The ability to use a proper, full camera as a native webcam has been a sought-after feature
since cameras stopped carrying native USB hosts for that, themselves.
For a while, there was only one well-known and reliable solution: The Magewell XI100DUSB,
available in both HDMI and SDI variants.
But recently, a few more companies have thrown their hats in the ring.
I already reviewed Elgato’s Cam Link which serves this functionality at a budget price,
but without quite a few features of the Magewell, and now we have the AVerMedia ExtremeCap UVC
in the studio.
In a future video we’ll tackle a new company’s attempt at a UVC card, with an IndieGoGo campaign
behind it.
Let’s take a look, right after this.
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Learn more via the link in the video description.
I’m EposVox here to make tech easier and more fun and today we’re taking a look at
the AVerMedia BU110, or the ExtremeCap UVC.
As an added bonus, all of the a-roll for this video - that is, the footage of me talking
right now - is being captured with this dongle.
All of the source footage will be 1080p 60fps, but I will be creating this video at 2560
by 1440 to give more bandwidth so you can see a better representation of the quality
on YouTube.
(If you’re watching this off of YouTube, might wanna head over to see the best result.)
I uploaded some quality samples over the weekend straight from the Windows 10 Camera app, RECentral
3, and OBS Studio - but again, YouTube crushes 1080p quality, so keep an eye on the gameplay
here in 1440p.
This little device takes your HDMI sources - game consoles, cameras, computers, and so
on - and allows them to show up on your computer as a native webcam.
This is very much like a standard capture card or dongle, but it works using the native
UVC drivers built into most operating systems - requiring no setup time and allowing it
to show up as a webcam in video chatting apps like Skype, Discord, and so on, which most
capture cards cannot do.
This little box features a HDMI input on one end, indicator LED along the top, and a USB
Type-C 3.0 port on the other side.
There’s no HDMI passthrough, so you’ll need a HDMI splitter if you’re running a
game console or need to preview your source in real-time.
This is a super low-latency capture solution, but playing from a video preview in most games
is still not quite real-time enough to be an enjoyable experience for fast-paced games.
Also, as with the other options we have looked at, this card can support a max of 1080p 60FPS.
No higher than 1080p nor higher than 60hz will be supported.
You get a USB Type C to Type A port in the box, but it works fine with a USB C to C cable
for most devices, too.
I wanted to actually touch on real quick that one of the key selling points, and part of
the reason this costs so much more than the Elgato Cam Link, is that this works with mobile
devices!
I cannot test this myself, since I don’t have a USB C-capable smartphone, but my buddy
Lon Seidman and others have tested it and the ExtremeCap UVC works great to connect
to a smartphone and record or stream your camera on the go.
This helps eliminate the need for many products such as portable streaming boxes or even field
monitors.
You can use your phone as a basic monitor, quick external video recorder, or as a full
on broadcast unit since YouTube now supports mobile live streaming.
Just get a quick shoe mount to mount your phone to your camera and you’re good to
go.
As I just mentioned, AVerMedia’s unit is a bit pricey, costing roughly twice as much
as Elgato’s Cam Link.
But for that price you get a couple important things - the mobile broadcasting capabilities
I mentioned before, interlaced video support for the huge market of 1080i cameras out there
- something the Elgato Cam Link can’t do for some reason - and it handles scaling of
video sources and color space conversion on the chip inside.
The Magewell dongle can do that PLUS handle some compression and encoding on the card
for a little more money, but this is a great option.
Handling scaling on the fly can seriously help reduce CPU loads for deinterlacing 1080i,
scaling up 720p footage to 1080p or 1080p down to 720p, and so on.
I was messing around with deinterlacing settings in OBS Studio and it would appear that the
Extreme Cap UVC is doing deinterlacing within the card.
Applying any deinterlacing modes in the software only went to make the video look funky, disabling
it looked great.
How many times can I say deinterlacing in one video?!
The scaling features can be seen specifically in the Windows 10 Camera app, as well as OBS
Studio’s configuration, where you have multiple resolution and frame rate options for the
device - whereas with the Elgato Cam Link you only have the source spec available.
This is great.
BUT, if you are just bringing in native 720p or 1080p sources to a PC, the Elgato Cam Link
will do what you want for half the price, so probably go with that.
Now, you are getting an uncompressed video feed from this device.
This is good for most modern use cases - as you don’t want your computer to have to
decompress a compressed video feed and then recompress it for streaming, and this is super
low-latency as a result - but can mean slower machines struggle to handle the video feed.
Plus, it uses up a lot of bandwidth on the USB bus, so if you’re using more than one,
you’ll have to be careful as to which USB busses you’re using.
The dongle itself is super hefty and durable feeling, I believe the frame is made out of
aluminum.
It will survive well for event travel and such.
In fact, you might have to be careful not to let IT scratch up your other gear..
Having my Magewell on top of it moving around resulted in some of the plastic or paint coming
off of the Magewell onto this, haha.
This acts as a heatsink to keep it cool.
It doesn’t get very hot during use.
My X99 era desktop has wonky USB C support, so running C to C on it resulted in some glitchy
video in Windows 10’s Camera app, but it showed up fine in everything else.
Running the normal C to A USB cable worked fine with all apps.
And C to C to my laptop worked fine, too.
The device works with Windows, Mac and Linux - though I could only test Windows and Linux.
It works with OBS, the Camera app, dedicated video chatting apps like Skype and Discord,
OBS Studio and other streaming programs, and even AVerMedia’s game capture program RECentral
3.
In OBS, there might be some delay or de-sync issues, so they’ve updated it to now show
two listings: The basic device, and the ExtremeCap UVC “Streaming Engine”.
This works much like the Live Gamer HD 2 I reviewed a while back, the “Streaming Engine”
device gives a more direct access to the video feed to stay in sync and with low-latency.
In OBS specifically, you’ll want to also enable a custom audio device for the ExtremeCap
and choose the “Streaming Engine” audio option, too.
Uncompressed, low-latency, UVC-compatible capture for game consoles, cameras, camcorders,
and PCs!
The ExtremeCap UVC comes at a more premium price compared to something like Elgato’s
option, but comes with much more desirable features from the professional and more expensive
market.
Affiliate product links will be in the description below, as always.
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I’m EposVox, and I’ll see you in the next one.
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