Elgato game capture hd60s: How to set up and Install Elgato HD60 S Capture Card — Stream Tech Reviews by BadIntent

Game Capture HD60 X

Play and Create Without Compromise

HD60 X lets you capture PS5 or Xbox gameplay like a pro. Stream or record high resolution content for audiences on any platform. No subscriptions. Zero limitations.

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HD60 X

$179.99

Capture Like A Pro

Variable Refresh Rate

4K60 HDR10 Passthrough

1080P60 HDR Recording

Unlimited Capture

Instant Gameview

Next-Gen gaming is here, and it’s incredible.you need next-level gear to stream or record all that graphic goodness in the highest quality.cutting-edge tech to create on your terms.

HD60 X Awaits

Your Console’s Best Friend

Compact and streamlined, HD60 X connects seamlessly to any console. Rear HDMI ports keep your setup tidy while the audio input sits up front for easy access. This is what your pro setup looks like.

Your Streaming Enabler

HD60 X puts you in control of your stream. Use your own computer setup. Choose broadcast software that works for you. Livestream high-resolution content for audiences on all video platforms.

Instant Gameview

Power your workflow with ultra-low latency technology that automatically syncs your broadcast with your gameplay.

Your Recording Powerhouse

Dedicated software for maximum performance. Powerful yet easy to use. Meet 4KCU: custom-built to help you get the most out of HD60 X.

UNLIMITED CAPTURE

Epic video quality

GAMEPLAY, CUTSCENES, SOUNDTRACK, CHAT.

Capture your entire experience in stunning 1080p60 HDR10 or 4K30 quality with pristine 48kHz audio. Without watermarks or time limits.

Stream Link

Save a master copy

CLEAN FOOTAGE FOR EDITING IN POST-PRODUCTION.

Stream with overlays and record uncompressed video without overlays. At the same time.

Flashback Recording

Time travel made easy

Forget to hit record?

4KCU caches several hours of gameplay so you can slide back in time to save footage retroactively.

HDR10 Enabled

Capture the magic

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Record punchy colors and deep shadows in eye-popping 1080p60 HDR10 quality.

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Space-saving HEVC format

Record straight to your hard drive.

Record superior video with advanced HEVC encoding that keeps file sizes smaller than ever.

Live Commentary

Engage your viewers

Put your microphone to work.

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Ready To Edit

In your favorite software

Unleash your creativity.

Export AAF files containing video and audio as separate files for immediate editing in Adobe Premiere, Vegas Pro, and more.

Personal Library

All recordings in one place

Organize your archive using powerful tools.

Use Smart Folders to quickly find and group files based on your search criteria.

Next Level Control

Stream Deck integrates seamlessly with 4KCU. Snap screenshots, trigger Flashback Recordings with different durations, and more – with one tap.

Who Is HD60 X For?

Creators who need a high-end solution for full creative control and highest-quality capture. Want to stream PS5 or Xbox gameplay? Record while gaming in high frame rates? HD60 X is perfect for you.

Who Is HD60 X For?

Creators who need a high-end solution for full creative control and highest-quality capture. Want to stream PS5 or Xbox gameplay? Record while gaming in high frame rates? HD60 X is perfect for you.

HD60 X Not Your Fit?

Find out below which device is right for you.

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How to set up and Install Elgato HD60 S Capture Card — Stream Tech Reviews by BadIntent

Dec 25

Written By BadIntent

The Elgato Game Capture HD60 S is an external capture card capable of passthrough and capture of resolutions up to 1080p 60 FPS. Here’s how to install it.

You will need:

-A computer
-a USB 3.0 port
-an Elgato HD60 S capture card
-a source to capture from
-two HDMI cables

The HD60 S comes with one HDMI cable and a 3.0 USB cable.

