Using my PCs HDMI in port as a capture card

[SuperSlimey5]

Hi, I was wandering if I could use my PCs HDMI in port as a capture card, as I want to be able to record my gameplay.

I don’t know if this is the right spot to put this tell me if so. 

 

All help appreciated.

[minibois]

That's a HDMI out, so no.

Capture cards use hardware to convert the HDMI signals into a signal your computer can read and record.

 

Is it console gameplay you want to record or PC gameplay?

[johnny5c]

If you have a actual HDMI in port like on older Asrock boards it's just a pass through and won't work for capture.

[Automobili3XF]

All HDMI ports your computer has, be it on the motherboard itself or on a graphics card, are outputs instead of inputs, unless you have a capture card on your machine, like an Elgato HD60 Pro or something like that.

[LogicalDrm]

PC's haven't had video input in 25+ years. You will need to buy capture card for recording anything external.

[SuperSlimey5]

This says other wise,

 

It says HDMI IN, and for nintendo switch

[RonnieOP]

29 minutes ago, SuperSlimey5 said:

This says other wise,

 

It says HDMI IN, and for nintendo switch

Is that an all in one pc?

 

If so it might have an hdmi input so you can use it as a monitor for another pc.

 

But that doesnt mean itll work as a capture device.

[PlayStation 2]

Is this like an all-in-one PC that happens to have an HDMI in?

If so, that port has nothing to do with the computer itself and literally just serves as an extra input to use that AiO as a monitor if you want it to.

[SuperSlimey5]

It is an all in one, but even a software to see what’s coming towards that port.

 

Note: It’s an Acer aspire

[LogicalDrm]

13 hours ago, SuperSlimey5 said:

It is an all in one, but even a software to see what’s coming towards that port.

 

Note: It’s an Acer aspire

Software part is easy. If it's seen as video capture/source device by device manager, you can use any video recording software.

 

On Switch its probably pass-through.

[Mira Yurizaki]

14 hours ago, SuperSlimey5 said:

It is an all in one, but even a software to see what’s coming towards that port.

 

Note: It’s an Acer aspire

Assuming it's the Aspire Z3, that port is so you can use the AIO as a stand-alone monitor, not as a capture device.

[Kisai]

On 1/15/2020 at 1:22 AM, SuperSlimey5 said:

Hi, I was wandering if I could use my PCs HDMI in port as a capture card, as I want to be able to record my gameplay.

I don’t know if this is the right spot to put this tell me if so. 

 

All help appreciated.

Devices with "HDMI in" that are not marketed with capture hardware, likely use it as a pass-through like on my Asrock Z87 board. There's not a lot of utility for it unless you want to use the computer screen for a game console and the computer's screen doesn't have additional HDMI ports. So it was sensible when connected to a HDMI monitor or "TV" but not when connected via DP or DVI. This port also only passes-through the HDMI on the motherboard, not the GPU, so it's utility is even of a lower value when using a dedicated GPU, since you'd normally not use the iGPU at all.

 

With that said, some game consoles (eg the Wii U) have the ability to record and upload to youtube, but it's entirely out of your control how it works. The best, and really only option is to record a game console using an HDMI splitter, and having a desktop record the video while playing on the actual monitor/tv. Most "USB" recording stuff does not permit recording of game consoles at anything other than 720p60/1080p30/i60 unless they explicitly say they can record HDMI 1.4 or HDMI 2.0

[GwenFX]

That looks like an AIO, as everyone's said it's just a pass though not a capture so you could in theory use it as a monitor when the system stops being relevant. If you had a desktop proper you could toss in a pcie cap card to play off of. I'm running a Avermedia c027 which although is limited to 720p doesn't have any discernible input lag.

[SuperSlimey5]

Well if I can’t run directly am I able to run an adapter from my pc into to the cord between my monitor and console (Nintendo Switch), generally if there is something under $30AUD

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 hours ago, SuperSlimey5 said:

Well if I can’t run directly am I able to run an adapter from my pc into to the cord between my monitor and console (Nintendo Switch), generally if there is something under $30AUD

As far as I know, there's nothing that cheap that's worth considering, if it exists.

[Kisai]

23 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

As far as I know, there's nothing that cheap that's worth considering, if it exists.

Yep.

 

If one is serious about recording video, you need a PCIe adapter( Micomsoft SC-512N1-L/DVI aka SA7160), which runs around $300, and the recommended ones aren't made any more. This card supports analog input (SD resolution) as well.

This is the one that everyone uses for non-4K as it came out explicitly to record game consoles. But you also need something to strip the copy protection to capture from devices that have the the copy protection flag on all-the-time.

 

The company that actually makes the drivers actually does have 4K cards:

https://www.yuan.com.tw/

 

In particular, 4Kp60 HDR is the SC-710N1-L, but no analog support. Also likely costs $400.

 

The USB3.0 devices require a lot of CPU power since they're never hardware encoders and cost about $250. The USB capture devices also won't capture in RGB mode, only YUV2 or NV12. The PCIe cards do RGB32 as well.

