Elgato Game Capture HD vs. Blackmagic Intensity Pro: Capture Card Roundup + Reviews
Greetings fellows. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, seeing as how I was fortunate enough to get my hands on two of the best capture devices currently available, for gamers and video capture enthusiasts in general. I’ve noticed how there has been a growing interest in video/screenshot capture around these forums so I thought I’d do a write up that may be of some use to those of you who are interested in getting a capture device.
Anyway, back to the capture devices themselves. They’re slick, they’re (relatively) affordable and they pack some kick ass features. I understand there are a lot of reviews out there of these two devices separately but I will try my best to keep this piece of writing as relevant to THIS community as possible. Plus, there currently isn’t a direct comparison of these two devices out there yet. So let’s get the ball rolling and introduce the two devices:
Elgato Game Capture HD (Brief overview):
This little guy came out earlier this year and has made quite a name for itself since then. I won’t bore you with all the technical details so I’ll just sum it all up: It’s an external capture card, no bigger than an iPhone, that connects to your computer through a USB port and captures video through the included software. There’s an HDMI port where you can connect your XBOX 360 (or any other HDMI-capable device such as an Ipad etc.) and an AV Port where you connect your PS3 (PS3 doesn’t allow HDMI capture due to content protection). The card also allows you, through an HDMI-Out port, to output the signal from your console to an HDTV with zero lag, making it possible to play on your HDTV while capturing on your PC. The whole process is fairly simple. You don’t need any other cables, power adapters, splitters etc. The device handles everything. It even works as a simple pass-through device in case you don’t want to use the capture function.
Blackmagic Intensity Pro (Brief Overview):
This bad boy has been out in the market for more than 5 years now. One would think it may have become outdated by now, but they’d be dead wrong. It still packs quite a punch and is used by many professional gaming sites out there (gametrailers and gamersyde use this very device for their captures). Unlike the Elgato though, this card requires a little more know-how about video formats and computer hardware in general. It’s a PCIe card that occupies a PCI-e x 1 slot on your motherboard. Like the Elgato, it has 2 HDMI ports -one in and one out- and can output video to your TV while you capture. It also comes with a break-out cable which you’ll use to connect your PS3 via component cable. The break-out cable also supports a host of SD video inputs for older consoles, like PS2, Wii/Gamecube and the original XBOX.
Now that we’ve familiarized ourselves with the devices, let’s get down to the nitty gritties:
Round 1: Ease of use.
I’m sure you can already guess which of the two devices wins this. The Elgato plugs into any PC or Mac and can start capturing video in an instant. It handles everything regarding video formats, signals etc. on its own and allows you to have your HDTV connected simultaneously 24/7.
The Blackmagic Intensity on the other hand is a chore to set up if you’re new to using the card. I actually had to call up Sheraz bhai (TheGoldenTouch) for his help on the matter (many thanks for that!). The card has no clear indication of which port is HDMi-in and which port is HDMI-out, so as my luck would have it, I was shoving my cables in the wrong slots since the get-go. After pulling out my hair for several hours, I finally figured out which slots were the correct ones but still had no video, until I finally realized: the card displays a black screen unless you’ve set it to the EXACT video input as the one that the console is using. This is quite a pain, especially for someone that uses multiple consoles set to different resolutions. The Pass-Through function also only works when you’ve got the software running, which isn’t a requirement for the Elgato.
So, yeah, big surprise: Elgato Game Capture HD is the clear winner
Round 2: Capture Quality.
Elgato Game Capture HD can capture up to 1080p(30 fps) at a bitrate of 30mbps. It compresses the footage with the .h264 codec and transmits the compressed footage to your PC on the fly. This causes the video preview on your PC to lag by at least 2 seconds, making the game unplayable on the PC screen itself. Not a big problem, considering you’ll have your TV hooked up at the same time.
Screencaps using Elgato (DOA5, PS3):
The Black Magic Intensity Pro doesn’t record up to 1080p, but there are workarounds. As far as bitrate goes, Intensity pro has a huge advantage: it can capture uncompressed video.
Screencaps using Intensity Pro (DOA5, PS3):
As you can see from the screens above, the screens from the Elgato look noticeably fuzzy, while the intensity pro grabs a crisp, clean and colourful image. The Elgato’s video quality IS quite good, don’t get me wrong. The videos look stunning. Screenshots however, are not the card’s forte, as the card compresses the video before capturing it.
