Elgato HD60 Game Capture Card - 1080p 60fps for PS4, Xbox One & Xbox 360 | Stream & Record Gameplay | Perfect for Twitch, YouTube & Live Streaming

This review is going to be a little long winded, so if you want a summary I'll explain why this product gets 2 stars right now. This product promises to deliver 1080p 60fps capture, but what it doesn't tell you is that it won't be perfect, and it will have significant flaws. The flaws are only more apparent if you plan on using this capture device for streaming via OBS or XSplit. If you plan on recording using the dedicated software, than this product could be more suited for your needs. This product doesn't work for me, and if you want to know why continue on.First of all, I purchased this product when it first launched. Over a year ago. It had significant software bugs at the time- all related to audio de-sync issues with the video feed. It was significant enough to render this product useless to me. Streaming was impossible because it could not keep up. I sent it back with the intent on getting something else, but nothing else would really do 1080p 60... So i waited.Fast forward to now. I wanted to get back into streaming and I needed a capture card. My requirements were 1080p, 60fps, and it had to work with OBS. Pretty simple stuff. I do the research and see a few cards that can do it, but Amazon still has the Elgato HD60 as the highest rated device which claims to perform to my requirements. I read up on the device and it turns out they did fix the audio sync issues with OBS and it should work much better. I bought it in hopes that it would work.Let me cut to the chase. It works much better than it did over a year ago. In fact, it could be "passable" for most people. However, it isn't perfect. Specifically, when playing Super Mario Maker for the Wii U. I noticed an odd bug with how the Elgato HD60 captures stuff. Specifically, when the screen fades to black for whatever reason, the capture gets interrupted for a second or two. It's enough to drive you crazy on a game like Super Mario Maker. The screen fades to black every time you either die, change levels, or enter a pipe or door. This happens quite often in this game. Every time this happens, the capture "freezes" briefly, and picks up a second or so after the screen has already faded back into gameplay. What you see in the stream and/or recording is the screen fade to black, then suddenly jerk back into the gameplay some second or two after you have already started playing the level. This isn't acceptable. This is an odd bug which could be related to encoding. My theory is this... If you know a thing or two about how encoding works you know that huge changes on the screen can have the largest impact on encoding, and a fade to a full black screen then back to normal can be a "worse case" situation for the capture card to work with. I'm not saying this is correct, but I know this card has this issue. Specifically, I watched a few other streamers playing Super Mario Maker and sure enough- I could tell which streamers were using the HD60 by this specific behavior.In conclusion... This card isn't for me. Although Elgato have fixed the audio sync issues, there is still a significant delay in the time events in the game happen and they are captured, so in OBS you have to setup a global audio delay for mic capture, along with webcam delays to make everything sync up with the game capture. It is worlds more consistent with how it was before, but you still get an aproximately.2 second variant, causing your voice to be out of sync with things that are happening on screen even if ever so slight. Also, the black screen fade bug is a deal breaker. I was willing to regrettably deal with the slight sync issues, but the black screen fade bug? That was where I draw the line.The reason it gets even 2 stars is it partially works. If these issues are all software based and can be patched, than this product could potentially be worth a buy. It is still a cheaper 1080p 60fps capture option compared to the competition. It just didn't work for me.Since this purchase I have also purchased the AVerMedia Gamer Extreme- their premium 1080p 60fps offering. While this product appeared to be what I was looking for, this product had more software bugs than the Elgato. However, most of these issues are related to the built in software which I didn't intend to use, so I bought it. Since I use OBS for capture and recording, I wasn't worried about the software. In fact, when this product works with OBS it works amazingly well! My only reservation with this product is it would randomly stop capturing. I believe it has to do with my usb 3.0 controller. Supposedly, this device could have issues with different controllers.Because the AVerMedia wasn't working, I did a ton of research on other 1080p 60fps offerings and one in particular caught my eye. It's called the XCAPTURE-1 and has to be imported from Japan. It is capable of doing 1080p 60fps capture over usb 3.0, and can capture a variety of mediums- more than just HDMI. It does component capture as well which is great- but this offering isn't cheap. At close to double the cost of other offerings, this device is on the premium price spectrum, but is it worth it? I bought it to see, because at this point I was willing to pay for a device that works.Well, out of the box it didn't work. I plugged it in, added an OBS profile for it, and all I got was a single frame of my Wii U capture. Are you kidding me? Turns out this device only supports certain USB 3.0 controllers, which leads me to believe it could be that same problem with the AVerMedia product. The Elgato wouldn't have this issue as