- This is the new HD60 X from Elgato.
It's their latest external USB capture card designed
for content creators using next generation consoles
or two PC setups.
In this video, we're going to be going through all
of the new features, testing out the new capture
and pass-through resolutions and frame rates,
and ultimately helping you decide
whether it's worth the price of $200.
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Right, so in the box itself,
you get the Elgato HD60 X obviously,
and also an HDMI 2.0 cable and a USB 3 C-to-A cable.
The device itself is similar
in size to the previous HD60 S and S+ models.
But it seems Elgato have put more thought
into how this will actually look
sat on your desk or your TV stand.
As we now get both the HDMI
and USB ports located on the back.
So all of your cables can now run
off the back of your desk together.
There's also a 3.5 millimeter port
on the front to capture any external audio.
So if you wanted to for example,
capture your console's voice chat
alongside your game audio, you can use this.
So the size is roughly the same,
the IO is the same
and the price is actually the same
as what the HD60 S+ was sold at.
What's the difference?
Well, it mainly comes down to two things.
Those are the capture and pass-through capabilities
and the support for variable refresh rate.
Let's start with capture and pass-through.
And it's important to be able to understand the difference.
Capture is the resolution and frame rate
that the HD60 X is capable of sending over USB
to your PC or Mac to be then used in software
like OBS Studio, Streamlabs Desktop, vMix
or any other kind of software.
Pass-through, however, is the resolution and frame rate
that the HD60 X can pass-through from HDMI in to HDMI out
to an actual monitor that you're going to be gaming on.
So the HD60 X is capable of passing through 4K HDR at 60FPS,
1440p SDR at 120FPS or 1080p SDR at 240 FPS.
So whether you want to play in the highest quality
and highest detail at 4K 60 in HDR
or you want the high refresh rate, high frame rate version
at 1080p SDR, at 240 frames per second
both options are supported.
In terms of capture
and what the HD60 X can actually send to your PC
and then be used in OBS Studio,
you can send up to 4K HDR at 30FPS, 1080p HDR at 60 FPS,
1440p SDR at 60 FPS or 1080p SDR at 120 FPS.
There's even an onboard SDR tone mapping feature
that allows you to still play your games
in HDR on your monitor whilst capturing in SDR
for use in OBS to send to Twitch or YouTube.
Now I've just thrown a whole load of numbers at you so
if you want to look at the exact resolutions
and frame rates that are supported
for pass-through and capture,
I'll leave a link down below to Elgato's official resource.
The second major improvement over the HD60 S+
is the introduction of support
for variable refresh rate pass-through.
This means that your monitors refresh rate can be synced
to the output of your console,
which will eliminate any kind of screen tearing
whenever your console isn't producing the target FPS
of your monitors refresh rate.
The latest generation Xbox series X
and S already support VRR.
And as of a few days ago, Sony finally announced
that the PS5 will be getting VRR support via an update
in the next couple of months.
There are a couple of things to note
about the VRR support in the HD60 X though.
Firstly, it only supports AMD FreeSync monitors
and HDMI Forum VRR compatible monitors
not in NVIDIA G-SYNC, which is pretty disappointing.
Secondly, VRR is supported when the frame rate is
between 48 and 120 frames per second.
And outside of that range, VRR isn't supported
which is just worth highlighting
based on how many 144 Hertz monitors I see available.
Now I've been a little bit limited
in the testing that I could do just purely
because the monitor that I use is a 1440p monitor
at 240 Hertz and it uses NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology.
So it's basically the perfect blend
of non-compatible options.
That being said, I have been able to test out the HD60 X
both with a PlayStation 5 and in a dual PC setup.
I tested at both 1440p and 1080p resolutions
at the various different supported frame rates
both with and without HDR
and honestly I've got to say,
I didn't have any issues at all.
The resolution scaling, the higher supported frame rates,
even the HDR to SDR tone mapping
all performed exactly as I expected it to.
And the HD60 X was instantly recognized
as soon as I plugged it in via USB in windows.
I was also really impressed
with just how low latency this new card from Elgato is.
The difference between the pass-through signal
and the captured signal in OBS Studio is really minimal.
Notably lower than most other
external capture cards I've used.
You shouldn't really need to do any syncing offset
of any of your sources in OBS Studio
to make sure everything's in sync
because the latency is that low.
To be honest you could probably play
less competitive games directly
from OBS's preview, which is especially useful
for people that just have a single monitor, like a laptop.
One negative with the HD60 X is
it doesn't support Multi App, which is the functionality
that lets you use the captured footage
in more than one app at the same time.
You can make use of Stream Link
which is a function of Elgato's 4K capture utility
but essentially it's just using NDI
and allows you to then use that footage in OBS Studio,
it's nowhere near as good as having it directly built
into the device itself through Multi App.
Overall though, I've got to say I'm really quite impressed
with the HD60 X.
Setup was an absolute breeze
and the quality of both the physical device
and the actual captured footage that you get
in OBS Studio is what you'd expect from Elgato.
The main downsides for me
like I've mentioned are the lack of NVIDIA G-SYNC
and support for the Multi App functionality.
But the fact that we're getting higher resolution
and higher frame rate pass-through
with VRR and low latency previewing all inside
of a small external USB capture card
is really pretty impressive.
$200 for a capture card is certainly something
that your wallet is going to feel.
But bear in mind that the HD 60 S+
was that price just a week ago before this launch
you're certainly getting substantial improvements.
But let me know what you guys think
down in the comments below.
And if you found this video helpful
please do give it a thumbs up.
It's greatly appreciated.
If you've ever wanted to learn how to make your own emotes
for your Twitch channel
you should probably watch this video next
where I walk you through step-by-step
how to do it in completely free software.
I'll catch in the next one.
Peace.