Step 1. Disable HDCP from the source you want to capture from. (Consoles)

Most consoles come with High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection enabled by default. This prevents recording of copyrighted multimedia such as movies and TV shows from the console. Disabling this allows for game capture through a capture card, but disables multimedia playback until you turn it back on. This example is on the PS4 Pro.

Step 2. Install and open Elgato’s game capture software.

Download Elgato Game Capture from Elgato’s website. Install and run the program. Note if you’re using the Elgato HD60 S+ (not regular S), you will need to install Elgato 4K Capture Utility instead.

2022 UPDATE: Elgato has rearranged the download menu. Scroll down to legacy products, and instead of downloading the HD60 S program, download the regular HD60 program. It’s the same software as in this article.

Step 3. Connect the capture card to your computer. 

Connect the Type-A side of the included cable into a USB 3.0 port on your computer and the other end (type-C) into the Elgato HD60 S. The port on the capture card the USB cable connects to is next to the HDMI IN port.

Step 4. Connect the source you want to capture to your capture card.

Plug one end of an HDMI cable into the device you’ll be capturing from. Plug the other end into the HDMI IN port of the HD60 S. Plug another HDMI cable into the monitor you intend to play on, and plug the other end of that cable into the HDMI OUT port of the capture card.

If your console isn’t already on, turn it on and you should see your footage in both the Elgato Game Capture software and on the monitor you’re passing the footage through to. If it gets stuck on “please wait” for more than a minute, usually closing and reopening the program will solve the issue.

In Elgato Game Capture you can now choose between different frame rates, bit rates, and resolutions. This can be done by clicking the gear in the upper right next to your device name. Additional settings can be changed on the gear slightly higher than that.

Step 5. Send capture card footage to other software. 

To do this, first close Elgato Game Capture. This device can only be used in one program at a time. Then, open OBS and add the capture card as a video capture source. You can even use this footage in other apps like Zoom. Just add the HD60 S as the capture device.

Here’s how to set up the Elgato HD60 S:

1. Disable HDCP from the source you want to capture from. (Consoles)
2. Install and open Elgato’s game capture software.
3. Connect the capture card to your computer with the included USB cable.
4. Connect the source you want to capture to your capture card.
5. Send capture card footage to other software. 

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Overview of the external USB-device for capturing video signal Elgato Game Capture HD60 S

Elgato’s line of devices consists of different types of gadgets. Not too long ago, we took a look at an analog video capture device, Elgato Video Capture. This was probably the last – or one of the last – representatives of the invaders of this type of signal. Modern video sources do not need to be digitized – they are already digital. It is only necessary to intercept such a source, but not only for the purpose of displaying it on the screen, which every TV can do, but also to re-record the signal, or send it further, rebroadcast it. Only digital signal capture devices can do this.

Design and specifications

The gripper is packaged in a box with specifications printed on it.

Elgato Game Capture HD60 S comes with the following accessories:

• HDMI cable
• USB 3.0 to Type C cable
• quick start guide

The device is a plastic box the size of a soap dish, only flat. Its lid is visually divided by a transparent narrow insert. Under this insert are red LEDs that flash when recording starts and stops, or when the input signal is lost. The bottom of the housing is covered with a solid rubber pad that prevents the device from slipping on smooth surfaces.

An HDMI output is mounted on one end of the box, and on the opposite side there is a 3.5 mm audio input, an HDMI input and a USB Type C connector that acts as a power connector and a data bus for transferring data to a PC. It should be noted that HDMI connectors work in a through scheme. But this is not a banal direct wiring. An input video signal will not reach the output until the device receives power.

Unfortunately, the screws that would hold the parts of the case together are not visible here. Probably, the details are fixed with hidden latches, which are very easy to damage if you open the gadget without knowing its design. Because of the fear of breaking an expensive device that needs to be returned in a salable condition, we did not try to open the device. Therefore, one can only guess about the technical stuffing of the invader. However, you can still take a look in part. At least with the help of a thermal imager.

