Is there a way to use a capture card to 'pass-through' the image to a monitor or window without capturing/streaming?

[Matakor]

So, I got the Nintendo Switch only to realize none of my monitors have HDMI ports (display port ftw), but also that they don't have any other free slots. So, direct monitor connections are out of the question, also because none of them have speakers.

 

So, I'm trying to find some way that I can jack the switch to my PC and video out to a monitor/window while being able to use the PC's speakers. Originally thought of using a capture card for this, as I can't find any form of 'pass-through' or receiver card. But from what I'm seeing, it'd be nothing but a laggy mess.

 

Does anyone know of a way to make a capture card act only as a receiver for audio/video and lets me push that out to a monitor?

[Jade]

Capture cards do audio AND video. My understanding is that you could get something like the Avermedia Live Gamer Portable 2 and use their RECentral software to display it within Windows - as per their "key features" on this page.

[PlayStation 2]

3 minutes ago, Jade said:

Capture cards do audio AND video. My understanding is that you could get something like the Avermedia Live Gamer Portable 2 and use their RECentral software to display it within Windows - as per their "key features" on this page.

I know you can also do a stream preview passthrough using OBS, too.

[Pesukarhu]

Usb 3 and pci-e cards have less latency than the usb 2 ones have. (usb 2 has couple of seconds delay) You can use most capture cards with obs, then just use full screen projection to display the captured image on your monitor. Audio is captured as well. And you can record or stream if you want, but it is not necessary.

[Matakor]

Right, pcie capture card it seems is the best solution then. Anyone have a suggestion for a good one? Budget isn't an issue, but let's not go too overkill.

[NumLock21]

Y u make it so complicated?

Get a dp to hdmi adapter and plug behind your monitor. 

To be on safe side get a active one.

[Matakor]

21 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Y u make it so complicated?

Get a dp to hdmi adapter and plug behind your monitor. 

To be on safe side get a active one.

Because there are no open ports on the monitor and constantly fiddling with the back of the monitor, which is not easily accessible, is too much of a pain. Not to mention the GPU freaking out every time I disconnect the monitor to switch over.

[NumLock21]

6 minutes ago, Matakor said:

Because there are no open ports on the monitor and constantly fiddling with the back of the monitor, which is not easily accessible, is too much of a pain. Not to mention the GPU freaking out every time I disconnect the monitor to switch over.

What does no port have to do with anything? How many ports do you have on your monitor?

[Matakor]

4 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

What does no port have to do with anything? How many ports do you have on your monitor?

Two. A DVI port and a VGA. Not using VGA for obvious quality loss issues and DVI is being used for PC connection. Not to mention, even if I get it connected to the monitor, I still would have no sound. Capturing via PC is the best option for what I'm attempting to do.

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, Matakor said:

Two. A DVI port and a VGA. Not using VGA for obvious quality loss issues and DVI is being used for PC connection. Not to mention, even if I get it connected to the monitor, I still would have no sound. Capturing via PC is the best option for what I'm attempting to do.

Your Asus VS248H-P has all 3 connectors and there is even a audio jack next to the VGA.

[Matakor]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Your Asus VS248H-P has all 3 connectors and there is even a audio jack next to the VGA.

Unfortunately, I haven't updated my sig in a while. Those monitors were stolen, and I've since rreplaced them with the 21" version, which only has the two.

[NumLock21]

49 minutes ago, Matakor said:

Unfortunately, I haven't updated my sig in a while. Those monitors were stolen, and I've since rreplaced them with the 21" version, which only has the two.

Looks like your only solution is to get a capture card, although I personally go against it, due to the complexity of the setup. The best option is to get your setup running by spending as little as possible.

I don't have a Nintendo Switch, but I still ran a mock setup of what you have, with my laptop and this Active HDMI to VGA adapter I have lying around. Your Nintendo Switch's Docking station has a HDMI out. I'm assuming this is what you are going to use to connect to your monitor. My laptop also has a HDMI out and I did the following

• Connect the Active HDMI to VGA adapter to the HDMI out on my laptop. When I did that, my audio source automatically changed to the internal laptop speakers to HDMI.
• Connect a VGA cable from the adapter to the monitor's VGA port
• Connect my external desktop speakers directly to the Audio out jack on that's on the adapter
• Screen looks good, and there is sound coming out from the external desktop speakers, that was plugged into the adapter.
• My laptop can only do 1366x768 which is the highest for it. BTW it's a netbook, not a proper laptop.

This is the adapter I have. It's a Active type, so it's got a built in HDMI controller, capable of operating up to 2.25GHz and can do 1080P. At $30 bucks (got my for $23) it's still cheaper than a capture card. Hope the cheaper option works for your setup.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812421022

 

Avermedia Capture Cards

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001409 8000&IsNodeId=1&Manufactory=1409&bop=And&SpeTabStoreType=0&order=BESTMATCH&page=1

 

[Matakor]

Cheaper may not be a terrible idea, however I have streamed some things in the past and have considered getting a capture card anyway. I will likely go for the capture card, regardless of the complexity.

[NumLock21]

7 minutes ago, Matakor said:

Cheaper may not be a terrible idea, however I have streamed some things in the past and have considered getting a capture card anyway. I will likely go for the capture card, regardless of the complexity.

Might want to do some research on it. I heard most capture card don't allow HDCP. Don't know if the Nintendo Switch HDMI port is HDCP or not.

[Matakor]

35 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Might want to do some research on it. I heard most capture card don't allow HDCP. Don't know if the Nintendo Switch HDMI port is HDCP or not.

Thanks for the notice. Elgato is claiming that their products work with it fine as far as gaming is concerned. Products like Netflix run through it seem to be hdcp enabled, but that makes sense. Games should be fine.

[Tyver]

On 3/3/2017 at 11:43 AM, Matakor said:

Thanks for the notice. Elgato is claiming that their products work with it fine as far as gaming is concerned. Products like Netflix run through it seem to be hdcp enabled, but that makes sense. Games should be fine.

Did this work? Im in a quite similar predicament and was wondering how this worked out for you.

[Arika]

[removed]

[Matakor]

On 6/26/2017 at 9:06 PM, Tyver said:

Did this work? Im in a quite similar predicament and was wondering how this worked out for you.

Far late reply, I apologize. Yes, it does work, quite well infact. Elgato comes with it's own capture software as well that you can simply 'preview' in full screen without actually capturing anything and viola, it works. I haven't noticed any sync issues using this method (for the record, I originally used OBS to capture/preview from the card, but there was sync issues I could not resolve)