[LogicalDrm]

On 1/17/2020 at 6:30 AM, SuperSlimey5 said:

Well if I can’t run directly am I able to run an adapter from my pc into to the cord between my monitor and console (Nintendo Switch), generally if there is something under $30AUD

You are asking what is the cheapest HDMI equipped capture card for PC? Nothing under $30AUD probably. Well, maybe used. Quick check on google says that Elgato cards are safe pick.

[SuperSlimey5]

Okay thanks

[Skipple]

On 1/17/2020 at 2:58 AM, Kisai said:

Yep.

 

If one is serious about recording video, you need a PCIe adapter( Micomsoft SC-512N1-L/DVI aka SA7160), which runs around $300, and the recommended ones aren't made any more. This card supports analog input (SD resolution) as well.

This is the one that everyone uses for non-4K as it came out explicitly to record game consoles. But you also need something to strip the copy protection to capture from devices that have the the copy protection flag on all-the-time.

 

The company that actually makes the drivers actually does have 4K cards:

https://www.yuan.com.tw/

 

In particular, 4Kp60 HDR is the SC-710N1-L, but no analog support. Also likely costs $400.

 

The USB3.0 devices require a lot of CPU power since they're never hardware encoders and cost about $250. The USB capture devices also won't capture in RGB mode, only YUV2 or NV12. The PCIe cards do RGB32 as well.

Oh come on. An elgato will work fine for most people. You can pick them up second hand for $60-$80, $100-120 new.

[Kisai]

6 hours ago, Skipple said:

Oh come on. An elgato will work fine for most people. You can pick them up second hand for $60-$80, $100-120 new.

No USB devices will do RGB, which was the point. They all do YUV 4:2:0 (YV12)

https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/game-capture-hd60-s

 

Elgato does have a PCIe card that will capture 4K or HD 240hz 

https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/game-capture-4k60pro

 

Not rated too highly though, again due to YV12-only colorspace issues.

 

I must stress the point that YV12 colorspace is what you expect out of a camcorder, not a game console. So if you're using OBS or overlaying stuff, you have stuff doing YUV->RGB->YUV conversions twice to composite things, which is what drags down the system.

[RonnieOP]

1 hour ago, Kisai said:

No USB devices will do RGB, which was the point. They all do YUV 4:2:0 (YV12)

https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/game-capture-hd60-s

 

Elgato does have a PCIe card that will capture 4K or HD 240hz 

https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/game-capture-4k60pro

 

Not rated too highly though, again due to YV12-only colorspace issues.

 

I must stress the point that YV12 colorspace is what you expect out of a camcorder, not a game console. So if you're using OBS or overlaying stuff, you have stuff doing YUV->RGB->YUV conversions twice to composite things, which is what drags down the system.

Theres a crap load of streamers/creators out there using elgatos and the like for consoles. And they look great for the most part.

 

Im confused as to why you would recommend something thats $300 and will have extra steps to take care of for copy protection.

 

Im not a content creator but is that really " the one that everyone uses for non-4K as it came out explicitly to record game consoles"?

 

 

[Skipple]

7 hours ago, Kisai said:

No USB devices will do RGB, which was the point. They all do YUV 4:2:0 (YV12)

Again, 99% of people don't care. This dude's running an AIO PC, you seriously think he's going to care about this? 

 

Your recommendation is 4x the price and something he can't even install on his own PC.

[Kisai]

12 hours ago, RonnieOP said:

Theres a crap load of streamers/creators out there using elgatos and the like for consoles. And they look great for the most part.

 

Im confused as to why you would recommend something thats $300 and will have extra steps to take care of for copy protection.

 

Im not a content creator but is that really " the one that everyone uses for non-4K as it came out explicitly to record game consoles"?

 

 

Yep. Those expensive cards are what people use for LP's of pretty much all game consoles and old computers because they ensure there's no latency and have all the analog support in addition to the HDMI recording and passthrough. If you want to record from devices that leave the copy-protection on (I believe the problem was with earlier PS3 models via HDMI and with trying to capture from Mac and iOS machines, or just use the same device to make your own PVR) there's an additional need to strip it that involves another piece of hardware.

 

Micomsoft is also the same company that sells a popular hardware upscaler that a lot of people use to play old consoles on their HDTV's.

 

With that said, the average streamer's video does not "look great", as a lot of them don't use the right settings, so you get a lot of washed out streams (255 crushed to 235 when a 255 source), or very grey blacks (255 expanded as 235 to 255 when already 255) and bad color (using BT.601 (Standard definition) instead of BT.709 high definition, which have different white points) on game consoles. As soon as you try to composite a video game with a webcam it looks pretty bad, and that's one of the reasons why the FPGA PCIe card wipes the floor with the USB devices. 

 

But that's also why capture devices for analog sources haven't been particularly great anyway, and there's a move to FPGA consoles instead. It skips the entire need for expensive upscaling and capture cards in favor of capture devices that can capture RGB. Which I reinterate, the elgato does not do.

 

If you're going to capture high quality gaming footage, there's a lot of other work that needs to go into it, and quite frankly the average person is unwilling to buy a powerful enough pc, let alone capture device and other recording equipment to do this adequately, and that's why a lot of console streamers are unwatchable. This may sound snobby to you, but if the choice between watching one person play and another play the same game, I'm going to go with the one that has the least distracting footage. That applies to the game, any camera footage of the player, and whatever UI nonsense they put up.