The following thermal image was taken after several hours of operation of the device, testing was carried out in a room with a temperature of 25 °C.

As you can see, the maximum temperature of only one section of the case reached only 38 ° C, which does not pose any danger to modern electronics. Apparently, the device uses decent quality components that do not require a lot of energy. And, accordingly, emitting a small amount of heat.

The main specifications of Elgato Game Capture HD60 S are shown in the following table:

This and other information is available on the product page.

Connection, setup

First of all, here is the configuration of the equipment on which the device was tested: Windows 10 (64-bit), MSI Z370 Godlike motherboard, Intel Core i5-8600 3.1 GHz processor, 16 GB memory, graphics accelerator Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 (nothing overclocked, all components running at default settings). As you can see, the existing configuration is many times greater than the minimum required. This fact will have to be kept in mind when we begin to study the performance of the system when working with the device.

In order for a device connected to a computer USB 3.0 port to be recognized by the system, drivers must be installed, which can be downloaded from the Elgato technical support page.

After installing them, you do not need to restart the computer, and the Device Manager will be replenished with several new items:

Now the device is ready for use. There are two options for operating capture devices. The first is the simplest: a third-party signal source is connected to the HDMI input of the device, which must be captured. It can be a game console, media player, camcorder and other devices. You can connect anything to the through output of the device, as long as the signal is displayed: TV, monitor. Or you can not connect anything at all, since the software that works in tandem with the capture device displays the incoming signal.

The second use case is capturing the monitor screen itself. To do this, the input of the capture device is connected to the output of the video card, and a monitor is connected to the output of the device. This pass-through circuit will work flawlessly as long as the USB 3.0 capture device receives the power it needs. In such a scenario, the composition of the equipment will change slightly, since now the computer will assume that a monitor with an audio path and the name HD60 S is connected to the output of the video card.

The proprietary software designed to work with the device is called Game Capture HD. In general, absolutely any program, even a third-party manufacturer, will do – the main thing is that work with WDM sources is supported, because the capture device connected to the PC only transfers a “raw” video stream to the computer, which can be picked up by any software focused on this.

The Game Capture HD application window consists of three blocks: the video stream viewing window, the right panel for selecting and configuring sources, and the lower panel for direct recording and streaming control.

The signal viewing window can expand to full screen, which can be useful when the device is connected, for example, according to the scheme Game console → Capture device → Computer . Simply put, in scenarios where the program viewer window is the only way to see the captured signal.

The program settings allow you to select folders on your hard drive where the recorded materials will be saved, determine the compatibility of formats when exporting with popular applications and resources, assign hot keys to start recording and other actions, and also select the method of decoding and encoding the captured content.

The program also provides access to the settings of the capture device. These settings consist of selecting the audio source (HDMI or analog input of the capture device), picture parameters (brightness/contrast, etc.), amplification of the sound on the analog audio input of the device, and profile management, where you can create several profiles for different scenarios.

Let’s note an extremely useful feature of Elgato’s proprietary software: here you can always see the parameters of the signal that enters the device.

Having considered the technical theory, let’s move on to the practice of operating the device.

Operation

First, we need to close the issue of the delay of the video signal when it passes through the chain HDMI-in → HDMI-out. It is not, the delay is completely absent. Thus, if we connect a game console to the input of the device, and a TV to the output, then the signal displayed on the TV will not have any delay.

This delay only appears in one case: on the computer, in the signal viewer of the Game Capture HD software. But the delay is very small, calculated in fractions of a second. It is easy to determine it, at least by recording what is happening on the screen in a video file. During recording, we right-clicked on the program window. In the resulting recording, you can see that on the fourth frame, this click was displayed in the application viewport. So we calculated the delay: 1/15, or 0.06 seconds.

Can such a delay – six hundredths of a second – interfere with the game? Perhaps in some games that require an instant reaction.

