I'm looking at buying a capture card for my friend's birthday and I've got absolutely no idea what I'm doing, so I thought I would turn to you guys for some advice. Basically, it needs to be an external card, be able to take an HDMI input, and be compatible with a Mac, specifically with Final Cut Pro. I don't know what most machinimators use, but if anyone can recommend a card with these or similar specs, you'd be helping me out a lot. Also, feel free to ask questions if you need more info.
The rvb crew usually use BlackMagic Intensity Pro, which I think is an internal card. I know some of the achievement hunter guys use a card by Hauppage www.hauppauge.com/ They also make internal cards, as well as external cards, and I think they work well with a mac. You may want to ask Michael, Ray (Brownman), AH_Mike, and some of the other AH guys and see if and which of the Hauppage cards work well with Final Cut Pro. Tho, the cards from Hauppage seem to use component (three video cdables Red, Green, Blue, and red and white audio cables for inputs, and use USB to output. Might have to look around their site for one that does HDMI.
Another option is a card from Avermedia. I've used this card, and it comes with its down capture program. It is internal, and does HDMI. I ended up getting it off newegg, and it even lets me stream video game content, if I live stream.
Hey thanks for the information. I was looking too and after my short time messing around with an EasyCap USB device, I have decided that it is a POS lol
I had a dazzle by pinnacle, but it could only do Standard def, 4:3. That's the reason I went with my avermedia. Only problem, and it might be an Adobe Premiere problem, is that the audio gets desyned in it, but plays fine with playback on my raw captured footage.
I had a dazzle by pinnacle, but it could only do Standard def, 4:3. That's the reason I went with my avermedia. Only problem, and it might be an Adobe Premiere problem, is that the audio gets desyned in it, but plays fine with playback on my raw captured footage.
I have the same problem with my EasyCap which is why I stopped using it. The software that came with it was crap so I used VirtualDub to record the video so I'm not positive if it's just a problem with the software or the device but there is one big thing that sucks about EasyCap (aside from the lack of HD support) is the Audio is terrible. It sounds like you are sticking a 5 dollar microphone up against a speaker to record music into a low quality audio file.
Dazzle never had any audio problems that I knew of, but I never used the EasyCap one, so I can't say if there are settings or anything for the audio recording levels, or how to increase the bitrate of the audio.
Will say this, if in your editing software, you get audio desyncs, and you are using windows... Download and install Windows live movie maker, and inport your footage. Then save it out, and reload into your main video editing software, and it should be in sync then.. For some strange reason, Adobe Premiere and my raw footage never get synced.. I had a test piece I did with Saints Row's: The Third, and when using premiere only, I lost 2-3 minutes of audio. Had perfect since in Movie Maker, and still had sync when I pulled in the exported footage from movie maker into Premiere.
Why this happens, I haven't a clue, but hopefully this will help anyone with audio sync issues.
