Elgato 10020840 Video Capture Device (White)

 

 

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I'm very impressed with the video quality. I was supposed to be able to choose the output format but if there is a way to do it, I can't find it. I believe it is going to H.264 but it ain't sayin'.
I pulled 8mm camcorder video off my old Sony Handycam that is 10 years old. Very little artifacting even with kids running around in the video. Excellent video/audio sync. After capturing a 2 hour tape, there is about a 30 second processing phase, otherwise seems to use very few resources on my 2 year old intel iMac.

The setup is easy. Standard composite into the camcorder, USB into the computer. The software... is ok, not great. Simple, but almost too simple with little chance to change anything. If all you want to do is grab your old video before it turns to dust, I highly recommend.

I've used the Elgato Video Capture device for a couple of years now and I thought I'd share some known issues I've had with this product:

Now, I mainly bought the elgato video capture device in order to capture some footage off some old video tapes I had lying around for a couple of years and I believe this is what this product was solely made to do.

Anything else such as recording live shows off of television or recording/streaming live video game footage is a very complicated and an extremely frustrating process:

It's a very delicate piece of hardware. So before recording anything, you have to make sure that you've set the device up in a way that will cause the least amount of interference. In other words, you can't have a 7 ft usb cable extending from the device you're planning to record off of because you're computer simply won't recognize it. You'll have to have it setup up in a way that it's secure, to ensure that the device won't move while you're recording, otherwise you're going to have a lot of problems. Like the other day, someone had asked me to record something off the TV for them like you would with a VCR and I just couldn't do it. In the middle of the recording Elegato would crash or my computer, simply wouldn't recognize the device.

Another known issue I've had with this product - I'm not quite sure how this happens but there would also be times where I'd be recording video game footage and the video file would be sped up once I was done recording. The only way I was able to alleviate this problem was by doing a fresh restart before I planned on recording something.

You can also choose the output format by going into preferences and selecting H264 or MPEG4. I want to make this part very clear because I've had so much great footage ruined because I didn't know this:

H.264 is only good for clear static shots. If you're capturing something that has a lot of movement, It's going to look terrible. There's going to be a lot of artifacting.

MPEG-4 takes a lot longer to stabilize and a lot more memory on your hard drive but the image ends up being much much cleaner with little to no artifacting.

Also, as an aside. All video captured with this device is recorded at 30 fps. So keep in mind it will never look as fluid or as vibrant as your original video you're capturing as this device is mainly used for uploading videos to youtube; which also processes video at 30 fps.

You can also stream with this device as well by downloading a program called Camtwist which will help you select your video feed, which you can then stream to a video website such as Justin.tv. Depending on your internet provider, you may not have a great picture, but it's neat way get into the world of live video streaming.

In summarization, for 100 dollars, this is probably an okay video capturing device to start off for the Mac. if you're JUST recording video tapes off an old VCR, you could even probably go cheaper. Keep in mind that you'll need to restart your computer and ensure that your device is set in a well placed area before each recording.

But for Window Users and more serious video capturing I would definitely look else where!

I received this item within a week and the product was exactly what I ordered. Great service! I have had nothing but great experiences with this company. Highly recommend them.

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