Once you've figured out what suits your needs best, choosing the right capture card is much easier.įrom this point, you need to consider the platforms you're going to be recording. Portable capture cards, like the Elgato HD60 S+, are great for those who want the flexibility of being able to take it wherever they need to go-though in most cases, you will need a laptop nearby if you plan on travelling away from home and using your capture card. If you plan on doing a lot of streaming at home and want to keep things relatively clutter-free, then an internal capture card that you insert into your PC's motherboard, such as the Elgato 4K60 Pro, is a great choice that offers excellent quality as well. The first thing you should consider when picking out a capture card is how you're going to use it. Even if you game on a PC, the quality you get from an internal capture card is unbeatable. Whether you're gaming on the PS5 and Xbox Series X or older consoles like the PS4, Xbox One, or Nintendo Switch, it's important that you give your viewers the best possible image you can get-capture cards can help with this. These little devices let you connect your console to your PC, allowing you to capture your gameplay feed and push it live to people all around the world. Livestream Broadcaster Pro $569.05 (amazon.While modern game consoles have built-in features for capturing gameplay footage and screenshots, dedicated capture cards are practically a must if you're looking to stream on Twitch or YouTube (or record extended gameplay videos). The downside is that you may be locked into your live stream provider unless you buy a new box. This can reduce setup time and the headaches often involved in getting things running. The upside of this choice is that is likely that the encoder will work flawlessly with the service. I will get to live streaming providers later but some providers offer their own encoding device. It can be configured from a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth.

This little box will take an HDMI source, encode it, and send it directly to your streaming service. However, it doesn’t need to be as powerful as it would need to be if it were handling encoding. In other setups, a computer may be part of the workflow. In those cases, a computer is not needed at all for streaming. In some cases, the device can send the encoded stream directly to your streaming host. This means that a computer is not needed to do the encoding. These devices capture audio and video and encode it directly onboard.

Video capture device for live streaming