Elgato Video Capture Unboxing & Test | IMNC

In this HD world, it can sometimes be difficult to find information or decent products that do the job for analogue and standard definition video. While I'm the proud owner of a Game Capture HD, I needed something dedicated to my analogue needs.

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[ItsMyNaturalColour]

I'm noticing that a lot of people hate on composite video (that pesky little yellow one). It's not just this video, I see it quite a lot all over YouTube. Let me delve into this for just a second to clear a few things up.
I think one of the major contributors to this spread of knowledge is the retro gaming community. Absolutely everyone is aware that composite video is junk for gaming and I fully agree. The reason that composite falls short in gaming is the lack of pixel definition and pixel to pixel clarity due to the simple nature of the single pin (video) + shield RCA connector. It's simply not capable of carrying all the elements of a video signal needed for clear pixel to pixel definition due to the physical design. The same goes for any source that uses a digital image built up in pixels such as DVD. In my eyes, composite should have never been used for these devices. However, hating on composite for a video like this is a little odd.
Lets think about broadcast television for a second. We now live in a digital high definition world, but it wasn't a million years ago that the BBC recorded and played back programming on video tape. A common and very popular professional grade connector used all over the television post production process was regular old BNC. For those who don't know, BNC in it's original form is pretty much a fancy locking connector on the end of a slightly thicker cable that carries the good ol' composite signal. If it's good enough for the BBC, it's good enough for us to capture our camcorded home videos with. In-fact, BNC can be found on the back of lots of early home VCRs before using the phono style connector for consumer grade composite video equipment became standardised.
Analogue video tape sources such as the Hi8 recording in my video cannot be treated like a retro games console. The same goes for VHS or even laserdisc. Composite is THE quality of the video. Using any other connection would be pointless. There's a reason that S-Video outputs are missing from the majority of home video camcorders (apart from S-VHS, of course).
SCART is held up as THE connector to aim for while retro gaming. This is something that I also agree with. True RGB SCART gives a fantastic analogue image that makes composite look like absolute junk for gaming, but in the case of home video tape, it's exactly what it says on the tin. It's 'video'. It's not 'RGB'. Even if you have a SCART connector on your home video equipment, the video output portion of the connector will only ever be wired for composite output.
In this digital high definition world, I feel there's a lack of understanding towards analogue video and what's 'right' in regards to different sources. I'll finish off by saying that retro gaming and video tape sources are completely different in almost every way. What you learn from a gaming perspective cannot be applied to capturing VHS or any analogue video tape source.

[WhiteJarrah]

"Wow, I wasn't expecting it to be this big!" - that's what she said. :P

[quill]

Elgato Video Capture worked fine on all of my 8mm and VHS tapes EXCEPT those VHS that were SLP and longer than 6 Hours; I found the best way to capture those VHS tapes longer than 6 Hours was to create two 4-hour files (for an 8-Hour VHS Tape). I'm not sure why the longer tapes failed, but when you let these things run, often overnight, and then check them the next day, it can add a few days to your project to troubleshoot such a real-time issue! Also, many tapes are a few minutes LONGER than what the label says, so for example if you have an 8mm 120 min tape, set the Elgato to record about 135 minutes, and trim it down later, otherwise, you may be missing the final minute and have to do it all over! - j q t -

[seboc]

You can improve quality and stability of the capture using TBC.
I used for capturing my video old Panasonic mixer which I bought for 5€.

[jlaurence]

This was your 500th video! Congratulations!

[ivybixler]

Who dislikes a video like this I can't find any thing wrong with this video

[Eternionel]

you did the right thing as the game capture composite is for stuff like the ps2 and any game consoles with composite video and is not designed for tape capture so the video capture is perfect for your needs i own a lidl branded video capture device and it works brilliantly.

[MrAntematkovic]

i just noticed that i have the same camcorder at home. used it a lot when i was 6 years old (: just recently connected it to my tv and watched some old home videos. I actually quite like the low quality style of the clips "memories"

[BuistEric]

Thanks for this video. I was trying to record VHS cassettes using my HD PVR from Hauppauge and that failed miserably. After around half an hour, the previous started to stutter and the recording was choppy. I have an older WinTV PVR 150 from Hauppauge, but I was reluctant to put it back in my PC, because it had issues with some versions of Ubuntu in the past, and the Hauppauge support page tells that the current driver only supports Windows XP, Vista and 7, not Windows 10. Your video incited me to give a shot to my WinTV PVR 150. Although it failed miserably on Windows 10, it worked on Ubuntu 18.10 and that allowed me to rip a first cassette with far more success than with the HD PVR.

[WhiteJarrah]

You know, if you have one of those later model VHS/DVD combo recorders with HDMI out, you can record upscaled VHS content with the Elgato Game Capture HD. You'll need to feed it into splitter or HDMI converter with a HDMI 1.3 input to break the copy protection, but it'll get the job done. The Elgato Game Capture HD was designed mainly with component and HDMI content in mind. FYI, I have a Panasonic EZ48 which upscales VHS to 1080p over HDMI.

[stutter]

keep up the good work i think i might get one for my retro games consoles.

[davidm]

Hi. Was wondering how does the elgato compare to those cheap $20 usb capture devices they sell on Amazon? I mean for $80 your getting a software license for the Elgato software? Or is there better tech in that device? Thanks

[PauloParreira]

I used some 20/30€ (25/35$) capture devices such as Magix and other brand but found they use the same software with a lot of settings and some of them does not work properly. Is the quality of the capture of the Elgato so much better that it worths the 99€?
Thanks

[WhiteJarrah]

I have a question about that capture card. The Elgato website says the resulting mp4 is 640x480. Does that apply to PAL content? I have a similar device by kworld, the resulting files it records are 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL, which are the digital equivalent resolutions for VHS. 640x480 is more of a PC resolution. I'm not too keen on down converting a PAL video's vertical resolution to the lower res of NTSC.

[Metal_Groove]

I just bought one to rip VHS and laserdisc, especially since my laserdisc player has s video!

[jeffhibono]

I was digitizing from my TRV85 and I was wondering if I should choose 4:3 vs 16:9?

[ashleycox]

Great video Tom. I must get around to transferring all our home videos to digital; I started a year or so ago, then the VCR broke and by the time I'd found a replacement things got busy and I haven't had time to finish the project. I used an Ion Video2PC which is one of those cheap capture cards. It's not too bad for the price, though the audio side of it is crap; you have to back down the gain to almost zero, and stick an dtenuator between its input and the VCR or it clips like mad.

[tahirahmed]

I have a unbranded generic £20 one I bought from Amazon UK, but the video quality is very pixelly. Does the elgato have good video results

[checkpoint]

how do you get a stereo sound and not only mono when there is no red input for the right left audio ? Because I have the same camcorder setup ? Thanx

[OrbitVideovision]

For the last 6 months iam using Elgato Usb Video capture device for Video cassette (vhs) to dvd conversion, some time Elgato capture device is generating small noice on recorded videos like horizontal small squire lines. I dont know how its fix ;-)
Np: the video noice only show in vhs cassette conversion time.