This is my official review for the Avermedia Game Broadcaster HD C127. I learned some new tricks and I want to give you guys a few tips as well.The Good:
1. Record In FULL HD. 720,1080p
2. Record From PC Full Screen
3. No Lag
4. Different Video Codecs To Record With
5. HDMI
The Bad:
1. VGA Can be bad if you don't have VGA on your graphic card.
2. Program can freeze if you click D-Sub sometimes
3. Program won't recognize D-Sub sometimes (If you have an outdated system)
4. Can't Record PS3 Gaming With HDMI (HDCP Protection)
Tips:
1. You do not need 2 PC's to record from PC.
2. Connect HDMI To DVI or HDMI or HDMI and Duplicate The Display For HD Playback
3. DO NOT CONNECT VGA To DVI....The Playback is HORRIBLE!
UPDATE: Since I've updated my system to I7 I've had no issues at all so far. I changed my review from 4 stars to 5. Overall score 9/10
Today, there are many gamer's out there who commentate over their gameplay. It could either be a video series of video games, or they may even stream their gameplay live. Some may wonder, how do they do all this? There are various tools available to record your gameplay. Some include, internal capture cards or even standalone video capture boxes. The difference between the two is that an internal capture card is what'll allow you to stream your gameplay live. This brings us to our review of AVermedia's Game Broadcaster HD. An internal capture card that will allow you to record or broadcast live gameplay via HDMI or component.
FIRST LOOK:
There's nothing more exciting than looking at an expansion card. They have that great green color with a bunch of little nubs and capacitors. A distinctive smell of electronics. Okay, so maybe not THAT exciting. But, that's pretty much what you'll see at first. Once connected, it's a whole other story. While small, this thing packs the power to capture or broadcast 1080p Hi-def video. It connects internally via PCI-Express X2. On the outside, it has two ports. One for both VGA or Component. For component, you'd just have to use the included component to VGA adapter. The other port is an HDMI input.
INCLUDED IN BOX:
Warranty Card, Manual, Drivers CD
RCA to 3.5mm Audio Cable
Component to VGA Cable
3.5mm Audio Cable
Low Profile Bracket
Capture Card
INSTALLATION:
Installation was fairly easy. Just had to open up the old "Beast"(my actual computer name) and slide `er in an open PCI-E slot. Once in, I put it all back together and booted up. I actually skipped the drivers CD it came with and downloaded the latest drivers from AVermedia's website. It's best to do this with all driver software as the CD could already be outdated and you could be missing some important updates!
INPUT:
I first intended to plug in the PS3 via HDMI totally overlooking HDCP. HDCP or High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection is not supported by this card and didn't let me record or capture anything from the PS3. Since then, I had to go the component route. Because I feel more comfortable playing on my TV, I got a component distribution amplifier which allowed me to take one component input and split it out to two outputs. One for the Game Broadcaster HD and another for the TV. I then plugged the sound in via the Line-In port on my PC. Best of all, it auto-detects the resolution coming out of the console and supports 3D video source playback. VESA resolution is supported as well. To my knowledge, HDCP was only added to the PS3 and not the XBox. Therefore, you should be able to record the XBox via HDMI.
SOFTWARE:
I'm sure there's various programs out there to record gameplay from this capture card, but I just used the software provided. It's called AVer MediaCenter 3D. Which allows you to record gameplay in a variety of formats and does a great job. You can also manage your recordings straight from the software or open up the destination folder and edit the footage in your favorite video editor. You can also manage photos and music kind of like Windows Media Center.
Recording Formats:
MPEG-2
AVI
WMA
WMV
H.264
iPod, iPhone, iPad, and AppleTV
STREAMING:
Streaming is just as easy as capturing. You have the option to use software like Adobe Flash Media Live encoder to encode the live signal into flash for streaming. Another option would be XSplit which is what I prefer most. It's real easy to manage what your audience sees and can broadcast to a variety of sites like Twitch.TV. The Game Broadcaster HD is also pretty flexible so you should be able to use any of your preferred streaming software.