But let’s consider the simplest way to operate the device: the usual capture of a signal with its simultaneous recording. Everything is simple here: just press the big red button at the bottom of the control program window, and the recording will begin.

The parameters of the resulting file after stopping the recording will strictly correspond to the settings that are specified in the parameters of the capture device. Here, the bitrate that is spent on encoding the picture is not indicated in numbers. And in an amateur way it is determined by the quality slider with borders from Good to Best .

Somehow inaccurately obtained. Let’s try to determine the true bitrates in Mbps, which correspond to at least three positions of the notorious slider: good quality , excellent and best . And at the same time we will study the quality of the recording obtained in these captures. For this experiment, let’s run a game that is not particularly demanding on computer resources and record short clips of what is happening on the screen.

It turned out that the extreme positions of the quality slider mean more than a twofold difference in the bitrate of the recorded video: from 14 Mbps in position Good to 40 Mbps in the extreme right position Best quality. With this it is now clear, but what exactly is quality? Let’s take a closer look at the freeze frames taken from the resulting recordings.

Frankly speaking, it is not easy to find any difference at first. And only upon careful study do you begin to understand what it is: mainly in blurring, squaring areas of similar color. This is a common symptom of low bitrate.

In general, the quality of all three capture options is more than decent. We did not expect any other result. Moreover, in this case, the graphics processor of the computer is engaged in encoding, which does this very well and, moreover, in real time.

Now let’s pay attention to the three ways available to us that can be used to encode when capturing (recording). We recall that they are selected in the last tab of the program settings window. Three items are available here (the items may be different in different computer configurations).

I wonder how changing these encodings will affect the speed of the computer? After all, we are testing the capture device on the same PC that the game is running on. And games, as you know, are different. The situation is quite real when some game is so demanding on hardware (or hardware is so weak) that there are simply not enough PC resources for a parallel-running capture. Let’s repeat the experiment, but now we will fix not the quality of the recording (everything is clear with it – it is high), but the load on the central and graphic processors. The scenario of the experiment will look like this:

• game start
• start recording
• stop recording
• exit from the game

We assume that according to the resulting load schedules it will be possible to analyze the state of the system. So let’s go.

To make it easier for the reader to navigate, let’s give a hint: this short and the highest peak in the CPU load, which appeared in all three screenshots, means the end of capture / recording. It is at this moment that the CPU generates a video file and writes it to the hard disk in the specified folder. Other peaks are work-random and are distributed more or less evenly, except for one case: encoding by the CPU, the second screenshot. Here, as we see, the central processor is forced not only to process the game and capture, but also to encode the captured video, and in real time. Accordingly, the total CPU usage at this time is doubled. And, remembering that testing is being done on a modern system, it’s easy to imagine what these peaks might look like on less powerful machines. Most likely, there simply would not be enough resources for the game or capture, which would certainly have affected the drop in FPS in the game or manifested itself in delays and frame drops in the video.

We will see exactly the same behavior of the graphs not only in the normal recording mode of the captured signal, but also in the broadcast mode. Since in the broadcast mode the CPU and GPU are busy with exactly the same thing, with one small difference: the CPU also sends the processed stream to the Internet. It requires almost no resources, so it is unlikely to greatly affect the overall load.

Speaking of broadcasting. This is the main purpose of capture devices today. True, the devices themselves are not engaged in any broadcast on their own. The software does it. Either branded, attached to the device, or third-party, which has potentially more functions.

The Game Capture HD application can broadcast the video stream displayed in the window in real time. Broadcasting is required for conferences, streams, etc. And each such broadcast requires appropriate design. All this – and even more – the program offers. It is not possible to explore all its capabilities within the framework of the article; we will consider only the main functions.

In order to broadcast to any resource, you must first share an account with the program on a specific resource. There are several web systems on which you can broadcast. This includes broadcasting to a custom RTMP server. We will look at the process of setting up a broadcast to regular YouTube.

