We've had the Elgato HD60 for just over two months now, which is actually much longer than we needed for an official review. The thing is, it's been so integrated into our daily capturing lives that we simply forgot to write up our finally impressions. It's officially the third capture card that we've used in the office, the first two being the Roxio Game Capture HD Pro, and the Hauppauge HD PVR 2. The Roxio was the easiest to use, but wouldn't capture the Wii U. The Hauppauge fared a bit better, being able to capture everything, though we did have a lot of problems with the software crashing on us. The Elgato actually fared the best out of the three, being able to capture all of our current consoles, and the software, though it does have its fair share of crashes, held up pretty well after a few patches.
Let's talk about the build first, since it's easily the most striking feature of the capture card. It's super small. Actually, it's just slightly bigger than the recently released PlayStation TV and actually weighs about the same. The only ports you'll find are the HDMI in and out on opposite sides, as well as the mini USB port that powers the unit and obviously transmits data to your computer, and lastly a 3.5mm audio in jack that can record external analog audio. It's easily one of the most portable devices next to the Roxio, and since it doesn't require to be plugged into an outlet, it's extremely easy to set up.
The Game Capture HD software is also extremely intuitive to use, and comes with a lot of great options to spruce up your videos. On the capturing side, you have options ranging from quality and size, adding live commentary, streaming with a press of a button, and even the option to overlay your footage with a webcam feed. Speaking of live commentary, the software smartly separates it into a separate audio track, meaning if your levels aren't right the first time around, you can play around with them until it all sounds perfect.
The editing suite isn't all that featured, but it has just the right amount of bells and whistles to chop your video up and splice others into it, take screenshots, and easily the best feature of all, directly upload it to multiple sources like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and even export it in formats for Apple TV, iPad, and iPod. And while it has crashed on us in multiple situations, it was luckily never during an actual capture. The fact that the software already had a few patches and updates just goes to show that the Elgato team is continually working on making the experience a lot better.
As for the game capturing itself, we haven't really had any complaints. Obviously the better your computer, the better experience you'll have. Our main editing computer isn't a beast by any means, but could handle capturing games at full 1080p at 60fps. Though we did have problems trying to capture and render at the same time. Again, that's more of a computer issue than an Elgato issue.
The video below was taken using the Elgato. However, our player doesn't support full 60fps, so if you want to see the video in its full 60 frames, you can click here and download the video file.
Sure the HD60 records at 1080p 60fps, but it has settings for lower resolutions and frame rates as well. Not to mention, given that you have a powerful enough rig and huge enough hard drive, you can maximize your bitrate and record some truly stunning footage at full resolution. However, given that not many sites support 60fps, it's nearly pointless to record in that format. Or at least until YouTube finally updates their player to support it.
The Elgato HD60's only caveat is its price point. As of right now, it's $179.99, which is a bit pricey, especially for those that are upgrading from an older capture card to this one. New users though who have never owned a capture card certainly need to add the HD60 into consideration given the amount of options you have at your disposal.
It might be slightly pricey, but considering the quality and ease of use, the Elgato Game Capture HD60 is an easy recommendation if you're in the market. High quality captures, easy sharing to multiple sources, and instant streaming with a push of a button, are just a few of the