Intensity Pro, on the other hand, does not pre-compress footage. Also, while using the Intensity Pro on my system, there was practically no input-lag on the PC, so I could pretty much play on either the TV or PC, whichever I preferred. Some people have however complained about input lag so it might just be because of my system in specific.
Winner: Intensity Pro.
Round 3: System Requirements.
The Elgato will run on most computers equipped with a dual-core processor and at least 4 gigs of Ram. It will even run on laptops.
As far as BlackMagic Intensity goes, things get a little complicated. To put it simply: If you’re wanting to capture uncompressed video, you’ll need a super PC with fast hard drives, or a Raid 0 configuration. If you’re not planning to capture uncompressed… well, you’ll still need a fast PC. Especially for 1080i capture. Not only that, there have been plenty of cases where the device simply hasn’t worked with a slew of motherboards. Be entirely sure your motherboard is compatible with the device before making the purchase. Also, you simply cannot use this device on a laptop.
Winner: Elgato Game Capture HD
Round 4: Packaged Software
The Elgato comes with a nifty-looking Game Capture Utility that you need to download from their website. It’s fairly simple to use, just hook up your console to your device, the device to the PC and you should be seeing a video preview on your PC in no time. You don’t need to worry yourself with selecting the correct formats and all that jazz, the device handles everything for you. All you have to do is hit the big record button to start capturing.
The best feature of this software however is time-shift recording. Suppose you’ve had your software running and you’ve been playing for an hour. Maybe you had an insanely awesome kill but forgot to hit the record button. Not to worry, the device caches your gameplay on your hard drive for upto an hour, making it easy to go back in time and retrieve whatever it is that you forgot to record.
Intensity pro comes with a software called Media Express. It’s a basic capture utility that allows you to capture video and stills. It looks boring as heck and doesn’t feature anything innovative a’la the game capture HD. I actually prefer using third-party software to capture with the intensity.
So yeah, I'm not even gonna talk more about Media Express, simply because of how big of a turn off it is, ESPECIALLY after using Game Capture HD.
Winner: Elgato Game Capture HD
Round 5: Price and Availability
Ahh, so here comes the most important part: How much are these cards and WHERE oh where can I buy them from in Pakistan?
Well, here’s how it is: Internationally both cards cost about the same. Intensity Pro is listed for $189 on Amazon and the Elgato is $175. But that really doesn’t apply to us now does it?
As far as availability in Pakistan goes, you can forget about finding the Elgato here. You’ll have to import it, and it can end up costing upwards of 24k with shipping, taxes and the like.
Elgato game capture hd | B&H Photo Video
This is about the best place I can recommend if you’re interested in getting one. They ship to Pakistan and you can choose to use UPS, which pretty much means there’s no risk involved.
Luckily though, there is a way to obtain the Intensity Pro locally.
Ion Audio Visual - Home page
These guys have a huge inventory of BlackMagic Design products. They offer warranty, RMA etc. It’s not really a shop per se, more like a warehouse. But they DO cater to home users as well, not just pros. If you want one, simply give them a call and they’ll arrange one for you. It’s listed on their site for around 24k, but I got mine on a discount for 22k.
As far as chosing a winner goes here, It’d be unfair to pick one when all things are considered. So, to put it simply:
The Blackmagic Intensity Pro will be easier to get, will cost you slightly less but it’s rather complicated to use and might not work on some computers.
The Elgato will be tougher to get, slightly more expensive, but is a device aimed solely towards gamers and has some great features.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one’s the better deal.
As far my personal opinion goes, I’ll definitely lean more towards the Elgato considering how easy it is to use. Anyone will be able to figure out how to use it and will be able to capture videos easily.
The Intensity Pro however is for the more advanced user, and once you get it up and working, the quality is simply amazing.
Other potential devices to consider:
The Hauppauge HD PVR is another device you guys can consider which is fairly renowned. Unfortunately, I don’t have one on me so I can’t say much about it. You CAN however buy it for 24k from HomeShopping.pk, they have it in stock. They also recently released an HDMI version of this device, the HD PVR-2.
Other than that, there’s also the Roxio Game Capture HD, which came out no more than a month ago, and seems to be getting good reviews.
The choice is yours capture enthusiasts, make the right one for you!