PERFORMANCE:
In my experience, capture cards sometimes have a tendency to lag. Some more than others. After testing the Game Broadcaster HD for some time, it seems to have little to no lag at all. I connected the output to the capture card and TV simultaneously via a component distribution amp and haven't noticed any significant lag at all. Pretty neat since you'll be able to play your game while watching your computer screen.
Overall, I think think the AVerMedia Game Broadcaster HD works very well for what it does. It has no noticeable lag or choppiness. The quality of video looks great! It'd be nice if it could also capture composite video for those intense NES games, but it'll do for now. It's not only great for recording gameplay but anything with an HDMI or component output as long as the output isn't protected. They claim you can even capture your iPad 2 display which I'd guess would be through HDMI. You can also capture another computer's VGA output if you ever needed to record things like BIOS set up or boot up where software can't capture. it'll work on Windows 7, Vista, and XP both 32 and 64bit.After reading some mixed reviews on Amazon, the deciding factor to purchase was price, that I couldn't care less about lack of 1080p/60, & that it has a VGA input with VESA support, that last one is HUGE, but you kids out there prob never heard of VESA, so don't worry!
I did NOT use the driver & software disc the product came with, instead just downloaded the DRIVER ONLY from the manufacturer site, I cannot speak for the software you're "supposed to" install, but as long as the latest driver is installed , it works in Xsplit & that's all I need.
It works flawlessly in my Asus Essentio (i7 3770, 16gig ram, with ONLY Intel HD4000 internal graphics). Yes, it sometimes glitches a few seconds when switching sources or starting up, but once it starts up, no problems!
****Running DUAL Avermedia Game Broadcaster cards****
I made the mistake of thinking that running twin capture cards would require beefier graphics & purchased an Nvidia GTX 560. Turned out the opposite was true. After about 2-3 hours of streaming, the computer would start to stutter (even the mouse) & CPU usage jumped from ~15% to ~30%. You would have to exit Xsplit to make it stop.
After removing the GTX 560 & going back to internal graphics the stutter disappeared. I've been streaming over 36 hours straight ( twitch dot tv / arkadeum ) with one of the capture cards @ 1280x720, the other @ 1920x1080 plus a VGA webcam @ 640x480.
I'm guessing a bottleneck developed in the PCI Express bus over time between the two capture cards & the monster GTX 560, whereas Intels integrated HD4000 graphics chip sits within the actual i7 CPU.Bought this a week ago. Works great! I do have to comment, you can't record HDMI footage with the ps3, BUT, it still shows up on the screen with HDMI. Just wont record. BUT if you have fraps or a similar program, you can record the footage that way. So really you still can record ps3 using HDMI, just need fraps or something similar to record.I was looking for an HD capture device and this seemed to fit the bill, so I eventually took the plunge and I'm pretty satisfied. The card was very simple to install, and I simply downloaded the updated driver and software from the Avermedia website, so I didn't even have to pop in the disk. I've used this with the Xbox 360 and Wii U and it all works flawlessly and easy with no input lag. It works very well for streaming and if you have the processor to handle it (I have an Intel i7 3770K), you can stream in full 1080p with this. You can also record footage to your hard disk, though the recording options aren't the best. The H.264 recording option, which gives you the best quality at reasonable file sizes, outputs a video with a slight delay in the audio. This is pretty much my only complaint with this device. The delay is only like half a second, so it may not be enough to bother some people but it does bother me. I have to record in AVI which gives excellent quality but outputs a gigantic file. It's not a deal breaker but rather a disappointment; I'm don't regret my purchase.
Overall, this card does what it should very nicely and I recommend it to anyone who wants to steam video game footage. Although it doesn't support retro console out of the box, there is a work-around for it. You can buy a video to VGA converter box and use that to connect your classic consoles (or anything else that uses composite or S-Video) using the VGA port. That's what I'm using and it works; I doubt I'd use the VGA port for anything else anyway. So, I can capture just about everything using this card at great quality so I'm very happy.
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