After logging into your account (this is done in the browser), you need to give the Elgato Game Capture HD application some rights:

After that, in the broadcast settings, which open by clicking the corresponding gear, its parameters are set: access level, category, maximum resolution and frequency frames. Here you can also check the box “Enable stream copying” so that the entire broadcast, from beginning to end, is also recorded on the PC hard drive in its original form.

The bitrate with which the broadcast will be carried out is changed by the mouse in a stylized circle resembling a speedometer. The maximum bitrate for YouTube streaming is 10 Mbps. Not enough, of course.

After this short preparation, you can now press another round button, Flow . That’s it, the broadcast has begun. All participants or those admitted can join its viewing.

But we forgot about the design. After all, if there was not a boring page in the broadcast, but, say, a gameplay, then for sure it should be accompanied by some kind of text block, or additional sound, or a live video of the player taken from a webcam, etc. This design in the program is configured quickly and easily. First, you can use the ready-made templates that are lined up at the bottom of the program window. There are even templates that resemble a news studio – all that remains is to insert the announcer on a green background.

Objects are added and edited through a module containing a list of objects available for import into the scene. These are ready-made scenes, and webcams and other video sources connected to computers, images, videos that will be played in a loop, text blocks, and even updated web pages. Here, without much difficulty in a few minutes, you can create a real news studio with all the required exchange rates, video inserts and, of course, with a talking head. It should be remembered that the processing of all the “good” imported into the scene will be handled by the central processor, so it is important not to overdo it.

Another important aspect to remember is that the capture device in question can work equally well in any third-party application that understands WDM sources. We are talking about instant messengers with a video communication function, software players, streaming applications (OBS Studio and the like), etc.

Conclusions

The considered device is compact, reliable, and has low, non-hazardous heating. Perhaps its only drawback that makes sense to note is its rather high cost. Most likely, a significant part of it is due to proprietary software: it is superbly thought out, if not polished, and the wide functionality of this software allows you to fully reveal the capabilities of the capture device.

Thank you MSI Russia and personally Valery Korneev
for the MSI Z370 Godlike card

Elgato Game Capture HD60 S+

Compact and handy video capture card and Elgato Game Capture HD60 S+ lets you take your streams and videos to a whole new level. level with shooting in 1080p60 HDR10 quality and zero-latency 4K60 HDR10 pass-through.

No extra settings

Connect the set-top box and the computer and get creative. It doesn’t get easier. No time-consuming installation or complex software required. Just you, the game and the audience. Instant Contact – with HD60 S+

Recording like a pro

The HD60 S+ lets you instantly stream content from any platform in stunning 1080p at 60 frames per second. And besides, it works with OBS Studio, Streamlabs OBS, XSplit and other applications.

No lag

Whether you’re streaming on Twitch or recording a new video for YouTube, the HD60 S+ delivers games in the same high quality as they appear on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One X, PS5 or PS4 Pro – 4K60 HDR10 no lag.

Always high quality

Enjoy consistently high quality streaming with Instant Gameview ultra-low latency technology. Even at maximum load, not a single frame will fall out!

Unparalleled power

Dedicated software for unlimited performance. Unsurpassed power and convenience. Get the most out of your HD60 S+ with the 4KCU app.

Features:

• Record unlimited footage directly to your hard drive
• Use Flashback Recording to save your footage retroactively
• Advanced USB 3.0 Type C connection
• Built-in live streaming to twitch, YouTube and more 9001 2

• Easy Record party chat with HD, HD60 or HD60 Pro Game Capture Camera.
• One single cable ensures quick and easy setup
• Long length allows you to relax while recording and broadcasting.
• Plugs directly into PS4 or Xbox One controller

Brand:

Elgato

Vendor code:

10GAR9901

Model:

HD60 S+

Brand:

Elgato

Manufacturer’s warranty, years:

1

Device type:

Video capture card

Type:

External

Connection:

usb 3.