For the past 8 months I have been using an AVerMedia Game Capture HD to record, amongst other things, Call of Duty, FIFA and Gran Turismo 5. The device has served me well and I am of the opinion it is the perfect capture card for anyone who is looking to start a YouTube channel.
Originally, I paid £129.99 for the AVerMedia, although you can now get one for just £99 on Amazon.co.uk. Whilst that is fantastic value for money, my decision had nothing to do with price: the AVerMedia is the only capture card with built in storage, meaning I could record gameplay without the need to hook up my PS3 to a PC or laptop. This was an essential feature as my PC and PS3 live at opposite ends of the house!
My channel has grown steadily and, as of last week, I became a fully fledged YouTube Partner. As such I made the decision to upgrade to something a little more powerful, such as the Hauppauge, Elgato or Roxio: all of which will allow me to do away with component cables in favour of HDMI, meaning I can record in ‘full’ (1080) as opposed to ‘partial’ (720) HD. In addition, all three have live streaming functionality.
Which one I go for will ultimately come down to price as, spec wise, all three capture cards are evenly matched. Right now the Hauppauge looks like the favourite as Amazon.co.uk have them on offer at £133 (£30 off).
For those of you in the US of A, you can pick up the Hauppauge HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition for just £91 ($148). That’s almost 50% off UK RRP!!
If you are looking for a bit more information, you might want to check out this comparison of the HD PVR 2, Elgato & Roxio capture cards.
