Roxio Game Capture Review
With YouTube being so insanely popular these days, gamers everywhere want to get in on the action, and get videos of themselves performing crazy feats uploaded and available for all to see as soon as possible. Be it the griefing of some poor unsuspecting victim, or purposeful leaking of beta footage, everyone wants to see everything that everyone is doing in game!
However, recording said footage can be tricky as well as time consuming and expensive. That, dear readers, is where the Roxio Game Capture device comes in. Retailing online for £64.99 (Amazon) means that gamers everywhere can invest in the device for a reasonably low outlay, and be uploading their videos quick-sharp! But does the cost come at a price?
The first thing that is required to note about the Game Capture unit, is that is cannot produce high-definition footage. Before you click that “close” button though, remember that the device is priced accordingly. If you want HD capture, you are going to have to spend nearer the £100 mark.
Setting up the actual unit itself is incredibly easy. All you need to do is plug your existing component cables into the back of the device, and then the bundled component cables into your HDTV. From there, a USB cable goes straight into the back of your PC and you are done! With the Game Capture device installed as part of my regular setup, I noticed some visual and audio quality loss when playing a game, but this doesn’t translate into the captured footage. Sadly, whilst it’d be nice to keep the device “in the loop” at all times, if you value your visual and audio fidelity, and have a keen eye, you may need to take it out of your setup when not capturing. This isn’t a huge issue though, because as mentioned, it’s a simple case of unplugging some component cables.
Aesthetically, the Roxio Game Capture is fairly small and inoffensive. Being bundled everything you’d need to get started is a huge plus point, and you’ll get the required component cables and USB connections all in the box. The software is obviously also included, and the Game Capture gets more bonus points here. Quite often, bundled software requires all sorts of re-learning, as a manufacturer forces you to use their own software, which you’ve never used before, and ends up feeling complicated and unfriendly.
Thankfully, whilst Roxio do indeed include their own branded software, it is neither complicated, nor unfriendly. Within minutes of installing the software, you’ll be up and running. You will need to tweak some settings though, as I personally had issues getting the refresh rate to match up between console and PC, though this is probably a console setting, as opposed to a fault with the device.
Inside the software, you can do pretty much everything you’ll need to do in terms of video editing. I recorded a small portion of gameplay from Outland (Ubisoft’s Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network side scrolling metroid-vania-a-like) and within minutes of putting the pad down, I was using the intuitive software to add voice-over, logo’s and even a fading watermark.
Once you’ve edited your video as you see fit, there are a plethora of encoding options. You can of course keep the raw (and huge) file if you wish, but you’ll also be able to export directly to a YouTube compatible file, or pretty much any other format you could ever need. Again though, it needs repeating – there are no HD outputs available.
You won’t have any major issues capturing, editing, and producing footage with the Roxio Game Capture, which is definitely a huge bonus, and you’ll probably find yourself spending hours adding all sorts of custom music, voice-over work, and generally just messing around until you get the video you really want; the device makes capturing footage very easy.
VERDICT: Overall, the Roxio Game Capture is a decent device that is extremely easy to set up and get medium level results from. Ideal for gamers on the go, with its small mobile aesthetic and ease of use, if you are going round a friends house and just want to record some raw footage onto a laptop, this might be the ideal solution.
The lack of HD and price that is just about considered budget do let it down, but if you want to get a reasonably cheap capture unit for your gaming upload pleasure, and want to avoid plugging a new card into your PC, the Game Capture does the job.
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