All of the video files the AverMedia Game Capture HD creates are H.264 encoded with MP3 audio. That means that they are ready for quick upload to online video platforms and won’t need a lot of work to get them up and viewable. At its best quality it records video at about 15Mbps at 59 frames per second and audio at 48000Hz stereo at 128kbps which means a five minute file will run just around 530MB.
Since I also write about online video at another website I know that’s pretty decent, but far too high for standard video streaming. This is also not the maximum bitrate for 1080i and so there is some lossy compression meaning that you can see a small bit of quality loss if you look hard enough.
The good thing is that when you upload to someplace like Daily Motion, Vimeo or YouTube, you’re giving them a lot of information (more than they really need) so when they compress it for quick online streaming, they’ll have a lot to work with which means they should be able to maintain most of the quality of the video you send them.
There are some issues with the AverMedia Game Capture HD. For example, it only has component cable input/output. So if you’re already using HDMI or something else, you’ll need to swap cables over. Secondly, it can’t register 1080p video signal so you will have to, before you install the unit, drop your video output to 1080i, the highest it can read. Also, the built in sound is a bit quieter than normal. Not a lot, but it was noticeable as I had to turn up my sound system higher than I would have it.
The cable that comes with the unit has a triple adapter on one end for Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. However, you can only plug in one at a time or there’s some king of signal degradation (see page 2). Again, not a major deal, but with something like this, I would much rather be able to install everything and not have to mess with it when I swap consoles. That’s why I think the next version of this needs HDMI capabilities. With the Wii U, will probably come HDMI anyway, so that would really simplify both the cabling and all the other issues. With HDMI would also come the ability to manage 1080p so that you could plug it all in and not have to change a thing and with some network support, I think it would be a pretty amazing product.
As it is right now, it’s very usable. The videos and JPEGs it makes are pretty good quality, as you can see from the image and videos embedded in this review. However, it could definitely use some expanded hardware offerings like network capabilities and HDMI in the next version. A nice thing is that if the unit is off, video and audio pass through it without a problem. That’s nice as it at least keeps you from having to swap cables or turning the unit on even when you’re not going to use it.
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Our Rating for AverMedia Game Capture HD Review (hardware)
9.0
Overall The quality of the videos and images the AverMedia Game Capture HD produces are quite good. Aside from some setup quirks and the lack of HDMI it�s a great unit and not needing to have it hooked to a PC means you can keep your PC and consoles in separate rooms. With HDMI and networking, it might get a 10.
come the ability to manage 1080p so that you could plug it all in and not have to change a thing and with some network support, I think it would be a pretty amazing product.