it runs over USB 2.0, and before you ask- Yes, I tried the Elgato on both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports- so my issue was present with both. To fix the USB 3.0 issue on the XCAPTURE-1 I simply bought a PCI USB 3.0 controller that was compatable with the device. Yes, having to buy an expansion card for this device was silly, but the results are amazing. The XCAPTURE-1 works PERFECTLY. No black screen issues, no stream delays (since it is over a USB 3.0 interface, it works nearly instantly. You could practically play the game itself over the preview window, although there is an ever so slight ~millisecond delay) and it does what it is advertised to do. 1080p 60fps.Tonight I will be testing the AVerMedia Gamer Extreme with the new 3.0 interface to see if the capture freeze issue is present with the different controller. If the issue is fixed, I would recommend the AVerMedia Live Gamer Extreme product over the XCAPTURE-1, as it works just as well for way less money even if you have to buy a 30 dollar USB 3.0 expansion card to get it working. If it doesn't work, I am extremely happy with the XCAPTURE-1 so far, and would highly recommend you check it out. Also, look at the AverMedia ExtremeCap U3. I have not tried this product myself, but it could be worth your time. It also has USB 3.0 controller requirements, so be aware of this.If you have any questions, please ask them. I have done a TON of research in my quest for a perfect 1080p 60fps capture / streaming solution. At the end of the day, I am using the XCAPTURE-1 device paired with a PCI USB 3.0 controller which is compatible with it. The Elgato HD60 was promising, but it just didn't make the cut.Just for the record, my computer is pretty beast. Specs are this:Intel Core i7-3930K @4.0GHz 6-Core ProcessorAsus Rampage IV Extreme MotherboardVengeance Pro 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 MemoryEVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)I lowered my rating on this to 4 stars because of the problems with HDCP and home theater systems.It is what it is. I initially had some other problems with this as well. I suspect that like anything else you do not want to use the "minimum" system it says you need. My gaming PC is extremely powerful and of course the Elgato works great with it.I have an HP Envy laptop that is 2.6GHz Core i7 w/8GB RAM and 1TB 5600rpm HD. This works great with this device, and it's hella convenient because I'll tell you what's not convenient: Having my gaming desktop anywhere near my living room LOL. Having a PC in there is just plain ugly.The laptop works great. When playing the video back in the Elgato editor I noticed the audio and video is not synced, yet when playing back the rendered output files they are perfectly in sync. I suspect it is the overhead of the application. The application is slow.The other issue is if you have a home theater system that is modern to work with Blu-ray that means it probably has HDCP enabled output ports and WILL NOT, I repeat WILL NOT be recordable to the Elgato regardless of which console you use or input. Example: My Yamaha mixer HDCP's EVERYTHING coming out of the HDMI output and Elgato sees it as copy protected.Elgato even sees the output of this HDMI splitter as copy protected (When original signal is coming from Xbox One)..This is the solution I am doing.. I have an HDMI extension cable, 1 for each console, PS4, Xbox One and Wii U, going into the receiver, and I have the other ends labelled.. and the consoles plugged into those cables.When I want to record gameplay footage I unplug the console's HDMI cable from the extension cord, and plug it into the Elgato, which is plugged into another HDMI port on my TV. This allows me to record gameplay. The caveat of this obviously is that the audio will be going to the TV and my home theater will not be getting it. If doing live commentary, for me this is not an issue, as I have a pair of Turtle Beach surround headphones I use and usually would mute the TV anyway, so that the game audio does not interfere with live commentary.. However, if just wanting to record footage then you have to deal with not using the home theater for audio.Outputting the Elgato into the home theater is possible, yet when I used the receiver's output in the Elgato's input in standby mode (it will work as long as the app is not open) I heard crackling in the receiver. I haven't tried plugging the Elgato output into the receiver. I am already using 4 out of the 5 HDMI ports on my receiver though. Amazon Fire TV, XBox One, PS4, Wii U. So the 5th would be the Elgato. I have 5 HDMI ports in my receiver though. Not everyone does.All in all this is an OK solution and a good product but I would much prefer a product where pretty much all the processing happened on the device, which would reduce the need for a powerful PC. I like to have my consoles in the living room.Another possibility for Elgato is to produce a product which takes advantage of the Windows 10 streaming of XBox One to a PC and recording that way, if it's not already possible in Windows.I have now been using this Elgato (The newer HD60 version for next generation consoles) for over 2 years and it has yet to disappoint me.First the initial setup:The HD60 is pretty simple to setup upon arrival. You simply disconnect the HDMI coming out your console from the end going into the TV, plug the TV end into the IN port on the HD60, then plug the supplied HDMI into the OUT port then the other end into the TV.After this you plug the USB cable into the Elgato and then into your computer.Thats all the hardware setup, from here you just need to setup the software side of things which