The HD60 S, Super good, or super overated?

tealflip · February 20, 2022

There was one thing I needed for Christmas this year, and it was the Elgato HD60 S. I had a terrible time in the past with super cheap capture cards, even when used with the underpowered Nintendo Switch. But, now that I've had nearly 2 months with this item, I have my reviews set.

Let's begin with what's included. Obviously, the capture card itself, a manual, one very THICC HDMI, and another very THICC USB C to USB 3.1 cable. Plus, a sticker. Unfortunately, I have a desk with terrible holes cut out, and a terrible cable run system. But, even with weird bends constantly, the cables work perfectly fine, and even when unplugged, set back to normal. A good start. And for the people who love unboxings, yes, it is one hell of an experience. Apple tier packaging. But, of course it can't be a good product without, well, a good system. At first, you may need to get the Elgato app, as I've been told by other people. I had to as well, but once I did I was free running with OBS. Any time I've tried to use any capture system in the past, the latency I experienced was way too high. And, if at the time you only had one monitor with any HDMI support, you'll know that it won't ever be an option. I do have two monitors now, though only one has HDMI, while the other is on DVI. After doing a stream with it, playing some Pokemon on my switch going through the capture card, I did experience a couple problems. Now, these are only problems for OBS, and other recording software's, though it's not an issue on Elgato's own software. Audio. You will have to configure at first to make it be Monitored and casted out to a stream, plus depending on older systems, such as the Wii, you might need to rescale it. But, other than that, I have had zero issues. Almost zero latency, perfect scaling for newer consoles, and the perfect quality of the device. It has a light indicator on the card, letting you see when the HDMI was disconnected, with a rubber outline on the base so it doesn't slide around.

So, would I advise buying it? Only for certain uses. I would only advise buying it if you need a high quality capture card for streaming. I say this with it's high price tag, of around $159. I have heard of people buying this just to link up a camera, which I highly discourage. Just use the cam link. Also, if you plan on streaming with a PS5 or XBOX Series X, you will definitely need to go for a 4K60 Pro, as long as you have a computer that can support it. But if you're buying it, I'm assuming you already have some PCIe lanes open. Good products, with different use cases.

yeah thats it. bye.