AverMedia Game Broadcaster HD Review

[Justwait]

So I got the chance to test out the new Game Broadcaster HD from AVerMedia, a company known for their capture and streaming hardware and this card is no different!
Check them out: Here

When you first open the box, you will notice that you don’t receive only the Game Broadcaster HD card but also the necessary cables to get started. It did not include a HDMI cable, but I assume that is because it’s not one of the “odd” ones and if a product uses HDMI it usually already came with that (XBOX, PS3 or PC). The product also comes with a driver CD, as any product should. This contained the required driver and AVer MediaCenter which is to the program you will need to use. You can also download it from their website to get the latest versions: Here .

I took out the card and started to look into my PC where I should fit it in, as it requires a free PCI-E slot. I noticed that, to make space I had to move the video card, as it was in the way by taking 2 slots! Once I swapped around the card, and put in the Game Broadcaster HD I moved on to plug in the cables and it was time to try it out.

When you connect a device to the Game Broadcaster HD, you need to run the Aver Media Center to view the source, this is perhaps the only negative side of this card, meaning that you have to play or watch whatever you are doing through this program. You could use cable splitters, to get it to both sources but that is not recommended as it might lower the quality of the recording or stream… And that’s what the card is for!

With the media center you can setup what codec you want the card to render any recording into, and it will record them as you go. And to stream you can use the usual streaming programs, including Xsplit and Adobe Flash Live Media Encoder. I used Xsplit for streaming, and I could easily select the source of the Media Center and get streaming without causing any problems due to FPS drops. That is why this card really shines, you can record and/or stream without causing your Console to get any performance loss. Now if you read this and are interested in a card that would do this for your PC I will point you towards the Live Gamer HD, that will come out during this Summer! You do have the possibility to use this card for that too, however you require a second computer for that. I had tried it with a Laptop and a HDMI cable, and played some Deus Ex without causing the laptop to get any drops, so if you really want to you can build yourself a separate streaming PC.

So to conclude this, the card does what it’s made for: Streaming and recording your console. Did you know even TotalBiscuit is using it since recently to record his Console games? And even he praises it as it gives really good quality!