In the days before the market growth of “gaming capture cards,” us YouTubers had to be VERY
creative about how we captured gameplay for YouTube.
Really early in the YouTube days, us without money had to hook our game consoles up to
a VCR and record to tape, then convert to DVD and then rip to PC.
Fast forward, and we had to get very creative about adapting old professional video equipment
for recording out game consoles.
The Black Magic Intensity Pro was never intended to record video games, but it did a decent
job.
Nowadays, we have an entire market of gaming capture cards.
But your beginner YouTuber may still not be able to afford such devices.
As I try to cover frequently on my channel, buying older used electronics is almost always
an easier route than finding a hidden way to afford the expensive stuff.
So what if you had access to non-gaming production gear?
From a colleague, family member, auction lot?
Many electronics can be obtained for super cheap from auctions and used sales.
How would such a product compare to the gaming-oriented capture cards?
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I’m EposVox, here to make tech easier and more fun today comparing the video recording
quality of the Elgato capture cards - namely the HD60 Pro and the HD60 S - and the Atomos
Ninja 2 professional video recorder.
The Ninja 2 records video to a very high bitrate ProRes video format, but at a maximum of 720p
60FPS.
The Elgato cards record a 1080p 60FPS video feed a much more lossy H264 format.
My question was whether or not the ProRes files - with MUCH higher bitrate and better
color information - could create higher-quality game footage files than the super lossy recordings
from gaming capture cards.
So grabbed my PS4 out of my gaming setup, and recorded a match in Rocket League and
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.
These games support theater mode replays, which means I can record the exact same match
and conditions at 720p with the Ninja 2 and 1080p with the Elgato.
How did the two systems compare?
The answers kinda surprised me.
First, we’ve been looking at a comparison on Rocket League, split vertically down the
middle.
The Ninja 2 is one side, and the Elgato is the other.
Can you spot a difference?
I was quite surprised as to how well it held up, even splitting over to a horizontal split.
They record frame times slightly differently, so there is a bit of mis-alignment, but it’s
hard to truly tell which is which.
Let’s flip on over to Black Ops 3 for a moment, again, vertical down the middle.
And horizontal.
Keep in mind these are un-touched, un-edited other than scaling the Ninja footage from
720p up to 1080p.
For the last blind test, here’s one device by itself….
And now the other….
Same device on Rocket League….
And now the other device again… Spotting differences is one thing, but can you really
tell which is which?
YouTube compression trashes footage, so this helps show that you can compete with the “big
leagues” in video quality, even without the “normal” gear.
Plus, you can render to higher bitrates from the ProRes files than with Elgato’s file.
The higher bitrate you give to YouTube, the better your end result can look, as long as
you don’t surpass your recorded bitrate.
So let’s jump into the details for a moment.
Zooming in on the Black Ops 3 HUD, you start to see where the 720p resolution becomes a
serious limiting factor in the video’s quality.
The Elgato’s HUD stays just a little sharper around text and the icon when zoomed in.
Not only that, but there’s some seriously-distracting chromatic aberration-looking distortion that
occurs around the text on the Ninja 2 recording once you zoom in enough.
Zooming in on the gun, the logo is a little blurrier and has a lot more jaggies on the
720p Ninja recording, whereas the on the 1080p Elgato copy it is most smoothed out and clearer.
Gun textures are just ever so slightly clearer on the Elgato, as well.
Zooming in on a specific texture here, you can’t really tell any difference.
Black Ops 3 uses dynamic resolution scaling that changes on the fly to keep performance
smooth, and textures wind up looking the same on both recorders.
Jumping back to Rocket League, the HUD is quite a bit sharper, though more jagged, on
the Elgato recording at 1080p.
The same applies to the car.
Sharper, but more jagged.
However when in motion, certain aspects don’t stand out as much at 1080p, like the spikes
on the wheels.
Textures actually get more blurred at 1080p in Rocket League, so the deeper color information
provided actually gives a sharper-looking image for many aspects of the game while recorded
to the Ninja 2.
If we zoom in on the goal, the Elgato’s recording has a much more jagged look, which
does not compress well at all.
So the Ninja recording isn’t quite as sharp, but looks overall much better.
Live action camera footage can be a lot easier to scale than computer-generated game footage,
so the 720p limitation of the Ninja almost outweighs the benefit of higher bitrate and
deeper color information.
But once you run it through YouTube compression, it’s more than usable as a proper gaming
capture device, without needing a computer to do the recording - just a 2.5” hard drive
or SSD.
I just wanted to experiment and play around.
I expected the Ninja 2 to look much better upscaled, but I was pleasantly surprised.
If you found this video interesting or helpful, be sure to hit the like button and subscribe
for more videos like this.
I’m EposVox, thanks for watching.
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Thank you so much, everyone.
I'll see you in the next one.