$22 HDMI capture card review

My church primarily uses a Razer Ripsaw HD (~$240) with a Sony FDR-AX33 to livestream our Sunday services during COVID-19. Though it’d be nice to have more capture cards, it’s a bit hard to justify the cost given their marginal benefit and diminished value after the pandemic.

However, recently I found this $22 AUD HDMI capture card on eBay. I had seen the horror stories of cheap HDMI capture cards, so I was wary to find a different one, and figured I had nothing to lose since I could easily get a refund if there was a problem.

During the three week wait, I saw some promising reviews on Amazon, which raised my hopes.

Promisingly, the device was recognised as a camera source in OBS on my Mac. With a bit of fiddling, I was able to up the resolution from 720p to 1080p (at 30 fps). And it works!

Compare the capture card’s output with display capture’s output in OBS.

A capture card of its price can only do so much. A keen eye will notice that colour is a bit washed out (though not distracting), and the image is a bit blurry.

All in all, not bad.