Wish I could capture vids for you guys but Youtube's still blocked :S
Greetings fellows. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, seeing as how I was fortunate enough to get my hands on two of the best capture devices currently available, for gamers and video capture enthusiasts in general. I’ve noticed how there has been a growing interest in video/screenshot capture around these forums so I thought I’d do a write up that may be of some use to those of you who are interested in getting a capture device.
Anyway, back to the capture devices themselves. They’re slick, they’re (relatively) affordable and they pack some kick ass features. I understand there are a lot of reviews out there of these two devices separately but I will try my best to keep this piece of writing as relevant to THIS community as possible. Plus, there currently isn’t a direct comparison of these two devices out there yet. So let’s get the ball rolling and introduce the two devices:
Elgato Game Capture HD (Brief overview):
This little guy came out earlier this year and has made quite a name for itself since then. I won’t bore you with all the technical details so I’ll just sum it all up: It’s an external capture card, no bigger than an iPhone, that connects to your computer through a USB port and captures video through the included software. There’s an HDMI port where you can connect your XBOX 360 (or any other HDMI-capable device such as an Ipad etc.) and an AV Port where you connect your PS3 (PS3 doesn’t allow HDMI capture due to content protection). The card also allows you, through an HDMI-Out port, to output the signal from your console to an HDTV with zero lag, making it possible to play on your HDTV while capturing on your PC. The whole process is fairly simple. You don’t need any other cables, power adapters, splitters etc. The device handles everything. It even works as a simple pass-through device in case you don’t want to use the capture function.
Blackmagic Intensity Pro (Brief Overview):
This bad boy has been out in the market for more than 5 years now. One would think it may have become outdated by now, but they’d be dead wrong. It still packs quite a punch and is used by many professional gaming sites out there (gametrailers and gamersyde use this very device for their captures). Unlike the Elgato though, this card requires a little more know-how about video formats and computer hardware in general. It’s a PCIe card that occupies a PCI-e x 1 slot on your motherboard. Like the Elgato, it has 2 HDMI ports -one in and one out- and can output video to your TV while you capture. It also comes with a break-out cable which you’ll use to connect your PS3 via component cable. The break-out cable also supports a host of SD video inputs for older consoles, like PS2, Wii/Gamecube and the original XBOX.
Now that we’ve familiarized ourselves with the devices, let’s get down to the nitty gritties:
Round 1: Ease of use.
I’m sure you can already guess which of the two devices wins this. The Elgato plugs into any PC or Mac and can start capturing video in an instant. It handles everything regarding video formats, signals etc. on its own and allows you to have your HDTV connected simultaneously 24/7.
The Blackmagic Intensity on the other hand is a chore to set up if you’re new to using the card. I actually had to call up Sheraz bhai (TheGoldenTouch) for his help on the matter (many thanks for that!). The card has no clear indication of which port is HDMi-in and which port is HDMI-out, so as my luck would have it, I was shoving my cables in the wrong slots since the get-go. After pulling out my hair for several hours, I finally figured out which slots were the correct ones but still had no video, until I finally realized: the card displays a black screen unless you’ve set it to the EXACT video input as the one that the console is using. This is quite a pain, especially for someone that uses multiple consoles set to different resolutions. The Pass-Through function also only works when you’ve got the software running, which isn’t a requirement for the Elgato.
So, yeah, big surprise: Elgato Game Capture HD is the clear winner
Round 2: Capture Quality.
Elgato Game Capture HD can capture up to 1080p(30 fps) at a bitrate of 30mbps. It compresses the footage with the .h264 codec and transmits the compressed footage to your PC on the fly. This causes the video preview on your PC to lag by at least 2 seconds, making the game unplayable on the PC screen itself. Not a big problem, considering you’ll have your TV hooked up at the same time.
Screencaps using Elgato (DOA5, PS3):
The Black Magic Intensity Pro doesn’t record up to 1080p, but there are workarounds. As far as bitrate goes, Intensity pro has a huge advantage: it can capture uncompressed video.
Screencaps using Intensity Pro (DOA5, PS3):
As you can see from the screens above, the screens from the Elgato look noticeably fuzzy, while the intensity pro grabs a crisp, clean and colourful image. The Elgato’s video quality IS quite good, don’t get me wrong. The videos look stunning. Screenshots however, are not the card’s forte, as the card compresses the video before capturing it.