Is relatively simple. All you need to do is go to Elgato's website and download the 'Game Capture HD' software that will allow you to get the signal up on your computer.PS4 USERS: (If you get no signal you need to go to your PS4 settings > system then untick 'Enable HDCP'Overall the setup is pretty straightforward and the Elgato has a light bar that will flash to tell you if something isn't setup right, nice and simple.For those who don't want to use the Elgato software to stream/record, you can also download free programs such as xSplit or OBS. You can go to input sources and the Elgato should show up there.Pros:The Elgato captures great quality video without any issue.Its very easy to setup.The Elgato software allows you to stream + record straight from the software.If you use other streaming/recording programs the Elgato video signal can easily be picked up by these programs.The Elgato software also has a time machine like feature, meaning if you have the software open, even if your not recording, you can go back and watch footage that the Elgato has picked up, the software effectively records everything and then if you don't actually hit record/go back and save what its recorded, it deletes it.Cons:Can be pricey, there are other options out there, however in my opinion the Elgato is still the best screen capture device.If your using PS4, you must disable HDCP when you use the Elgato, this means some programs won't be allowed to run, I believe that includes ones like Netflix, so if you use your PS4 as a media centre also, you may need to keep changing settings and changing what cables are plugged in as with HDCP enabled you may not get any signal through to your TV.There's a slight delay between when you make & see an input on the TV, and when it appears on the computer, meaning you still need to use the TV to play the games without the delay,This is a great peace of kit and a good investment for anyone looking to start up streaming or a YouTube channel, its probably one of the easiest ways your going to be able to get a good quality HD image from the console onto a computer that you can then record/stream on.I bought this to use with OBS software after selling my HD60 S as that card only works with usb 3.0. Please be advised that the elgato HD60 only works with the 32bit version of OBS studio and categorically DOES NOT work with the 64 bit version. This is not likely to be stated when you are viewing listings for the product, so keep this in mind. If you have usb 3.0 ports on your computer, buy the HD60 S instead, as the capture quality of the HD60 (or at least the second hand one I bought) is slightly darker than the original image being captured, which I didn’t have with the HD60 S. Overall though, if you have an older machine like I now do, with only usb 2.0 ports, this is still a solid device once you’ve managed to get it set up. It increases my CPU usage by about 15-20% when streaming, which isn’t too bad and so far I have had just 28 dropped frames out of 18 hours of streaming with the device, and you’re not likely to get better than that ?My son absolutely loves this but installation of software was not straightforward, requiring an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 7 Service Pack 1, and .NET Framework, which was very time consuming and highly annoying.Plus, it doesn't capture properly at high frame rates on older hardware (by that I mean a 5 year old intel core 2 duo desktop with 8 gb of ram, with a 1gb Radeon video card, so not a complete slug yet!!) It crashes his Windows 8.1 Netbook on anything over 720p.It is laggy and skippy, at high frame rates, which is perplexing as I thought the whole point of these cards was that they did the rendering on the onboard processor without relying overly on the external hardware of the PC. How much does it rely on stealing processor cycles from the PC?? When I get time I'm going to benchmark it against a wholly software capture solution, and see how it fares. I suspect a well written piece of software installed directly on a PC would obviate the need for this piece of kit with a fast modern PC, especially if it was written for the CPU and GPU combined. Stay tuned!It is a pain in the butt to set up all the details to actually make it save properly to the computer. I'm not the greatest at setting up stuff, whatsoever.Youtube is your best friend if you buy this little guy.Once you have everything set to how you want it set. Each time you wish to record or stream, it's super simple to get that going. I do have occasional issues with streaming, where the quality is really bad and skipping. Still trying a fix for that. But recording and uploading is amazing quality.Despite the trouble it is to set it up, I would still recommend, I however hope it's none of my friends because I refuse to help set it up again hahaWe swapped an Avermedia Live Gamer Portable for this HD60 after it broke, and have not been disapointed. The Eldato's software is better, and very simple to use. The only downside is that you need (unlike with the Avermedia LGP) a PC connected to the Elgato. I can live with that inconvenience as setting up the Elgato is so straightforward. We had it up and rnning in 15 minutes or so including connecting to Twitch.Lots of options to auto create output for different media sites / formats & the ability to live stream and add a live commentary make this a really complete package.The video quality is also excellent as you'd expect. We are using Skype to record in game chat which is working really well, and the elgato allows you to export the audio to its own file so you can edit the synchronisation (Skype adds about 1.5 seconds of lag).