AVerMedia GC551 G2 Live Gamer Extreme 3, Plug and Play 4K Capture Card for Gaming, Content Creating and Streaming, 4Kp30 Capture, 4Kp60 VRR Pass-Through

This one is worked for me. Was trying different not work for me as been very slow . After change this one is better .fast than other one and worked good.

Muchos prefieren elgato pero avermedia siempre me a funcionado correctamente y sin ser tan cara

As an avid gamer, I can confidently say that the AVerMedia GC551G2 Game Capture Card is a reliable companion for next-gen console enthusiasts who want to capture and stream their gameplay effortlessly. The 4K HDR pass-through feature ensures that the visual quality of my games remains stunning, even when I'm recording or streaming at a lower resolution. It's a game-changer for content creators like me. One aspect that impressed me the most is the high frame rate (HFR) support. It delivers incredibly smooth and fluid motion during recordings and streams, making the gameplay look incredibly immersive. There's no jarring or stuttering, even during fast-paced action scenes. It truly elevates the viewing experience for my audience. Setting up the GC551G2 was a breeze. With its multiple input options, including HDMI 2.0 and USB 3.0, connecting it to my Xbox Series X was quick and hassle-free. The user-friendly software provided by AVerMedia made the entire process straightforward, and I was able to start recording and streaming in no time. The software's compatibility with popular streaming platforms allowed me to effortlessly share my gaming adventures with my audience. Another great feature of the GC551G2 is its audio mixing capabilities. Being able to balance the game audio and my microphone input right within the capture card itself was a huge convenience. It gave me more control over my streams and recordings, ensuring that my voice was clear and balanced with the game sounds. What truly sets the AVerMedia GC551G2 apart is its competitive price. It offers excellent value for gamers on a budget who still want a reliable and feature-packed capture card. The performance and features it provides easily rival some of the higher-priced options on the market. Lastly, I must mention the Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support. This feature synchronizes the refresh rate of my captured footage with the frame rate of the game, resulting in tear-free recordings and streams. The smoothness it brings to the table is impressive, enhancing the overall quality of my content. In conclusion, the AVerMedia GC551G2 Game Capture Card is a dependable choice for next-gen console gamers seeking seamless gameplay recording and streaming. With its impressive 4K HDR pass-through, HFR support, low latency, and versatile features like audio mixing and VRR, it delivers exceptional performance. The user-friendly setup and competitive pricing make it an attractive option for gamers looking to create content without breaking the bank.

I'm writing this review primarily because none of the other reviews seem to cover using the device on macOS, which is what I bought it for. This is for the GC553 connected over USB-C with an Apple Thunderbolt cable as the Mac instructions suggest. I have the device connected to a 2018 Mac Mini, which obviously doesn't meet the system requirements AVerMedia provides but that's fine because I'm not using their software. I took my chances going in knowing this was a standard USB Video device and figured if the Mini can encode 4K30 in realtime via hardware then why would I need discrete graphics? As it turns out, I was right and it works fine. The official software provided for the device can't even capture a stable 1080p30, which is expected since it's just encoding in software. But it can apply firmware updates and change settings. OBS can't do hardware encoding on the Mini either, so that's not very good either. The good news is that any app that can do video capture + hardware encoding on a Mac works perfectly. The easiest option is Quicktime Player, which comes with macOS. Quicktime Player offers two quality settings, High and Maximum. High is 720p, maximum is 1080p. Both capture at a flawless 60fps with no dropped frames. Unfortunately QuickTime Player doesn't let you capture at 4K. I don't know how many capture apps for macOS support both hardware encoding and 4K devices, but I found a 3rd party app called SwiftCapture and purchased that. It can capture 4K30fps directly to H.264 on the Mac Mini flawlessly, no dropped frames. This is exactly what I wanted and it confirms that the official system requirements are just a limitation of the official software and you probably can use the capture device on any mac with USB-C as long as it supports hardware encoding. Note that I use this specifically for capture to files only. I haven't looked to see if any 3rd party streaming app supports the hardware encoder on the Mac Mini. OBS doesn't as of version 23.2.1. You can still use that anyway but the framerate will be choppy since it's not hardware encoded. As far as the product goes, I was impressed by the size. It's much smaller than the HD PVR that I used to capture component video previously. And the fact that it is USB powered is also nice. Set up was fairly easy, just connect it following the instructions and use the software on their website to update to the latest version. The only disadvantage I can see is that it doesn't seem to be capable of capturing 1440p60 unless the source device is outputting that resolution. When you have 4K content, I can capture in 4Kp30 or 1080p60 which is downscaled from 4K, but it doesn't let you capture the 4K downscaled to 1440p60. When you put the device into 1440p mode during 2160p video it just displays a message about resolution not being supported. In the software provided it seems the only way to capture at 1440p is to put the device into 4k30 mode but save your video as 1440p30. I'm not sure if it behaves the same way on Windows but it would be nice to be able to directly capture into 1440p even if the content was 2160p. Overall it's a great little device if you just want to do video recording from a Mac, especially if you don't use the provided software.

My review will just be covering gameplay capture from the PS5. I don’t currently stream or anything so have no experience with that. I’ve been using the Elgato HD60S+ for several years to capture my game play from the PS5. It honestly worked great and capturing 1080p 60fps worked well. I didn’t use the pass through to play directly off the capture card (I have a HDMI splitter so play direct from the PS5 on a separate monitor), but when I tried it, there was a noticeable half a second to one second lag which made playing games bad anyway. But the main thing that made me want to try something new was that Elgato has this issue where the capture card gets used by another device in Windows and doesn’t show a signal. The only way to get it to work was restarting the PC. Trust me, I tried everything, even disabling all types of devices on Windows. Apparently anything that uses audio can cause the Elgato to see it as a source and then it doesn’t connect to your console. And it doesn’t have the ability to connect to more than one source. So I went with the Avermedia and so far everything has been working great. After connecting everything it got my PS5 signal right off the bat. I also have an XLR mic setup and was able to get that working during PS5 gameplay capture without too much trouble once I figured out I needed to download the RECentral program. I originally used their streaming software which didn’t work in capturing my voice during gameplay on the PS5. I’m sure it works fine or streaming but as I mentioned, I don’t have experience in streaming yet. The quality in gameplay capture is excellent. Everything looks great in 4K and the pass through virtually has no lag that I could play it off the capture card alone with no problem. I haven’t encountered any black screens or disconnects and so far it’s been a lot better than the Elgato I’ve used for so long.

The software that goes with it is exclusive to Windows, making this device very cumbersome to use. It's also very slow, unstable. Most of the time it doesn't even work. Not only that, but it's the only way to get the maximum quality out of it. The device itself is hard to configure with OBS Studio and it doesn't come with a configuration that you can directly use in other recording software to instantly get the max quality. If they made a software for Linux that allows you to instantly record at max quality without crashing all the time, it would be 5/5, but right now it's very cumbersome.