Intensity Pro, on the other hand, does not pre-compress footage. Also, while using the Intensity Pro on my system, there was practically no input-lag on the PC, so I could pretty much play on either the TV or PC, whichever I preferred. Some people have however complained about input lag so it might just be because of my system in specific.
Winner: Intensity Pro.
Round 3: System Requirements.
The Elgato will run on most computers equipped with a dual-core processor and at least 4 gigs of Ram. It will even run on laptops.
As far as BlackMagic Intensity goes, things get a little complicated. To put it simply: If you’re wanting to capture uncompressed video, you’ll need a super PC with fast hard drives, or a Raid 0 configuration. If you’re not planning to capture uncompressed… well, you’ll still need a fast PC. Especially for 1080i capture. Not only that, there have been plenty of cases where the device simply hasn’t worked with a slew of motherboards. Be entirely sure your motherboard is compatible with the device before making the purchase. Also, you simply cannot use this device on a laptop.
Winner: Elgato Game Capture HD
Round 4: Packaged Software
The Elgato comes with a nifty-looking Game Capture Utility that you need to download from their website. It’s fairly simple to use, just hook up your console to your device, the device to the PC and you should be seeing a video preview on your PC in no time. You don’t need to worry yourself with selecting the correct formats and all that jazz, the device handles everything for you. All you have to do is hit the big record button to start capturing.
The best feature of this software however is time-shift recording. Suppose you’ve had your software running and you’ve been playing for an hour. Maybe you had an insanely awesome kill but forgot to hit the record button. Not to worry, the device caches your gameplay on your hard drive for upto an hour, making it easy to go back in time and retrieve whatever it is that you forgot to record.
Intensity pro comes with a software called Media Express. It’s a basic capture utility that allows you to capture video and stills. It looks boring as heck and doesn’t feature anything innovative a’la the game capture HD. I actually prefer using third-party software to capture with the intensity.
So yeah, I'm not even gonna talk more about Media Express, simply because of how big of a turn off it is, ESPECIALLY after using Game Capture HD.
Winner: Elgato Game Capture HD
Round 5: Price and Availability
Ahh, so here comes the most important part: How much are these cards and WHERE oh where can I buy them from in Pakistan?
Well, here’s how it is: Internationally both cards cost about the same. Intensity Pro is listed for $189 on Amazon and the Elgato is $175. But that really doesn’t apply to us now does it?
As far as availability in Pakistan goes, you can forget about finding the Elgato here. You’ll have to import it, and it can end up costing upwards of 24k with shipping, taxes and the like.
Elgato game capture hd | B&H Photo Video
This is about the best place I can recommend if you’re interested in getting one. They ship to Pakistan and you can choose to use UPS, which pretty much means there’s no risk involved.
Luckily though, there is a way to obtain the Intensity Pro locally.
Ion Audio Visual - Home page
These guys have a huge inventory of BlackMagic Design products. They offer warranty, RMA etc. It’s not really a shop per se, more like a warehouse. But they DO cater to home users as well, not just pros. If you want one, simply give them a call and they’ll arrange one for you. It’s listed on their site for around 24k, but I got mine on a discount for 22k.
As far as chosing a winner goes here, It’d be unfair to pick one when all things are considered. So, to put it simply:
The Blackmagic Intensity Pro will be easier to get, will cost you slightly less but it’s rather complicated to use and might not work on some computers.
The Elgato will be tougher to get, slightly more expensive, but is a device aimed solely towards gamers and has some great features.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one’s the better deal.
As far my personal opinion goes, I’ll definitely lean more towards the Elgato considering how easy it is to use. Anyone will be able to figure out how to use it and will be able to capture videos easily.
The Intensity Pro however is for the more advanced user, and once you get it up and working, the quality is simply amazing.
Other potential devices to consider:
The Hauppauge HD PVR is another device you guys can consider which is fairly renowned. Unfortunately, I don’t have one on me so I can’t say much about it. You CAN however buy it for 24k from HomeShopping.pk, they have it in stock. They also recently released an HDMI version of this device, the HD PVR-2.
Other than that, there’s also the Roxio Game Capture HD, which came out no more than a month ago, and seems to be getting good reviews.
The choice is yours capture enthusiasts, make the right one for you!
Wish I could capture vids for you guys but Youtube's still blocked :S
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