If you’re looking for a capture card that lets you play in 4K but only capture or stream
1080p or lower, the Live Gamer Extreme 2 might be the card for you.
The Extreme 2, or the GC551 is a bit of a weird entry in their 4K passthrough card lineup,
and I’m honestly not a fan.
But let’s discuss it after a word from our sponsor…
Upgrade your video security system today to the Lorex 4K Color Night Vision Security Cameras.
This system has upgradable storage space, support for up to 8 cameras, 200 foot color
night vision and beautiful 4K video.
No more blurry, useless security footage, Lorex's system has your home or business covered.
You can even monitor from your smartphone!
Learn more with our partner link in the video description.
Of the three new capture cards released this week by AVerMedia, the Live Gamer Extreme
2 is by far the weakest offering.
I was hoping to release my review of the Live Gamer Ultra today instead, or maybe combine
them both into one video - BUT I ran into problems with the Ultra, so you get this today.
Other than my dislike for RECentral 2 at the time, I really liked the original Live Gamer
Extreme from 2015.
It offered low-latency 1080p60 capture and passthrough via USB 3.0 and even had an analog
breakout connection for capturing PS3 or other older consoles.
It had all of the I/O in the back so it could actually sit on a desk - unlike MOST capture
cards - and had a window flap where you could print your own faceplate for it.
Neat.
It was well-rounded and allowed for capture of most game consoles all in one device - unlike
Elgato’s HD60.
But the Live Gamer Extreme 2….
Is not as impressive.
It features an identical design to the first - which is great, the design served its purpose
- but cut out the analog inputs.
Yeah, I get it, “get with the times” is what most product-focused companies want to
say…
BUT when expensive game streaming products are already pretty niche and I’m involved
in many large communities of retro gaming enthusiasts that have to resort to adapting
absurd old broadcast equipment or buying even more expensive purpose-built upscaler units
to get good captures of older game consoles, this always annoys me.
Instead, we just get two HDMI 2.0 ports for in and out.
And instead of micro USB 3.0, we now get USB 3.1 gen 1 type C - though they call it USB
3.0 everywhere, and for good reason.
Since this isn’t a UVC device like the Live Gamer Ultra, it’s limited to Windows and
doesn’t seem to actually work with USB C ports nor USB 3.1 gen 2 type A ports.
It receives power, passes through the feed, and RECentral even knows it’s plugged in
SOMETIMES and just shows a black screen instead of “No Signal”, but the feed is never
accessible.
Perhaps gen 2 drivers are more complicated and this is something AVerMedia can fix in
their driver updates, but I always get frustrated when devices have USB C ports for one end,
but don’t work with actual PC-side USB C ports.
So what CAN this card do?
Simple: The Extreme 2 lets you play your games in up to 4k 60fps via passthrough, and then
capture or stream at 1080p 60fps or lower.
Many people have been requesting this for a while - no interest in making 4k content
or HDR or anything like that - just send 4K and capture 1080p60.
This card will do that, and does it well.
And theoretically you’re getting a sharper 1080p file as a result thanks to the downscaling
factor - though YouTube’s harsh 1080p compression will destroy that anyway, though you could
probably upscale the footage to 1440p or back to 4k with decent results on YouTube if you
recorded to a high enough bitrate.
It’s worth noting, too, that the results from this card are going to be drastically
better than what you’d get with the Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus that I reviewed last
year.
I’ve never been happy with the video quality of the Portable devices other than as a “I
really need to record to SD card right now” solution, so if you weren’t happy with the
USB 2.0 limited compression, this might be a good solution.
But that’s… it, really.
No HDR support other than passthrough.
It will passthrough the HDR signal but then the actual capture feed cuts out and goes
to “No Signal.”
No HDR capture not tonemapping like the other devices.
No high refresh rate support, either.
60hz or bust with this bad boy.
It can record high bitrates in RECentral - or whatever you want via uncompressed access
in OBS Studio - though it initially suffered from the Nvidia encoder bug in RECentral.
So make sure your software is up to date if you plan on using that.
I cover this more in my Live Gamer 4K review.
If you’re on a laptop, a 4th generation i7 and a Nvidia 870M graphics card are recommended
as minimum specs to get decent recording out of it.
I’ve found that laptop CPUs just can’t keep up with 1080p60 encoding even on the
higher end - you need a discrete graphics card backing it up.
This card also does not work with Linux.
Windows only for now.
It is low-latency so integrating into stream setups will not be a problem - but again,
does not feel low-latency enough for me to play off of the preview.
Unlike the other cards, you only get the YUY2 decode format - which is better than NV12,
but no RGB mode for those of you who want maximum placebo video quality.
For $200, this capture device just feels… weird.
Unlike its previous iteration, or the other cards in this release cycle, there’s no
stand-out feature for the Live Gamer Extreme 2.
It’s basic, but feels pricey to release for only $100 less than their full 4k60 HDR
capture option.
But then again, Elgato hasn’t released a 4K passthrough USB card yet, so maybe it’s
not too bad.
I dunno, was just pretty bummed that this card didn’t really offer anything special.
But I guess if you’re buying a basic capture card today and can fund it, the Live Gamer
Extreme 2 would be the one to go with if you want to have the future-proof-ish option of
passing through 4K signals.
As covered better in my Live Gamer 4K review, RECentral 4 is a great capture and streaming
software that allows for direct capture, screenshotting, and also live streaming with multiple scenes
and sources and even multi-streaming.
I’ll hopefully have a deeper dive on the software coming in its own video later in
July.
Is this the capture card you’re looking for?
Or do you prefer the flashier features of the Ultra or 4K devices?
Comment below.
Down there in the description are affiliate product links and links to our sponsor, Lorex
Technology, that you should check out.
Consider subscribing and turning on notifications so you don’t miss an upload.
I’m EposVox and I’ll see you next time.