybe their "real" pro line (Decklink) does it properly, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Chroma subsampling really messes with the idea of truly "lossless" capture unless you're very careful. Of course, most people don't look that closely, and for real-life photography it doesn't matter much.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/376473-Lossless-HDMI-capture-devices-comparison-screenshots

Thanks for this, I did not know that the GH3 subsamples internally to 4:2:0, then is required to upsample back to 4:2:2, 4:4:4 or RGB to output over HDMI at 1080p. So with this in mind it sounds better to capture at 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 without doing any other conversions. But what sort of file sizes will it equate to per minute at 4:2:2 or 4:4:4.

If plan to capture at at 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 and not do any other conversion, do you think the intensity pro 4k is good for this?

I have had second thoughts and decided to consider non PCIe options as well - What about USB3 or thunderbolt devices from other companies? Can the Avermedia live gamer extreme or the Magewell XI100DUSB handle capture at 4:2:2 or 4:4:4?

[Brad]

Magewell XI100DUSB says it does YUY2 and RGB24, i.e. 8-bit 4:2:2 and RGB.

The Intensity Pro 4K should be bit-accurate if you capture 8-bit 4:2:2 as-is. It doesn't support 4:4:4 YCbCr, just RGB. That's why I was complaining about the crappy chroma scaling. If your source is YCbr 4:4:4, you're forced to make a sub-par capture.

[david151]

Magewell XI100DUSB says it does YUY2 and RGB24, i.e. 8-bit 4:2:2 and RGB.

If your source is YCbr 4:4:4, you're forced to make a sub-par capture.

But do you have any idea what the GH3 outputs? Since the 4:2:0 over HDMI was obviously wrong information, does it output 4:2:2 or 4:4:4? I can't find this information from anywhere.

[SameSelf]

But do you have any idea what the GH3 outputs? Since the 4:2:0 over HDMI was obviously wrong information, does it output 4:2:2 or 4:4:4? I can't find this information from anywhere.

Technical specs can be hard to come by and are just that, specs. Professionals always test their equipment. See the chroma subsampling links in my signature for examples on how to test chroma subsampling. It is not hard.

[ezcapper]

Here is another usb3 1080p60 card for your consideration:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/XI100D-1080P-60FPS-UVC-USB-3-0-HDMI-Capture-Dongle-USB2-0-HDMI...QAAOSwYIxX~M5g

[david151]

Here is another usb3 1080p60 card for your consideration:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/XI100D-1080P-60FPS-UVC-USB-3-0-HDMI-Capture-Dongle-USB2-0-HDMI...QAAOSwYIxX~M5g

I saw that before and it uses the same item number as the Magewell. On paper it also looks exactly the same specs as the Magewell XI100DUSB. So what is the catch? Is this a good copy of the Magewell XI100DUSB or is it an inferior product?

[usually_quiet]

Magewell XI100DUSB says it does YUY2 and RGB24, i.e. 8-bit 4:2:2 and RGB.

If your source is YCbr 4:4:4, you're forced to make a sub-par capture.

But do you have any idea what the GH3 outputs? Since the 4:2:0 over HDMI was obviously wrong information, does it output 4:2:2 or 4:4:4? I can't find this information from anywhere.

I can't tell you whether the GH3 uses YCbCr 4:4:4 or 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling for its HDMI output, but if you are still considering a PCI-e card, the specs for the Magewell Pro Capture HDMI say "Support for RGB 4:4:4, YCbCr 4:4:4, YCbCr 4:2:2 color sampling"

[david151]

Magewell XI100DUSB says it does YUY2 and RGB24, i.e. 8-bit 4:2:2 and RGB.

If your source is YCbr 4:4:4, you're forced to make a sub-par capture.

But do you have any idea what the GH3 outputs? Since the 4:2:0 over HDMI was obviously wrong information, does it output 4:2:2 or 4:4:4? I can't find this information from anywhere.

I can't tell you whether the GH3 uses YCbCr 4:4:4 or 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling for its HDMI output, but if you are still considering a PCI-e card, the specs for the Magewell Pro Capture HDMI say "Support for RGB 4:4:4, YCbCr 4:4:4, YCbCr 4:2:2 color sampling"

I did notice that, and it seems about the only card (without breaking the bank) that can do both YCbCr 4:4:4 or 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling. Unless anyone knows any other cards?

Also does anyone know if there are any knock off copies of the Magewell Pro Capture, as their usb devices seem to have been well and truly copied. I can't find any unbranded copies of of the PCI-e card - are there any about?

[djnice]

Magewell XI100DUSB says it does YUY2 and RGB24, i.e. 8-bit 4:2:2 and RGB.

If your source is YCbr 4:4:4, you're forced to make a sub-par capture.

But do you have any idea what the GH3 outputs? Since the 4:2:0 over HDMI was obviously wrong information, does it output 4:2:2 or 4:4:4? I can't find this information from anywhere.

I can't tell you whether the GH3 uses YCbCr 4:4:4 or 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling for its HDMI output, but if you are still considering a PCI-e card, the specs for the Magewell Pro Capture HDMI say "Support for RGB 4:4:4, YCbCr 4:4:4, YCbCr 4:2:2 color sampling"

I did notice that, and it seems about the only card (without breaking the bank) that can do both YCbCr 4:4:4 or 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling. Unless anyone knows any other cards?

Also does anyone know if there are any knock off copies of the Magewell Pro Capture, as their usb devices seem to have been well and truly copied. I can't find any unbranded copies of of the PCI-e card - are there any about?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hot-Sale-HDMI-Video-Capture-Card-PCIE-For-Windows-Linu...711591730.html